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I’ve Never looked so forward to going down!

// January 1st, 2005 // Boquette, Panama

so i made it… I just wrote in my journal and am just going to basically copy that:

New Years Eve Day. I got up around 7 or so. it looked cloudy and rainy and i started to second guess my thoughts of climbing Volcan Baru today. I went to the grocery store and got some bread and peanut butter and some fruit… it still looked shitty out but i decided not to puss out. I hailed a cab to take me there ($5) though i found out there is a bus that only charges $.50 how nice.

The cabbie took me to within a mile or so of the start of the National Park. He of course didnt have correct change so i ended up having to pay an extra dollar… he assured me he would drop the dollar off at my hotel today… RIIIIGGGGHHHHT!

I started my walk up and was already tired by the time i got to the ENTRANCE!!! geesh… i downed half a liter of water (I only had 4 along). The total climb was 13.5 KM (8,5 miles) and the elevation went from around 4,000 ft to 11,600 ft above sea level… not too shabby.

It was honestly the hardest thing i have ever done that i can remember… both physically and mentally. There were so many times i wanted to stop and turn around… somewhere in the middle i was walking about 10 steps and stopping, wondering why the hell i was doing this!

On the way up, i met some kid from cali that had walked from the town… which is another 12 km or so… he thought he was already on the trail to the top… he got to the entrance and realized he hadn’t even started yet! silly…. to top it off, he had no food (besides some crackers) and NO water… what an idiot! i dont think he fully realized what he was doing… so of course i shared my food and water with him.

We walked most of the way together… he was in much better shape than I so at one point i had to rest and he went on ahead…. we met back up about an hour later as he had stopped to read a bit of his book.

The trail was shit. it was basically wide enough for a jeep to drive up… hard core 4×4 action though…i guess people do drive up it.. though they need to use winches and have beefy vehicles… i saw a 4 wheeler going up on my descent. There were a few walkoffs of the trail that offered some pretty nice views… but for the most part, it was just a trail going up and up and up. lots of soft soil, loose rocks, not very nice. my knees were, and still are jello… green flavor.

It took me 7.5 hours to reach the top… and just to set the record straight, rainbow brite, care bears, and super mario are all full of shit… clouds aren’t soft and fluffy and you can’t run around on them and have good times… they are cold, wet and windy… and not fun to walk through. So a big PISS OFF goes out to them…

There was a small building (full of garbage, big surprise) that was built for campers… I had along my tent and started to set it up… i had bought nails to secure it (wood floor and my tent isn’t free standing) but of course they fell out somewhere along the way up… so i had to use rocks, they kind of worked.

We were still about 1/4 mile from the summit so we decided to walk up towards it… we got pretty close, but it was getting dark and real windy… and it was starting to get kind of dangerous so we decided to do it in the morning.

So we climbed back down, and got the tent setup. We both slept like total shit.. not sure if the altitude had anything to do with it or what… but it was horrible… at one point, my contacts were burning so bad, i had tears pouring down my face, i had to take them out and throw them away… 2 down, 4 pairs to go! any bets on if i make it back to the states with any?

So i got about 4 hours of sleep between 8pm (great new years eve!) and 6 am…. i have never ever been so happy to hear an alarm go off at 545 am… we both said the same thing. we loaded up some stuff… camera stuff etc… and hiked up to the summit… man my knees were still killing me… plus the altitutde, i couldnt catch my damn breath for the life of me. We finally got to the very top… and enjoyed how all the assholes sprayed graffiti everywhere… even on a big cross that was erected there…

It was mostly cloudy so the view wasn{t great… we did get some shots of sunrise and a few incredible peaks of the cloud line below us… but not the view of both oceans we were hoping for. oh well… the sense of self satsifaction for doing it was enough i guess.

We waited an hour or so hoping for clear skys but we had no evidence it would happen… so we started back down to camp… Zach went off to look for a trail to a different city and i kept going. i got down to camp and packed it up… waited a few more minutes for zach then took off. i assume/hope he found his other trail… i didnt see him again…

I booked it back down… made it down in about 3.5 hours or so… caught the bus immediatly… took a nice cold shower (yuck) and then went for food… a big double cheeseburger ($1.50) and three fresh fruit drinks… i’ sooo sore right now… i dont think i can get up from the computer… but thats my story…

I’m waiting to hear from michael about when his bus gets into david tomorrow… we’ll be heading back (thankfully) to costa rica in search of monkeys.