We had both previously hiked to the Cangreja waterfall and around the short loop with all the volcano-y things (see previous post), but we were planning on just doing more or less the same hike again. However, on the day of, we decided that since we had the time (aka, I didn't have to rush back for class) and because the weather was perfect, we would just go ahead and embark on the 16 km round trip hike (that's 5 miles each way/10 miles total for all you non-metric people. Oh wait, if you're from the US, you don't know metrics. If you're from anywhere else in the world, you probably know how far 16 km is...Can you guess what's not awesome about not knowing metrics? When people tell me things are like x meters away, I still have zero idea how far away the thing is. But I'm learning, so that's good?) Also, because of the steepness of the hike, it usually takes 4 hours to get to the top and 3 to 3.5 hours to get back down. Just FYI. So anyway, Rebecca and I happily set off on our little adventure around 8:30 or 8:45 in the morning, expecting to be back by 4, which more or less was the case.
The first few hours of the hike consist of a nice trek through the beautiful forest. You're definitely going uphill, but it's not like climbing straight uphill, just like a general steady incline so it's a good warm-up. The weather was nice and clear but sooooo freaking hot and humid. Even though there was a lot of shade from the trees, we were all sweaty and nasty because it's really just crazy humid. On the plus side, we saw a TON of monkeys! Almost every type actually. There were loud Howler monkeys, White-Face/Capuchin monkeys, and two kinds of Spider Monkeys: the yellow ones and some that are like almost all white/cream color. Because we got distracted by the greatness of the wildlife and stopped to enjoy the awesomeness of our surroundings, it might have slowed us down a bit, but really, we made it to the top in about 4 hours. Here are pics of the first stint of our trip:
Mountain Climbing
I will refer to the next stretch of the hike as Mountain Climbing. It can no longer be referred to as "hiking" because the majority of this "last stretch" (like 2 hours) was pretty much either climbing up or climbing down something. And I mean like actual climbing between rocks/land masses and using roots and branches to get around. There were even two points that had ropes to assist with the climbing because it was mountain climbing and not hiking. This is the part where I start describing myself as a bad ass. I mean, I got up that morning thinking I'd be doing a hike I'd already accomplished and instead here I was, climbing an entire mountain range! (I say mountain range because we actually traversed at least two separate mountain areas. I mean, we went into a ravine and then back out again and everything. That's the part where we went from, in my opinion, one mountain onto another...)
Okay, so to get back to the chronology, we left the foresty foresty area and eventually came to a fork in the road. We could either take the 2.3 km route or the 1.8 km route and end up in the same place. In the end, Rebecca and I opted for the 1.8 km route because even though we thought it might be a little steeper, we still thought that cutting out an extra .5 km could be a good idea. So we turned to the right, per the arrow's instructions, and within a few minutes, came here:
See how it looks like I'm standing on the side of a cliff? Guess what? That was our trail. To my right, there is a straight-down trail that takes us to a river at the bottom of the ravine between two mountains. See? We climbed a mountain RANGE!
You maybe can't tell, but that's what we climbed down. Aka, that's a picture of the trail. See how it sort of just disappears? That's cuz it's straight down!
But it was really pretty!
OMG! I made it! Down! What? this is the least difficult area of the next two hours? Okay...
And this is the view looking back up at what I just climbed down. See? Bad ass!
And as a reward, we got down to the shiny, perfect, clear water and got to see a baby waterfall! Yay!
And then we had to climb back up out of the ravine. Here are some pics of the way up. PS, I made Rebecca go first for two reasons. 1. I didn't want to slow her down and 2. I could see how she managed to climb up things and then copy her so I could climb up too!
UP!
And then after climbing for awhile, we got to the first rope-assisted section.
But when we got out of the ravine, we had this to look down at, so it was well worth it!
And this:
And this is where we were headed. See those two white dots in the middle of the photo? Those turned out to be other travelers ahead of us from Holland who were ahead of us on the "trail." (Mountain climbing right?)
But really, the AMAZING vistas made the climbing well worth it! I can't even tell you how beautiful it was up there!
And finally, finally (right around the time I thought I might die) we got to the top of the steepest mountain. I'm standing more or less at the top of the mountain part, and then we just had to climb to the top of the volcano. It was super duper windy up here. Let me also just say that I have run two half marathons which means running for under 3 hours, and in that time, you get all "techie" and get a bunch of carb stuff like shotblocks and energy shots and all this stuff. And then Rebecca and I embarked on a ten mile hike for 7+ hours with not a lot more than some water, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and some trail mix. I really coulda used a sugar/carb infusion around the top of this mountain. But it's cool. I'm a bad ass, so I clearly didn't need it.
You can see that as we get closer to the crater, the rocks get all gray and the vegetation "dies out" (har har har) and this is the section we refer to as walking on the moon.
To the Top!
There are actually two craters at the top: Rincon de la Vieja crater and Von Seebach crater. This is a pic of the Von Seebach crater.
Yay! I'm still alive and still hiking!
Me and the sign...pointing the way to the craters...
And then we got to the highest point of our whole trip, which was cool because you could see everything (except for not very clearly behind me where you can see all the smoke/clouds all mixed together but that passed so I could see everything). It really felt like standing on top of the world! Also, I should mention weather. They tell you not to climb to the top of the crater unless the weather is good, because the closer you get to the top, the fewer the trees there are and the harder it is to see the trail. The clouds actually sit on top of this volcano, so at some points you're literally "walking in the clouds" (sooo cool btw!), but that also means you have to be careful because no trees + hard to see trail + cloud cover + potential rainstorm = you might get lost or fall into a fumarola. And that would be bad. So again, it was perfect that we had perfect weather. That being said, when we did get to the top, it did start to rain...but just a little...
And then we got to the crater where it started raining a smidge more/we were in the smoke/clouds so it was just wet.
It was crazy because the crater area was all grey rock. And then you looked to your right and the mountain across the way was all green and gorgeous and there was this pretty lake right in the middle at the top. That was cool.
And on the other side, you can see how it just disappears in smoke!
Don't fall in Rebecca! Be careful!
Surprisingly, we only had occasional whiffs of sulfur smell, but man, when the sulfur was in the air, it burned your eyes!
And then just as we were getting ready to hike back out, the smoke/clouds cleared a bit and you could see the gigantic mud lake below.
Basically we think that's super hot, bubbly, boiling mud. Do NOT fall in!
Our Journey Back Down the Mountain
But then after looking around for a while, it was time to head back down. We opted to go back the opposite way that we came up (the 2.3 km path) because it was raining a little more and we thought it would be a little too dangerous on the mountain we had just climbed and the other trail looked a little evener. And also, we thought, why not see both trails? Even though it probably took us a little longer to get down the mountain because it was a longer trail (and it really wasn't too much easier) and because it REALLY started raining for a while, I was glad we went down the other way. It was nice to get to take in ALL the scenery!
PS, see how it's REALLY RAINING?!?!?! Rebecca and I were both SOAKED through. Our feet were sloshing in our shoes and everything! It was pretty crazy! Also, see how it looks like we're in the middle of nowhere? (like we're lost on the moon or something?) That's why it's dangerous to hike here when the weather sucks. It's also why I would not have attempted this hike by myself and was so glad to have Rebecca as my buddy.
The moon and the view beyond...
OMG, it like pretty much stopped raining....
See that green, pretty steep inclining mountain that makes a diagonal line across the below picture? Yes, that's the trail we climbed up. I'm telling you, this girl = bad ass!
Getting closer to the green, and farther from the gray...
The views from this side of the trek were different, but just as beautiful as the vistas we saw while we were climbing up the other trail. Seriously, all in all, soooo gorgeous! And for the record, it was a slightly easier path to climb down but not too much easier. And you had to be careful on all these little rocks/pebbles because they are not very sturdy. Also, since it had just rained, the parts that did go straight down were extra treacherous. For instance, there was one rather muddy, steep point that Rebecca had a lot of trouble getting down, so I was trying to be extra careful when I climbed down. And that's when I slid down the mini mud mountain and would have slid into Rebecca too if she hadn't just stepped onto some protruding roots. She actually stopped me from sliding any further and I walked away with only some scrapes and bruises. Not too bad. Especially since we had been talking the whole time about how if one of us broke their foot/leg or something, the other one would totally go for help ;) We both had some minor slips due to the mud and rain that were quite comical and it would have been pretty funny to have video of them, but mostly I'm glad there was no video-ing.
When we finally got back into the forest, the hike got extremely easy and Rebecca and I spent our leisurely walk back to the gates in nonstop conversation! We had so much fun chatting that we hardly paid any attention to our time or how fast/slow we might have been walking, which was nice. But of course, all our chatting didn't stop us from stopping to stare at MORE monkeys!!!
I will refer to the next stretch of the hike as Mountain Climbing. It can no longer be referred to as "hiking" because the majority of this "last stretch" (like 2 hours) was pretty much either climbing up or climbing down something. And I mean like actual climbing between rocks/land masses and using roots and branches to get around. There were even two points that had ropes to assist with the climbing because it was mountain climbing and not hiking. This is the part where I start describing myself as a bad ass. I mean, I got up that morning thinking I'd be doing a hike I'd already accomplished and instead here I was, climbing an entire mountain range! (I say mountain range because we actually traversed at least two separate mountain areas. I mean, we went into a ravine and then back out again and everything. That's the part where we went from, in my opinion, one mountain onto another...)
Okay, so to get back to the chronology, we left the foresty foresty area and eventually came to a fork in the road. We could either take the 2.3 km route or the 1.8 km route and end up in the same place. In the end, Rebecca and I opted for the 1.8 km route because even though we thought it might be a little steeper, we still thought that cutting out an extra .5 km could be a good idea. So we turned to the right, per the arrow's instructions, and within a few minutes, came here:
See how it looks like I'm standing on the side of a cliff? Guess what? That was our trail. To my right, there is a straight-down trail that takes us to a river at the bottom of the ravine between two mountains. See? We climbed a mountain RANGE!
UP!
Climb Rebecca! Climb!
There are actually two craters at the top: Rincon de la Vieja crater and Von Seebach crater. This is a pic of the Von Seebach crater.
And this is like actually the crater. See how on the back "wall" it goes straight down? Yea, that's the top of a volcano. Amazeballs!
But then after looking around for a while, it was time to head back down. We opted to go back the opposite way that we came up (the 2.3 km path) because it was raining a little more and we thought it would be a little too dangerous on the mountain we had just climbed and the other trail looked a little evener. And also, we thought, why not see both trails? Even though it probably took us a little longer to get down the mountain because it was a longer trail (and it really wasn't too much easier) and because it REALLY started raining for a while, I was glad we went down the other way. It was nice to get to take in ALL the scenery!
PS, see how it's REALLY RAINING?!?!?! Rebecca and I were both SOAKED through. Our feet were sloshing in our shoes and everything! It was pretty crazy! Also, see how it looks like we're in the middle of nowhere? (like we're lost on the moon or something?) That's why it's dangerous to hike here when the weather sucks. It's also why I would not have attempted this hike by myself and was so glad to have Rebecca as my buddy.
We arrived back at the main gates at like 4:05 or 4:10, in perfect time to catch our ride back to Liberia. Though it was an exhausting and difficult hike, it was soooo much fun! I really like hanging out with Rebecca so it was fun to have so much time to chat and get to know each other. AND, that is by far the most intense hike I've ever done (especially spontaneously!) and so I was super proud of myself for being such a bad ass. Definitely not something I'll ever forget! I also just need to mention that while I was climbing around on all those mountains I kept thinking about Lord of the Rings and how the scenery made it seem like we were like part of the Fellowship of the Rings on our treacherous journey to toss the ring back in the volcano. And it was pretty great. And also, now you know for sure I'm a dork.
When we got back into Liberia, Rebecca and I treated ourselves to some delicious, well-deserved gelato and ice cream. Yay for hiking/mountain climbing day adventures!
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