the road less traveled

A typical evening in Oaxaca, Mexico. Casually strolling down the cobblestone alleys after a leisurely dinner admiring the landscape of the mountains. After a brief conversation on how to jump start Jess´s and my exercise regiment we both take a glance at the mountains. ¨Why don´t we just climb the mountain tomorrow?¨

After an early morning breakfast, which I rarely make it to at the hostels, we find a bus that will take us ¨that way¨, which is all we know about the large mountain looming in the distance. Our bus driver asks us where we are going, and we explain we want to climb the mountain ahead. He gives us a puzzling look, which may be taken by some as the look of ¨you crazy gringas¨. He tells us its a 2 day hike, and than asks if we have a tent, food, and other arrangements that some people might make ahead.
We tell him we only have 1 day to hike the mountain, and we have 2 big jugs of water, a box of crackers, and a slice of leftover pizza from lunch yesterday. ¨I´m pretty sure we can do it¨ we confidently tell him.
Truthfully, we have no idea. He drops us off towards the base of the mountain in the center of a little village that's lies at a nice elevation above the city of Oaxaca. He also happens to drop us off at the bottom of a massive road that appears to have an incline of 80 degrees. Well...here goes.

We begin our ascent. There appears to be some trails that we are following which means our idea isn´t that ridiculous. Obviously, other people walk up this too. As we follow the path up, the trail varies in substantiability. At times it seems like we are walking up an irrigation canal with years of erosion on both sides. The ravine-like path stands above our head narrowly on both sides.
The entire day is bliss. No contact with any other person, just an occasional site of donkey-dung. This is all Jess and I could have asked for.

When we stop for breaks, we rarely spoke on our way up. We both have the appreciation of pure silence. We´d stand or sit within the forest and admire the slow descent of a leaf falling, the rustling of an acorn breaking through a tree, the buzz of the insects, the swaying of the branches, and the light howl of the wind. Nature at its finest.

This was certainly no ¨Into the Wild¨. We weren´t looking to get lost, or escape the world... only temporarily. It was simply a mountain that stood in front of us asking to be challenged. And we accepted.
As we rose in elevation and we reached our last stretch to the top, the forest floor became a soft bed of pine-needles. Our feet were lost as they sink up to the ankles in every step we take. Each step becomes a moment of anticipation of whether your foot will succeed and progress further, or if you will slide down. The majority of the time we slide backwards but in time we manage.

The feat of the mountain was no extraordinary expedition, but just our desire to conquer the road less traveled. Sure, we could have taken the guided tour several miles north at the National Park, but we preferred the solitude and silence. We prefer the adventure of the unknown.

I will post a picture of the mountains in the next few days. Unfortunately, my camera broke a few days ago...just 1 week into my trip. The woes of the traveling life... Not much to complain about though- my high level of self-satisfaction is making me feel on top of the world.