03/06/09 - 08/06/09
03/06/09
From Cartago, we moved on to San Isidro de El General, from where we were going to book our trip to Mount Chirripo, Costa Rica´s tallest mountain at 3820m. They tell you to book by telephone, but when no-one picked up, we decided to try and find the office and book in person. This turned out to be more difficult than expected and we got lost several times, but we finally managed to find it, and after some phone calls and a trip to the bank to make the payment, we had it all booked for two days´ time, meaning that we would have to move again tomorrow to spend the night in San Gerardo de Rivas, to start our climb in the early hours of Friday morning. We spent the rest of the day not doing very much, and we very naughtily had McDonald´s for lunch. I´m sure Caroline will be proud :) That evening, Costa Rica were playing the USA in a World Cup Qualifying match, so we went to a nearby bar to watch and have a few drinks. The atmosphere was great, especially so because Costa Rica, much to our surprise, beat the USA 3-1. Needless to say the locals were extremely pleased with the result.
04/06/09
The next day, before making the 2½ hour journey to San Gerardo, we went to the supermarket to buy some supplies for our mountain trek. We would be spending a total of three days in the park, and the only thing that was supplied was drinking water, and a place to stay. We had to carry all of our food with us, so we stocked up with some essentials and made our way to San Gerardo. When visiting the park, you have to first register at the office, which is located at the bus stop just before San Gerardo, so we got off there, leaving us with a 2km walk to our hotel, uphill with our big rucksacks. In our wisdom, or maybe it was just in mine, we had reserved a room at the hotel nearest to the start of the mountain trail, which funnily enough, happened to be the hotel furthest from the bus stop. It was a very difficult walk - the first km took us about 10-15 minutes, but the second km took us half an hour. I was struggling more than Vic was, but eventually we reached our hotel, and we stupidly thought, that if we could manage that climb with our big bags, we would easily be able to manage to walk up the mountain with only our small backpacks...how wrong we were. We had a good dinner that evening and packed our bags ready for the early start the next day.
05/06/09
We woke at about 5am to have some breakfast before setting off on the 14.5km climb to the shelter, which would serve as our accommodation for the next two nights. Leaving the hotel at about 6.30am, we thought that gave us plenty of time, although we later found out that other people had left as early as 4.30am. We thought we had got off to a good start when we had passed the first few kilometres and we were enjoying the exercise and the scenery, but soon after we came to a point in the path where it split in two. We had already been assured that it was impossible to get lost, and yet here we were, not knowing which way to go. We chose to go left, and it seemed to be ok for a little while, even though we were heading down rather than up, but we were a bit worried when we reached a gate that, albeit with some difficulty, we were able to pass through. When we reached a second gate and went through that one, we realised that we had gone wrong somewhere, as the path was very narrow and quite dangerous to walk on, so, feeling somewhat distraught, we turned back to the take the other path this time. This too, ended up to be wrong, and after going back and forth a couple of times, we went back the way we had come from, as we must have made a mistake earlier on. We found another path heading in an upwards direction, so we thought this must be the right one. I was already quite worn out by now, but we had to make up for the time we had lost, so we persevered, thinking that we must be nearing at least 5km by now. But to our horror, the next sign we reached was 4km...we could not believe it. We had already been walking for 3½ hours and I had almost drank all of my water. To make matters worse, soon after, it began to rain, and although it might have stopped briefly a couple of times, it pretty much rained constantly the rest of the way, a total of 6 hours. I can´t even begin to describe how difficult I found the next 10.5km, and I will never know how I managed to get to the shelter. It was honestly the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life, and I just couldn´t wait to reach the shelter and put on some dry clothes....but that didn´t turn out the way we had planned either. When we finally reached the shelter at 4pm, soaking wet and exhausted, we opened our bags to find that they too were soaked through, as was everything inside, and I mean everything. Our spare change of clothes, our towels, our sleeping bags, our passports and our money. We luckily managed to get some blankets from one of the men in charge, so were at least able to sleep in something dry, but where our room was so cold, we knew that we would have no dry clothes the next day, and so we didn´t think we would be able to make the final climb to the top of the mountain. After the disastrous day we had had, it just seemed wrong, that we should miss out on the best part of the trip.
06/06/09
As we expected, our clothes were still wet when we woke up early the next morning, so we knew we weren´t going anywhere. In the couple of hours´ sunshine in the morning, we managed to get at least some clothes dry for the next day, and the rest of the day was just spent in the shelter, because it was raining again. We had rented a gas cooker from our hotel so we at least were able to have some hot food, and our roommate, Daniel, from Germany, also very kindly shared his tea and coffee with us, which we were grateful for, as it was so cold. Not wanting the trip to be a complete waste, we decided to get up really early the next day to go up to the summit and get down again before making the long trip back down to our hotel. 25km in one day was asking a lot, especially of me, but we wanted to at least give it a go.
07/06/09 - 08/06/09
We woke up at 4.15am to set off as soon as it was light. We left the shelter at 4.50am. It was so peaceful at that time of the morning, and it felt good to be out in the fresh air. We managed to reach the summit in 2 hours, and the view was incredible. The last part involved climbing steep rocks, where you needed to use your hands to keep your balance. It was difficult, but I enjoyed it a lot more than our walk a couple of days ago, and it was such an amazing feeling to reach the top. We took some photos, wrote in the guest book, and started to make the very long walk back down. Getting back down the rocks took a lot longer than it had to climb up them, but we still managed to get back to the shelter in two hours, which was a lot quicker than we had anticipated the day before, so we were feeling quite positive for the walk back down to our hotel. The only thing that was worrying both of us, was that it could start raining at any moment, and that we would have to do the entire walk in the rain. But we must have been due some luck for a change, for we almost got the whole way down without any rain whatsoever. It was such a different experience to the one we had had on the way up. We hardly ate or drank anything the whole day, but just kept walking and walking, hoping to get back to the hotel before the rain came. We almost very nearly did it, but just before we reached 2km, it started. It was then that once again, we were unfortunate enough to lose our way. With less than a kilometre to go, we were faced with a choice of what path to take. We originally took the right one, but worried that it was the wrong one, we turned back again and actually took the wrong one. Doh...realising that this one was wrong, we eventually got back on the correct path and finally, thank God, reached the bottom. We realised then that on Friday, we had been wrong from the start, as the path we came back down on, was not the one we had taken. We had completely missed the entrance of the trail, heading instead into a biological reserve - we were so lucky to have made it on to the right trail at all the other day. Back in the hotel, we could laugh at how badly the whole thing had gone, but we were nevertheless really glad to have done it, and proud of ourselves for having been able to do it. Just for the record though, I never want to do anything like this again. We were in absolute agony the rest of that day and the next, so although we were due to move on again the day after, we extended our stay at our hotel so that we could get some proper rest. We did absolutely nothing the whole day, and we felt so much better for it, although my feet were still very painful. Even now, a few weeks later, I still have three very bruised toenails....yes, it seems that you can bruise even your toenails.
03/06/09
From Cartago, we moved on to San Isidro de El General, from where we were going to book our trip to Mount Chirripo, Costa Rica´s tallest mountain at 3820m. They tell you to book by telephone, but when no-one picked up, we decided to try and find the office and book in person. This turned out to be more difficult than expected and we got lost several times, but we finally managed to find it, and after some phone calls and a trip to the bank to make the payment, we had it all booked for two days´ time, meaning that we would have to move again tomorrow to spend the night in San Gerardo de Rivas, to start our climb in the early hours of Friday morning. We spent the rest of the day not doing very much, and we very naughtily had McDonald´s for lunch. I´m sure Caroline will be proud :) That evening, Costa Rica were playing the USA in a World Cup Qualifying match, so we went to a nearby bar to watch and have a few drinks. The atmosphere was great, especially so because Costa Rica, much to our surprise, beat the USA 3-1. Needless to say the locals were extremely pleased with the result.
04/06/09
The next day, before making the 2½ hour journey to San Gerardo, we went to the supermarket to buy some supplies for our mountain trek. We would be spending a total of three days in the park, and the only thing that was supplied was drinking water, and a place to stay. We had to carry all of our food with us, so we stocked up with some essentials and made our way to San Gerardo. When visiting the park, you have to first register at the office, which is located at the bus stop just before San Gerardo, so we got off there, leaving us with a 2km walk to our hotel, uphill with our big rucksacks. In our wisdom, or maybe it was just in mine, we had reserved a room at the hotel nearest to the start of the mountain trail, which funnily enough, happened to be the hotel furthest from the bus stop. It was a very difficult walk - the first km took us about 10-15 minutes, but the second km took us half an hour. I was struggling more than Vic was, but eventually we reached our hotel, and we stupidly thought, that if we could manage that climb with our big bags, we would easily be able to manage to walk up the mountain with only our small backpacks...how wrong we were. We had a good dinner that evening and packed our bags ready for the early start the next day.
05/06/09
We woke at about 5am to have some breakfast before setting off on the 14.5km climb to the shelter, which would serve as our accommodation for the next two nights. Leaving the hotel at about 6.30am, we thought that gave us plenty of time, although we later found out that other people had left as early as 4.30am. We thought we had got off to a good start when we had passed the first few kilometres and we were enjoying the exercise and the scenery, but soon after we came to a point in the path where it split in two. We had already been assured that it was impossible to get lost, and yet here we were, not knowing which way to go. We chose to go left, and it seemed to be ok for a little while, even though we were heading down rather than up, but we were a bit worried when we reached a gate that, albeit with some difficulty, we were able to pass through. When we reached a second gate and went through that one, we realised that we had gone wrong somewhere, as the path was very narrow and quite dangerous to walk on, so, feeling somewhat distraught, we turned back to the take the other path this time. This too, ended up to be wrong, and after going back and forth a couple of times, we went back the way we had come from, as we must have made a mistake earlier on. We found another path heading in an upwards direction, so we thought this must be the right one. I was already quite worn out by now, but we had to make up for the time we had lost, so we persevered, thinking that we must be nearing at least 5km by now. But to our horror, the next sign we reached was 4km...we could not believe it. We had already been walking for 3½ hours and I had almost drank all of my water. To make matters worse, soon after, it began to rain, and although it might have stopped briefly a couple of times, it pretty much rained constantly the rest of the way, a total of 6 hours. I can´t even begin to describe how difficult I found the next 10.5km, and I will never know how I managed to get to the shelter. It was honestly the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life, and I just couldn´t wait to reach the shelter and put on some dry clothes....but that didn´t turn out the way we had planned either. When we finally reached the shelter at 4pm, soaking wet and exhausted, we opened our bags to find that they too were soaked through, as was everything inside, and I mean everything. Our spare change of clothes, our towels, our sleeping bags, our passports and our money. We luckily managed to get some blankets from one of the men in charge, so were at least able to sleep in something dry, but where our room was so cold, we knew that we would have no dry clothes the next day, and so we didn´t think we would be able to make the final climb to the top of the mountain. After the disastrous day we had had, it just seemed wrong, that we should miss out on the best part of the trip.
06/06/09
As we expected, our clothes were still wet when we woke up early the next morning, so we knew we weren´t going anywhere. In the couple of hours´ sunshine in the morning, we managed to get at least some clothes dry for the next day, and the rest of the day was just spent in the shelter, because it was raining again. We had rented a gas cooker from our hotel so we at least were able to have some hot food, and our roommate, Daniel, from Germany, also very kindly shared his tea and coffee with us, which we were grateful for, as it was so cold. Not wanting the trip to be a complete waste, we decided to get up really early the next day to go up to the summit and get down again before making the long trip back down to our hotel. 25km in one day was asking a lot, especially of me, but we wanted to at least give it a go.
07/06/09 - 08/06/09
We woke up at 4.15am to set off as soon as it was light. We left the shelter at 4.50am. It was so peaceful at that time of the morning, and it felt good to be out in the fresh air. We managed to reach the summit in 2 hours, and the view was incredible. The last part involved climbing steep rocks, where you needed to use your hands to keep your balance. It was difficult, but I enjoyed it a lot more than our walk a couple of days ago, and it was such an amazing feeling to reach the top. We took some photos, wrote in the guest book, and started to make the very long walk back down. Getting back down the rocks took a lot longer than it had to climb up them, but we still managed to get back to the shelter in two hours, which was a lot quicker than we had anticipated the day before, so we were feeling quite positive for the walk back down to our hotel. The only thing that was worrying both of us, was that it could start raining at any moment, and that we would have to do the entire walk in the rain. But we must have been due some luck for a change, for we almost got the whole way down without any rain whatsoever. It was such a different experience to the one we had had on the way up. We hardly ate or drank anything the whole day, but just kept walking and walking, hoping to get back to the hotel before the rain came. We almost very nearly did it, but just before we reached 2km, it started. It was then that once again, we were unfortunate enough to lose our way. With less than a kilometre to go, we were faced with a choice of what path to take. We originally took the right one, but worried that it was the wrong one, we turned back again and actually took the wrong one. Doh...realising that this one was wrong, we eventually got back on the correct path and finally, thank God, reached the bottom. We realised then that on Friday, we had been wrong from the start, as the path we came back down on, was not the one we had taken. We had completely missed the entrance of the trail, heading instead into a biological reserve - we were so lucky to have made it on to the right trail at all the other day. Back in the hotel, we could laugh at how badly the whole thing had gone, but we were nevertheless really glad to have done it, and proud of ourselves for having been able to do it. Just for the record though, I never want to do anything like this again. We were in absolute agony the rest of that day and the next, so although we were due to move on again the day after, we extended our stay at our hotel so that we could get some proper rest. We did absolutely nothing the whole day, and we felt so much better for it, although my feet were still very painful. Even now, a few weeks later, I still have three very bruised toenails....yes, it seems that you can bruise even your toenails.
vaya vistas, parece que hace frio,merecio la pena, yo quisiera estar ahi, pero de corazon tambien vale verdad?.
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