Trekking

What a day! I woke up at my usual time and got ready to go trekking!  At 8, Roberto took me to the meeting spot and I met up with Janie.  Then we took about a 15-minute bus ride to the start of the trail we were taking.  Janie, a group of our friends, and I were in the front group.  It was very beautiful and I took 225 pictures. 

I would say that it was nice to breath the fresh mountain air, but unfortunately, there was a chain smoker in front of us and we didn’t get in front of her until a little later on.  Then we got to breath the fresh mountain air!  We ended up stopping halfway through the hike, after one of the steepest parts, and we ate something.  Then we continued on!

Stopping to eat

The second part of the hike was the best.  It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.  I don’t know if the pictures I took will do it justice.  I had my camera in my hand the whole time.  When we reached the top after a little over 2 hours, we were all tired and happy.  There were some buildings (I think it was a hotel and a restaurant) at the top of the mountain and there were tables so everybody sat down and ate some more.  Our group of friends went to this big field, sat down, listened to music, sang, and danced.  It was very fun, and I kept thinking about how grateful I was to be able to go today instead of sitting in a classroom!

The Buildings

The field

Then a little later, we all went to this fire pit where everybody was cooking sausages over the fire.  Janie’s host dad made ours for us because Janie dropped the first one she tried to do in the fire.  Then we went back to the field.  After eating and lying in the sun, Janie and I decided to walk up the hill a ways, through a bunch of trees, to see what we could find.  It ended up opening up to a small road and then a very steep side of the mountain on the other side.  It also gave us a spectacular view because we were at one of the highest points of the mountain and there was barely anybody up there, so it was very peaceful.  Janie and I stayed up there until someone told us when to be back. 

The top of the mountain

When we got back, we packed up our stuff and started walking back down. Another 2-3 hours.  I thought that it was harder to go down because it was a little bit muddy and very slippery.  I kept hearing people yelling around me because they were slipping, and I almost fell a number of times as well.  It also seemed like it took longer to get down, and my feet were starting to hurt at that point, but it was fun because we were all singing and dancing around. 

We finally reached the place to wait for the bus and sat down on the ground.  Then the buses arrived and everybody ran to them to get a seat because there are only a few, and the rest of the people had to stand up.  Since we were one of the first groups to get back from the hike, we got a seat on the bus.  We had to wait about 20 minutes for everybody else to get down and then we drove back home. 

Janie came over for an hour and a half and we just hung out.  She has terrible blisters on both of her heels because she didn’t wear the right kind of shoes.  It was kind of gross.  She took her shoes off the minute she got into the house and she didn’t even put them back on when her host dad came to pick her up.  I can’t imagine how her feet feel when my feet hurt and I was wearing good shoes!

Janie's blister

When she left, I had dinner and I am going to sleep right now because I am exhausted and it's super late!

Buonanotte!

~Devon