Colorado Trip

The weekend after Suesca, I flew to Colorado to help Bianca wedding dress shop.  It was mid-May, and the temperatures were literally freezing.  One day, the high was a measly 46 degrees.  Seriously?  Luckily, there were heaters everywhere, so the weather merely confirmed my love of warm, humid climates.

Upon arriving in Denver, Bianca, Mama, Katie and I all shared a lovely hotel suite:  two separate bedrooms, a kitchenette, a living room, and the pièce de résistance, hot water!  Yes, yes, I know:  this is the United States; of course they have hot water.  It doesn't matter.  I still greatly appreciate the luxury.

We spent that night catching up and got an early start the next morning.  Bianca had appointments at three different bridal stores.  Ummmm....never having been married, I had absolutely no idea there were so many styles to choose from.  Bianca must have tried on at least thirty dresses before narrowing her choices down to two.  (It's a problem when one looks good in everything she tries on.)

Being a monumental decision, we stopped at a winery down the road from the last bridal shop to help clear our heads.  Picking up some wine from Costco, we belted out Matchbox Twenty all the way to Outback where we refueled before kicking back at the hotel.

Fresh the following morning, we stopped at both stores so Bianca could try on the final two dresses.  Boy, is she going to be a beauty in the one she picked!

Thoroughly elated, we stopped by to see Bianca and Tim's new house before meeting Dad and Tim for a bite to eat.  It is exciting to see a new chapter in Bianca's life beginning.

That night, Mama, Dad and I stayed in Fort Collins with Tim (brother) and Katie.  It was good to see their four kids again and get to know them a bit more.  On Monday, we grabbed lunch and walked around (in the rain)  in downtown Fort Collins, a pleasant way to spend the day.  My flight left Monday late night, so poor Dad drove me all the way to the airport.  Luckily, we grabbed some Starbucks before heading out and had enjoyable conversations, so the ride went quickly.

For such a short trip, I feel I was able to pack in quite a bit of bonding time, and I look forward to seeing everyone again this summer.  Plus, two girls' weekends in a row isn't too shabby.

Girls' Weekend

In the beginning of May, we had a three-day weekend, so Michelle, Becky and I headed to Suesca for some relaxation and rock climbing.  We left for Bogota at the crack of dawn on Saturday and made it to Suesca by lunchtime.  

To enjoy the beautiful weather, we walked a few miles along the train tracks and passed a deep canyon before arriving at a small town.

The walk was peaceful with our only other company being cows and birds.

At the town, we ate at a pizzeria that had been recommended to us.  The owner wanted to show us the  remodeled rooms in his small hotel while we were leaving, so we literally missed the bus by two minutes.  The entertainment for the next hour while waiting for a taxi was well worth it, though.  

Camilo and his two teenage kids were coming in to eat as we were leaving.  After ordering their pizza, they came out to chat.  Since we were still sitting by the side of the road when they finished, Camilo decided to take out his guitar-like instrument and just start playing.  The kids were really nice and good at conversation, but I cannot imagine what they were thinking when their dad started serenading us.

Here is just a little clip; the concert went on for at least ten minutes.  Where does one look when someone is singing to you?!  Needless to say, it was an enjoyable taxi ride home.

On Sunday, Peter picked us up, and we headed to the giant rock wall.  I had asked Peter if he could teach me some technical skills while we were climbing.  This was probably not the best idea since I am still a major novice, but I learned how to belay and clean the gear off the mountain.

Michelle is pregnant, so she only stayed to watch us get up the first pitch before heading back to town to relax.  

Becky began by flying up the first pitch...fast enough to make Michelle comment she looked like a little lizard.  I took a bit more time, making sure I didn't fall off the cliff to my doom.

Michelle way down at the bottom of our first pitch.

Our first climb took at least a couple hours to get up due to our slow climbing abilities and the wait time in between the four pitches.  It was a perfect day for being outside, though, so it didn't matter.

(Unfortunately with me always being the last person up, I wasn't able to video Becky at all.  I apologize for all the videos of me, but at least it should give you an idea of the experience.)

We did one more climb.  Becky recognized it instantly as the final climb of our last trip to Suesca.  I had loved this climb and was looking forward to it again.  Of course, Peter then told us that we would be going up even higher and traversing across the rock face before rappelling down.  Great.....

Poor Peter was a busy man during this climb.  Not only was he focusing on keeping Becky and my ropes taut, but there was also a lady up top that needed Peter's advice to continue climbing.  

The climb has a bunch of different techniques to go up, my favorite being hugging the giant boulder and sticking my butt out to climb.  (Poor people below.)  I had to wait on the wall several times while Becky scaled to the where Peter was since I just don't like climbing with a loose rope.  (Remember: I'm an amateur.) 

The part below is where we had to traverse across the wall (where the rope is).  There were awesome footholds, but the handholds got sketchy halfway through.  At one point, I had to hang on to the gear sticking out of the wall.  The issue came when that gear needed to be cleaned (taken down).  Luckily, there were small, hidden handholds, and I arrived intact at the rendezvous point, elated by just having tried another climbing technique.

That elation didn't last long, however, when Peter informed us that we would be rappelling from that exact spot.  Ummmm.....it was definitely higher than any other place that I have rappelled from, and it looked deadly.  I was a wee bit freaked out, and the wait time while Peter set everything up didn't help.

We were on that narrow ledge for about an hour because Peter had to reclimb the mountain to check the gear and then climb back down to wait for us to rappel.  Although he still had us belayed to him, we were actually belaying ourselves with the rope.  

When it was Becky's turn, she quickly unhooked herself and bounded down the cliff like a fearless mountain goat.  Ugh....pressure!  Finally, Peter called that I could start.  I unfastened all the gear and then slowly made my way to the edge of the cliff.  Honestly, the five steps it took to get over the edge and have my feet on the mountainside were the scariest.  After that, it wasn't so bad as I went at an extremely leisurely pace (as witnessed in the video below).  The past hour of churning insides were for naught. 

Our superhero rock climber.

We met up with Michelle and Otto afterward and celebrated with a double cheeseburger and fries and then sat around the fire at the hotel with some hot wine.  Add on the hot shower, and life truly does not get much better.