A day in my life

Ok fellows, because I am too lazy to write another long essay about my second day of climbing the Tolima hill, I am just describing one insignificantly day of my life - and picked this Tuesday.
So, let's start and stand up on that day. That was a little earlier for me a,t about 8 o'clock, because I had class at the university at 10 (my only one). After having a shower I rapidly inserted two toasts of Nutella, chattet in the web and then I already was on the way to my class about Wavelets and Mathing Pursuit algorithm. This time held by a student in spanish. And I can proudly say that I understood all of the lecture, although it was held in spanish. However that student was not that good prepared and had not that much to talk about so the lecture was a bit short and ended after about 80 minutes.
After arriving back at home again, I played first computer for awhile until the maid had finished cooking my lunch ;) ,hmmm, delicious. And what else do I do on a normal day here in Colombia? Yep, right, have to do my thesis, thus I was programming in the afternoon.
After some phone calls I realized the world hates me and nobody wants do anything with me that evening... so what to do? Try to make the best out of that situation. One take the wine bought on monday, the Nargila bought on Friday, the notebook, arrange those things appropriately on the table, set up the tabaco in the Nargila, let the wine aerate a little and then start a little gaming and enjoy the stimulants...

Rocks and Stones, Mud and Roots - Part One

Given:
Starting time s = Wednesday 13.09.2006
End time e = Sunday 17.09.2006
x(s) = Bogotá
x(e) = Bogotá
s < m < e
x(m) = Top of the tolima mountain

Searching:
An exciting adventure

Solution:
Starting on Wednesday leaving in a cab to Lisette's (Dirk's girlfriend) house in the late afternoon, then going to buy gloves, some food and having dinner cooked by Lisette's mom, leaving to the bus terminal, meeting the rest of the adventure group (alltogether we were 7 people), the trip began by taking the bus to Ibague at about 0:00, which was driving like the devil was chasing him. So what to do in Ibague at the bus terminal at 3 o'clock in the morning with only one hour sleep and 3 hours more to wait to pursue with the journey? Sweeten the time with a couple of cold beer...
The time passed and shortly after 6 we grabbed our backpacks an startet to walk through Ibague to find the person who can bring us up the hill to the place from where we wanted to start overcoming the mountain. But who thought there would drive kind of a bus up th hill thought false. In Ibague we aproached the driver of a dairy van who possibly could bring us up the hill, and it worked out. Five minutes later we were standing on the platform in the back of the van driving over bumby streets, or lets better say paths, muddy with holes, a deep sheer on one side. This way we swayed to our driving-endstation for about an hour ... and finally reached our origin of walking at about 8 o'clock in the morning. Starched with a shot of Aguardiente the real trip now could start!

The first obstacle we encountered after 20 meters was the comletely muddy path we had to walk. So we tried not to get too muddy or fall down - if we would have known that in a couple of hours nobody of us cared anymore about the fact of beeing muddy and dirty. (By the way some of you may have recognized that this text is in english. For those who not - it is. So also my not-german-speaking friends can enjoy this blog. Now back to topic...) After about one and a half hours of walking over muddy paths, stony paths, adventurous bridges an up and down we vanquished the first 200 meters of altitude and arrived at a ranch in the height of 2800 meters, rested there for an hour and first of all had breakfast. So much about the easy and comfortable part of our trip.


Knowing that we have to climb up the hill for about 800 meters more that day, we had not that much time to rest and startet to walk at about 11:30, still with lack of sleep one could feel in the bones. On the first 200 meters of walking it seemed that the rest of the trip will include a lot of mud and stones like the path before. But then came new variables into the game. First of all, the rock, which let us know that the trip will not be without danger. The path was interrupted by an aslope rock face ,with a 10 meter deep sheer at the bottom, we had to climb down unsecured. And then the party startet! The second variable: rampant muddy path with roots and lianes. The next 100 hight meters were really steep and we had to climb up muddy ground, grabbing roots and lianes, bypass detaining branches and watch out for the loose stones flying around kicked of by the man in front.

After about 2 hours of climbing and walking we only accomplished 200 more height meters. The temperature was fortunately not that high, approximately 15 degree, but the atmosphere was really humid. Many mosses and ferns. Deservingly we reached a really beautiful waterfall and could make a break and rest a little while there. My snacks there and on the way consisted of Snickers, an energy drink, and like all the rest of the trip of coffee beans coated by chocolate.


After almost an hour break and bathing the feet in the incredibly freezing cold water we continued walking. There were still 600 more height meters to overbear. It was possible to walk faster on the following paths, but nethertheless strenuous, because of the many stony obstacles. On that way the climate changed a little and became less humid. However, during the last hour of walking it was almost impossible to think, one footstep followed the other mechanically. I cannot remember how long that state lasted, but finally after about 3,5 hours we arrived at a cave with a little cascade at the altitude of 3600 meters, rested there for awhile and cooked sth. to eat. After talking for a bit of time and setting up our tents the day drawed to a close and we slept really good and long.















To be continued...

Da muss ein Nest sein!

Naja, dann will ich mal nicht so sein und etwas schreiben, über das ich mich schon seit längerem wundere. In und um die Uni sehe ich andauernd irgendwelche Gruppen von jungen Deutschen. Sie scheinen auch nicht auf der Uni zu studieren, sondern laufen eher ziellos mit ihren Digitalkameras hin und her, ganz so als ob sie ihren Rudelführer verloren hätten. Auch ist mir bisher nicht aufgefallen, dass es sich immer um die gleichen handelt. Vielleicht habe ich ja auch einfach was verpasst und es gibt seit neuestem ein Heim für herrenlose deutsche Jungtiere in Bogotá aus welchem diese ausbrechen. Solltet ihr solchen Wesen begegnen, dann haltet bitte Abstand und wendet euch an "Deutsche suchen ein zu Hause".

Was unbedingt mal gesagt werden musste

Da der Neuzugang im Blog ja leider nicht so viel bringt außer nen 4 Zeilen Post und ich allerdings auch gerade nicht die Muße habe nen ellenlangen Text über die letzten 4 Wochen zu schreiben folgt dieser großartige Eintrag. Nunja, ich hoffe dass Volker hier über die 2 Wochen berichtet in denen er da war (und mir dadurch auch die Arbeit darüber zu posten abnimmt :P). Die Tage werde ich einige Bilder nochmal neu sortieren und versuchen die Kommentarfunktion zu vervollständigen. Ansonsten würde ich mich freuen wenn ihr hier im Blog etwas mehr schreien würdet ;) Na dann, bis zum nächsten Mal.