At 7am the loudspeakers spread throughout the city, presumably for storm warnings and such, let out music befitting some kind of Godzilla franchise, letting the people know that rest was now no longer on the table. I was already awake however, the drunk man snoring so bad I could barely maintain calm even as I prayed for sleep.
So, I packed light, left the hostel and loaded up on a liter of 7/11 brand black coffee, a liter of ion-water and my bag of walnuts. Should be enough for a small jaunt into the unknown, right? One rarely if ever appraises the task at hand with much accuracy, and how else could it be? Missing all the variables from the start as we do. Nevertheless I set a basic path through the woods and began walking.
Before taking even a single step up vertically I was engulfed by the sounds of insects buzzing about everywhere. The heat of the day combining with the beating of their wings. As I took the first step up the mountain I noticed mosquitos the size of bumble bees veering away from the swamp and heading right for me, so, like any sane person I picked up pace. I imagine it was much harder for me to climb that hill at such a pace than it was for them to float around me while I did so, and even though a few landed on me, I shook them off until getting a few hundred feet up, and they thinned out.
I passed by a large museum of sorts which doubled as a campground. The place seemed very private, and even though I wanted to explore it, I didn’t feel like paying any money to do so. Thus, once stopping to pet a caged animal, a pig I believe, I kept on moving up the jungle hillside. Eventually I came to a wonderful road which weaved back and forth through jungle and cliffside, letting light bleed in through the leaves and create long stretches of jungle canopy.
When the road split between East and West I took the Western route and when that turned down the hill again, I found a tiny path which was more jungle than anything else, requiring me to hunker down on all fours, and push aside bush and vine until able to stand erect again. Though I would go back and forth between both pastures the entire time. The ground was so full of water that wearing my Shimano boat shoes was not really a good idea, so I took them off and wore then on my hand so I could use them to block the endless spider webs blocking the path, while my other free hand had a stick in it for protection against whatever creatures there were, and also to plum the depths of the water I slugged through.
I lost my way more than a few times, as my GPS was no longer working in any meaningful way. I even felt pretty scared of getting hurt or losing my way out there. The trail was clearly only used once a month or so by powerline companies. Something could happen to me out there and no one would ever find me. That’s the risk we all take going alone into nature, and it is part of who we are, explorers. Eventually, after 7 hours of hiking I found my way to the road again and I was glad for it.
It should have been easier to descend the mountain rather than go up, but because of the endless array of sharp sticks, rocks and the like hitting my bare feet, it was a painful and slow process to reach the main part of town again, and like any great fool I decided to continue walking for another two hours afterward, going up the coast to places I could see but had not been. I reached the large rock barrier lodged in the ocean and sat for a long while watching the sun go down. When I found my mouth going dry I found a little shack along the main road where I got mango sherbert ice cream with goji berries, pumpkin seeds and pineapple juice, very good.
I headed back to the hostel, rain threatening to drench me. I found the girl from last night and we struck up a convo as we had dinner, which for me was spicy ramen with cucumber in it. I have to stop eating these spicy things, they are not good for me in anyway. Anyways she had also climbed the mountain but gone on an official trail and not even a third of the time I had, but her pictures were really something. I fell into bed, alone in my dorm, the smelly drunk no longer there to keep me awake..