Man, was today ever an adventure of a lifetime! First, we are eating all our meals at our hotel because there is simply not anything else around us. There are three hotels that sit in the middle of the two volcanoes (Maderas and Concepcion) and they are totally self-sufficient because the nearest town is over an hour away. So, as we eat breakfast outside our room, we have a couple blue parrots come eat breakfast with us. They are all around our tables, begging for a piece of fruit. I caved in and gave them some. Check out the pics (PS, this is the national bird of Nicaragua).
Seeing as the first two weeks of our adventure are called the "Volcano Trail," we decided that we were gonna have to climb a volcano. We ended up choosing Volcan Maderas because it supposedly had a nice lagoon at the top and was about 2 hours less of a climb than Concepcion (though they are both about the same height). Haley was a little wary of the climb, but reasoned that we had been training all spring with little hikes, so we could handle things like this…man were we ever naïve. Andrew was the third member of our hiking group. He is a hard core Scott, who has done a fair bit of traveling in the past.
So, we set out on the hour drive to the base of the volcano in our good old tourist van (the roads are no longer paved and we had people on bikes passing us because the roads were so bad). On the way, we pick up our guide, Pedro, who had just dropped his kids off at school (all the kids looked so clean in their freshly cleaned uniforms). As we get to the base and start hiking, we see a family of six howler monkeys directly over us. I didn't take any pictures of them, because Pedro told us we would be able to see some on the way back (we never did--sorry, no picture). Though they tell us the first two kilometers were the easiest to hike up in terms of steepness, it was incredibly hard for all of us, seeing as it was incredibly hot and humid. We were pouring out sweat. We were also booking it up there, with Pedro, the freeking pack mule leading the way. He was amazing and told us that he makes the 10-kilometer round trip hike 4-5 times a week.
At one point, Pedro stopped to show us some corn and then sang the national anthem, which talks of corn and how God has blessed the humble country of Nicaragua. Pedro also showed us many of the medicinal plants they use to cure everything from tooth pain to back aches. Still no cure for cancer, though. As you can see in the pictures, we saw some petroglyphs which speak of a king that ruled the islands over a thousand years ago. We also saw all types of wildlife, from grasshoppers (that giant one in the pictures landed on my right boobie and nearly caused me to BU myself) to mountain crabs, to turtles.
Okay, this is the point where I talk of how incredibly difficult this hike was. It was 5 kilometers up and 5 down. Please see the pictures of the volcano in the photo gallery to appreciate what I am trying to explain (I believe the pictures say it all). During that 5-kilo hike, we climbed to a height of 1,400 meters. Haley and I pushed our bodies to their absolute maximum on the way up and by the time we reached the crater lagoon, we could not hike another step. After a brief lunch and some pictures, we headed down. If the hike up was tiring and challenging, then the hike down was super tiring and super challenging. Almost as soon as we stepped one foot down, it started to rain. Did I say rain? I mean it was a tropical deluge. The trail is not like US trails that have switchbacks to them, it is straight down the volcano, following the trail of water and it slithers though the clay (which incidentally is used to make the local pottery). At first our Merrell's held up nicely and our feet were dry…then as the rain got heavier, all the water poured into the top of our boots. I don't know of a company that has figured that one out yet. All down the volcano, my knees, ankles, thighs, and feet were hurting. They were so incredibly weak from overuse, that I can't believe I am here to write this all down. My knees were giving out on me so bad, and we were all in pain (except for Pedro).And then this is the point where I give a huge shout-out to my incredible wife, Haley. She is incredible. Not only did she make it to the top and then back down again, she did so without complaining near as much as me and she didn't slip even once (Andrew and I both hit the dust at one point or another). At one point, as she started to slip, her entire body was parallel to the ground, but somehow she caught herself and did not fall. It was exactly like the matrix, dodging the bullet scene. AMAZING. I kept joking that it was the Harding blood flowing through her veins.
When we finally did make it back, I ate the biggest dinner of my life. I was so famished. I started out with a basket of french fries, then went on to my main course of steak and fries, then cleaned up everybody else's leftovers, then ate some ice cream desert and after Haley didn't like her desert, I ate hers as well. I am completely tired and going to go to bed now.
PS, Happy Fourth of July.
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