Climbing el cerro
Every morning when I wake up and walk outside, I´m greeted by the site of many large hills (they are somewhere between the size of a hill and a mountain). There is one particular hill (cerro, in Spanish) that for a few days, we´ve been talking about climbing. Last Thursday, after spending the morning weeding a field of beets, we took the afternoon off--from farmwork, but not from exercise--to climb this cerro and enjoy the view from the top. Luisa, Jano (the 19-year-old son), and Diana (the 9-year-old daughter), Erin, and I started climbing the mountain a little after 4pm. The sun sets at about 6:30pm in Trapiche so we knew we didn´t have much time to climb!
As you can see from the above picture, our evening hike up the cerro turned into more of a rock climbing adventure! I pretend to not have a fear of heights, but the truth is that I have a mild fear of heights, so as we climbed up, making our own path (and joking that future volunteers would be tasked with creating a path on that side of the mountain), I focused on looking at the mountain and not at the sharp rocks that I would surely fall onto if I fell. This cerro used to be a quartz mine so I think the rocks are quartzite or slate or some similar material; they were jagged and rocky, but surprisingly not as hard as they looked. It seemed like they could be easily broken. I´ve tried to look up more information about mining in the Trapiche area but can´t find any information so this description will have to suffice for now.
In the above picture, Jano and Diana take a short break, and you can see what our path looked like! Yet again, I was thankful for my awesome hiking boots and amazed by Luisa, Jano, and Diana climbing the cerro in their sneakers. After about an hour of climbing--determing the best path, scrambling up rocks, testing our footing, and hauling ourselves up past more rocks--we finally reached the top! Unfortunately, since it was evening, we couldn´t see anything! The peak was enshrouded in fog. The fog/mist was so thick that water droplets formed on our eyelashes and hair.
After spending a few minutes at the top, we started the climb down. This time, we descended on the southern side of the cerro, following the path that Luisa, Jano, and Diana had taken many times before. Still, it was a bit difficult, especially with dusk approaching. As Jano ran down parts of the trail, Luisa warned him not to and told tales of the owner of the mine who had insisted on operating the mine after many deaths and his son´s and his eventual deaths while riding down the mountain on mules. But we made it down safe and sound! Of course, now we´ll have to climb it again, in the morning, in order to enjoy the beautiful view from the top!
From the ground, the cerro doesn´t look that large, but as we started to climb, we discovered that there were many more hills and that appearances can be deceiving!
We climbed on the north side of the mountain, a side that the family hadn´t climbed up before. After a few hundred meters, we discovered that there was no set path! ...And that this side of the mountain was quite steep.
As you can see from the above picture, our evening hike up the cerro turned into more of a rock climbing adventure! I pretend to not have a fear of heights, but the truth is that I have a mild fear of heights, so as we climbed up, making our own path (and joking that future volunteers would be tasked with creating a path on that side of the mountain), I focused on looking at the mountain and not at the sharp rocks that I would surely fall onto if I fell. This cerro used to be a quartz mine so I think the rocks are quartzite or slate or some similar material; they were jagged and rocky, but surprisingly not as hard as they looked. It seemed like they could be easily broken. I´ve tried to look up more information about mining in the Trapiche area but can´t find any information so this description will have to suffice for now.
In the above picture, Jano and Diana take a short break, and you can see what our path looked like! Yet again, I was thankful for my awesome hiking boots and amazed by Luisa, Jano, and Diana climbing the cerro in their sneakers. After about an hour of climbing--determing the best path, scrambling up rocks, testing our footing, and hauling ourselves up past more rocks--we finally reached the top! Unfortunately, since it was evening, we couldn´t see anything! The peak was enshrouded in fog. The fog/mist was so thick that water droplets formed on our eyelashes and hair.After spending a few minutes at the top, we started the climb down. This time, we descended on the southern side of the cerro, following the path that Luisa, Jano, and Diana had taken many times before. Still, it was a bit difficult, especially with dusk approaching. As Jano ran down parts of the trail, Luisa warned him not to and told tales of the owner of the mine who had insisted on operating the mine after many deaths and his son´s and his eventual deaths while riding down the mountain on mules. But we made it down safe and sound! Of course, now we´ll have to climb it again, in the morning, in order to enjoy the beautiful view from the top!
Chloe, thanks for the recent post! Could we have a photo or two of your farm to get a feel for what it means to weed in the fields for part of a day. You must be getting very strong. Keep up the great work.
ReplyDeleteDina