Actually in San Geraldo

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Hey everyone! We're actually in San Geraldo, but it's not on the list of choices, it's about 40 min by fast taxi from San Isidro. Anyway, so much to say, I'll try to keep it short, but will probably fail miserably. So, we hiked Mt Chiripo this wknd, and it started in San Isidro on Fri with our spanish teacher, who is amazing, because we couldn't have done it without him. He called the park rangers to find out how many tickets were left for the day, and when we found out there were only 6, and the bus had already left, called a "special" taxi for us, who gave us a great price, only about $24 to drive us very quickly, and beat the bus with the other tourists on it, to the ticket booth. So we stayed in San Geraldo Fri night, the got up at 4:30 and ate at the restaurant, which gave us a free ride to the base of the trail. Then the start of the fun part. 2.5km straight up, and 14.5km of trail to the base camp. It was supposed to take 8 hrs, we did the first half in 2.5. Then, fatigue, the choclate wearing off, and the altitude came into effect, and it took us 4 hrs to do the sec half! We were planning on doing the summit, another .5km up, and 5 km from the base camp the same day, but it gets cloudy in the afternoon, and we were too tired to go on, so we stayed at the lodge for the night. We went to sleep at 5:00 and got up at 2:30 am, to leave by 3, so we could summit and see the sunrise, and also have the summit to ourselves for a little while, most people leave around 3:30. Anyway, the dark maybe wasn't so great,as we're pretty sure we were pretty close to a cougar, of which there are apparently lots of in the park, for at least half an hour. We could smell a reall strong musty animal smell, that went away when the wind changed, and returned when it switched back. Also saw cougar scat that was fresh enough not to be frozen, and came across more, really fresh stuff on the trail on the way back. Anyway, the summit was amazing. No one esle, so we had it for ourselves, took tonns of pics, which will have to wait to be posted, as I don't have my cord with me. The summit stands at 3820m ( 12500ft) and 20km from the base of the trail. We definitely felt the effect of the altitude last night, a bit of nasea, headaches, and hypoxia, of which you will see photos of, where we couldn't stop laughing! After re-reading my journal from last night today, I was spelling "forget" foget, and "see" se ect. Now I know why you're not supposed to fly btwn 10000 and 13000 for more than 30 min! We were at around 11000 ft last night. The hike down was pretty bad, only 6hrs from the summit, but hard with 30 lb packs and steep, loose rocky trails. After eating lunch when we got down, we both got up, and almost fell back over after almost completely cramping up. It was definitely worth mentioning in the same sentance as the Great Walk, as far as physical exertion goes, a bit different though. Anyway, we will return to San Isidro now, and may leave a few days early, as we were planning on leaving on Thur, but it's holy week, and everything completely shuts down thur fri, so maybe Wed or Tues. Got to go catch a bus now, I'll add whatever I've forgotten next time!
Nick

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