Cristo de la Condordia...Again

After the social hour Friday night, Sarah approached me asking if I'd like to hike up the Cristo with her the next day. I was immediately bombarded with images of a cold and rainy night/morning, walking for hours, climbing an endless path of stairs, more hours of walking and as a result not being able to walk for a couple days. With my hips crying out in protest, I gave her a resounding N-O. That is only a once a year adventure with the motivation of a religious pilgrimage to sustain the spirit and justify the pain. But the more I started thinking about it, and with some encouragement from Sarah that we could take a bus to the bottom and not have to walk a couple hours to get there, I decided that I'd go ahead and power through. At the very least I could take the cable car up to the top.

We headed out on the bus at about 3pm and summited the top at about 4:15. It is amazing what a sunny, yet humidity-free day, does for one's spirits. We had a leisurely walk up to the top, taking breaks along the way; my breaks being for picture-taking, Sarah's for her pea-sized bladder. The people we passed along the way were incredibly pleasant and, thanks to my foresight, we were able to enjoy a nice picnic of trail mix, PB&J sandwiches, and fruit at the foot of Jesus.
I realized that I post a lot of pictures but not very many of them are of me, because I'm usually behind the lens, so I had Sarah shoot me with the Laguna de Alalay (not Lake Titicaca, mom!!) in the background. Oh yeah, and I got my hair cut this weekend too.

The little houses below are the suburbs of Sacaba, a neighboring city to Cochabamba. It's only a city in the same way that Radford is a "city." It is pretty small but also very close, only a 15-20 minute bus ride. Also pictured, a sampling of the mountains that surround Cochabamba on almost all sides.

About halfway through our descent the sun started to set so I did my best with shutter speeds and aperture settings to not let the brightness drown out the mountain or the cityscape. The mountain pictured below is called Tunari and is the highest of the mountains around Cochabamba, with its peak at 5200m or 17000 feet.

I am happy to report on the day after the hike that I feel great! I have very little hip pain and don't feel exhausted. I had the same results after hiking in Parque Pairumani. This leads me to believe that the flat distance walking, rather than climbing, is what tears up my hips. I'm happy to have this new theory because it opens a whole world of hiking to me. So in conclusion, Sarah was right and I should trust her more often.