We had decide that no matter what we would climb the mountain that day. It was going to be optional so anybody who wanted to go would have to be ready early that morning.
Eberhart, an orchid lover, wanted to stay by the camp as there were many more there than at the summit.So the 6 of us set off after our breakfast to finish what we started. Its amazing, one minute you are walking through thick mysterious jungle and the next you find yourself standing in a bizarre tundra. In the pace of 2 meters you are in a totally different environment and there is literally a distinct boundary line. On the map it almost looks man made.
But once out of the trees you experience the full force of the wind. Not that we were dry from the 2 days before, but we got very wet once again. Also, the actual walking was pretty hard going. Ducking, crawling, scrambling and tripping were all part of it, along with extricating yourself from the shrub/ bush you’ve just fallen into.
But eventually, I saw the remnants of what I think is an old communication tower, and 100 meter on… the summit itself. We had made it! It had taken 3 days of walking through open grassland, thick jungle, tricky tundra, up slippery ‘walls’, all through wind, rain cloud or sweltering heat. But we had made it.
And the views… well they were the same as the last 2 days, but that didn’t matter. We walked down out of the wind, stocked up on sugars and contacted the community via walkie-talkie.
One of our other missions was to replace the old log that had been there since 1988.It did make me smile to see this impressive, wet and battered link to history and previous achievements being replaced by a ‘Finding Nemo’ not pad that if you moved it in the light, ‘Marlin and Dory’ would swim across the front cover. But as I mentioned before, Costa Ricans are practical people.
We all wrote our little pieces inside (which is easier said than done because the pen was very temperamental with only a single drop making it give up and die). And, after some group photos we wrapped up warm and headed back down the mountain.
I was amazed to find that animals could live up there. Tapir tracks (and even more poo) could be found, as we also followed fresh puma tracks for a period of time. But seeing the peregrine falcon flying high above us astounded me. How could it survive here?
There were also humming birds! These tiny birds, who didn’t quite know what to make of these humans, manage to fly from plant to plant in search of food without getting blown off the mountain. I mean that was something we were struggling with (especially Devin who’s poncho was acting like a kite) and we weigh a great deal more than they do.
After misplacing ourselves a couple of times we made it back to the camp. We were all freezing and decided that packing up and leaving would be far better than changing, eating and then changing again before going back down.
It took slightly longer to warm up than usual and it was about 20 mins of walking before you could sagely say you could feel the tingling sensation in your fingers once again.
Eventually we found our way back to the Green Wall. The next hour saw us sliding down the vertical wall. Nowhere was safe, hand holds would snap leaving you staring stupidly at the piece of wood in your hands as you slid down the mud slide. On more than one occasion I allowed myself to simply slide until I came to a natural stop.
One time I rounded a tree and out of the corner of my eye I saw Devin holding something up. Changing my focus from the location of my feet to the camera in his hand was all it took for my sense of balance to fail me. I can’t really complain because the photo of me slipping over is a good testament to the difficulty of the decent.
As you can tell, it was fantastic fun and once you had gotten over getting muddy the first time, the next times didn’t seem to matter, in fact they were hilarious.
It was coming down the wall when the cloud slid away and the sun took its place. The rays shone on the vines and algae making it look like it was made of gold.
Once back at the 1st campsite we were able to wash for the 1st time in 3 days and enjoy a bright warm evening before the clouds came in once again.
