Pico Duarte!

Here's a little bit about my trip up Pico Duarte.

The youth group of the church I attend (Nueva Vida) planned a trip to hike up Pico Duarte, the tallest mountain in the Caribbean, and about 2 days before the trip I was asked to go as an extra leader. Of course I said yes and received permission to miss teaching on the Friday of the trip. We left at 5:30am Friday morning and started the hike around 8:30am. There were about 30 students and 5 adults in all (many of the kids in the youth group also attend ANIJA). The first day we hiked 11 miles, taking lots of breaks along the way. Groups naturally formed as everyone walked at a different pace. I was designated as the leader for the first group. The hike was challenging in different ways. Besides being physically challenging through the length of the hike, being hailed on (most of the kids had never been in hail before), and hiking in the dark (most did not have flashlights), I was challenged by the language barrier. I love to encourage people (especially when exercising) and the only encouraging phrase I knew how to say in Spanish was 'Good Job!' which got a little old after saying it for the first 2 hours of hiking (I still said it anyway:). I also tried having conversations with the other leaders and kids throughout the trip and would be stumped at times when I didn't know the vocabulary or couldn't understand the person I was talking to. After a long day's hike we were so glad to reach the shelter. The shelter had a big room for everyone to sleep in, bathrooms, a place to cook food, and a fire pit. We had several mules bring up the food, water, and sleeping bags. On Saturday we hiked to the top of Pico Duarte, which was 3 miles. We enjoyed the view at the top and then hiked back down to the Shelter and took Saturday afternoon to rest. Each night we had a devotional time where the conversation was always flowing (even though I didn't understand all of it at times). Sunday we got up early and hiked down 11 miles. I am so proud of every person that went on the trip as I don't think these kids knew what they were getting themselves into and had not trained physically for a hike like this. Although they were tired, they encouraged each other and helped one another by carrying others backpacks and taking one's hand to help them up or down the mountains. My favorite parts of the trip were being outdoors and seeing God's beautiful creation. I also enjoyed running down one of the last sections of the hike.

Here are some pictures from the trip.

Early drive to the base of Pico Duarte.


Stopping for a little break.


Along the hike.


This is a picture of the group I lead on the way up.


We made the 14 mile hike up to the tallest mountain


This is the shelter we slept at both nights during the hike.


Luisa is a graduate from ANIJA and asked me to take lots of pictures so she could send them to her sponser. She is currently attending Doulos, an all English speaking school.


The whole gang.


I felt like I was on top of the world!


Just a little glimpse of how grand God's creation is.