Hello to anyone who cares to listen. Usually I´ve been trying to write every week or so but alas E-coli takes it out of you. 2 weeks in bed on antibiotics and I didn´t really do anything else. Ha ha Mr e-coli you can´t kill me!! I back now! So what if I lost 18 lbs and no I weigh 147lbs. That’s less then Douglas weighs, wouzers. Padding on my ass is zero.
Well this is a story from a few weeks ago but I thought you might like it so have a go.
O yes, I keep getting emails from friends asking where we are and what we´re doing. Mexico it is and we´re driving south to Panama, selling the van later in Costa Rica and then flying our fat asses back to the US. Get your asses down here and join us!!!!
Monday Oct 9, 2006
Woke up at 7 or should I say opened our eyes, as we wern´t really asleep to start with. The moon was high in the sky and it was so dark we still needed our headlamps to see. Went to the toilet and came back to discover that the whole car was covered in a layer of ice, not exactly what we were expecting from a trip in the mts.
What does the day after a typical b-day usually consist of. I guess usually it involves being rather hung-over, going out to breakfast and then just hanging out with Rachael and friends. Not this year, we had a 15,000 ft 8 hour ridge loop to hike. So wiped up some oats, packed our bags and we were on the trail. I think we´d acclimatized a little overnight as the section we´d done the day before we easier.
Got to the ridge and opted to start the loop to the right as opposed to the left which had been recommended because going to the left involved a big decent before going up and we didn´t want to have to climb back up it in the case we had to turn around. We were feeling pretty good, Rachael had a bit of a headache, but nothing to worry about and mine had going away, maybe it was the aspirin wed taken with breakfast. Then the real uphill started, it was steep loose sand, and we had to stop ever minute or so the catch our breath. Now we could feel the effects of the lower O2 levels in the air. Got to the top of the first peak and stopped for a rest and team meeting. Had we bitten off something larger then we could chew. Maybe we should hand out down at base camp for another day and wait for our bodies to acclimatize. Hell no we decided, today was the day, it was starting to warm up and the sky was totally clear, which we´d been told was a rarity. We´d go as far as we felt comfortable and then turn around or look for a nice ash slide to bound down. Pressing on, the loose sand turned to rock which formed a knife edge ridge, that was more like a bread knife then anything other type as it had jagged peaks all over it. The trail itself became increasing more difficult to follow.
After a couple hours we got to the base of the tallest peak on the ridge, it didn’t look possible to climb with out ropes but there were little orange flags marking a trail so we followed them. We both started to feel a little dizzy which was made were by the fact that the trail was step but we decided we had to at least make it to the top of the tallest peak before turning around. Then the clouds came, we watched them blow up the gullies and flow into the crater like smoke from a dry ice machine. It was then that I started to get a little worried, we were tired, dizzy, standing on cliffs and we were about to loose our vision, but as quickly as the thick fog rolled in it rolled back out and we could see clearly although it was only a matter of time before the break in the clouds closed in again. I was thinking to myself, hey well turn around at the top, I’m 27 now, maybe a couple days ago I’d have convinced Rachael we had to go for it but now, now I make wise decisions like my mother taught me. So we climbed to the top and sat down for a little snack and water break. A little rest was all we needed to feel better again; it was Rachael’s coaxing not mine that had us pushing on. Another hour of scrambling and looking back on the ridge wed made significant progress, we certainly weren’t half way yet but we were at least a third, and luckily the clouds had totally vanished, wed just gotten a little taste of how quickly they could descent. We were both feeling worse for wear with headaches, dizziness and unsettled stomachs but hey as soon as we were half way it wouldn’t be worth turning around as going back would be just as far as finishing it up. So we pressed on some more, only half hour later it hit us, my light headache was now pounding at my skull as was Rachael’s and we were both feeling sick in our stomachs. It was time to get the fuck off this thing, explanation mark, cant figure any symbols out on this archaic abacus I’m rapping on. Luckily it appeared as though we could go straight down to the lake instead of retracing our steps back over the arduous peaks. A little cliff descending had us at the top of a huge sandscree slide. Descending couldn’t have been easier unless we had skies, what took us hours to get up we dropped off in 10 minutes. At the lake we had lunch, ate chocolate and napped in the sun. This had us feeling back at 20 percent so we walked on the pebble beach to the pass. Only the second we started going up my headache came back, and not just a pounding headache like it had been but hammering at my skull and eyeballs, making me feeling like I was going to throw up, fuck, another explanation mark. Rachael felt bad too but not quite as bad as I did. I set goals for myself, like that rock there, 10 feet away Ill get to it then rest. Over and over 10 feet then rest, 10 feet then rest until we made it to the pass. Immediately upon descending I started feeling a little better, I still though I might vomit but not as strongly as when we were going up. Finally we make it back to the car. Rachael went to use the toilet which I also needed to do but couldn’t face walking the extra couple hundred feet, I rolled up bubbles curtains so that we were ready to GTFO and sat down in the passenger seat.
On the way down we encounter a strange sight. There was a dog up ahead of us thought he wasn’t moving like a normal dog, his front legs were flying out at obscure angles as he ran. Once we got to him it was obvious why, he had a steel chain link leash around his neck and dragging on the ground underneath him. He clearly had been walking up the volcano road for days as he was absurdly skinny and looked ready to collapse. Figured wed help him out a little so stopped and took off his cumbersome leash, as we drove away he followed us. He mush be someone’s dog we figured as he had a leash on, well give him a lift into town, maybe hell find his family there, so loaded filthy stinky charley onto the floor of the passenger seat and we were off again.
Thought we might just drive back down to the lower camp but once we got there it was in the shade and cold so decided tot drive all way back down into the city. Stopped in a friendly looking village to drop off our new mate. Fed him some left over oatmeal, a can of tuna and some water. He was defiantly better off in his new town then he´d been before in the woods. Even looked like maybe he could make friends and help out the dogs and farmer herding sheep next to where we left him.
Probably descended a good 4 or 5 thousand feet by the time we got to town so we were feeling much better. Now the question was what next, question mark. We were in Teluca, a not so attractive city. We could look for some where to camp, not very likely, or get a hotel, nope don’t want to do that or we could drive to Mexico city. Yes that sounds like a great idea, drive into the biggest city in the world, sleep deprived and still recovering from a nice bout of oxygen deprivation, not to mention that rain clouds were coming in and that it would be rush hour. Non of that mattered our minds were made up, Mexico City here we come.
As was usually the case when navigating through the innards of a Mexican city we got a little lost in Toluca, but a little time and harassment of locals gut us out of there and onto the highway. As would be the case no sooner did we got on the highway then the sky grew dark and it started to rain. At first it was light and didn’t hinder our driving on the supposed 4 lanes for which there were no painted lines. Then the thunder grew closer and the lightning bolts became visible, tell me again why we decided to drive to the big smoke this afternoon? The rain got so heavy we could barley see so followed the lead of some wise Mexican drivers and pulled off the highway with our flashers on. Sat there, fingers crossed, hoping no one would hydroplane off the road into us for 10 long minutes and then pulled back on. The highway was covered with water and we could see some of the side roads were suffering from flash flooding. A minute down the road we encountered a very curious thing. Wait a minute this is Mexico, not NH. The highway was covered with slush and lots of it, piled up into little walls off the edge of and in the middle lanes. The bumper to bumper traffic was crawling along and everyone was using their emergency flashers. 30 seconds later no slush and traffic was back to breakneck speed, that was peculiar. The rest of the hour drive into the city was pretty much uneventful except for the crazy wet roads.
Who says Mexico City isn’t full of corrupt cops? Maybe their not all corrupt but the first ones we came across surly were. Standing on the side of the road at the first stoplight we encountered were two armed traffic cops, pulled us over for no other reason then because we were gringos. They preceded to tell us we were in violation because we only had our rear license plate mounted, and it was in the rear window, which by the way had been suggested by more then one person because sometimes the cops we take your license plate if you are parked illegally and then your totally screwed. What do you think the fine is for incorrect license plate placement is…50, 100 no 150 bucks. Of course we knew that they were fucking with us and that it wasn’t in the least bit illegal but we were still intimated and dumbly we’d handed over my international license as well as our driving permit, which we weren’t about to get back with our at least a little bribe. We reluctantly traded 30 bucks for my license and driving papers and then I got out of the car to mount the license plate on the rear gate. Just to make sure we knew we’d been had the now cheerful cop says, no no you don’t have to move it, its fine right where it is, no problems. Here Mr. Policeman take that Billy club of yours and sit on it.
We both knew that it was eventually going to happen and we’d expected it to occur much sooner in the trip then before Mexico City but the harassment had still shaken our O2 deprived nerves a bit. Back on the crowded, confusing 1 way streets of inner Mexico city. Rachael played GPS navigation system and I played maniac rally driver. On a 6 lane street we needed to turn left so we pulled into the bizarly empty most left land which yes"> With a nice smile and in a cheerful voice the policeman informed us we were in violation and that we’d been photographed by telephone pole cameras on both sides of us, bull shit you compulsive lire, Mexico can’t even build a sewage treatment plant let alone install cameras on every light pole, besides if they had than what the hell are you doing standing their waiting for us. 30 bucks was all we were willing to loose for the day and we’d already damn lost it so we decided to draw this on out and see what happened. For 10 minutes he told us we were in violation, although he never came up with a price, and kept asking to see my license. We pretended we couldn’t find it and kept telling him it was our first time in the city and he should let us go. Nothing really changed, he´d just tell us we´d been photographed and ask for my license and wed play dumb over and over. Finally I looked into the rear-view to see a buss stopping behind us. Ha-ha Mr Policeman what are you going to do now. Figured he´d just let us go but he didn´t instead the game continued for another few minutes then it was obvious the buss driver was getting pissed. So the officer explained to us he’d stop the 6 lanes of traffic so we could pull across and to wait for him on the other side. We let him stop traffic and then pretended like he´d told us we were free to go, just drove off, gave him a nice smile, waved and hit the gas. Unluckily the next light was red and we could see his fat ass power walking after us. After what seemed like hours the light turned green and we were scott free. Made dame sure not to go through that intersection again. Ha-ha, bet you wish you had a car to chase us in, better luck next time dickhead.
Shaking with adrenalin, that was only the second time I´d actually run from a cop, we stressfully make our way along back streets finally arriving at the Hotel Embassy. There was a covered secure parking lot and the lobby was emaculate. Damn we thought this is going to be way out of our price range. On the contrary it was 29 bucks for a spotless room filled with a king-size bet, widescreen TV, huge walk in shower and it even had a nice artistic painting. We were there.
Showered for half hour then into the city for some exceptional tortas and fresh squeezed orange juice.
Slept like rocks.
