We climb Chirripó in 38 days! As the highest peak in Costa Rica (12,533'), we need to get into hiking shape. There is no technical climbing on the route though we read that there are a few steep sections. The route is 12 miles from trailhead to the summit and we will break it up into 2 sections. There is a hostel around Mile 9 where we will stay on our first night, then hike to the summit the 2nd day. In the meantime, we need to prepare for is an 8,000' elevation
gain. We have varied topography around our property, though none that will rival an 8,000' elevation gain. Instead we are building up some stamina while discovering the trails through the pasture land in the neighborhood.
Today, we left the house at 6:40 am (the earlier, the better). The air is relatively cool (maybe 78F) with the sun lower in the sky giving us lots of shade along the path. We walked up to the end of our road and entered the property of Don Amado (Lilo's father.) Historically it was a palm plantation. When Don Amado purchased a share from Peta, Don Amado decided to plant corn too. As we walked along, we could see the dark, oily palm berries under the shade of the palm fronds. Further in, the young corn starts were green against the charred ground. (Tico farmers burn the ground before planting.)
We scrambled down along the southern edge of the finca to a banana grove where a very indistinct path led us out to a "calle." It was described as a calle (street) by the worker chopping brush that we chatted with on Don Amado's finca. Well, it was really more of a dirt path. We could see that there were horse hoof prints in the stiffened mud reassuring us that we were on a legitimate farm road.
As we came out of the narrow path surrounded by high tropical brush, we found ourselves on a high ridge with fences on each side of the road that outlined pasture land. The views are spectacular, the route went up and down and up and down with a smattering of cattle and 1 large pig in the pasture. The pig was at a distance and concentrating on eating something on the ground. We suspect it may have been wild, a javelina. We've been warned that the wild pigs are very aggressive and have very sharp teeth so we didn't try to attract its attention.
This is our 2nd big hike. Our first hike took us over the ridge to the west of us and down along a dirt road to our friends' Coco and Beth's finca. We noticed these mushrooms along the road on that hike and decided to take a photo of this one today. Well, from what I've researched on the "internets," this is likely a Psilocybin mushroom. It seems that there is an underground tourist industry in Costa Rica that caters to mostly US and European travelers interested in experiencing the psychedelic attributes of this fungi. I watched a YouTube video with some young guys raiding a cow pasture for its 'shrooms.
The farm road came out by the Church on the main road into Pavones which is just a few 100 meters from the turn-off to our road. On our way back, we stopped to chat with Roy and Yosselin. Yosselin made us a delicious papaya shake that we gratefully drank. We didn't expect to be out for 3 hours and had not carried any water with us. According to my iPhone Health app, we walked 6 miles (14,448 steps) and "climbed" 78 floors. We've got some more climbing to do.
Comments