Pico Duarte
Trip Start
May 31, 2010
1
16
24
Trip End
Jun 24, 2010
Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
The funny thing was that everyone was claiming that they hadn't slept? (according to the British couple it had been around 10 degrees during the night) Everyone got up at 03:30 (the classic walk in the dark to be up at the top at sunrise) breakfast was white bread, cheese, ham and coffee...
Then to my surprise I found out that Superman had severe knee pain and wouldn't go with us (so I gave him some of my painkillers to ease the pain). So instead Macho man was now in charge, we started to walk about 04:00 in the pitch dark night without any light. I had to stumble after the flickering light of my travel mate (he was so thrilled that he could use his super expensive headlight for the first time ever he didn't even want to turn it off when the daylight came). So we followed Macho mans quick pace to the top were he never had been before. I guess the only one who knew the right way was the mule and the mule driver walking behind us. The good thing with this early time and the height was that the climate was a lot cooler. So it felt a lot easier to move on to the top at 3087 meter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pico_Duarte
It was beautiful watching the sunrise and see the different climate zones. Once on the top the mule driver shared some oranges with us (I am not sure if this is a Dominican tradition were the orange symbolizes the sun and the new day, just kidding, I think?). It was a wonderful viewpoint with a beautiful surrounding. I tried to capture some of it on photo and on a short video clip.
But I also knew that it was a long day down so we better get started...
So we went down quickly to base camp while the temperature was quickly rising.
Finally down at base camp it was time for a real breakfast? Dominican style, pork chops and potatoes. It wasn't really what I had wished for but I needed nutrition and the dogs too.
I gave them some of it and they were not picky they seemed to appreciate it a lot more/:)
Then we walked down and up and down it was a really though trekking trail and with the combination of tiredness in the body and the feet. Now both Macho man and Superman used the mules to get down. We told Macho man he should walk down too, he happily responded "this is my first time". Then I told him "it is my first time too". It was just fun teasing each other.
We just made one longer stop for lunch (oranges and watermelon) on the way down.
Then while walking I started to ponder if we should give tip to them. I guess they expected it, even though I liked all guys I thought no way, it hadn't been that professional. As soon as I finished that thought Superman rode up to me and stretched out his arm towards me and held a totally smashed "Snickers" in his hand and he was smiling. I quickly changed my mind, of course they should get some tip/;)
But then it suddenly started to rain a little, I thought maybe I should get my raincoat from the mules, but which mule? Then I thought a little rain can't hurt can it?
The rainfall increased, the lightning and thunder started to get really close, it was an amazing feeling to experience this. But when I thought that we only had 2 km left I asked Superman if I could try a mule it looked really fun to ride one. My travel mate thought I was "cheating". I knew that I could walk the rest if I wanted, but for me new experiences is more rewarding. So up on the mule without further instructions. It was amazing where they could walk, even when it was very steep and slippery, they even crossed wild rivers without any problem. It was an amazing viewpoint from the mule (it gave another perspective) to see the green lush jungle and at the same time experience the rain pouring down. It was also amazing to see how quick the rain changed the trail turning it to pure mud and the rivers started to rise quickly, too quickly? I had to concentrate fully on staying in the saddle and at the same time avoid getting knocked down by branches. Then Superman turned around and told me that he had to get back to the others because if the river rose to quickly they would never get over it. Great now I was alone with a young boy that only could speak Spanish and they also forgot to give me the "mule manual handbook". I also couldn't stop noticing that the rain was very cool and I started to get hypothermic, it was not a good situation any longer. So I was in Paradise (the fantastic surrounding) and in Hell (how far is it really to my dry clothes?) at the same time. At the same time I couldn't recognize the trail any longer. I just realized that the mule trail was not the same as the trekking trail. What happens next? the boy in the front of me jumps of his mule and disappears. Great, now I have one "empty" mule leading my mule. So I had to put all my faith in the mules. It was sometimes very scary riding on extremely narrow, slippery and muddy trails while there was a precipice just a few inches to the right were I could look down maybe 10 meters to a now roaring river (at this time I also remembered that my grandmother died when she fell from a mule). This would make a really good movie (too bad that I didn't have my camera with me). Then to my surprise I just noticed that my mule was very warm. So I squeezed my legs tighter around the mule to absorb more body heat, it actually helped a lot. After a while the boy came back running and jumped up on his mule without ever stopping.
I started to recognize the surrounding again. I guess the last distance was a little bit longer than 2 km? Once back at the starting point I ran for my dry bag that was on one of the mules and then I ran under a roof. Tearing off everything wet that I had on me and then putting on all my dry clothes layer by layer. I was seriously hypothermic now. I asked Macho man if he could make some coffee and to my surprise he just went into a neighboring house and was soon back with a large cup of sweet black coffee. What a blessing, that really saved me, I was now getting warm from the inside again. Then the rest of the group arrived totally soaking wet.
It all felt very surreal when we drove back with high speed in our roaring kamikaze truck while watching the wild mocha colored rivers that was flooding. It had been a very brutal 33 hours (48 km) with a dramatic ending...
I just passed out when I saw my bed, when I woke up 2 hours later for dinner, I felt like my body was 110 years old. I was walking like "Zeb Machan" from the western movie "The Machans" except I was walking a lot slower, Cuba Libre, Sleep/:)
