A few weeks ago I decided I was done with mountains. I promised to avoid them at all costs. This is an impossible promise to uphold in Mexico unless you limit yourself to the coast. I wanted to go to the Pacific Coast, which has been recommended to me by many people, so I broke my promise to myself and climbed the ridiculously steep, long, mountains once again.
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| Waterfalls are good for cooling off and rehydrating in. |
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| Lots of green. And a waterfall. |
In a city just before the climb, I met a man named Surefin. He told me that if I made it to La Esperanza, a couple thousands feet up from where we were, that I should ask the woman at the first restaurant for him. I made it just in time before the sunset and the rain began. I found Surefin and he invited me into his house to spend the night. I was grateful for the bed and hot meal, even more so because it was so cold and rainy!
That was Thanksgiving Day.
I wasn't able to eat turkey, but I was able to see some living ones, and the kindness of strangers gave me yet another things to be grateful for. In addition to the things I am always thankful like friends and family and all those good things, I gave thanks especially for having the opportunity to do this trip, and for going for it to make it happen! So many amazing things have happened to me because of the trip I can't even count.
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| Feeding teh chickens and turkeys. |
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| Just the day before I was down in the valley. |
The day I left La Esperanza, it was cold. And rainy. It was the coldest day since the first week in Alaska. 40 degrees, windy, and wet. For some reason it was miserable, but it didn't make me as nervous as when I was in Alaska. It took a lot of yelling to the road and the rain to keep myself, if not sane, at least moving forward on the bicycle and towards a warmer place.
As in Alaska during my and Nic's days of toil and misery, there was a fortuitous restaurant at the top of the mountain with cheap coffee. I ate and drank 4 cups of coffee. I didn't necessarily want to drink so much coffee, but I really did not want to go back into the cold and rain. I got a little beligerant from all the coffee, chummed it up with some of the other patrons, and finally mustered up the courage to face the cold.
Alarmingly close to sunset I made it to this camp area. I couldn't see far enough to know which way to turn at the crossroads. I figured it out and eventually stayed at "Llano de los Flores." It is an overpriced ecotourism site, but I didn't mind.
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| Meadow in front of Llano de los Flores |
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| Same valley as photo above, but in the morning, with frost. |
In the morning I awoke and paid a guide too many pesos in order to take me on a hike. It was a good hike, and we got to see some caves, and a beautiful panoramic viewpoint. I stayed two nights so as not to destroy my legs on the impossible mountains.
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| Pasali? A moss that gorws on the trees. Very light and fluffy. |
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| I'm disappointed this is so blurry. I'm in a cave. |
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| At the mouth of the second cave. |
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