The Climb! | rachael

Friends,

It is Monday morning; my room of seven girls sleeps soundly in a new cabin on the top of a hill. I sit outside the Ranch's kitchen area at a long blue table with my cafecita (a little coffee) and a bajillion birds chirping around me. Other than that the only sound is people in the kitchen preparing breakfast for us. There is smoke wafting my way from a gentleman's cigarette nearby and I am promptly reminded (in case the setting didn't do so for me) that I am not in Canada!

Rancho Baiguate (http://ranchobaiguate.com) is a happy place for us; I (for 6 years now) and the students (for almost twoish days now) love it here. This group is funny as they underestimate everything which, I suppose, is a much better way to live than overestimating things. Many thought this would be a barn in the middle of nowhere with all of us sleeping on the ground in said barn. Well, it is not that. It is a beautifully manicured, clean-roomed, hot-showered, toilet-ever-flushing place with a pool, river, gift shop (with ice cream) and buffet meals. It is a lovely way to end.

Many in this group are also special for another reason - they are intentionally thankful. I can't count the number of times people said before, but especially after, our mountain climbing experience, "thanks rach!" with a little explanation of what they're thankful for. It is neat to see them acknowledge either in the moment or shortly after that they are grateful for what they are/have received/ing.

On to the details.

On Friday morning we went to the orphanage. It was a beautiful time. Rod Dengerink joined us. At circle time that night as we shared our roses and thorns, Rod's rose was, "watching how you guys and the kids there interact". Parents, if you could see your children in that environment some of you would likely be surprised and others would have your hearts melted. But these specific stories are going to be shared in my overall orphanage update. It was a good morning.

At 3 or so we left the orphanage in Santiago to head to the Ranch in Jarabacoa. We arrived, settled in to our 4 rooms for the group (in a building that is only a year or two old) and then headed to the dining area for prep session with Melvin our guide (who's guided our group for the past three years). The prep session was about 8 seconds long as the kids knew, I daresay, all they needed to know as I've done this trek five times previously. We ate our buffet dinner, some went swimming, explored, packed and went to bed. We were up by 6am to eat by 6:20 and be on the road by 7. The crew was pretty stoked at breakfast but the hour long ride to the entrance of the national park (that leads to Pico Duarte) mesmerized and excited them further. It is impossible to show in pictures, difficult to describe in words but breathtaking to see. We are in a cattle-truck of sorts so we see and experience it all; mountains and valleys in which depth perception is lost because of the density of landscape. Houses of all varieties, a powerful river, rock bed walls, red sand walls and more shades of green than Mrs. Tenyenhuis (TD's art teacher) would know what to do with. We saw Dominican greenhouses and tayota fields. Tayota is a vegetable we have eaten a lot here. As it grows it looks like a large pear but when it is cut up it is white and similar, I suppose, to a potato…but softer. It grows about four feet off the ground on trellises (not sure if that is the right word - a network of wire). I tried to get the students around me to appreciate the difficulty of a) farming a vegetable for which you need to go under a four feet network of wires b) doing so on the slopes of mountains. This, my friends, is the daily life of MANY people in this world, not just the Dominican tayota farmer.

Anyhow, we got to the base of the National Park. We signed in, were admitted, saw our crew of 12+ who would assist us and we began our journey. Most began walking but Riley, Rachel, Daniel and I started on the mules right away. Last year I muled the entire way up and down the mountain and I did so on a majestic white mule who Jordan Piccolo intelligently named, Shadowfax. That name worked well last year. The mountain crew of helpers has been, essentially, the same group of guys for the past 6 years so they know me. The jefe (boss) promptly led Shadowfax to me again this year. I was stoked. Daniel was hilarious. When you're on the last mule, it gets prodded by the guides to go faster. Any time the guide came close Daniel would yell, "Nooooo!" and we would howl. We rode our four kilometre stretch together, just the three of us, and excitedly enjoyed the view and tried to take in as much of the bamboo, vines, rainforest-y, mountain and valley view that we could.

At the first checkpoint we were reunited with the walkers and we were all given a Twix bar. It is beautiful how the little things become so happy at certain times of life! Shane, Jason and Josh joined us on the mules. Jason and Josh were encouraged to by me as they have had bouts of illness and, in my opinion, there was no need to aggravate their bodies to reactivate said annoyances. The next leg was an absolute party with the six of us!

As the day went on many people joined and unjoined the mule party. Some were encouraged to join us for the same reasons as I mentioned with Josh and Jason above. Last year was (sorry guys) a bit of a gong show where half of our crew (literally, no exaggeration here) was very sick after the mountain experience. There was no way I was going to allow that to happen again, as much as I could control it. As such many folks got on mules - not because they couldn't keep going but because we're still here in the DR for a week and they shouldn't keep going. Many, many more folks "could have" climbed the whole mountain but, again, after last year's experience and my encouragement they opted to mule so they could go white water rafting, canyoning and we well for our last night at the base. And to that decision I tip my hat and say, "good on you, mate!"

By the time we got to base camp we had 8 walkers: Joey, Sarah, Lara, Lauren, Alexa, Brian, Jesse and Luke. Billy, Derek, Bay, Rebecca walked the large majority. Hannah and Kari walked most. Mak, Rod went a bit further than Ashley and Emily were superstars and walked a whole bunch of it. Marieke was encouraged to mule a bit earlier than Em and Ash as she also hasn't been feeling 100% and Julianna joined us on the mules after two legs (I think).

Unfortunately it was cloudy and we had a short downpour when at the camp. As such, most people were unable to see the magical display of stars before they went to bed at 8. Although there was some rain, spirits were very good. People were healthy and well.

The next morning we got up at 3:40 to hike the last 5+ kilometres. We left at about 4:30 after a hearty pre-breakfast of plain buns and hot chocolate :D (the real breakfast of meat and potatoes was eaten after we descended from the peak). Joey, Lara and Sarah decided to mule that last trek. It is one of my favourite sections to mule as you leave in the dark morning so you begin with seeing nothing in your path and completely trusting your mules but you enjoy the stars and moon. During the 1.5ish hour trek the view shifts to a majestic sunrise above the clouds! We met at the checkpoint, took a group photo and all 27 of us began the 1.2 km hike to the peak. I won't begin to describe the views other than, God is good. Jesse, Luke, Lauren, Alexa and Brian walked the entire 23km hike.

We all descended on mules. It was fun for some, scary for others. I had an absolute party. We all arrived safely at base camp by 5 or so and took the hour long drive back to the ranch. Everyone was forced to go swimming as they were told that it would help with muscle soreness today. We sat down to dinner at 7:15 and were in bed shortly after 8. It was a good day.

This morning we are going white-water rafting and this afternoon some students will likely have a chance to go paragliding (parents, do not worry, if your child has not contacted you then they are not going. Only students with parental permission are going). It should be a grand day!

Everyone is sitting down to breakfast this morning so we all made good choices and this group is in a MUCH better state than last year's at this time (where more than half the group spent the night being ill and were unable to come to breakfast). Life is good.

Hasta luego!

rachael