Today I was woken up early by German. He told me it was a good day for a volcano climb. However the other people didn´t use him as a guide and I had to go with another tour in town. I was a little bummbed about that since I had heard so many great things about him. I was so tired from the night before but I stumbled up, packed my backpack. i have no idea what to bring. I had my water bottle and a little bit of breakfast. 2 bananas. Sarah was going to go to the coast today, but freaked out and changed her ticket. I took some m&ms and what I htought were chips in my bag as a snack and went with German to get my gear. On the way to the shop we heard that there was a different volcano in Chile errupting. Strange. glad it wasn´t mine.
I got to the shop and ws suited with some gear and was ready to go. I have no idea what I should bring and I though the gear they gave me was odd. The pants were a little snug, they said they fit. Oh well. We piled into the van and headed to the volcano.
Once we got there we were sent up a chairlift which cut off about 2 hours of climb time. It was so hot walking up. I was not wearing appropriate clother. I was wearing my pj pants that kept sliding up and down. We walked up for about a half and hour and took a small break. Then we walked up about another hour and took another break to put on our crampons. (Special spikes to help walk on ice and snow). The crampons made me fall behind. First, I rarely wear shoes. Anyone who knows me knows hat I usually wear flip flops. I am now wearing 10 pound boots and they have 3 pund spikes attached. Plus the boots are digging into my heels, I think I feel blood. So I go slow. We get to the part of the volcano where I can see the top.
By this time about 5 people have dropped out. I am at the back of the group. We are to take off our crampons and climb up lava rocks. No problem. Well, apparently it is. One of the guides comes over to me and tells me its not safe and I am slow and should sit and wait for everyone to go to the top and come back down. NO FREAKIN WAY! I climbed my big ass up 3/4 of this dumb volano I will get my big slow ass to the top. He was not thrilled and told me about 3 more times that it was unsafe and some people are just not fit enough to do this type of activity. SCREW HIM! I was going ot the top. I finally made it. Slow and steady...thats me. I climbed my way to the top and looked inside the crater of the active volcano Villarica.
I am exhausted. My shirt is drenched with sweat, my pants are sliding around and I am out of water and have no food. I was really prepared. Well its time to go down. I was not going to be the last one down this mountain if it killed me. So I was at the front of the line and ready to go. Going down was kinda fun. There were parts where we were able to slide on the snow and had to use our ice axe to stop us. It was interesting. Helped. I would rather slide than walk down. Plus falling in snow doesn´t hurt. We continued down the mountain and then came to the rocks. One of the nicer guides gave me his ski poles to help steady my way down the rocky parts. It helped a lot. I made it down and was not the last one. UNFIT...No...just slow...trying to enjoy the view. LOL.
My feet are killing me. i thought of taking off the boots and going barefoot.they are so heavy I can barely walk in them. Once I took them off, I had to put on my trainers to walk back to the hostel. So far I have been hiking for 8 hours up and down a volcano. 6 hours up and 2 hours down. Now I have to walk back ot my hoste. No major injuries. Sarah was glad to see. But, once I tok of my socks, I was missing about an inch of skin on ech of my heels. It was not pretty. But a price to pay to show people that if you put your mind to something, you can acheive it.
Despite the blow to my self esteem by my guide I think today was a great day! My feet hurt and I am a little tired, but, I climbed a volcano.
05/02/2008
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