Cerro Amigos Ascent

From: 18 de junio

Today, I woke up around 6:00 a.m. and saw my group off to Arenal for the weekend. The group went with a guide and I stayed back here in Monteverde. I will meet up with them in Flamingo on Sunday. Last night, Jesús, Julian and I went to Bar Amigos to play some pool and dance. It was a lot of fun, but it was a late, late night.

Early in the day on Friday, Jesús and I made plans to climb to the top of the mountain Cerro Amigos on Saturday, which is the tallest point in Monteverde with the best views. It is always where the local T.V. towers are located. I was under strict instructions NOT to wake up Jesús before 9:30 a.m., so after seeing the group off, I came back to my apartment, ran, and made a cup of coffee. Around 9:00 a.m., Dad called on Skype and we talked for about 40 minutes. Lucky for Jesús…

Around 9:45 I went and got Jesús up so we could start our hike. Earlier in the morning, the sun was out and it was gorgeous outside. Around 10 a.m. when we started out, the clouds had already set in. We set out anyway!

Let me go ahead and explain what this so called ‘hike’ was like. First of all, it’s not a trail hike or anything of the sort. It’s a climb straight up a mud covered road. It’s not like you wind your way through the trees before reaching the summit. No, literally every time you turned a corner, the road went straight up. Between fighting to stay afoot in all of the mud, and general humidity that comes with Costa Rica, it was quite the endurance work out. Not to mention, I had already run 6 miles earlier that morning straight up the mountain. Jesús was bouncing along, full of energy, and my legs were shot. There were exactly three ‘breaks’ in the steep climb.

The final total (see the picture) was 6072 feet above sea level. We hiked probably a total of 3.5 km to get up there and it took around 50-55 minutes. I can not even explain my ecstasy at reaching the summit—and I like to think I’m in pretty good physical condition. Julian is in a lot of trouble for not elaborating just what exactly we were getting ourselves into.

Anyway, we climbed all the way to the top only to be greeted by a lot of clouds and no views to speak of. It was pretty cool to be standing in a cloud though at one point and as Jesús put it, “Bueno, lo hicimos.” Well, we did it. Yes, yes we did.

We stayed around the top for a while before beginning the descent. The descent was also more challenging than the climb because we were slipping and sliding every where in the mud. Gracias a Dios, it didn’t rain! Want to know something crazy, people actually live up there! We met one man along the trail who descends about every eight days to buy food and supplies and then hikes all of the way back up with a huge backpack full of food. No puedo imaginar…

Almost immediately when we reached the bottom, we headed to a local supermercado to get some supplies to make lunch. Upon arriving at the bottom, it also started to pour. What luck that it waited until we were at the bottom! : )

In keep in tradition with Jesús’s Spanish culture, after lunch it was siesta time for me. I woke up just in time to order Chinese delivery and talk to Muni for a while.

I think it’s about time to go back to bed. Tomorrow, I leave for Flamingo! More to come when I get there…

Buenas noches a todos,
Jessica Lynn