If you've been to the property, or seen the many pictures I post of it, you've seen the mountain with the antennas on top that you see looking out from the property. In Colin's second week here all the way back in the beginning of September, he decided that he wanted to hike said mountain, and this weekend we finally crossed that goal off the DR bucket list... and it was CRAZY. We both came back fine overall, but much more injured than before we left.
After a week of serious speculation and planning what to bring with us in our backpacks, Friday night was upon us and we made sure we packed food (beef jerky and trail mix), what we thought was enough water (it wasn't), our hammocks, basic medical supplies, and of course a machete each for all of the bushwhacking we were sure we'd have to do (turned out to be lots). Originally the plan was to set out from the property, hike all the way to the top, spend the night at the top, then hike back the next day, but after talking with some Dominican friends and looking at a map, we realized that would take us like four days; time we did not have. So we altered the plans and Franci dropped us off in a village called Guananico at 7 o'clock Saturday morning, about a mile from the base of the mountain. The first mile was through the village on a paved road, with the base of the mountain at the end of the road when it hit a river. We crossed the river and took the first path we found, and when we the first person we came across told us that we were on the correct path to the top of the mountain, we were feeling pretty good. After fifteen minutes on walking, it became evident that we were definitely going the wrong way, so we back tracked for about five minutes when Colin stopped and said that if we climbed up this 30 foot cliff, he thinks we would be on the correct path. Not only did that sound quite fun, but I have an absolutely terrible sense of direction and I was following Colin, so up the cliff we went. When we made it to the top we were in a pasture, and it was clear that Colin was correct and that we were exactly where we wanted to be. From this moment on, the rest of the five hour hike was steeply uphill, therefore I was sweating and out of breath for the next five hours.
The next part of the hike was relatively straight forward, with the path clearly defined. The fact that the path was so clearly defined surprised me, and I was wondering why this was so, but my question was answered shortly when we came to a fenced in area with forty or fifty cows, and three men tending to them. I don't know why, but I didn't expect that people would keep their cows up in the hills, but I was happy about it because they are the ones making the path clear. We stopped and talked to the men, Pepe, Pepe's brother whose name we never learned, and Cucho. When we told them that we were walking from Guananico to the antennas at the top of the mountain, they laughed at us like we were crazy (this became a theme throughout the day). They were very kind to us letting us pass through their land, and Pepe even took Colin's number because he wanted to call us later to ensure we made it to the top safely. After following the path past Pepe's land for another half hour, we came to a much more defined road, which was good and bad. Good because it was very clear which way to go, bad because while it was definitely uphill to this point, the incline got severely more steep. From here on out, the going was very slow. The only good part about the very steep incline was that every five minutes of walking, the view behind us got like 100 times more epic. Finally the very steep part gave way, and it was back to just normal uphill, and we were able to get back to appreciating what was around us instead of gasping for air and wiping the sweat out of our eyes.
One of my favorite parts of the hike was all of the nature we could eat along the way. Never before in my life had I seen a cocoa tree, but they lined the path, and when we came to a forest full of them, we decided it would be ok to take just one of the pods and eat some. The inside was full of white, slimy beans, and they were DELICIOUS! They didn't taste anything remotely like chocolate (you have to do lots to turn the beans into chocolate), but I liked them much more than I though I would. Along the way we also got to eat guandules (a type of bean) off the tree, wild raspberry type berries (we asked some Dominicans if they were edible before partaking), and we found an orange tree and ate like 10 of them between the two of us they were so delicious and juicy. We also saw lots of coffee trees, which I think is pretty cool and worth mentioning even though we didn't eat any of the coffee beans.
Eventually we came to another Y in the road, and to the right was a couple of houses with people sitting out in front of them, so we decided to ask them the way. They turned out to be Haitian people, and they spoke spanish, which was good for us cause neither of us speak one word of creole, but their Spanish was still very difficult to understand, so all we really got was to go left at the Y in the road, which was better than nothing. So we took the left, and then staying on the correct path was difficult for a little while. Luckily the trees weren't too dense here, so Colin was able to look up and either see the antenna where we were headed or the next peak over, then decide which way to go from there. We came to one fork where the left was downhill into a valley, and the right was uphill along the ridge. We couldn't decide which way to go, so we took a little break before finally deciding to go up to the right. It was super steep and difficult to hike up, and when we finally came to a clearing 15 minutes later, we took a break to decide if we should continue this way. After some deliberation, we came to the conclusion that both ways would get us there eventually, so we just flipped a coin; heads continuing along our current path, and tails doubling back. It came up tails, which in hind-sight was very lucky because that ended up being the faster way to get there.
We got lost one more time for a few minutes, but nothing worth describing in detail. As we felt like we were getting closer to our final goal, the path started the change and turned into more of a horse path, which we took as a good sign. Pretty much as soon as we acknowledged this, we basically fell off of this path onto a road! It was a crazy surprise! We gave each other a little baffled look because we were just not expecting this. It wasn't a paved road, but certainly a road wide enough for a car to drive down. In fact, where we came out of the woods there was a pick up truck parked almost directly in front of us, and a man a little ways down the road tending to his farm. We went and talked with him for a little while and learned lots from him in just a few minutes. His name was Nelson Vargas, and he told us about a little village two kilometers down the road (another surprise), and more about the surrounding area and how they are working to turn in into a tourist area (thumb down emoji). He also told us that continuing along this road to the right, we will reach our goal of the antennas. So we set up yet another crazy steep road (I can't overstate the steepness) and another half hour later, we finally reached the antennas, and one more surprise. I did not think we would see nearly as many people along the way as we did, and I definitely did not expect to meet a family living at the top of the mountain, the husband of which tends to the antenna.
What I have failed to far to mention is the physical toll the hike had taken thus far. None of our injuries had occurred yet, but by the time we reached the top, my legs were freakin jelly, and were cramping up every couple minutes, all of which I expected. What I did not think about was the toll carrying a heavy pack for many hours would take on my shoulders. When we got there I was so happy to take of my backpack I nearly flung it off the mountain. But none of that mattered because we had made it, and we were ready to start reaping the rewards of our hours of hiking (4 hours and 44 minutes to be exact). We sat on a roof and just stared out in the direction we had come from trying to name all the cities we could see. We could see (from east to west) Punta Rusia, Villa Isabela, Luperon, Guananico, Imbert, and at night we could see the lights from Puerto Plata. We obviously took pictures, but we talked about how in situations like this we almost feel like it's pointless to take pictures to show people because a picture could never possibly capture the vastness. After appreciating for a good long while, we wanted to hike some more to get to a vantage point where we could see the view of what's on the other side of the mountain. So we talked to the man who lives up there (who has lived up there his entire life and told us that they don't have water up there and have to go three miles to the closest village for it) and he pointed us in the correct direction. It was very clear that people don't usually go this way, because we were utilizing our machetes more than ever. But after only about 10 minutes, we reached our destination and were able to appreciate some more. It was a very interesting and unexpected view. Facing out toward the direction we came from was mountainous, but out in the other direction was completely flat almost as far as we could see (which was quite far) and all farm land, but still very beautiful nonetheless.
Now we had only one more goal before calling it a day with the hiking and going to explore the village that Nelson told us about, which was the tallest peak of the mountain, so of course we had to get up there. And this is where it got treacherous, and the injuries started. Much like the path to the peak we were just at, it was very overgrown and we had to frequently utilize our machetes to get through. It was farther away as well, but we reached where we were trying to go in another half hour, but there were a lot of trees and we were unsatisfied with the view. So Colin climbed an old cell tower and say that "20 yards away" there were some tall rocks we could sit on top of and get the view we so desired. I put 20 yards away in quotes because it was much, much more that 20 yards, with the distance accentuated by the treacherous terrain. I know I already used treacherous before, but it's the only words to describe the way to these rocks. We were no longer hiking, but rock climbing. There were times where it was quite terrifying, but always more fun and exhilarating than anything else. After a long 20 yards, we finally made it to the rocks we were headed for. It was very cool sitting on top of the rocks because they were their own peaks, and it was a straight drop 50 feet down from them, so I made sure to hold on tight the entire time. So after even more appreciating, we decided it was time to get down off these rocks and head for the town. In heading toward these rocks, we were walking away from the antenna and the start of the road, so we were a solid hour through all the treachery from the antenna. Colin observed that the road to the town was right below us, and after much deliberation (my vote was just to take the long, safe way back around to the antennas) we decided to go Colin's way and climb down the face of the mountain down to the road to "save some time" (we did not save any time). Plus, this is where the injuries began.
So in this treacherous terrain, Colin moved much faster than I did. He has much longer limbs than I do, and he is also a bit less cautious than I am in such a situation. So as we're climbing down this mountain, I can't see him so I would call out his name every once in a while to both make sure he was ok, and to ensure I was headed in the right direction. I'm headed down nice and slow, but still accidentally grabbing the occasional thorn or getting scraped up when slipping on an unstable rock. Then, one of the times I called for Colin, there was a little hesitation, and very calmly for the situation, he says Mikey, I just took "a little fall" (it wasn't a little fall). So I got really nervous and got over to where he fell from, and he free fell 15 FEET down the mountain!! I rushed over to where he fell, owning both of my knees on the sharp edges of rocks in my haste, asking what he broke along the way. Somehow, someway the answer was nothing. Although he avoided breaking anything, he certainly didn't get away unscathed. He got some gnarly cut-bruises on his arms an legs, but was overall ok and able to walk away from the fall. He was climbing backward down the ledge, and when he took off his foot to start moving down and only had one foot and one hand on the wall, the rock he was holding on to broke and he fell backward. I asked him later once we finally reached the bottom if he though he was going to die when he started falling, he said yes and the image that flashed through his head was how the newspaper title back home would read announcing his death. The rest of the climb down the face of the mountain was full of little slips resulting in little cuts and bruises, and by the time we finally reached the road we were headed for, my hands and legs were covered in those tiny cuts and bruises, but despite all the injures, I'm really glad we chose to go the way we did, because it was incredibly fun, and I'm sure I'll never do anything exactly like it again.
We reached the road, and walked into the village, which ended up being a typical Dominican village. A few colmados, no where to eat, and lots of people hanging out on their front porches. We talked with a woman and her children while they played Play Station 2 (another one of those surprises). Then we walked through the village more, ran into Nelson playing some dominos, bought some more water and food, and decided to head out of the village and find a place to set up camp. We ended up finding a perfect spot, up off the road with a few well spaced trees, strung up our hammocks, and started collecting supplies to build a fire. After some very hard earned relaxation, we got the fire going and roasted the hot dogs that Colin brought along, which were delicious. It was dark now, and Colin decided to walk back into the village to buy more water, just in case. While he was gone I went and checked out the view, and it was super cool to see all the same cities we did by day, which were now clusters of lights by night. I was in my hammock by 9 o'clock, and passed right out, but the sleep was very short lived, because it was very windy, and freezing up on the top of the mountain. Neither Colin nor I slept more than an hour or two, and when 5am finally rolled around, I found Colin curled up in a ball on the ground next to the fire, which was equal parts pathetic and hilarious. No matter how completely miserable and sleepless the night was, it was all worth it to see the sunrise in the morning from the top of the mountain. Pictured above, was without a doubt the most incredible sunrise I've ever seen. From the property there are too many mountains to see the sunrise until it's already up in the sky, but from such a high vantage point you could see every minute of the sunrise.
After we were satisfied with the amount of sunrise we were able to witness, we set off down the mountain. The way down was immensely easier than the way up. While walking down the steep hills was a little bit tough on our already over tired legs, we got down in less than half the time it took to ascend the mountain. On the way down we ran into Pepe again, and talked with a few more people on the way. We made it back to Guananico around 9 o'clock, and Franci came and picked us up. By the time we got home, I was freakin exhausted and passed out in the hammock for a good while.
It was the craziest adventure I've had so far while in the DR, and I will never look back at the top of the mountain or those antenna again.
