We put in a request to Jared (who continues his journal below) to positively identify the intrepid spring breakers in this photo. We'll add their names to this post when Jared responds.

UPDATE: Jared himself is on the left and the other climber is Will Granich. Both are seniors in environmental engineering.

The last two days have been exciting but also exhausting. Early Saturday morning (4:30 a.m.), we made our way up Santa Maria volcano. The views were out of this world but the trip up the mountain was intense. Six miles, a steep 3,000 meters, and three hours later we made it to the top. The air was thin due to the elevation, roughly 10,000 feet, and gave even those who were in shape a challenge. After arriving at the top, we found another volvono nearby erupting nearly every fifteen minutes with ash and steam. The trip to the top was definitely worth it. The trip down was physically easier but more dangerous, the steep slope and ash cause more than a few trips and falls.

Today (Sunday) we awoke in Chichicastenango to the large crowd of Sunday markets. We traveled to the Pastor´s house where we will be working. The task for today was to install a new spigot, we will be installing our monitoring equipment tomorrow.