"You Must Breath in the Nature"

Pedra Da Gavea

You have no idea! This is the largest rock formation on earth and it is just under 1,000 meters to the summit - way higher than sugarloaf mountain. I sort of get an inclination of how difficult this was going to be when I was notified of Rock Climbing portions. Marcello convinces me to stick with my sneakers over my hiking boots and to bring a huge bottle of water.

9am wake up - 3pm start. Can I say nothing reminds me of my brother more than Marcello. Granted we did go up SugarLoaf mountain that morning by cable car - but still. Oh and Marcello asked two danish girls - who just arrived into rio and we met on the top of Sugarloaf - to join us on this hike - this will be important later in the blog as they had no idea what they were saying yes to.

We arrive at the base of the monolith and park the cars. A couple who was joining us decided to back out right then and there. Pedro knew the girl and described the climb. She realized it wasnt for her. Two down.

We set out - check in at the bottom with a park ranger - write our names down in case we never make it back. He shouts concerns in portuguese and Marcello/Pedro respond. The hike begins.

Im excited - last significant hike was probably 12 years ago in New Hampshire - but I start to remember a small hike at my brother engagement weekend in upstate NY. Images of sweat and hard breathing with a few "have to stop" moments. Uh oh, this could be a problem. We hit a few challenging passes, some with massive roots to climb like a ladder. As a joke, I pop out "are we there yet?" everyone nervously laughs.

A little exercise starts to kick in and the breathing gets a bit faster. Marcello explains to breath totally through the nose - I try - but then go back to my traditional heavy mouth breathing. "You must breath in the Nature" Marcello points out. Im ready to push him off the rocks. Huffing and Puffing starts to begin and I am the only one of the group that you can hear the patterns. As the sweat starts to sting my eyes, I start plunging down the water. This is going to be rough.

We reach the rock climbing portion of the hike and Marcello goes first. I have been doing a bit of climbing at my gym in Astoria so I actually feel the excitement of doing this for real. No ropes is a bit concerning, but what the hell. Some strong pulls and weird foot stands, I eventually make it to the top of this landing. But the danish girls are still below. They are considering heading back. A bit of Marcello charm and they make for an attempt. Daniel - tall artist with cool hair - seems to be the more experienced of our group and helps the girls along this difficult passe.

Only one third of the way up. My shirt and now shorts are soaked in sweat, but the views are starting to get addicting. Lets go some more! Right about this time, we see this enormous peak rock that has indentations making it look like an angry old man. Pedro points to it (picture below) and says thats where we are headed. I truly assume he is joking. There is no way to reach that, its all rock - we cant climb that without ropes. He points to the little bit of greens that strike up the middle and says we will go through that way. "Are you insane?" The view from where we were (halfway point) was nice so I'm thinking we take pics and go down from here. Nope!

Don't ask me how but we do continue on. One of the danish girls begins to cry. She seems to be holding it in from time to time. The other is up ahead with the group. I'm constantly at the rear. There is no question, I am the most out of shape of the group, sweating the most, stopping the most, drinking the most and at times feeling that I will pass out. This is a tough hike, toughest I have ever been on. A bit more than I anticipated.

As we near 3 quarters, I come into a comfortability with my body - im going to get to the top. We reach a rather tall grass area near the peak and Marcello stops us all. He wants us to run the rest of the way because once we reach the top there will be a grassy field that we can pave through to the end of the rock ledge. He takes off, we all follow and as I come upon the large peak, my eyes reveal Rio - WOW! Totally incredible. The pictures say it all. Breathtaking and well worth the intensity.








We are all enjoying the views and pictures as we hit this peak right before sunset. How awesome to be lucky enough to see the sunset over Rio from the highest location. How come nobody else is up here. This is a public park - its a beautiful day - I know its not high season, but so what? And then it dawns on me when Marcello gives us the Chevy Chase - ok looks good - lets go!. Lets go!!??? But we just got here?
















You got to be kidding me? The realization starts to hit HARD! Just above the beautiful Rio landscape is the most beautiful sunset. I said SUNSET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The group is starting to run. What was Marcello thinking? no time to ask. All I can think about is making it to the rock climbing bit before dark. How on earth are we going to do that if its pitch black? Let alone get down the rest of the mountain!

Danish girl crying, Im now in front booking it - screw these guys. Every step I take on a branch, sand, mud or whatever feels like an ankle twist. Going down is dangerous enough, but with nightvision, its a whole nuther story. And Im not even sure if my nightvision works. As the sun is half way through the horizon, we make it to the rock climbing portion. Safely we transport all parties down. I became the rock climbing expert and helped the assembly line down.
Now the sun is gone and we have a bit of remnance light helping. We are running and leaping over logs and across terrain. My knees are pounding, my ankles are definitely strained and now Im thinking ahead to the dark. There is without a doubt going to be darkness for half this hike down. The trees are covering the moonlight and its super dangerous when Marcello takes out his blackberry as a flashlight. I have a cell phone as well and Daniel has a lighter. We scatter throughout the group so there is a portion of light for everyone. Im a bit ahead of the group when I fall flat on my face. OWWWWWWWWWWW!!!

I stand up quickly, wipe off the mud when the group catches up. I pretend like nothing happened as they cant see me anyway lol. As I mozy backwards to the middle of the group I grab onto a fallen tree for stability. Total mistake. I immediately drop holding my hand. (MAJOR CURSE WORD!) I have been bitten. No clue by what and the group needs to continue on so I wince and move forward. You can just imagine all the questions I was asking Pedro for about 20 minutes as we near the last third. It was hurting bad.
















We did see a terrantula on the way up crossing the rocks, maybe that was it. I didnt care, getting off the mountain was the key - not like Im going to be airlifted right now.

Daniel and I decide to leave the group and zip ahead, we are both tired of the hike and want to see the end. We start moving quickly until we eventually hit a cobblestone road and we see the park ranger station ahead with a light on! YES! No ranger there though. What If we never made it down? These guys dont give a rats...

The rest of the group finds us there relieving ourselves. Back in the cars - got to get to the showers, eat, pack and say goodbye to everyone - no sleep - drive to the airport at 5am.

Sao Paolo here I come!

PS Still have to give you a past blog on the favellas and I just got a picture uploaded of me doing yoga so I have to get that up as well - so two small blogs before Sao Paolo.