the dirty dusty hot way to the top

Today we sat out to follow the footsteps of Darwin and climbed Cerro La Campana. The peak is at 1890m after an intense climb of 1490m in just 7km. This would be the longest climb we had done in one stretch up to date.

We started at 9 in the morning on this beautiful day. What we didn't know then is that all but one of the three water holes had dried out and the one that still had some water was the one located furthest down. The temperature slowly climbed to about 30degrees but luckily a big part of the climb was in shade. All and all it went vert well but it was a very dutsy and exhausting experience. The view we had from the top was an amazing 360 panorama and if it wasn't for all the agressive wasps we would have stuck around a lot longer than the 10 minutes we did.

We were quite beat when we had finished our hike down but feeling very pleased with what we had achieved. After having had some fresh water melon in the sun we prepared a late lunch and headed off.

We drove 150km north and landed in a small coastal village called Los Vilas. The place was hardly on the map and it was by pure luck we found the b&b we had planned to stay at. This is also where the locals come to celebrate holidays so we were quite lucky they had a room available. The b&b is called El Conquistador and is a really nice place run by some very friendly chaps.

We had a good dinner at a restaurant the b&b guy recommended and finished of the evening with a short walk along the beach, enjoying that it's hot enough for shorts even at night.