30km with three tough cookies
Trip Start
Dec 12, 2006
1
16
55
Trip End
Mar 09, 2007
Sarapiqui,
Costa Rica
Saturday, January 6, 2007
When she first told me that it was going to be 30km total in one day, I wasn't sure if I would be able to handle it. But then I started thinking about how I am such a puss if three ladies somewhere in their 50s can outlast me.
I got picked up at 6am (thats pretty damn early for me) and we took off for the forrest. Mema, Liz, and Ire are all really cool and we had a pretty good time on the ride finding out about each other. It was awesome to work on my spanish with them. They were quite good about correcting me, but I felt bad since they were my walking dictionaries.
We were on the trail by 8am. To clarify, it didn't start out so much as a trail as it did as a dirt road. Our destination is a hotel that is in the middle of this forrest. The gringos get there by riding up 3-4 hours on an off road trip, and then stay up there in the forrest. We however were doing the walk there and back in the whole day.
The first 10km or so were pretty rolling hills with scattered rain forrest patches, not terribly exciting. The last 5km though were pimp ass, in the full on in the rain forrest. It rained the whole time, it was at the very least drizzling if it wasn't in the middle of a torrential down pour. We were soaking wet almost the entire time, but it was great, hiking in the rain forrest while it was raining. We were getting dirty by dunking our feet in alternating
puddles of water and mudd above our boots. What was great is that these ladies just didn't care, they just plowed right through the puddles, mud getting everywhere, I was probably the cleanest one, pretty hardcore ladies.
First off the road the whole way is a dirt road, and it gets progressively worse as it goes on, and the last 5 km are a complete disaster. I wish I could have seen them drive up it. There were huge logs thrown in where big pot holes where and the road is basically one long stretch of pot holes, so it was really more of walking on logs on a road. I can't do the road justice in words, I will have to post a pic.
At this hotel (they get everything there by the off road viehcles, and its not so much a hotel as it is a semi-open structure made of wood, pretty cool) there is a sweet waterfall that we checked out (I think thats why the decided to put it there). It was getting late in the day so we wrung out our clothes, eat some lunch, and watched the hummingbirds wizz by. By the way, hummingbirds have to be one of the coolest birds out there, I wouldn't mind being one in another life. We cringed a bit as we put out wet clothes back on to start the hike down again.
I had heard several horror stories of stupid gringos getting lost in the jungle/rain forrest because they didn't have flashlights and got stuck in the dark. After hearing the stories I promised myself that I wouldn't be one of the stupid gringos and that I would bring a flashlight. Turns out I am a stupid gringo because I forgot my flashlight. Turns out we only had two flashlights for the four of us and it got dark. Liz was wiped and asked us to get to her 4x4 and come pick her up, Mema stayed with her and Ire and I trecked off for the last 5km. Ire carried our flashlight and like that we walked the rest of the way out in the pitch black forrested road. Seriously the jungle at night without a flashlight is not a fun place to be, its totally black and you have no clue where the hell you are.
Our feet were soaking wet and pruned as hell, after all they were marinating in muddy boot water for 10 hours. They were nasty and hurt like hell. On the walk down I was pretty sure I was slowly tearing off my pinky toe nail, it hurt so bad. What sucked was there was no way my 26 year old ass was about to complain to a 50 year old woman that my feet hurt like hell, I'm such a puss sometimes. I sucked it up, didn't complain, and I am happy to report that I had all toe nails apon returning. I have never seen my feet so pruned before, they were nasty. I sufficated my feet in blue GoldBond and let me tell you, I don't think my feet have ever been happier. It felt so good to get them out of the soaking wet boots. I passed around my bottle of GoldBond and I think everyone else reveled in the glory.
By the time Ire and I got out of wet clothes and were about to drive up to pick up Liz and Mema, they walked up. The decided to tough it out the last bit. When the ladies asked me what I thought about the day I told them that there were 3 tuff cookies. I had to explain to them what I meant by a tuff cookie, kind of funny. It was a great day of hiking in the mud and rain and I was officially worn out.
