Adventuras de "Rica" y "Flaca"--Chirripo
I've finally managed to get some time to post pictures from my last 3 weeks in Costa Rica, which I spent traveling with Kelly. We started off with a trip up Chirripo, the highest peak in Costa Rica, second highest in all of Central America. Its a 14.5 km hike starting at 1500 m to base camp, which is about 3400 m. Quite a change from my tropical lowlands. It was an AMAZING hike up. We watched the vegetation change as we got higher and higher, starting in secondary chunks of forest boardered by abandonded fields and pastures, then made it into higher elevation forest with all sorts of moss and lichens. Up about 3000 meters, we hit an area called "the burns," where we saw charred skeletons of trees poking through the mist. It had already been raining for a good 3 hours by the time we got here, and there was almost no tree cover. And lightning was threatening too close for comfort. An exciting hike. The wildflowers were beatuiful. We got lucky, September through November are the months with the best flowers (and most rain). We managed to hike up the last week in September (incidentally, also the last week before the park was closed because of all the rain). Base camp was up at the tree line, it was almost a shock to have such visibility after so many months at La Selva, where you can forget seeing the horizon. We could see both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts in the mornings, when the sky was clear.
Base camp was pretty cushy, we got BEDS! By the time we reached the cabins, we had been hiking in the cold rain and were very thankful for a dry place. It gets COLD up at 1100 feet, even in Costa Rica. Kelly ran laps up and down the hallway once we got in, to warm back up.
Since we were going so late in the season (all the locals looked at me as if I lost my mind when I had told them of my plan to hike late September) we had the park almost entirely to ourselves. It was awesome. The first day we were there, there were 2 girls from Switzerland, but other than that it was just Kelly, the forest guards and me. We had three nights on the mountain. We hiked up Chirripo, 3820 m, the first day and around some of the glacial lakes and savanas. The weather in the morning was beautiful, it didnt cloud up until after 11 or noon. We usually made it back to basecamp by the time the rain started up. The next day, we hiked to Los Crestones, a bunch of craggly rocks that looked like they would have been fun to climb (if i werent a pansy).
Our last morning, we got up at 3 am so we could hike to Ventesqueros for dawn. It was still dark, with a bright almost full moon when we hit the trail. We made it almost to the top when the sun started to come up. The sun lit up the top of the fog that was spilling into the valleys and wrapping around the bottoms of all the nearby peaks. I have never seen such a beautiful sunrise (and I've seen sunrise over the north-eastern coast in OZ, lighting up Mt. Cook in NZ, over a volcano in Maui, coming over the islands of San Juan, warming up Arizona and California deserts, not to mention my countless backpacking tips in the sierras). It was breathtaking. We made it up to the top of Ventesqueros (3812 m) to watch the sun slowly lighting up the lowlands of the pacific. After making it back to basecamp, we hiked back down to the town outside the park, San Gerardo de Rivas. Same as the, only we didnt start til late morning, and got POURED on the last few km. The trail turned to mud and we slid/scambled along with our heavy packs.
That night we collapsed, knowing the next morning we would be feeling that hike down. Indeed, we did.
Base camp was pretty cushy, we got BEDS! By the time we reached the cabins, we had been hiking in the cold rain and were very thankful for a dry place. It gets COLD up at 1100 feet, even in Costa Rica. Kelly ran laps up and down the hallway once we got in, to warm back up.
Since we were going so late in the season (all the locals looked at me as if I lost my mind when I had told them of my plan to hike late September) we had the park almost entirely to ourselves. It was awesome. The first day we were there, there were 2 girls from Switzerland, but other than that it was just Kelly, the forest guards and me. We had three nights on the mountain. We hiked up Chirripo, 3820 m, the first day and around some of the glacial lakes and savanas. The weather in the morning was beautiful, it didnt cloud up until after 11 or noon. We usually made it back to basecamp by the time the rain started up. The next day, we hiked to Los Crestones, a bunch of craggly rocks that looked like they would have been fun to climb (if i werent a pansy).
Our last morning, we got up at 3 am so we could hike to Ventesqueros for dawn. It was still dark, with a bright almost full moon when we hit the trail. We made it almost to the top when the sun started to come up. The sun lit up the top of the fog that was spilling into the valleys and wrapping around the bottoms of all the nearby peaks. I have never seen such a beautiful sunrise (and I've seen sunrise over the north-eastern coast in OZ, lighting up Mt. Cook in NZ, over a volcano in Maui, coming over the islands of San Juan, warming up Arizona and California deserts, not to mention my countless backpacking tips in the sierras). It was breathtaking. We made it up to the top of Ventesqueros (3812 m) to watch the sun slowly lighting up the lowlands of the pacific. After making it back to basecamp, we hiked back down to the town outside the park, San Gerardo de Rivas. Same as the, only we didnt start til late morning, and got POURED on the last few km. The trail turned to mud and we slid/scambled along with our heavy packs.
That night we collapsed, knowing the next morning we would be feeling that hike down. Indeed, we did.
posted by erin at 9:12 PM
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