This and That from Here and There: September 2015

That doesn't mean it's easy! This past Friday, Jill and I made the trek up the mountain to Buena Esperanza. Perhaps you remember the last time we were there. On that occasion, we had been told we did not need boots. The sad fact was that we very much needed boots. That trip was filled with mud and laughter. This time we did inquire about boots as pure formality since this is the dry season. When we were told that they would be unnecessary, we took the lady at her word. This time it was safe, and our everyday shoes were indeed sufficient. What the dry season does not change, however, is the steepness of the mountain. Jill and I were exceptionally grateful for the three young gentlemen who accompanied us on our hike. Though I did experience some severe "I am really out of shape" symptoms in the initial climb, once we made it to the top, it was smooth sailing. With no mud, the latter half of the trek is really quite a walk in the park. We shaved at least an hour off of our ascent time and more than that off of our descent time. Our roundtrip hike was eight miles!

We left "home" at 5:20 am and arrived at the canoe launch site at 6:00.

Ready to go!

Here comes our canoe.

6:25 arrival at our "Begin your hike here" spot

There is NO way to capture the first hour and a half worth of "trail". In many spots there is no actual trail. It is more of a rock climb. If you are lost, the direction to go is up. It's a climb of about 1200 feet if I remember correctly. Thankfully the fellows who accompanied us were patient with our occasional need to stop and rest.

Interesting looking fruit

"Snakes eat those," say our guides.

And we made it to the top!

I made a new contact!

Jill poses with our new friend.

It's so too bad that the picture doesn't clearly show the cargo of the donkey in front. Slung over each side of his back were about a dozen chickens.

Buena Esperanza is just around the corner.

Arrival time - 8:30 am

Our hostess prepares us a second breakfast - rice with a fried egg.

The weary travelers rest.

Leaving the empties behind will make our backpacks lighter for the trip back down the mountain.

After breakfast and a Bible study, we set off to catch the 12:00 canoe back to Poza Honda.

We were apparently quite frightening to the poor wee cows!

I'm not exactly sure what I was doing in this picture. Perhaps I was celebrating the fact that I made it all the way down without breaking a single bone. Muchas gracias to our guides for all their assistance in the walk / slide back down the mountain!