Lake Atitlan sits at about 5000ft elevation. San Pedro volcano (long extinct) tops out at 10,000ft

 Joined this guy, Ben, to climb the San Pedro volcano . We met up with an acquaintance of Ben's, and he had his girlfriend with him.  

Took a tuktuk to the trailhead ($1.35), paid $13.50 to hike the mountain, and started out around 7:30am. The trail starts at about 6000ft and is 2.5 mi long, and climbed in 3 to 5 hours. I kept up for a little while, but I began to fall behind as I had trouble getting enough oxygen. This has been going on since I was 64. At 63, I was doing 3 miles in 30 minutes and still had a little steam left. But then I got a groin pull, tried to come back from that too quickly and aggravated it, a couple times, and it took me two years to 'fully' recover: never tried to push it beyond a jog after that. I got up to two miles jogging, but I couldn't get beyond that due to lack of breath, even though I tried. Been like that ever since.  

So I fell behind, got passed by two girls, then two more. Caught up to all of them at the first rest area: a nice two level outlook . When we left there, I again fell behind. I caught up with all of them at the next rest stop, but that was the last I saw of them until I neared the top and they were headed down. Towards the end, I was climbing for five minutes and resting for five minutes. Got to the top about 6 hours from when we left, got passed by lots and lots of people, many asking if I was okay, finally summiting at 2pm. I laid down for about 30 min, then had something to eat, took a panoramic video, and headed back down.  

Went down the first third of the trail with only one stop, but then I began to tire. Did about five stops in the second third. When I reached the lookout, which is about a third of the way up, I was getting spaghetti legs, so I stayed there about 25 min; until then, my stops had been for 2 or 3 min each.  

The sun began to set, so I set out to make the last leg down with no stops. Accomplished that much but my legs were so beat that I could barely move . Got to the trailhead at 6:30pm, waited 30 min for a tuktuk, but none came by. Figured my legs were rested up enough to make it closer to town, all downhill. About 30 min later a tuktuk came up the hill and dropped someone off right in front of me.  

Left the hostel about 7am, got back at 8pm. 6.5 hours to climb the mountain, 1 hour rest, 3.5 hours down. Had trouble going up and down stairs when I got to the hostel.  

What did I have for dinner after all that? Two lemonades, a Piña Colada, and a banana slit.  

Needed liquids and sugar. I only had water and a couple of snack bars. Had 2 liters, and took the last sip while I was waiting for a tuktuk. The water did little to relieve my parched throat as I climbed up and down. Will bring electrolytes and sweets next time I do one of these!