Climb Every Mountain Part 2

Lessons learned in Mexico... 1) When in a foreign land, and you are invited to go "hiking", get as much information as possible...

So, the irony of using the title for the last entry, Climb Every Mountain, is that on Sunday... I climbed an actual mountain! Did I set out to do so? NO. Did I climb a mountain? YES! So it's a very long story that I will try to make shorter... We, the students, were invited by the director of the school to join him on a "hike" to a mountain, where were could cook food when we got to the top (those were his words... in English). I guess I was "stupido" by not asking more questions, which I'm sure I did, but cannot prove at this point. We met him in a different neighborhood, near the baseball stadium. I thought the van was picking us up, but it turned out we were taking 2 buses to a village called Teotihuacan, which is famous for it's weavers (I had no idea that we were headed there... due to lack of information). Oh, I forgot to mention that Enrique didn't show up to meet us and that he sent Consuelo, another school staff member to meet us. We were informed that at his house, where he and his family rent rooms, a new student had shown up a day early and the room for him was not BUILT yet... yes that's true, they still needed to finish building it. Excellent! Anyway, I digress... So we ended up at some guy named Luis' house in this village. He was a friend of Enrique. His family was very hospitable, and friendly. Their house not at all modern, made of bricks and cement only. The family are weavers and they had a weaving room which they were gracious to show us.

Anyhow... were were there till nearly noon, when Enrique showed up. I forgot to mention that he told us to "bring meat" with us for cooking, but when we looked at him with mass confusion, he offered to bring it for us and we could pay him back ("bring meat"? where the hell am I supposed to get meat at 8:30 a.m.???) And meat?? On a mountain??? I didn't get it. So finally around noon-ish we started walking toward the mountain. I saw a huge one in a the distance but thought for sure that it couldn't be "hiked". Oh was I wrong... that mountain... THIS mountain... we hiked...TO THE VERY TOP!!!!

Well, all I can say is that it was hellacious!!!!! It was hot, in the direct sun, uphill for nearly 3 hours. Of course all the youngins' were skipping up the "hill". But me? I was pretty much always taking up the rear, just praying that they wouldn't get to far ahead of me so that I would lose the way. There were plenty of times when I had to stop to rest and no one was near me... eventually someone would call for me and I called back, gasping for air (ok perhaps I'm being overly dramatic, but still...). A few times Christina and Jeremy stayed back with me, even though they were part of the "skippers". It was clearly out of pity that they watched out for me. Plus, there were hawks, or perhaps vultures that were flying around and I for sure would have been a great meal for one of them. One time Enrique was nice enough (as our guide, hello???) to stay back with me and he really tried to encourage me not to give up. Let me say, that there was hardly a moment that I wasn't constructing a plan to try to get down the mountain back by myself and get a ride back to Oaxaca. But it just wasn't possible to do without upsetting the whole trip. So... I persevered... Si yo puedo!!!! (yes I can) in the words of my spiritual guide, Cesar Chavez! And... eventually I made it... to the top! My heart had been racing so high that I was nauseous and the exact opposite of "hungry", but they all insisted on building a fire and cooking some meat to eat with avocados, onions on a huge tortilla. I ate it... despite that it was beef, cooked on the ground, directly on top of coal. No problema. (-------> turn head to the left to view pic)

So, I thought that going up was hard????!!!!! Down was even worse! The most dangerous and precarious situation I have ever been in. Imagine... straight down, no trail, bushwacking with out hands (no machete), sliding down on our rears, constant sticking of cactus in my legs and arms (did I mention I was wearing shorts and my open sided Keen sandals?), branches of plants we clung to that contained thorns, oh and the fun continued. Early on in our descent, one of the teachers, Veronica, slipped and sprained her ankle, and had to use 2 sticks for support to get down. She was a trooper!!! We walked/slid/fell down for more than an hour before we finally found a trail (albeit a questionable one). We made it down all in mostly one piece, and I finally got a look at my arms and legs, covered with scratches, mosquito bites, thorn punctures and sunburn (I DID use sunblock, but I sweat it off 1o times over and no time to stop and reapply). It's a miracle we were all alive (again with the drama), and if I hadn't been so exhausted and dying to use the restroom, I would have celebrated more. The buses had all stopped running to the village, so we had to take a taxi back to Oaxaca at 7:30 pm (remember we started on this journey at 9am). There was only ONE taxi available and he had to come back because the taxi only fit 5 people and there were 10 of the students, so we had to divide up. I decided to play the "old age" card, being the oldest adult there, and I used that to guarantee my placement in the first taxi. The ride was about 45 mins. which brought us back to torrential rain (no umbrella or jacket of course... I thought I would only be gone a few hours). I ultimately made it back to Perla's place at 9pm, and she was nice enough to see how miserable I was so she made me some dinner and brewed a special tea for me after my shower.

Lessons learned???? I can do more than I think I can.... Being 40 is not a reason to give up, but rather a reason to continue... Always carry an umbrella during the rainy season regardless of how long you think you might be out... When in Rome, go hiking with the Romans! And lastly... when hiking in the mountains of Mexico, on the verge of tears and complete exhaustion, composing a blog in your mind is a good way to pass the time.
Thanks for reading!!!