The Summit

Hey JTerm Honors track boys: Bean and I summited your meadowy peak, triumphing over all obstacles (i.e. gurgling brooks, swampy marshes, and slippery slopes), notwithstanding all barriers (dogs that charged at us--and cows!)... and getting up there and back in an hour and a half, no less! Take that!

Hazy view from up on the mountain to the valley below

Around 4:00 pm, we left the CRC, determined to find that grassy clearing and see that awesome view from the mountain. We summited 45 minutes later, after a sweaty, breathless climb...

Side note: that climb also involved two vicious dogs that chased us part way up the slippery slope of a path. {We did NOT have time to take memorable snapshots of these dogs. No. Although the image of the fluffy white dog's barred teeth and a large tawny-colored dog is vivid in my mind.} Panicked by adrenaline, as the dogs lunged at us, I continued, focused on following Bean up the slippery, mossy wet rocks and only happened to look back at the growling, fang-barring toothed dogs to see yet another one close on my heels. I, frenzied and panicked, turned around and chh-chh'd the dogs--proving more and more to be a life saver when territorial, protective dogs charge out from holes in fences. Thank God for those chh-chhing abilities. It stopped the white dog, still snarling, and the tawny one turned around in its tracks! That noise to dogs must be like nails on a chalkboard.

Side note #2: A run-in with two old mountain men did not deter us either! Given, we might have thought for a few seconds that they were pumas (mountain lions) when we heard rustling and soft noises in the bushes. Bean and I had stopped along the pathway, observing the view below us and taking a couple photos when I froze and touched her arm, giving her a slightly scared look. I shouted out, "¿Hola?"... and again, "¿Hola? ¿Quién está?" Only then did two grubby men, carry satchels with roots and berries stuffed inside, step out from a pathway behind the shubbery. In an exchange of what we were all doing up there and how they had scared the bejeebers out of us given that we'd just nearly been eaten by dogs, they told us they were coming from the lechera (milk-making place). Who would put a milk factory on top of a mountain only accessible by an hour climb up and a slippery climb back down? Maybe the lechera was on the OTHER side of the mountain? Down the slope? Maybe there was a whole network of paths that lead to the other side? Or maybe they weren't telling us the truth. We wondered if they were not supposed to be up there, doing whatever they were doing. We wondered if WE were not supposed to be up there, doing what WE were doing! Just exploring, or "haciendo ejercicio" (exercising), as the men had put it. We asked them if there was an alternative route down the mountain that they knew of, so we could avoid the dogs on the way back down. They told us there were some other paths. Great. Walking through unknown forest at dusk. Sounds like a wonderful idea. We said farewell and God Bless and continued up the mountain, while they headed down. I wondered aloud if we shouldn't have just turned around then and there and gone back down the mountain with these men who knew the way and could lead us down, avoiding said savage dogs.

The photo Bean was taking when we
heard "pumas" in the bushes behind us.

After ten minutes more of hiking up the mountain, we summited and saw the glorious view through the parted clouds: the golden yellow buildings of the CRC below us, then San Rafa, Heredia, and San José and the new stadium from the Chinese off in the distance towards the mountains on the other side of the valley. Mist and wispy clouds puffed about the sky around us; we were in the heavens of Costa Rica.

Zoomed in on our yellow CRC through the trees down the mountainside

This is the Dante's Peak of our Braulio Carrillo
National Park mountains on the Continental Divide.
That's the next peak on our hike list... or not.

We took some precious photos to prove our feat. It was 5pm and we knew that we had a ways down to go in what little remained of our daylight; footing back down a slippery slope is always more difficult and slower than on the way up.

Thanks for the photo, Bean!

This is OUR jumping photo, JTerm Honors frosh!

It was indeed slippery and thus a bit slower on the way down. Footing was deliberate. In efforts to avoid the dogs charging us again on our return trip, I made Kristina follow me and try every little alternative route that branched off off the main one we'd taken on the way up. OK, and then some. We tried paths that weren't really paths. To all avail, I attempted to fashion routs out of waterfalls, creeks, trees and thorny branches. I REEEEEALLY wanted to avoid bite-threatening dogs at all costs, if possible! I mean, I've already been bitten by a dog in CR once before. Alas, every other route was impassable. Just as we were approaching that house, nearly tiptoeing, but trying to be as quick as was possible on a slippery, mossy slope, I saw a house that I had not noticed on my frantic, adrenaline-pumped way up when the dogs were chasing us.

Sorry to those people whose front yard we climbed through in efforts to go up and around the dogs and the slippery slanted slope on the way back down. We know that two gringas climbing up your front steps and across your yard and through the fence into the field above your houses might've appeared rather strange. We were just trying to avoid your killer dogs.
As it turned out, the dogs found us anyhow. A little later on down the meadow that we'd climbed up into, there was a break in the fence, and sure enough, bloodthirsty barks surrounded us again. Actually, this time, it seemed worse, because they were BETWEEN me and Bean. We were separated along the pathway through a meadow by these two charging dogs. But this time, I had a stick! Well, more of a club really. I must have looked like a mad woman, shaking that stick and carrying on with my chh-chhing. Slowly, I backed down the hill, shaking my stick and continuing to chh-chh with all my strength, legs wobbly and weakening in a bit of fear as well. But the dogs stayed back, and Bean and I were both able to hurriedly ran out of the meadow when we were at a good enough distance we felt to turn our backs and scurry away.

Through some tress, we came upon the gushing spring of water out of the busted PVC pipe we'd seen on our hike up a couple days ago. Familiar territory! (Even though we were still trespassing- whoops!) We continued to hurry, not wanting to get stuck on the mountain in the dark. Finally, we made it out of the forest and back into the neighborhoods of Tirol, to the southeast of our CRC property, home to just-as-vicious dogs- only most of them are behind big fences!

The gushing, burst PVC geyser from a couple days ago.

To make our late afternoon hike more comical, we came upon a cow. It looked as if it was going to charge us. It ran towards us. Then turned into an open gate, ran down a driveway and through the carport next to this nice house there. Odd. Apparently we scared the cow and it opted to run around a house instead. Around the corner came another cow. This time, Bean was ready with her camera. I had readied myself with another stick weapon at hand: a bamboo stick. Not the sturdiest, but hey, it stopped the cow.

Either that or the car that vroomed up from behind us. Two jovenes (youths) occupied it. Laughing at the cow situation at hand (a whole herd was in the road), we said hola. Then, in English, the driver asked us, "Do you like raspberries?" To which Bean looked at me and declared, "No!" A bold-faced lie. Get away from us, luring jovenes! That sounded all too much like candy to children, if you ask us. We proceeded to walk on our way, when the joven continued, "Hey, can I ask you a question?" Not wanting to be rude or provoke anything, I looked at my watch (it was a quarter to six) and responded, "No, sorry. We really have to get home to dinner." What we really wanted to say was, "Papí Lindy has a gun and will come out looking for us if we're not back for supper! He hates it when we talk to boys." Giggling, we chased the cows down the road in the opposite direction, away from the stares of jovenes in their car.

This is the "running with a bamboo stick" to fend off the charging cow...
Bean was running too. Thus the blurriness.

An ab workout, dinner, and a hot shower later, we settled down to write letters and I gave haircuts. It was a lovely night after a veeeerrrrrrryyyyyy eventful and busy day around the CRC--classes, a new recepcionista, internship one-on-one meetings, copier/printer repairs, and more!