Onward ho to Chirripó

I never thought I would wake up at 2:30 for any type of physical activity, but I did. And here's the sad part, it didn't work out. We woke up that early in order to summit for the sunrise, but unfortunately dense clouds and rain don't allow for sunrise viewing. Boom Boom Ugh!

My dear friend Nick "the Summit" Schwanz and I climbed Chirripó, the highest mountain in Costa Rica. It is 3,820 M, and for those of you who don't do metric, it's around 12,861 aprroximately. This was quite the elevation gain considering I was kicking it at the beach and doing a lot of nothing.

Here I am being the tallest thing in Costa Rica at about 5:12 am on the 16th.

A lot of great things happened on this hike: Nick and I climbed 16 k the first day to the base camp, 5 k to the summit at 3 am, didn't see the sunrise because it was frikken freazing, 5 k back to the Base Lodge, then the 16 k back down. We were so Into Thin Air...
Perhaps the funniest part of the whole trip is the amount of food that we packed-pasta, chocolate, peanut butter, cucumbers, bean paste, raisins, crackers, Tang, and a bunch of other essential stuff. As anyone knows when you hike Chirripó you must carry up all equipment (sleeping bags, tents, stoves) or you can wimp out and fork over $25 for a porter to run your goods up the mountain. Being what we are, conscientious and cost-effective, we carried out own gear. Besides, we paid $25 for the WHOLE experience (park entrance and lodge fee) while some schmucks are shelling out around $500 for 2 days on the mountain. Although, I will admit, I suffered devestating jealousy upon seeing their pasta dinners with wine.

Here is Nick on the trail, it should be obvious that he is a great hiker and a wealth of pop culture knowledge.

Chirripó was an experience, a really great time. We even made new friends. The hostel we stayed at, The Mariposa, is run by the most wonderful couple from Arizona. Al principio (At the start), we were dismayed by it's close location to the trailhead as it meant that we had to walk up 3 k in the pouring rain the night before our hike. But upon return, which really is harder on the cuerpo (body), we could not have asked for a closer place to come back to. And we also made hiking budies, Brian and Jason, from Minnesota and Colorado respectively. They were our roomies at the lodge and gave us a ride into San Isidro today, truthfully lifesavers.

Possible tragedy has stuck as I may have left my very favorite waterbottle on the bus, tomorrow when I have more energy to keep my eyes open (I am still exhausted) I will conclude on whether the silver bullet is indeed lost to public transit.