On hikes and when I'm feeling flojo, I leave my beloved Canon XT at home and bust out with the trusty ol' Konica point-and-shoot that served me so well in Antarctica. Yesterday Hannah and Danielle and I hiked up through the village of Chovacolla to La Puerta del Viento -- a winsome breezy little notch in the mountain that merited both its name and our appreciation in the summer mid-hike heat.

Hugh and Hannah made this same hike a week or two ago, after a big rain had washed out the road with a derrumba just before the end of their trek. They had to high-tail it back to take an alternate route through the jungly forest -- an additional couple of hours we were hoping to avoid this time.

The road had in fact been repaired after the landslide, but only just. Hannah got half way across before the mud was so deep and sticky she had to make the rest of her way more or less on her knees. Danielle tried a different route but ended up knee deep, nearly sacrificing a Teva to make it out alive.


I don't think they've yet forgiven me for using a third option that allowed me to emerge spotless.