on foot

As I have said way too many times, there are too many things to do on this island. If you are an adventurer and somewhat creative, you find that there is just not enough time in the week to do everything you want to do. Worse, if you become passionate about one hobby (such as surfing, or salsa, for example), you find yourself realizing you can do that ALL the time. This can definitely be said for any person that has access to a vehicle, sturdy shoes, and a will to walk.

A few friends of mine have almost what we could call an obsession with exercise. Every minute it seems like they are either swimming, running, biking, and of course hiking. I only went with them once, but they take their sports seriously, including hiking. As they hiked up and down each hill, I panted behind with the others, wondering when the uphill bits would end, as we sweated out of every pore. They're the kind of hikers who always want more. The cool part is, there are so many "randonees" on this island, even if they were able to finish them all, by the time they got back to doing round two, everything would have changed. There are so many that when you look at the books of hikes on the island, you can't decide which one to do first.

There seems to be many challenges in hiking during the summer season however. In mid February you risk bad weather. Not only might it be sweltering hot, but the sun could burn you to a crisp. Worse, and more usual is when you hike in the mountains if you don't wake up and go before 6 AM you're more likely to miss out on the spectacular views and end up with your heads up in the clouds....that is in the literal sense of course, with fog hiding everything from sight by 9 in the morning. More than likely, also it seems, is that you end up with rain, especially when you're away from the dry West coast. While it may be sunny one second, the next it will be pouring down, and you end up walking in the mushy mud, trying not to have an embarrassing slip while someone is looking.

Despite all of these complications, we still hike. Perhaps we're bored (very unlikely), or excited to do something new. Every place seems enticing somehow, with the opportunity to get away from the beach, to explore the forests, waterfalls, mountains. The best part is that even if it is really hot, you can be sure that it still way cooler up high than at the beach, where the water seems to make it even more humid. Still, it seems as if somedays you get bad luck, and that raincloud is just hovering above your head. We can only hope for the "dry/cool" season to start, where the rain will stop coming and the threat of cyclones will be non existent.