Friday - Our hosts last night were Venturo & Elisa. Next door lives their son, Diego & his wife with their 4 year old girl, Isabella. The next house is a daughter named Adrianna. All three houses are simple but nice and very well kept, having been built 40 years ago.
We were woken this morning by a man walking a loaded donkey past our open window at about 5:15. At the same time, all the birds in the neighborhood began chirping, squawking, and singing.
We took a short walk around the village to see the birds. When we returned, we went with Venturo to feed his cows and see some of his farmland. After that, we had a massive breakfast of eggs, sausage, rice, beans, fried cheese, watermelon, pineapple, papaya, peach juice and I'm sure more that I don't recall. We were told that this is a typical breakfast but I'm still not convinced.
We said our goodbyes to our family and hiked to meet the rest of our group at Finca Via Lig. There, we had a very interesting tour of their butterfly and cricket farm facilities. Then, our day hike started at around 9:20.
Today was only about 13km on gravel road up a large mountain and then down to our destination. The long climb was nice with cool shade along the way and the view over the bowl holding the village got more grand with every step upward.
Once we were over the pass at the top, a long grind down the south side gave up more views of sugar cane, coffee, and cattle farms all the way down to La Suiza. This town has the first stop light I've seen in a week!
All 11 of us (9 + 2 guides) are being housed in a rented private house tonight, so we'll have time to socialize and relax.
(Please check the Instagram pics on the home page for photos of the days)