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.