Ok, well after yesterday’s rain storms and windy experience, we woke today to low clouds but some sun and a hope of no rain. We proceeded to repack our suitcases (a daily routine), carry them downstairs to the suitcase room and have breakfast. We were on our way by 8:15 – the usual time. Our hotel was super nice last night, sleep is sort of hit and miss, but it’s ok, it’s vacation. Cindy is sort of 80% I think, but at the end of today we bumped into some people I chatted with on Day 2, one of which was a doctor – explained to her what was up “I think it’s a middle ear infection…”, her reply “perfect, let me hit you up with some ‘cillin’ – is your wife allergic to anything?” – My reply “just sulfa” – acting all knowing in things medical – you see I’ve done Wilderness First Aid with the scouts three times, so I know how to make a sling out of a triangle bandage and know the ‘medical speak…’. So in 12-24 hours we’ll find out if Cindy’s free gift of drugs from a very nice Dr. – who is a pediatric brain surgeon works out… I think it might.

But gentle readers we jump to the end too soon – we must start at the beginning of the day. We actually started with a very nice 2 mile walk, mostly down hill – high overcast fog/clouds and really great hiking conditions. We kept walking, thinking to ourselves “where is everyone”, then slowly around every turn more would appear with packs, poles, and phones in hand – all navigating over the single path into the hills. You do actually have to use your own navigation as some people will split off and go other directions, to Refugio’s, etc.

After 2 miles, well then time to get warm and do your workout of the climb. I also started noticing that the clouds were getting lower, or was I getting higher into the clouds? And yup, just like that we were hiking in the clouds / fog. Funny having your navigation app on your phone say things like “from this view point you can see the rolling vineyards of below…” – which wasn’t happening as you could see about 50’ – 100’ and that’s about it. It was sort of funny to see people walk by then disappear into the fog. The climb up was ok – didn’t break any records for sure – but generally easy to get done.

The trek down? Sort of not so fun. Just a long way to go and towards the end your knees are talking to you. Since there wasn’t really anything to look at I started looking at the trees in the fog and they were pretty cool – so took some pictures of them. We bolted down to the bottom (3,000 ft down) and then ended up in a bar/cafe having hot chocolate and a small can of pringles chips while waiting for our taxi to the next town.

We’re now in the next town, had a great dinner – Cindy has taken one of the previously mentioned ‘score’ that we discovered today – so hoping in the morning she is doing jumping jacks as her ear is feeling better. I do think it’s ear infection – which really messes with your balance, hunger, nausea, etc. So let’s hope that’s it! For dinner we had potato leek soup, some butter nut risotto for Cindy, and I had this thing with a big piece of bacon in the middle. All in all a very good meal.

Tomorrow – last day of hiking – looks like another 2,800 ft ascent day, but shorter in distance and we take a ski gondola down at the end – saving my knees for sure. Tomorrow looks to be only about six miles – then we have a shuttle to Geneva at 5 pm.

I’ll try to write a summary/thoughts on the entire trip tomorrow – it’s a good one, but you need to be prepared for about everything.

Really not wanting to go back to the real world at all.