Cerro de la Silla.

So since getting better, the biggest thing I've noticed is the sheer adrenaline like it used to be. I wake up and whoosh, it's there, the energy for the day hath arrived. Since I’ve been pumping adrenaline so hard lately and I thought it would be cool to walk up the Cerro de la Silla. Saddle mountain, I guess that would be in English. It’s super close, and I’ve meant to do it for a while now.

And so…I did! Checked the weather, it was probably always gonna be cloudy, and I thought I’d miss the rain that was coming like 5-6 hours later. The internet didn’t say you needed special equipment or anythin, just like 2 litres of water. So I got an Uber to the trail and started walkin.

The only thing I was actually scared of was packs of wild dogs or wolves, but let’s face it… life is life, and there wasn’t any reason to expect that. As for snakes and bears? Meeeeh, you can’t fear everything.

It’s supposed to be 3 hours up, and another 3 hours down.

I’ve gotta say, a few minutes into it I was a little doubtful that I’d manage it. I was sweating absolute buckets, it was 35 degrees and a 20% gradient, for like 3 hours straight. Oooobviously, I didn’t have walking shoes or anything. Any shoes are walking shoes if you walk in them, right? ????♂?

There were lots of other people on the path though, it’s a common thing to do in Monterrey.

Lots of creepy crawlies, interesting beetles and spiders. Two tiny lil’ snakey-wakeys, but they were so fast I didn’t get a chance to be a dumbo tourist and take pics, and I was waaaaaay too tired to do more. Ooooh, saw a black squirrel too. And a few… no idea what the hell they were. Mini cat-bear-monkey things that were pretty friendly. Lemme google it… coatís. Super cute!

I stopped a lot. If we’re counting the short stops of a few seconds to catch my breath, I must have stopped at least 30-40 times. It was an ass kicker. Turns out when they say fairly challenging, they actually mean fairly challenging, not fairly challenging for everyone but Stephen, who will glide up and down the mountain in half the time, laughing mockingly at the experienced hikers. Who knew?! ??

So yeah. Took exactly 3 hours to get up the top. The air smelled like peaches for the second half. Went straight up into the clouds. I didn’t mind the fact that it was cloudy. Shame about the views, but then again… if the sun was super intense it only would have been more brutal, and the clouds added an air of mystery and woo-woo which I enjoyed.

So it was when I stopped at the top that I was very slightly concerned. Some of my leg muscles were quivering like I had just discovered rock n roll. I had to have a break so that I would stop impersonating Elvis.

It was easier going up than going down… mainly because my shoes weren’t walking shoes. I saw 4 people fall over and one dude being escorted down with a leg support and sticks… and all 5 of them had walking boots on. Yeah man. To be fair, other people were moving fast and I was going at an absolute snail's pace, because I really wasn’t into the idea of falling over.

There you go, maybe not wearing walking boots was safer, because I was so self conscious it forced me to walk extra carefully. That makes sense right?! ??

So I’m about 60% of the way down and I’m like, yeah the rain is coming.

Carry on a bit and the heavens open up, full on storm time. Thunder and lightning, very very frightening. Actually, I’m not scared of lightning at all, but when it’s striking like… your area, it does make you jump ?? it sounded sick though. Very heavy metal ????

So everything is wet and slippery, and I’m lovin it, as you’d imagine. More difficult, slight element of risk, new experience? Wonderful! Isn’t this life?

So I manage not to slip over, continue down. Turn a corner, see a lady facing me with her camera out. And there’s a third snake on the path. But like, a proper snake. Sweet, I think. So here’s my borderline-delusional self talk, being the eternal optimist…

“Gahhhh, I’m sure it’s not aggressive. Nooo, it’s probably not poisonous. That rattle looking thing on its tail is probably not even real, it’s probably a fake rattle. I bet there’s a fake, non poisonous rattlesnake out there. And this must be that one. Oh well, I’ll let it peacefully pass”.

So that was cool.

And then I came down, took an uber to an all you can eat buffet, and cruised through like 3 fully stacked plates of food.

I can say I understand the whole mountain thing. It was pretty fun. It was cloudy at the top third as we were past the clouds, so no pics from there.

I’m sure I’ll do the Mount Everest base camp at some point, but I will get walking shoes for that ??