Hiking the Sleeping Indian

I decided we needed to get out for a little adventure a few weekends ago so we headed up to El Valle in the mountains of Panama. Our friends the Northrups were spending their last weekend there so we decided to visit them before they returned to the good old USA. (I am crying a tear as we speak because I miss my country so much but that is a blog for another day) They arranged for us to hike a mountain there called The Sleeping Indian because it looks like the profile of and woman sleeping. And let me tell you, it was a hike alright. Half the family nearly didn't make it past the first half hour. I thought for sure Doug was going to lose his cookies on more than one occasion. Anyway, this first photo is us about half way to the top.

This is the steep assent up the mountain that about killed everyone. I mean this was a number 10 on the treadmill incline scale.

Does this give you some idea of how high we had climbed? El Valle is the green space at the top right corner. This is the neck of the Indian; we still had to scale her chin and face. The wind was blowing so hard I thought Dalton might blow away. (We really should feed him more.)

At one point we stopped to wait for Doug and Kalie. Instead of seeing them coming up the mountain we saw this guy and his family. He is carrying a bundle of corregated sheet metal!! Our guide told us he was building a house up here and made the trip three times a day carrying supplies. HE IS CARRYING AN ENTIRE HOUSE UP THE SIDE OF A MOUNTAIN PIECE BY PIECE!!!!! I could hardly believe it. I felt sort of silly for having complained that I had to carry two water bottles.

Here we are with our guide at the summit. It was such a cool view. Our guide is 65 years old and hiked the mountian like a freeking mountain goat. I chatted with him in my best Spanish lingo and I'm quite certain he was glad the wind was blowing so hard that he didn't have to respond to me very often.