Volcán Barú — Local services in Palmira

The views are amazing especially on a clear day! Coming up for sunrise is worth waking up early for.

However if you plan on hiking up be warned, here’s what to expect and to pack.

Bring: good shoes hiking poles at least 2L of water headlamp food (you’ll burn a lot of calories on this hike) layers of clothing (not sure what to recommend here but it was about 5-10c at the top when I went. This was in early April 2019)

Taxi out: wait at the entrance of Volcán Barú, where the paved road ends and the rocky incline starts. A white van will pass and honk at you. Wave and they will pick you up. It was $3/person when I took it (April 2019)

Plan to start the hike around midnight, 6 hours is probably a good estimate on how long it will take the make the 13.5km hike up the mountain. Also note that it’ll take another 10-15mins to get to the cross from the tv antennas where you’ll get the best views. The hike up is brutal, you’re constantly walking up a 20-30% incline for hours and hours. Plan to take a lot of little stops to rest your legs a bit and catch your breath. Bring hiking sticks as the surface is made of loose rock and sand, so this makes it especially difficult when your legs are tired and you don’t have as much control over them. First few kms are enjoyable, challenging but you’re full of enthusiasm and hope. Probably around 3-4hrs in and you’ve rounded your 53rd turn only to stare another super steep incline, your heart sinks and you question why you thought walking this was a good idea. A few more hours of cursing and a burning in your legs that rivals the best of leg days, you reach the top! You’re ecstatic! You did it! But you’re not exactly at the top, you just reached the tv antennas and now you gotta go over the the cross which involves some light rock climbing (the difficulty is really based on how afraid you are of heights). And now you’re rewarded with an amazing view (on a clear day). The sun is rising and you forget about how it’s taking every ounce of will power to keep your legs from giving out. You’re refreshed, reinvigorated, and now it’s time to start the decent. You remember how everyone says the downhill is the hard part, but first few kms is easy, you don’t get winded and have to stop every few hundred meters like on the way up. But then the surface gets looser and looser and the declines get steeper and steeper. You’re fighting your jello legs to step in places where you think you won’t roll your ankles. You start relying on your hiking sticks (remember to bring hiking sticks) more and more so your wrist start hurting. Your toes start hitting the front of your shoe over and over again with each step until you start to look forward to the few uphills you get. You look back every now and then. With the sun out you get to look back at what you accomplished. And it makes you thankful that at night all you could see was from your headlamp (bring a headlamp) because if you could see more you would have gave up long before making it to the first distance marker. Step by step, meter by meter you make your way down. You celebrate every distance marker you see, and you curse when you see the 3km one twice. And then you finally make it to the bottom only to wonder how you get a taxi back to your hotel where you can pass out from exhaustion. Don’t make the mistake and try to walk out to the main road like I did... that will be a long walk. You’re suppose to wait at the entrance (where the paved road starts and the rocky road to Volcán Barú begins) for a white van. They’ll honk at you, so wave at them and they’ll pick you up. And that concludes the hike, celebrate your accomplishment and ensure you post to your favourite social media or it...

Summery: great view in case it is not cloudy tough hike great feeling when you finally made it when you usually don’t do sports, don’t do the hike calculate the time you need to walk up well a guide is not needed (quote from a guide)

We did the hike for the sunrise 1 day ago and it is hard to say whether it was a great or a bad idea.

If you want to do the hike for the sunrise you should plan between 4-6 hours upwards, depending on your fitness level (we did it in 4.5h and we do sports about 2-3 times a week). Since we assumed that it would take us about 5.5h, we were 1 hour too early on the top, which is really problematic, since it is super windy and the temperature is at about 0-5 degrees C.

The hike itself is not that tough as you walk on a road where quads and 4x4s can drive. The starting point is at about 1800m height and the length of the road is about 13.5 km, therefore there should be an average slope of about 8 degrees - a few parts of the road are straight which makes some other parts quite steep. All in all it is totally fine.

What makes the hike really tough is that you basically don’t get any sleep the night before, since you have to start at around midnight. Furthermore you will accomplish 2000m of altitude difference, as you have to walk downwards a few times. On top of that, you will be hiking over 3000m sea level from kilometer 9 onwards which is really tough for your heart and your lung, when you are not used to such altitudes and when you do hardly any cardio workout.

We met 2 girls at kilometer 7 on our way up to the top, that had to go back, as one of them couldn’t make it (but according to her she doesn’t do any sports at all).

The toughest parts are definitely kilometer 7-9 as it is really steep, kilometer 12 to the very top, since you are over 3200m height and kilometer 1-6 on your way back down, because that is the point when you will be getting really exhausted and tired.

We didn’t have any luck at all with the sunrise, as it was really cloudy and windy, so the sun was basically gone after 20 minutes at the top. However, it was still great at the top, as we were basically “within” the clouds. The rainforest at the top of the volcano is impressive too! (You will be able to see and enjoy it once you walk back...

Took 6 hours up, 3.5 hours down. Started exactly at midnight and made it to the viewpoint with the cross at exactly 6am. We took a few 1-5 minute water/snack/stargazing breaks on the way up and a ~10 minute snack break both ways. Took a short break to add layers at the camping spot across the red metal shed on the way up.

The top is freezing! I wore fleece lined pants under my hiking pants. 2 pairs of merino wool socks (1 pair ankle and other knee length). Long sleeve hiking top and a rain coat (mine is thicker than the tiny foldable ones though). I added a fleece zip-up

The last bit of ascent from the red metal shed to the cross at the top was the hardest part for me (took about an hour). Also, the paved sections are deceivingly steep! Closer to the cross viewpoint get ready for some rock climbing after the stairs.

Uphill is always most difficult for me because breathing is heavier. But this hike offered much relief in between the steepest parts (a few sections were 30 minutes of straight uphill where I stopped a few seconds for water and breath a few times), with FLAT sections and some downhill bits on the way up... These downhill bits then became uphill bits on the way down, but thankfully going downhill only had 3 sections that were uphill, and only 1 of those was strenuous for only 10 minutes.

Up top we got some nice views for sunrise. Saw the Atlantic coast, but I didn't find that interesting personally. I liked the views of the nearby mountains and valleys better! Also there were some distant storms, so seeing the lightning flashes between the sunrise-colored clouds was my favorite!

The clouds followed us over the viewpoint and down the volcano, so we didn't get many views of town on the way down, only up which is just the lights. The last km we were rained on heavy.

We took the $6 shuttle there and paid $3 per person for the taxi back to town. My legs were noticeably sore starting from the last hour of the hike, into the taxi, and the next few days. I brought 3 liters of water and drank a little more than 2...