We're pretty wild here in Nagua. Because only a crazy people would choose to climb a mountain on a hot tropical-island-summer day and that's what we did. There is a nature reserve called Loma Guaconejos in El Factor, a campo about half an hour away from Nagua. It's small-ish mountain with hiking trails and many rivers where you can swim and wade around in.


We decided to go on Sunday (it was the 20th) and conveniently, it was ridiculously hot and humid that day. The first hour was hiking steeply uphill and my legs were getting dangerously close to snapping off. I am in amazingly bad shape for all the walking I do in service and I always seem forget that key fact until it's too late and I'm climbing a mountain.

It started to rain halfway up which raised the humidity level to 1000, and made everything muddy and slippery. We would take one step upwards and slide eight steps down. As frustrating as that sounds, it was a hilarious sight. We all were waiting to see who would be the first to fall (I, thankfully, did not get that honor) and by the time we scrambled up to the top, we were sweaty,
sticky and mud-streaked.

You can see how happy we were to get to the top! That's me in the Star Trek shirt, by the way.