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A long hike through mountainous jungle

Jacqueline Windh / 14.03.2007

We arrived at PC3, about one fifth of the way into the long trekking section (estimated to take teams from 30 to 65 hours. PC3 is the tiny village of Los Angeles (really just a handful of houses, a school and a couple of restaurant/stores), located at the bottom of a steep river valley at about 1000 m elevation, with slopes of jungle rising above into cloud forest. As the teams passed through here, they (and we!) all benefited from the hospitality and great home cooking of Hugo and Dora, who operate one of the little stores.

Team Bones (USA) was first through, at 4am, and Aditec (CR) followed two hours later, both looking tired but OK. They were spotted further up the hills later that morning by one of the race organizers, who said that Aditec had made good time and was looking strong, now only a half-hour behind Bones. Later that morning came team Pura Vida (CR/USA), now down to just two members, Jenny and Marco, as well as Dark Horse (USA) and Aventuras de Sarapiquí (CR). The contrast in foot condition between these two teams was impressive: Dark Horse arrived with white, wrinkly, moisture-saturated feet and a lot of problems with blisters and deep skin cracks. Sarapiquí, in contrast, had dry feet that hardly looked like they had travelled anywhere... more on their foot-care strategies in an upcoming instalment.

All three teams headed out before noon – first travelling along a road rising as a series of switchbacks along the other side of the valley up to about 1600 m elevation, and from there branching off to find trails that would take them to the next Waypoint Box at 2375 m elevation. They would eventually reach elevations of 3000 m on this long hike, crossing the continental divide.

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