I contacted three companies that offer guide service at this mountain. I didn’t find many positive comments about one of them, so I discarded it. Ended up choosing “Nomadas” for a reason that has nothing to do with mountaineering: The person that replied to my emails’ name was David, like my son.
Coincidences continued because the name of the guide assigned to us was Mauricio. Very big coincidence that those two names are also my son’s and mine.
David explained to me in the emails that although the climb could be done in two days, his recommendation was that we did it in three to better acclimatize. I told him about the pills I take when climbing tall mountains. He told me that he knew about them, and that some of his clients used them as well and they seemed to work. Maybe it was because of that, and because I sounded like an experienced mountaineer, I guess, that David didn’t object to the idea of us doing this overnight excursion.
The two day plan start by leaving around noon from the town of Tlachichuca, which is about 3 hours south of Mexico City, in a 4X4 car to the Piedra Grande hut on Pico Orizaba. At the refuge, you rest all afternoon, even sleep a little, and get ready to start the hike after midnight on day two.
If all goes well, on day two at about 7 or 8 in the morning you should have reached the summit, even hiking at a slow pace. Time for photos, a little break, and then you start hiking down. You get to Piedra Grande at around 3 in the afternoon; then back in the car to Tlachichuca, and you can be back in Mexico City, probably between 9 and 10 PM.
I bought my plane ticket to Mexico leaving on Wednesday 10 close to midnight. The flight landed in Mexico City at about 5:30 Thursday morning. Alexandra would arrive at around 10 in the morning. I had already told these times to Mauricio the guide, who would pick us up at the airport and would be with us throughout the excursion.
Mauricio came to pick us up at about 10 am, and we waited together for Alexa to arrive. It ended up taking a bit longer for her than it did me the immigration process. A café at the airport, where Alexa and I took our first dose of altitude sickness pastries; then to the car bound for Tlachichuca. We left the airport a little after 11 in the morning.
This 3 hour trip gave us the opportunity to get to know Mauricio, our guide, a little more.
The first thing that comes to my mind is that I was surprised by his knowledge of Mexican culture, which seemed to me more profound and detailed than I would have imagined that many Mexicans could tell me and / or explain.
Alexandra and I were also able to tell him things about our Colombian culture, things that Mauricio wanted to know about. One of Mauricio’s curiosities was about music in Colombia, specifically about salsa. One thing led to another, and Mauricio touched on the band I happen to know a hell of a lot about, Grupo Niche.
I was able to tell him many things about my band; I shared from my cell phone the song Mexico, Mexico, which he did not know and, of course, he liked it a lot.
Then I told him about my experience with the song Mi Princesa, which I also played for him.
Eventually we arrived at the town of Tlachichuca, from where we could see the Pico Orizaba in all of its grandeur.
We arrived at the house of the Cancholas family, which is the site from where this company (Nomadas) operates.
Crónicas de Mao 