Oct 31
Well Happy Anniversary to me. Today would be my 17th year on Bonaire.
This morning was not a good one. I woke up with running. Literally running as fast as I could to the potty. I can honestly say this morning that I was thrilled to have the potty. I took drugs straight away as this is no place for this mess. Thank god for cipro and pepto. I was actually looking for me imodium but could not find it and decided that if I had a bug the cipro would take care of it.
Needless to say I did not get much sleep again last night. This morning was a beautiful morning. The sun is shining and I feel great. In case I have not mentioned it..........this trek is really easy compared to most of the climbs I have done. I am quite suprised.
Good news for me. My guide is heading back down. I will be with the assistant guide now. Of course just as he was leaving he needed to bring up the tip one more time. UGH!!!!!! GO HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!
My new guide does not speak much English and my Swhaili is not great either. We head off at 7:30. We go for an hr and then stop for water. It has cooled off a bit. I needed to add a layer of clothing. Not 5 mins later we need to put on our rain gear. It is pouring rain today. I am pretty warm and I have on my woolen gloves for my hands. I am shocked to see just how warm woolen gloves can keep you when they are soaken wet.
AT 11:30 we reached what is called Luna tower. This is meant to be our lunch spot but it is still pouring rain. My guide has hot tea with him. We each take 2 cups and call it. We go back to trekking. No point in eating as we are only going to cool off and our food will get soaked as well. I think this spot is amazing but I cannot see it well.
Ok............nobody but nobody told me that we were to descend down the faxe of a friggin waterfall. Some of you know me to be a clutz. Well, climbing down rocks covered with water and algae is not a good palce for me. I knew I could do it but needed to go slow and be extra careful not to slip. Yes, it is still pouring rain. I was also wondering if my boots were really water proof. This was the way to find out. Thank god for gortex. My feet totally remained dry.
Anyway, down we go. It now starts to hail as well. It rains and hails one more time just for good measure. I am sure that the terraine is amazing but I can only see my feet and what is under it. I go from being scared to death that I will fall and/or break an ankle to a walk in the park. As soon as we get off the waterfall face then the path smooths out. Once I get into that we have more rocks. I am actually very proud of myself. I have never done this type of terraine so easily. Maybe I am getting better balance after all. I am also without my glasses as they are so covered with water that I can see better without them than I can with them.
The rain lets up for awhile so I say...let's take a rest and eat. My guide says "OK". Then he say.......but we are only about 15 mins away from the camp. WHAT!!!!!!!!!! I of course had no idea. I was thinking we had at least 1 - 2 hrs to go. I took this oppertunity to take a few photo's as it looked like it was going to start to rain again any minute.
We arrive camp at 1:30. The porters (now 3 of them) were there already and had my tent up. I had my hot water wash, tea and popcorn waiting for me. It has stopped raining so I decide to get my tent ready. It is a good thing that I am alone today as I spread all of my stuff out. The tent actually had a leak last night so I wanted to try out my sleeping bag and mat. As I do this the rain starts again. Great time to pick up my book and read. I hope and pray for better weather over the next two days.
We are at Barranco camp tonight. Not sure of the altitude but it is close to 4000m.
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Friday, December 08, 2006
Oct 30
This is the second day on Mt. Kilimanjaro. My guide is still harrassing me. I am done with him already. Just so you know what he was expecting.......$15 a day for the guide.......for 6 days is $80. The porters are expecting $7 a day each. There are 5 of them for 6 days.....that is $210. In total it would cost me $300 in tips alone. Now I know how hard they work but I do not have that kind of cash to hand out.
Ok, enough of that. Dinner last night was great. They make the best homeade soups. It was really weird to be having dinner in a tent c/w tables and chairs on a trek. I am getting alot of reading is as I have nobody to talk to but my guide. Seems like when I am in the mountains I do not sleep well. It could also be that the ground is pretty hard and my hips are getting sore. The good thing is that I am up at the crack of dawn packed up and ready to go.
Today we left at 7:40am. We were not meant to leave till 8:30 but I was up and ready to go so we went. At 10:30 we stopped for lunch. I was so far ahead of the porters that we needed to wait 45 minutes for them to catch up. I would have prefered to get to the destination spot to wait but the guide did not want to do that. Guess he had nobody to chat with as I do not have much to say. With this wait everybody else was catching up with me and then passing me. That also sucked.
I did get to actually meet some people. Yup! A group of 7 British men and one women. She is one of the first females I have seen so far accept at the gate.
Good news. Well for me. Guess that is not very nice but my guide is coming down with altitude sickness. He is dizzy and has a really bad headache. He really does not look well. He is talking about heading back down. He is talking it over with the assistant guide who's English is not very good. Hey, what so I care. We will manage. He says that this is the first time ever for him getting sick on the mountian.
It rained on us today. Not for very long thank god. I am go glad that I got my rain gear this year from Mountain Hardware. It was awesome. I also learned a lesson from this. Always and I mean always, carry the rain bag for the backpack. I have it for the big back pack but did not have one for my day pack. Needless to say I will transfer that one tonight so that it is with me at all times.
At 12:30 we arrive at the camp. This camp is called Shira camp. The first camp was Machame camp. I am sure that I forgot to mention that. This camp site is at 3900 m. I spend the rest of the day reading, eating and waiting to crash. Needless to say it was yet another early night. Good thing I brought two books. I almost did not cause of the weight.
This is the second day on Mt. Kilimanjaro. My guide is still harrassing me. I am done with him already. Just so you know what he was expecting.......$15 a day for the guide.......for 6 days is $80. The porters are expecting $7 a day each. There are 5 of them for 6 days.....that is $210. In total it would cost me $300 in tips alone. Now I know how hard they work but I do not have that kind of cash to hand out.
Ok, enough of that. Dinner last night was great. They make the best homeade soups. It was really weird to be having dinner in a tent c/w tables and chairs on a trek. I am getting alot of reading is as I have nobody to talk to but my guide. Seems like when I am in the mountains I do not sleep well. It could also be that the ground is pretty hard and my hips are getting sore. The good thing is that I am up at the crack of dawn packed up and ready to go.
Today we left at 7:40am. We were not meant to leave till 8:30 but I was up and ready to go so we went. At 10:30 we stopped for lunch. I was so far ahead of the porters that we needed to wait 45 minutes for them to catch up. I would have prefered to get to the destination spot to wait but the guide did not want to do that. Guess he had nobody to chat with as I do not have much to say. With this wait everybody else was catching up with me and then passing me. That also sucked.
I did get to actually meet some people. Yup! A group of 7 British men and one women. She is one of the first females I have seen so far accept at the gate.
Good news. Well for me. Guess that is not very nice but my guide is coming down with altitude sickness. He is dizzy and has a really bad headache. He really does not look well. He is talking about heading back down. He is talking it over with the assistant guide who's English is not very good. Hey, what so I care. We will manage. He says that this is the first time ever for him getting sick on the mountian.
It rained on us today. Not for very long thank god. I am go glad that I got my rain gear this year from Mountain Hardware. It was awesome. I also learned a lesson from this. Always and I mean always, carry the rain bag for the backpack. I have it for the big back pack but did not have one for my day pack. Needless to say I will transfer that one tonight so that it is with me at all times.
At 12:30 we arrive at the camp. This camp is called Shira camp. The first camp was Machame camp. I am sure that I forgot to mention that. This camp site is at 3900 m. I spend the rest of the day reading, eating and waiting to crash. Needless to say it was yet another early night. Good thing I brought two books. I almost did not cause of the weight.
Friday, December 01, 2006
So...........for those of you who have been patiently waiting. I am back and will see how much I can get done. Well I know I can only post 20 photo's a day and seeing as I have almost 1000 of them.............this is going to take awhile just to post some of them.
Let me take you back to Oct 29. This is the day that I was suppose to run the marathon. It is also the day I am booked to climb Kili. Well, as you all know........Killi won. I met someone who did the half marathon and he told me that there were 3000 participants. OUCH! That is amazing
Off I go..........the first leg of my trip up the highest mountian I will ever attain. I have a guide and 6 porters. All of this just for me. One of the porters is the cook and another one is the spare guide. Yup....I am again on my own. I sure would have liked it if I could have joined another group but that was not meant to be.
We left the hotel at 9am. Drove off to the gate for the Machame trek. That is where we picked up the porters. After getting all signed in and the porters all organized we started up at 10:30. The path is totally groomed. We walked for 2 hrs and them took a 15 min break for lunch. My lunch was huge. I am thinking that it was for both my porter and I as he had no lunch but he says no. I make him eat more than half of it anyway as it is way to much food for me. In this food box are 2 pieces of chicken, 2 pieces of bread, 3 cookies, an egg, bottle of juice, 2 baby bananas, a orange and a chocolate bar.
Off we go again. I pass two young guys (younger than me that is) who started out about 15 mins before me. This always shocks me. An hour and 45 mins later we are at the first but we must wait for the porters as I left them in the dust. The porters arrive and camp is set up in a jiffy. It is a wee bit chilly out and I need to add a few layers. I am a princess again. HAHAHAH Here is what the porters are carrying up the mountian to make me feel like a princess. A dinner tent c/w a table and 2 folding chairs. Ohhhhhhh it gets better............They also have a port-a-potty and tent for that potty. Oh my god.....no wonder there are so many porters. I do not keed this stuff. Of course I will use it......they packed it. How could I not use it.
The guide is starting to get on my nerves. Right after lunch he started to talk about his tip. WRONG! What the hell is he thinking? He does not let up. It is on going even after I told him to stop. Then the icing on the cake. I know....some of you think that this should have been a nice thing but I hated it. He started to hit on me. Insisting that I needed a warm body to keep me warm at night. He actually said.........I have been waiting my whole life (31 years) for you. Yes, this was on the very first night. I know that I said that I was going to meet my hubby on Kili but not like this. I took to my tent by myself and read to get away from him.
Let me take you back to Oct 29. This is the day that I was suppose to run the marathon. It is also the day I am booked to climb Kili. Well, as you all know........Killi won. I met someone who did the half marathon and he told me that there were 3000 participants. OUCH! That is amazing
Off I go..........the first leg of my trip up the highest mountian I will ever attain. I have a guide and 6 porters. All of this just for me. One of the porters is the cook and another one is the spare guide. Yup....I am again on my own. I sure would have liked it if I could have joined another group but that was not meant to be.
We left the hotel at 9am. Drove off to the gate for the Machame trek. That is where we picked up the porters. After getting all signed in and the porters all organized we started up at 10:30. The path is totally groomed. We walked for 2 hrs and them took a 15 min break for lunch. My lunch was huge. I am thinking that it was for both my porter and I as he had no lunch but he says no. I make him eat more than half of it anyway as it is way to much food for me. In this food box are 2 pieces of chicken, 2 pieces of bread, 3 cookies, an egg, bottle of juice, 2 baby bananas, a orange and a chocolate bar.
Off we go again. I pass two young guys (younger than me that is) who started out about 15 mins before me. This always shocks me. An hour and 45 mins later we are at the first but we must wait for the porters as I left them in the dust. The porters arrive and camp is set up in a jiffy. It is a wee bit chilly out and I need to add a few layers. I am a princess again. HAHAHAH Here is what the porters are carrying up the mountian to make me feel like a princess. A dinner tent c/w a table and 2 folding chairs. Ohhhhhhh it gets better............They also have a port-a-potty and tent for that potty. Oh my god.....no wonder there are so many porters. I do not keed this stuff. Of course I will use it......they packed it. How could I not use it.
The guide is starting to get on my nerves. Right after lunch he started to talk about his tip. WRONG! What the hell is he thinking? He does not let up. It is on going even after I told him to stop. Then the icing on the cake. I know....some of you think that this should have been a nice thing but I hated it. He started to hit on me. Insisting that I needed a warm body to keep me warm at night. He actually said.........I have been waiting my whole life (31 years) for you. Yes, this was on the very first night. I know that I said that I was going to meet my hubby on Kili but not like this. I took to my tent by myself and read to get away from him.
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