back safely from the mountains:
tara, annie, and i left pedro santana after the bishop and the nuns on wed afternoon, with the intention of arricing at la pena and then walking the 2 hours to guayuyal to make it before nightfall. unfortunately, it was raining on the way, and the truck, with it's bald tires, couldn't get up the last bit of steep hill. i avoided sliding the truck off the side of the mountain, but just barely. so there we were, stuck and late when another truck shows up and i guy jumps out and says that he works on the road all the time and can get us up. i hop on the tailgate and he starts fishtailing the truck - about 50 feet later we start sliding backwards and he brings it to a halt and declares it impossible. so, we get on the radio and call ahead to the bishop's vehicle, which had been waiting in la pena. he sends it back to us and he takes off to guayuyal. when the bishops suv arrives, we tied a rope to the back and it hoisted us up the hill. we then headed off to our desitination of foot, with one mule to carry the load. as we descended to the river we realized that we would have to travel up muddy, slippery, trecherous mule trails in the dark...thankfully the moon was full and provided a light, since in my haste i left my flashlight in the car...
when we awoke the plan was to hike 6 hours, say Mass and have the "meeting" then hike 6 more...dumbest plan i've ever heard. but the views were spectacular, as you can see from the following pictures:
on the way to sierracita, we stopped in the along the river and i took this picture of the bishop, myself, the two nuns, and the seminarian who accompanies the bishop:
when we finally got to the place where we were sleeping we realized that the bags hadn't made it down - so that left no food or bedding...we sent two guys off on mules in the dark, and they miraculously returned in 4 hours with the goods...other than that the trip was rather uneventful, except for the time sister fell off the mule - she forced me to give her my backpack and i took out the camera to take a picture and 30 seconds later i hear this crash and ran over to see her on her back like a turtle, and her only comment was "it's a good thing i had this backpack on, it saved me."
tara, annie, and i left pedro santana after the bishop and the nuns on wed afternoon, with the intention of arricing at la pena and then walking the 2 hours to guayuyal to make it before nightfall. unfortunately, it was raining on the way, and the truck, with it's bald tires, couldn't get up the last bit of steep hill. i avoided sliding the truck off the side of the mountain, but just barely. so there we were, stuck and late when another truck shows up and i guy jumps out and says that he works on the road all the time and can get us up. i hop on the tailgate and he starts fishtailing the truck - about 50 feet later we start sliding backwards and he brings it to a halt and declares it impossible. so, we get on the radio and call ahead to the bishop's vehicle, which had been waiting in la pena. he sends it back to us and he takes off to guayuyal. when the bishops suv arrives, we tied a rope to the back and it hoisted us up the hill. we then headed off to our desitination of foot, with one mule to carry the load. as we descended to the river we realized that we would have to travel up muddy, slippery, trecherous mule trails in the dark...thankfully the moon was full and provided a light, since in my haste i left my flashlight in the car...
when we awoke the plan was to hike 6 hours, say Mass and have the "meeting" then hike 6 more...dumbest plan i've ever heard. but the views were spectacular, as you can see from the following pictures:
on the way to sierracita, we stopped in the along the river and i took this picture of the bishop, myself, the two nuns, and the seminarian who accompanies the bishop:
when we finally got to the place where we were sleeping we realized that the bags hadn't made it down - so that left no food or bedding...we sent two guys off on mules in the dark, and they miraculously returned in 4 hours with the goods...other than that the trip was rather uneventful, except for the time sister fell off the mule - she forced me to give her my backpack and i took out the camera to take a picture and 30 seconds later i hear this crash and ran over to see her on her back like a turtle, and her only comment was "it's a good thing i had this backpack on, it saved me."
