Cerro Chirripo

There we were:

Deille, Zeph's brother for a three week vacation, Zeph, on his way to set up a life in Costa Rica for several years, Guillaume, Zeph's best friend who is coming along for at least three months to see if he likes the living and can find a way to support it and Mathu, Zeph's girlfriend who is coming along for what ever time life will give her.

Don't worry you're still on the right site to read about the same old person, her life is just getting a little entwined with anothers. Sometimes we lead, sometimes we follow, sometimes we walk alone and sometimes together. This variation is what makes it all interesting.

After a 24 hour transit from Paris to London to Maiami, where we had a Corona at the beach, to San Jose, we took a cab to Mariela's little apartment where we woke up her neighbor after almost making a mistake of ringing the wrong bell and being locked out for the whole night.

For several days we adjusted to the beautiful warmth of the sun, the busy streets, the fruits and gallo-pinto and each other while shopping for necessities for our house in the jungle and visiting different bars and nightclubs.

Everything ready and bought we decided the guys would take a little trip with a rented car to drive around the country ........

.......while I would go on my own adventure to discover Cerro Chiripo.
I was extremely excited to have a few day on my own, with my backpack hiking a nice mountain sounded just the thing to do after a month in the big city of Paris.

Several busses took me to my first stop in San Isidro. I found my cheap hostel and started brushing my teeth straigh away. It was only 9pm, but I was tired. The guy brushing his teeth beside me asked if I was going to the fair too ........ What fair?
Turned out there was a massive Cattle Expo just out of town.
Of course I took the 50cent bus to the grounds and amazed myself with the huge amount of people, the big funfair and all the tranquilo cows and bulls. You could pet them all, I wonder how drugged-up they were.
There was no doubt I took a ride in the biggest swing-machine (for 1 dollar!!!!! In Holland this would have been 7 bucks!) and was dragged onto the dancefloor while innocently watching the fiesta.
Right time, right place.

Sunday on my way to San Gerardo with another bus. An unpaved road brought us to this very picturesque little town which is not much more then little houses with well kept gardens strewn along the small road into the mountains. A football field and pulperia announce the 'center'.

It was a wonderful ride up and would continue likewise the next day when I hiked into the national park.

Cerro Chirripo is the highest mountain in Costa Rica, 3820m. It's part of the mountain range Talamanca and most of the park lies at more than 2000 m above sea level. The hike from town to the lodge where you can spend the night before ascending the summit is 16km and will take eight hours if you are in modorate shape.
You have to register to enter the park, something I normally don't do, and if you don't stay at the lodge it's easy to avoid, but because of the night I was gonna spend up there it was necessary this time.

I found a hostel where I could put my tent in the garden for less and strolled up and down the road to marvel upon the cuteness of the town and the many fireflies later on. It really was a wonderful night.

I left early that next morning, the alarm went off at 4:20am. The sun started coming up when I reached the boundaries of the park and with every change in color and brightness my puffing increased. It was steep and up up up all the way. Not a technical path, but steep. It was not easy this time and I'm not sure if I had to blame the grade, my poor shape, the backpack or the altitude.

The jungle was super, as usual with massive trees, all shades of green, spider monkeys, lots of butterflies; a kaleidoscope of activity. Sometimes it showed a peep into the valley and the last few km were above the tree line.

The lodge was big and way to comfortable to my liking, several people lived here to register hikers, take care of the place and one lady who cooked for the guys. It was pretty disgusting that there was internet available here. All the way out here!!? Can we please have some time away people?

Again it was a strange night, going to bed early and getting up at 2:40am to arrive in time at Chirripo to see the sunrise. The whole two hours up I was covered with the most sparkeling sky ever, the stars were so brilliant I was almost sad when the grey of dawn was starting to show.

I made it in time, it was windy and cold at the top, the temperature must have been around freezing. Very funny to swet your balls off one day and search for you gloves the other.


But ..... what was that? Clouds from the North. Nooooo, within half an hour we were wrapped in thick grey swipes of cloud. The sun rays tried to peep over, but it rose higher and devoured all views from eyesight. Damn, if you win the jackpot here (having a clear sky) you can see the Pacific and Caribbean seas. I had this once before at Volcan Baru (3475m) in Panama where you are really the only high peak instead of being surrounded by many equal ones. Here I did one the lottery and had an incredible view 360 degrees around me. We can't always be lucky.

When the cold and waiting got too boring I decended back to the valley to climb up on the other side.

It was a few hours later, the sun had climbed higher in the sky, the clouds stayed around Chirripo and so I was given an unobstructed view to the Pacific sea. The whole trip was so worth it, if alone for the solitude.

That same day I hiked all the way down, back to San Gerardo. The last two hours in a streaming monsoon rain. It was great, being wet and warm. I had hoped to soak my worked muscles in the hotsprings a few km away, but the rain made me hesitant and eventually I settled in under the palapa with warm noodles, my diary and the thundering rain. My new tent survived the rain as well, a perfect first test.

My last day of anti-social behavior was spend in busses, a boat ride across the Golfo Dulce and more walking/hitch hiking to get to our new house. The boys had arrived the day before and were arranging things in town. The house was empty but already warm, bamboo is such a cosy building material.

In the next few day we would be decorating the house, taking a little trip to Dos Brasos, the little mining town in the middle of the peninsula from where we would take four horses to go up to Zeph's parents property and after that track back through the river. And we would help with preparing Steve and Mariela's wedding.......... La Boda Loca ...........