Author: Liz

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Things We’re Learning – Lesson 1: Keep Your Gratitude Higher Than Your Expectations

Keep Your Gratitude Higher Than Your Expectations

Keep Your Gratitude Higher Than Your Expectations

I have to give Ray Wylie Hubbard credit for that quote. It was a quote that Rick and I liked before we left, but it’s become even more meaningful to us since we’ve been traveling. It seems whenever we go somewhere with high expectations, thinking it’s going to be amazing, we are disappointed. And then I remind myself that really I am just grateful to get that experience, whatever it is. Expectations can be our worst enemy – not just in travel, but in marriage too! And gratitude is such an easy thing to get lost in the shuffle. It’s something I constantly need to focus on to keep it at the forefront. When I spend my energy being grateful, instead of getting all excited and hyping up my expectations, I always end up happier and enjoying that time.

We are very thankful for Scott Kedersha. He is awesome! We are extremely grateful for his per-marital ministry for helping us understand how gratitude and expectations play out in our lives. We’ve seen it be even more prominent as we’ve traveled.

So for Chile, we’re just thankful that we get to go… no expectations. I’ll keep repeating that in my head for the next few days  🙂

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Easter in Argentina

Dyeing Easter Eggs

As part of our cultural immersion, Pablo thought it would be good for us to visit a number of different churches in town over our stay to get an idea of the different worship styles. Our favorite was the one we visited on Easter Sunday. We walked in to a room clearly divided right down the middle. To the right, the congregation, to the left, the worship band… it was close to half and half, with the edge going to the band. But no this wasn’t a tiny church with a keyboard and guitar, we’re in South America after all. The band consisted of no less than 5 accordion players (ranging in age form 12-60), at least 5 tambourine players, 6-10 traditional guitar players, about 6 people playing a banjo-mandolin hybrid… oh, and then one little boy with a set of bongos. The service was full of music to say the least… like a super-powered mariachi band. And it turns out that the little old lady taking notes at the front table wasn’t there for “minutes” or to take prayer requests, she is where you sign up to sing. Kinda like a open mic night, you sign up there to sign/play/read the following Sunday… Rick’s request to sing Freebird was unanimously declined.

Our favorite activity of the day was teaching Guille and Nathan how to dye Easter Eggs and explaining how they symbolize Jesus’ empty tomb and the new life that comes as a result of His rising from the dead. This was a first for all of us to dye eggs from “scratch” i.e. on or own without any help from a kit. We went the professional way, we hollowed out the eggs by poking holes in the ends and blowing out the white and the yolk, as opposed to the hardboiled route. We discovered Liz is much better at this than Rick (for the record, Rick authored this paragraph. Can’t wait for the comments). The results speak for themselves… clearly, somos artistos.

Apparently no Easter trip to Argentina is complete without a visit from Ratón Pérez, he is the Argentine equivalent of the Easter Bunny Tooth Fairy. Yep the Tooth Fairy here is a rodent, a rat to be more specific. This worked out fairly well as most ofRaton Perez what Rick knows how to say in Spanish is about animals (gato this, ratón that, monos get back). None the less he was a constant source of conversation and almost like another member of the family. Oh, and I can’t forget to mention that we got to enjoy the company of Raton Perez’s friends during our stay. Rick made big claims to Guille and Pablo about his trapping prowess… convinced them to provide some of Guille’s jewelry wire for him to make snares… it’s been two weeks, we still have two empty rat snares. Rick says he just intimidated them. Which is weird because I swear I can hear them mocking him from the ceiling above our bed. This was one of Guille’s and my, many, “inside jokes.”

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Life in Argentina

Trout

We have been staying with Pablo’s family for the last month in San Martin, and it’s been an amazing experience. We have our own room in the house, but we spend most of our time in the family area with Pablo, his wife Guille, their son Nathan (10), daughter Trinidad (6mo) and Abuelo (the grandfather). It’s been a full cultural immersion, with some comical fails along the way – we’re grateful that the Carli’s have been very gracious with us!

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It has been really fun getting to know REAL life in Argentina, not just the tourist or traveler version and getting to know a town… and be known in a town. Now that we’ve been here a while we know people when we walk down the street, people stop us to talk to us, we have our favorite places to eat (Almacen de Flores and La Creperia) and the waitresses ask us about how our anniversary was and if we’ve tried their favorite hang out they recommended to us yet.We even know the names of a couple of dogs in town and they greet us, Carlita the border collie is our favorite.

P1140603Pablo and Guille have been so great about showing us the wonderful area they live in. The last two weekends we have visited beautiful lakes. First it was Lago Melquina.P1140394We packed a picnic lunch and, of course, three thermoses of hot water, the yerba and our mate – you can never go without mate! The mate starts in the car on the way to your destination, who ever rides shotgun has to be the Cebador (person who serves mate for everyone)… and basically it’s doesn’t stop until, well, ever. We got to be the heroes because we had our camping stove and pot and could heat more water up, right there where we picnicked.

P1140381We stopped at the lake first to take in the views, then walked a little ways up a gorgeous river. We lounged all day, taking turns with the fly fishing rod. Rick caught two little trout that day. My accomplishment for the day was saving Trini (the baby) from a gigantic pig that wondered over from the farm next to us. We played in the water, caught crawfish and swapped stories in a friendly soup of Spanish and English.

TroutThe next day we went to Playa Bonita at Lake Lolog, the best beach around! It’s sandy and stays shallow for at least 200 yards out, perfect for playing in. We finally discovered something we could tell Argentines that proved the value of existence for futbol Americano (football, vs. futbol which is soccer) to them… You have futbol Americano, so you have something you can play in the water at the beach. It’s really hard to play futbol in even a few inches of water, and impossible in a foot or so.

P1140365P1140427We’ve visited almost all of the 7 lakes in the region. We’ve come across some very interesting camping recommendations, which Rick tested out.

Gato testMy big adventure was attempting to feed jello to a 6 month old baby who absolutely did not want to eat, while riding in a car over a rocky 4×4 gravel road. The cup of jello was empty by the end of it… but I’m not sure any of it actually got eaten.

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The Carli’s have treated us to delicious asado, and taught us how to cook a proper asado. Rick is convinced we need an asado pit in our backyard someday.

P1140588Since we were going to be in the same place for more than 24 hours, Rick thought it would be a good opportunity to get some real Spanish lessons in. So we got an “intensive” Spanish tutor for 2 hours a day for a week. It kinda backfired on him though as I learned much quicker than he did (taking advanced Spanish all through high school and paying attention probably helps). This resulted in Guille and I telling each other jokes in Spanish constantly… occasionally at Rick and Pablo’s expense. They took it in good stride though. (This paragraph was written by Rick in my “voice”, he needs practice understanding 1st person, 3rd person, tenses, etc.).

[accordion clicktoclose=true]

[accordion-item title=”Click here to view a translation of this paragraph by Rick”]Nosotros vivamos allí para vente–cuatro horas. Yo sabo es bueno oportunidad para clases Español verdad. Entonces, nosotros compramos un tutor para dos horas un dia de semana. Es abajo enfuego en mi cabeza. Ella empezar mas major, Ella recuerdo esquela atras. Ella y Guille es los chistosas buenas… TODO EL DIA. Yo es bueno coreado. Cuidado para monos bravos; muy peligros.
(feel free to compare that to Google Translate).[/accordion-item]

[/accordion]

Maybe it’s the feeling of getting to know somewhere, or having a little taste of family and friends, or maybe it’s just hitting the six month mark, but we have both been homesick the last couple of weeks, despite being in such a beautiful place.

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We Got a Gig!

We’ve gone a little radio silent here lately. And I can’t blame a lack of internet this time, we’ve just been busy working.

As of mid-March, for the first time in the last six months, we actually knew where we were we going to be FOR THE NEXT TWO MONTHS!! I realize that probably doesn’t sound as shocking to you, but for us it’s insane! The first stop has been San Martin, doing volunteer work with a bible school…

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and the second stop will be Tumunan Lodge in Chile. We will be working there in exchange for room and board! It’s our first Workaway job. It’s located in the Andes, has fly fishing, horseback riding and it’s own little vineyard. We aren’t sure what all we’ll be doing, but it could be anything from general lodge cleaning, cooking, garden tending, to helping in the vineyard, to helping guide guests on fishing trips. The owner was also excited that we have marketing and graphic design backgrounds, so probably a little of that thrown in too. They have a couple horses on property which they say I can ride in my free time! Oh, and did I mention they do wine tours of the Colchagua Valley? We start on April 15, so more to come. Here’s the website if you want to check it out: http://www.tumunanlodge.com/

Anyway, since mid-March we have been here in San Martin de Los Andes, Argentina. We are volunteering with a Christian ministry here started by a friend of Rick’s, Pablo. Rick met Pablo about ten years ago; Pablo was the translator for a 10 week mission trip Rick went on to La Plata, outside of Buenos Aires.

P1140414 Pablo saw a huge need in this area of Argentina for people to be able to understand and apply the bible to their lives in a transformational way. Traditionally here the only way people hear the bible is through a sermon on Sunday at church. This area, and Patagonia as a whole, is very cut off from the outside world – mostly due to the government. Importing anything is crazy expensive, sending any kind of package here means you have to pay 50% of its value in import fees (we speak from experience on that – long story!), and outside information or goods are not taken kindly to. So there is just not any resource for people to know how to read the bible, or how it can transform their life.

P1140546 So Pablo started a bible school here, and we learned earlier this year that it has been struggling to get attendance and really take off. Pablo asked if we were in Argentina if we would like to come help – sort of a consulting job, see what the situation is, what improvements might help, give some marketing advice and redesign the website and materials. So that’s what we’ve been working on for the last few weeks. Rick has designed an incredible website that will really draw people in and engage them! We were able to share with Pablo a lot of the successes we’ve seen with equipping classes at Watermark.

And as we studied the situation, we came to the conclusion that Pablo needed a new target audience, and we got leadership to agree on that!! (ok, marketing nerdiness – but that’s HUGE!). The leadership has even asked that we rethink all of the courses for the year – all new topics – and I’m taking the lead on that! It’s very exciting. So we have developed a whole new marketing strategy, course content, radio ads, Facebook content and strategy, rebranded everything, including the website, logo, flyers, everything!

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Pablo and his family have been incredible and generous, they invited us to share their home while we are here. We have laughed and learned so much getting to spend this time with them… so much so that it deserves it’s own post….

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8 Favorite Moments of Bolson & Bariloche

  1. Teaching Cards Against Humanity to new Argentine friends in the middle of nowhere
    We were in the middle of a four-day trek outside of Bariloche and one of the Refugios had Cards Against Humanity. A group of local Argentines asked if we knew how to play and would teach them, so of course we obliged. The funniest part was having to define so many of the cards, things I never really wanted to have to explain to anyone. But we all laughed for hours!P1140168
  2. Attempting to trout fish in Cajon de Azul
    We didn’t catch anything, but it was such a beautiful place. It was a good thing that Refugio Cajon de Azul had a lamb dinner for us! It was the most beautiful refugio we went to, I could have stayed there for three or four days.Cajon de Azul Collage
  3. Surviving the Haupi Nahuel Traverse
    Our most technical and mentally exhausting hike to date. It involved rock climbing 50m up a narrow rock shoot on the side of a mountain with a 1,000ft drop below us (probably shoulda had a harness and rope) and 4 hours of ridgeline rock scrambling, followed by 3 more hours of tough hiking.P1140260 P1140296
  4. Experiencing a real asado
    We stayed in a small guesthouse owned by a sweet family who immediately took us in. After a lot of trekking, and then camping our first night we went to “the locals’ butcher” picked up half of a lamb and learned how you make the perfect asado on your parilla.Asado Collage
  5. The hippie market of El Bolson
    We just hung out there for hours. Great people watching, good artenseal beer, organic produce. I also scored some feather earrings. El Bolson is Boulder, CO’s long lost twin sister.Bolson Collaga
  6. Sunrise at Refugio Frey
    The granite peaks in the background turned bright pink and orange and the lake reflected it beautifully.P1140172
  7. Stopping to pick wild blackberries
    In the middle of our search for a hostel in El Bolson we came across a huge patch of wild blackberries and just stopped for 30 minutes to pick them and eat all we could. They were so sweet, I think I ate a couple of pints there on the side of the road.
  8. Staying in The Penthouse with a view over Bariloche
    Best view from a hostel room we’ve ever hadPenthouse

 

 

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6 Things I’ve Learned about My Husband in 6 Months Traveling Around the World

Rick Challenging himself

Mountains to climb

1) I Can Trust Him

That is absolutely NOT to say that I didn’t trust him before! I definitely did. Maybe it’s just that given more opportunities to put more trust in someone, you build even more trust? I don’t know. But my trust in Rick’s abilities and intentions has grown ten fold on this trip. Rick can figure out and take care of anything thrown at him. And he is always looking for how to put me first. He’s incredibly diligent and dedicated to making sure we’re all taken care of – from doing all of the visa research and logistics, to the biggest challenge, managing our trip budget! Which brings me to my second thing….

 

2) The Man Can Rock a Budget

If you knew us before the trip, and especially before we were married, you may be laughing or in shock right now. But it’s true! The first week of the trip in Nepal, Rick told me I had to stop worrying about the budget and our daily tracking, it was taking too much of my energy and enjoyment away, he was going to be in charge of it from then on out. I was reluctant (me being the saver, and him the spender). But it has turned out to be the best thing he could have done. He is meticulous! Every dollar (or rupee, baht, dong, euro) is tracked, tallied, averaged, analyzed. He stops us when we’re over spending. He manages to balance out the spending when we have a big unexpected expense (hello, $80 cab ride to Krabi!!). He reworks the big budget to compensate for us going rouge and going to four countries we never planned to, two of which were more expensive countries than where we’d plan to be. And six months in, we are EXACTLY on budget. I’ve managed $100 Million+ marketing budgets, and I have to say, this travel budget is just as complicated, if not more so! (“hmm what category do we put bribes in? and do we spread that over the month long budget for this country?”)

Rick with a Hat3) He Doesn’t Know All of the Words to Any Song… Or Joke

But he’ll repeat the few he does know OVER and OVER. I think he hopes that the other words will hear their cohorts and magically fall out of the sky. It doesn’t ever happen and it kinda drives me nuts. But after six months of 24/7 together, it’s become oddly endearing.

Rick Climbing mountains4) He Loves to Challenge Himself

…just for the sake of taking on the challenge. If there is something to be climbed up and balanced on, he’ll find it. Which is not something that comes naturally to me… I require a reward, something to make it worthwhile to take on the challenge. I’ll climb the mountain if there’s going to be a really awesome view from there, or it’s a pretty trail. I’m constantly asking “why? Is it worth it?”, infamously asking “is the juice worth the squeeze?”. Rick climbs the mountain because it’s going to be a hard mountain to climb, even if it’s not pretty or interesting or has a good view. This is true for just about everything we do. I love that he loves to take on big challenges… maybe that’s why he married me?

Rick Challenging himself5) He is a Magnet for the Most Diverse Set of People

As we’ve traveled I’ve gotten to watch all kinds of people become enamored with my husband, and it has been so cool! He doesn’t just get along with everyone, but seems to draw them in. And they immediately become Rick Fans, just like me.

Rick and the Guanaco6) He makes up the best goofy voices and characters

…to get me out of a bad mood, up a tough mountain or through a cold night of sleeping in a tent or 30+ hour bus ride. There’s Kurt the Turtle, the ferret collector from Craigslist, the guanaco (pictured above)… the list goes on. It probably sounds weird, but it makes me so happy and brightens my mood even when we’re in the crappiest of moments. And the fact that he’s in the middle of the storm with me and takes the energy and creativity to come up with something to make me smile means even more.

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Obituary: Merrell “Boots” Agostin

Merrell Boots

In honor of my Merrell hiking boots that I finally had to bid farewell after many years. They gave out during our Torres del Paine hike, I mean absolutely gave out! When I would step in water, air bubbles would gurgle out from around the entire sole, and then they would squirt out water for the next half mile. It was really sad, but I had to say goodbye to the boots that took me many, many miles! I desperately need to find another pair of Merrells!!

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Obituary: Merrell “Boots” Agostin
September 16, 2008 – February 27, 2015

Merrell “Boots” will be greatly missed, remembered as a sturdy sole and always one to put their best foot forward. “Boots” came to us in 2008 in Dallas, Texas. Their first trek happened just weeks after our introduction, it was to Blood Mountain on the Appalachian Trail in Georgia.
In their younger years, there were unforgettable trips to hike in Tierra Chamua, Mexico and summit Wheeler Peak, and many many more. As Merrell matured and realized their full potential, they achieved bigger challenges like the infamous Maroon Bells trip, an ascent of Black Tusk, Panorama Ridge and Wedgemont Lake in Garibaldi Park, and Canyonlands in Moab. Then “Boots” went international, trekking the Himalaya’s Annapurna Circuit in Nepal (18,100 ft), Southeast Asia, and summiting Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania (19,3600 ft).
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Merrell “Boots” had dreamed big dreams of South American treks almost their whole life. Fatefully, that dream would be the last for Merrell “Boots”. Their life ended on an epic 8 days trek around Torres del Paine in Chile; they died of natural causes, from old age.
Merrell “Boots” will be remembered as always supportive, well grounded and willing to get down and dirty with you.  For their owner, they were the one thing on any trip she knew she could count on and inspired the confidence to take on otherwise intimidating peaks.
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They are survived by their owner Liz Agostin and her husband, Rick; siblings Saucony running shoes and Chaco sandals, and dozens of high-heeled cousins.
A private memorial service was held at Erratic Rock in Puerto Natales, Chile. In lieu of flowers, please send donations for new hiking boots to Liz Agostin via www.theagostins.com.
Your beautiful soles will always be in our hearts!
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Another Bucket List Item: Riding in Patagonia, Gaucho-style

Horseback Riding Pingo Salveje Cabalgata Patagonia Chile

I’ve determined that there is a serious need for a review website for experience horseback riders looking for good places to ride – it is so hard to find! But fortunately we found a great place for riding in Patagonia.

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We just got back from a two day riding trip at Pingo Salvaje Estancia and it was amazing. We arrived at the estancia (that’s a ranch) to meet our guide, Cristian, who we quickly recognized from Base Camp just two nights prior. We met him through Kit, another friend from the hostel, and they play in a band together. Cristian has a great voice and plays guitar so well, beautiful original music.

We told the estancia when we booked that we are experienced riders and only wanted to go if it was more than a “nose to tail” ride. They said they could do that…. But when we arrived we realized we were with a group of inexperienced and first time riders. I was really concerned that this ride was going to be a disaster!

Pablo, the head guide, told us that we would be “evaluated” the first day of our ride to see how skilled we were… which is fairly standard practice. But I was ready to get to the real riding.

P1130444We met our horses and things started to look up for us when Pablo said he would give one of us his horse – her name was Maria, but he told us that every calls her Crazy Maria. A few of her quirks include:

  • the wind makes her crazy, she hates it (note that we are in Patagonia, a place known for constant, strong winds)
  • she doesn’t like any other horses and bites and kicks them
  • she goes from walk straight to gallop
  • her gallop is like an exaggerated bunny hop of sorts

I loved her immediately!

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And Rick got to ride her mom, Pinta. She was very responsive and Rick really like her. He says she may be his favorite horse he’s ever ridden.

P1130247We started off toward the mountains and rode through some beautiful valleys, passes and up towards the condor lookout and cliffs. We were fortunate to see over a dozen condors – the largest flying bird in the world, with a wingspan of over 10 feet.

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We got a beautiful view of Laguna Sofia, where we had ridden through the laguna earlier.

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Then we got to do a little riding lesson for the newbies. Rick says I got my guide on. I just couldn’t help myself, and they actually did really well. We taught them in a circular clearing to canter. Then after, Cristian told Rick and I we could go ahead of the group so we got to have a little race across some of the flat area, of course, Rick “Saco-de-papas” Agostin won – he’s got the speed, I’ve got the style.

P1130312We got to ride for about 6 hours total, and returned to the estancia to set up our camp. We thought we were going to be eating pasta and lentils for dinner, but we hung out chatting with Pablo and the team for a while and were offered a bottle of Carmenere and some left over Cordero Asado, fire roasted lamb.Upgrade! So we heated it over our bbq pit at the campsite and drank wine from the bottle, it was delicious. P1130299We went to bed early, excited for our big day the next day – we had proven ourselves as good riders and Cristian said he had some big ideas for us tomorrow!

We woke up to almost completely clear blue skies, a rarity in Patagonia, it was the best weather day of our trip. Upon arriving at the barn, Cristian told us we were going on an exploratory ride today, a route that he hadn’t been to before. Claudio, one of the gauchos would go with us to show us the way, it would be a long ride. So long in fact that Rick had to switch to a younger horse that could make the ride, so he got Estampa for the day. I got to stick with Crazy Maria.

P1130321Immediately we took off at a strong canter. It was like a dream, completely unreal, we were galloping along the ridge with incredible vistas of the lakes and mountains.

We crossed through a couple of other estancias and arrived at a bluff that overlook a panorama with both mountain ranges and multiple lakes. We stopped to rest the horses and have some yerba mate.

P1130349We all sat around and just chatted and sipped our mate, the moment could have been out of a movie I can’t picture anything more perfect.

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We continued on through an ancient Lenga Tree forest. We had to go around the mountain to get to the entrance to the valley we were going to. We started up toward the valley and got incredible views of the entire Torres del Paine park. We could see the southern most torre, the Valle de Frances and John Gardner Pass.

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We continued into the valley and that’s when things got a bit scary. We were cantering through the valley and I looked back to see Rick, and when I turned around all I saw was Cristian’s horse upside down, legs flailing in the air… she just hung there, somehow perfectly balanced stuck on her back… then I realized Cristian was UNDER her!! All I could see was a leg sticking out from under the horse’s side. I had no idea what to do, I just started to ride towards them. Pluma, Cristian’s horse, stayed balanced on top of him for what felt like 5 minutes, but was probably 45-60 seconds. She finally got on her side and was struggling to get up, I watched in slow motion and the hooves landed on either side of Cristian’s head, one hoof kicked him in the stomach, another in the knee. Pluma ran off spooked, but Cristian laid on the ground not moving. I honestly thought he was dead or unconscious. People just don’t get up from that kind of thing.

When I got to him, he was moving… a little. Quite shaken with some bruised ribs and a messed up leg, he was actually able to stand up. It was a miracle. I went to retrieve Pluma, who was also shaken up, but let Maria and I get close enough to grab her. By some miracle Cristian was able to get up and walk around, and insisted he was good enough to continue riding.

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We continued on through the valley headed for the puesta (a rustic, very isolated cowboy camp) where we would have lunch, and celebrate Cristian’s amazing survival skills!

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It was a good time for a break, we let the horses graze and we feasted on chorizo, homemade bread, queso fresco and yerba mate. This was special mate through… it came from a calf container!

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The views continued all of the way back. The afternoon light made the lakes and mountains a completely different color. We got to gallop back across the beautiful landscape.

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We arrived back at the estancia and realized that we had been riding for 10 hours! It had been amazing, some of the best horseback riding we had done.

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Thank you Pingo Salavage and Cristian! You are the best!!

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Zanzibar

Cow on Nungwi Beach, Zanzibar

First off, it’s just fun to say. Zzzzanz-i-baaarrr! 

After hiking for a week, the beach sounded like a lovely option, so we were off to Zanzibar, plus we wanted to practice our newly certified scuba skills.

Flying in we got a preview of the beautiful beaches.

Flying into ZanzibarBefore we could get to the beach we got stuck in a Zanzibar traffic jam for a few minutes. It gave a whole new meaning to “This is bull!!”

But we had no idea just how beautiful they would be. Zanzibar by far has the best beaches we have seen on this trip!

Naguwi Beach, Zanzibar We indulged in fresh, delicious seafood dinners right on the beach almost every night.

Nungwi Beach, Zanzibar

Nungwi Beach, ZanzibarAnd hung out with the herd of cows that hung out on the beach everyday.

Cow on Nungwi Beach, ZanzibarOur scuba diving was fun, but we were a little sad that we missed the whale sharks.

All in all, the beaches were just incredible. We couldn’t get over it!! Crystal clear water, powdery, ridiculously fine white sand. It was pretty awesome.

Nungwi Beach, Zanzibar Nungwi Beach, Zanzibar Minus the three days that our bungalows didn’t have water… that set us up for our 40+ hours of straight travel, including the 19.5 hour flight from Dubai to Buenos Aires. I really like to shower before that long of a flight, but not so much this time, Just a bucket bath.

Nungwi Beach, Zanzibar

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Kilimanjaro Journal: Day 5 – Summit Day!

Kilimanjaro Summit Day Uhuru Peak

Day 5 (well kinda, starting at midnight on Day 4) — Jan 28, 2015 

I didn’t sleep too much before our midnight wake up call, but I still felt wide awake to begin our summit. Our guides told us that you have to start around midnight and climb the 4,000+ feet in the dark, so you make it to the summit right at sunrise… because as soon as the sun comes up the wind starts up. The wind is extremely strong, basically it’s blowing from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic with nothing to slow it town at that elevation on the whole continent. We had also heard that the clouds start to move in soon after the sun is up, and based on what we’d seen so far with the weather, we had no doubt.

Kilimanjaro Summit Day

We had been warned that it would be cold and windy and COLD! We probably didn’t have the best attire to summit Kili, let’s review. I had:

  • a very cute trenchcoat rain jacket from REI (it’s from REI, yes, but let’s just say it’s not exactly “technical alpine wear”)
  • a nano-weight down jacket that we’ve been carrying everywhere, it’s lightweight… it’s the lightest weight down jacket they make
  • nano-weight down vest (same deal)
  • lightweight hiking pants
  • pair of leggings
  • charming charlie’s cheap-o cotton scarfy thing
  • 2 tank tops
  • 1 t-shirt
  • 1 thin long sleeve t-shirt
  • Buff to be used as a hat like thing
  • My ole reliable hiking boots
  • A pair of borrowed gloves from a porter

And I wore every single piece of clothing I could…. Kinda felt like the Pillsbury Doughboy.

Rick had:

  • Hiking shorts
  • Lightweight hiking pants
  • Ski pants (yep, he wore all three!)
  • 2 Icebreaker t-shirts
  • 1 long sleeve Icebreaker t-shirt
  • Marmot nano-weight, very well loved down jacket
  • rain jacket
  • Merrell trail running shoes
  • Buff to be used as a hat like thing
  • A pair of borrowed gloves from a porter

Basically, we proceeded to put on EVERYTHING we had with us and hoped for the best!

Turns out that almost all of the other groups left at midnight. But thanks to our guide’s amazing confidence in our speed hiking abilities, or more likely his lack of desire to get up any earlier, we left at 1:15 AM. He assured us that we would have plenty of time to make the summit by sunrise… he failed to mention that was conditional on us basically doing a light jog up the 4,000+ feet to the summit. Okay, maybe it wasn’t a jog, but it felt like a powerwalking death march, as we passed group after group after group. More on that later…

We started up by the light of our headlamps. We could see other trekkers far ahead of us on the mountain, like a small trail of ants shown only by their headlamp light. Marching up the mountain in the dark only being able to see the back of the person in front of you and about a 4 foot circle of rock illuminated by head lamp gives you a lot of time to think… or sing. I sang the only song I’ve found that I know all the words too, Roger Creager’s, Everclear. Thanks, college. Thanks, Anne Jenkins Roberts. Rick was thinking “Strong Like Lion. Slow Like Turtle. Gassy Like Antelope.” Did I mention it was freezing cold and dark? Turns out we don’t take many pictures when it’s freezing cold and dark.

Luckily the sun does come up eventually to and way before you see the sun you can start making up the ridge line and then rocks around you and then finally the glacier and crater. We’re almost to the summit.

Kilimanjaro Summit Day

Kilimanjaro Summit Day

 

There is another peak “Stella” of sorts that is on one side of the crater that stopped at briefly before climbing the last hundred meters past the glacier around the edge of the crater on the way to Uhuru Peak, the summit of Kilimanjaro, the highest point on the continent of Africa and the highest freestanding mountain in the world!
19,341 feet above sea level (5985 meter).Kilimanjaro Summit Day

Kilimanjaro Summit Day

 

Kilimanjaro Summit Day Uhuru Peak

 

We made it! We tried to keep up the tradition of “Airplane” on the summit, unfortunately we didn’t get a great photo of it. It just looks like Rick is kicking me in the stomach WWE style.Kilimanjaro Summit Day Uhuru Peak Then it was Down. Down. Down.