7.3.2010

4:30am came very early. Thankfully, I wasn't woken up by any drunk people and I slept farely well. It was extremely cold when we woke up - it was probably high 50s. I threw on my hiking pants, which I borrowed from Kira, a tshirt and two cotton jackets, and my shoes and we headed out the door. We had to wait about 30 minutes for Mario to show up. He did, and we started the 30 minute drive to the trailhead.
As we were driving, we could see the sun rising through the mountains. It was beautiful!
We got to the trailhead, got out of the car, took a few pictures and then started climbing the first of many giant hills. I decided at that moment I wasn't going to regret my decision to come.
The entire hike up the mountain was 7.6 miles, but we climbed 7000 feet in the 7 miles. So the trail was extremely steep for the most part. At the top of the first part I was already drenched in sweat. When you sweat it doesn't evaporate at all since the air is so saturated already. The pictures at the top of the first hill are pretty. You can see the sun rising in the background and the hills of coffee beans. :) Mmmm... coffee!
Up and up and up and up we climbed. And then up some more. Our group started together and then it separated a little. The group the was ahead would stop at points and wait for the others to catch up just to make sure everyone was ok. At the beginning of the hike I was in the front... then I was in the back - and then I was in the middle.
We had to keep reminding our tourguide that we live at sea level and are not at all used to the altitude. I took ibuprophen to help prevent a headache from the altitude and the limited water I had. I only brought 2 liters, because it weighed so much. Haha. My backpack didn't seem that heavy at first. About 3 hours into it, it weighed about 60 lbs. :)
The trail itself was not what I thought it would be. It was pretty wide in most parts and was very rocky. It wasn't like the jungle - though the jungle was on both sides. We would climb and climb and someone that was ahead would yell: "it flattens out up here!" and we'd get all excited! That gave us just enough push to keep going. At some points it went down and we would get excited - and then we realized that each time that happened we would lose feet that we were going to have reclimb again. I began to dread the downhill parts. There were a few really awesome viewpoints on the way that motivated us to keep going. If they were that awesome, how much more awesome would the summit be?!?
It took us 6 hours to hike up to the summit. We had separated into groups at the end. Robert and I climbed to the finish together. We started singing "Ain't no mountain high..." Haha. The last hill was by far the steepest part of the climb. I was on my hands and knees at one point. Just when I told Robert I wasn't sure I was going to make it I heard Katie and Josh from the top cheering us on. I knew I had to finish. Robert was just ahead of me and I kept wishing that I could be where he was. Haha. And finally... the top!!!
Not going to lie... I was disappointed. Why? There were tons of cell towers up there. You couldn't see much. Then I realized I had to walk to the other end of the top. From there you could see the Pacific ocean. Gorgeous. Then I saw it. A cross... up high. It was the actual summit of the climb, and to get to it we had to literally rock climb on the side of the volcano. I didn't want to go up another foot, but we were determined. We all climbed up and over and around and finally reached the cross. There weren't any cell towers in the way anymore. You could see for miles. You could see both the atlantic and the pacific at the same time. You could see little towns and hills and more hills. We were above some clounds and surrounded by others. The view of was indescribable and worth every step of the hike. We took tons of awesome pictures - I can't wait to post them!
After we climbed to the cross, we climbed back down to have lunch. There was a police officer in one of the shack/building things that came out to see us. They take 15 day shifts - and they have to hike up and down themselves. He very graciously let us use his bathroom, as well as let us sign the log book of hikers that climbed Volcan Baru. We have pictures of all our names in the book as well. So neat.
We stayed at the top for about an hour total, then we started the long hike back. I thought it was going pretty well at first. Each step hurt, yes, but it was a step closer to us being at the bottom. Then it started to rain. That's when it got difficult. Everything was so slippery and all the rocks would shift when you stood on them. there were little rivers running through the trail too. Before I knew it I was at the back with Lexi and Sarah.
There were a couple of points on the way down where I just wanted to sit and tell them to leave me there. I was done. Over it. My knees and feet were killing me. I was wearing old tennis shoes that were all wet and it was cold, so my hands were numb. They were also extremely swollen, which made them even more difficult to articulate.
The others in front of us never stopped to let us catch up, which I understood - we all wanted to be the heck off this volcano. So, it was just Lex and I hiking down the volcano (Sarah had fallen a little behind with the guide). We kept stopping to let her catch up - because we didnt want her to be alone with the guide. Thank goodness nothing happened, because we had no physical strength to do anything if something did happen to her. At one point, Lexi and I were completely alone. We kept asking each other: "Do you remember this part?" And the answer was always no. I think we were trying to repress painful memories already. Haha. There were a couple splits in the trail and we thought we were making the right choicese as far as which way to go. Then we came to this one spot that seemed completely wrong. We really thought we were lost and for some odd reason it was hysterically funny. (I think we were just really dehydrated and delirious at this point because this was the same stop when Lex thought a rock smiled at her). Lexi asked: "What are we going to do, Morgan. I don't want to die here." Through the laughter I told her we were going to keep going, find a road, hopefully someone who knew where the hostal was and call a taxi... or we were just going to sit there and die. The second option sounded kind of appealing, not even lying. :) A couple seconds later we heard a cayote. It was our tourguide that snuck up on us. We weren't lost.
We couldn't see very far ahead of us because of the clouds/mist/fog. So we had no idea how far we were from the end. We kept telling each other it must be just around this corner. I cried at one point. Laughed hysterically at other points. Then we saw it... the finish... and the rest of the group cheering us on!! I have never been so happy in all my life. And, guess what?!? I made it up and down the entire volcano without falling once! That I've very proud of.
We only had one more hill to climb down to meet the van. When I saw it, I nearly cried. It look us 5 hours to reach the bottom again. When I went to climb into the van, and I literally had to crawl in. My legs wouldn't work anymore. It felt so good to sit down. We were all soaking wet and smelly, but we did not care. We packed in that van as fast as we could and started the ride home.
Getting out of the car when we got home was worse than getting in. Then, I had to climb a set of stairs to get to my room. The rest of the crew was there when we got back and they laughed at us as we limped and hobbled inside. We looked pretty rough!
I rinsed the mud off my legs and feet, changed and climbed into bed. Yes, I know that's gross, but I was freezing already, completely spent, and not about to climb into a numbingly cold shower. Besides, that was the last night I was going to have to sleep on those sheets. I made sure to take Ibuprophen before I went to bed and I was out cold.
The hike was a really great team building thing. We all got to know each other even better than we already did and it was awesome to see everyone encouraging every one else. We each had points where we didn't want to go on, and someone was always there to encourage. I said it was just like nursing school: You don't want to do it, it sucks, it's long, it's hard, you're not sure you can make it, you think you might die (and sometimes you want to); but you don't. You make it - and you're a better person because of it.
This was, by far, the most physically demanding and mentally challenging thing I've ever done. And I am extremely proud of myself because it sure wasn't easy.

****Fun Facts: Mario said if we could hike this volcano we could hike anything in Central and South Americas minus the Andes. This is the only place in the world where you can see both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It was the highest point in Panama. Mario called our group: "Pays to suffer" (that's exactly how kyaking was too!). And our faculty that went (ms. Metzger) said this was the hardest trail she had ever hiked and she's a hiker.
In the words of Mason Richmond: "I'm a BEAST!"