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...