Now that I have internet and a bit more stability, I can catch up on my adventuring notes, and a highlight was summiting Chirripó (September 1st-2nd, 2015).
Cerro Chirripó has an elevation of 3,820 m which makes it the 37th highest mountain in the world, and the highest in Costa Rica. It takes people anywhere between 5- 13 hours to climb to the base camp, and another 2-3 hours to summit.
Unfortunately, Lonely Planet is outdated for how to get permits to climb (be warned). I splurged and spent $15.00 for a travel agency to arrange the park permits to climb the mountain, as I was in the jungle at the time and didn't have access to the correct bank. Info on how to get in touch with the travel agency can be found at this website http://www.hotelcasamariposa.net .
Casa Mariposa has been my favourite hostel thus far. The accommodations are beautiful and the place makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside because of the design of the place, the vibes, and especially the people who work there. They gave me a toque and mittens to keep warm on the summit, and even fed me hearty soup for breakfast the night and day before the climb. Everyone should stay there! It's gorgeous.
I went to the base of the mountain to climb with the idea to do it alone, but was very blessed to meet a beautiful couple from France/Brazil who were climbing the same day as me. We woke up the next morning before the sun, and started the climb at 5:00 am. We took our bamboo walking sticks and walked under the stars, straight past the entrance to the park. We accidentally did a quick tour, which cost us about 3 hours, through the Cloudbridge Reserve (so beautiful!). Because of our mistake, we had to do a one km vertical hike up the mountain on a small trail only used by locals on donkeys. We eventually came out on KM 4. I hiked solo up the mountain, meeting Angela and Alban at the half way point before taking our separate paces.
The changing scenery was gorgeous, from the cloud forest at the bottom to the alpine ecosystem at the top. I got to the base camp in 7 hours (thanks to the 3 hour wandering).
I got to the base camp at around noon, and was freezing cold in the rainy +2 after living in the jungle in +30 for a month. The rest of the day went by pretty fast, and I just had a lot of naps.
The next morning we woke up at 2:50 AM for the 2.5 hour hike to the summit. We were fairly paranoid of making the wrong turn in the dark, like the first morning. The sky was clear and starry and we made our way to the top.
I summited at 4:50, shining my lamp ahead for my climbing buddies to see what lie ahead of them. There was quite the scramble to the top, and I definitely shed a few tears when I got up there. There were hugs all around when all three of us were up. One of the best experiences of my trip so far :)
The way down was much harder on my legs, but just as beautiful as the first time. We had a two hour nap at the basecamp, and arrived at Casa Mariposa to be welcomed with open arms and warm cups of coffee. <3
