Uphill Battle

Walking uphill in the mud is not all it´s cracked up to be. Although, I don´t expect it to have a stellar reputation to begin with. I knew we were climbing this mountain today, and we could see it from our hostel, so I spent yesterday psyching myself up to climb it. However, no amount of psyching made the experience pleasant. Every corner I turned and saw more mud, I became more annoyed, which turned to frustration, which turned to anger. The thing that changed that mood around quickly was when I turned a corner and saw Jess, and she informed me that we were at the top! Yay! And now it was down the other side.......boo. Walking down the mountain was much better than walking up it, although the steep descent on loose stones killed my ankles!

After walking on moderately flat ground the rest of the way, through a few little towns, we arrived in Puenta la Reina, Jess skipping ahead and me hobbling behind. At one point I thought I lost her in the little town, and asking a group of Asian tourists if they had seen a Spanish girl proved to be useless. But I eventually found her at the bottom of the hill ( yep. another hill ) that our hostel was on. What a cruel joke to put a hostel at the top of a steep hill, when you know the people staying there have been walking all day.

But climbing the hill proved to be worth it, the hostel is very nice. Clean, and it has a washing machine! Which will come in handy later when we try and remove the 4 inches of mud from our clothes. The view out the back is great too, all you can see is wilderness and mountains. And now it is just about dinner time, so I´m going to sign off and go get me some food!

Ciao!