First Day of Climb

For those of us that didn't sleep last night, a steady rain met with a massive downpour were there for company....as well as chickens starting at 2am.


The rain isn't exactly the best thing for us as we start the first day ascending through the mountain forest. We're having conversations about which boots we should wear today knowing that this pair will be wet the entire trip. We're in good spirits, though, because the more suffering we endure, the more epic the story will be at the end!

Leaving camp we had planned to drive to the trailehead but the mud from the rain isn't letting the trucks in, so we have to hike to them. This simply means walking through the village we toured yesterday. The kids there love us despite not having any candy or pencils to pass them. Ben from our team, who still hasn't received his bags from the airline...hiking in hot chilis, spent half the day chasing the kids around with a single word of "buaaaa" yelled outloud. The kids loved it. Not sure if they were more afraid of him or his hot chilis from the 80,s, though! Now they are running up to us saying "buaaaa" instead of hello which was their greeting yesterday.

Again, the food was great this morning. All of us ae over eating fresh fruit, fresh bread, delicious orange cake, homemade peanut butter, local honey from "killer bees", butter from local cows, eggs from local chickens, bacon from....not sure, but all good. We are full and ready to climb 3000 feet today....and hopefully, get through the cloud layer.

Eric O.