Espeleolimpiadas and 2 years in Puerto Rico!

Jeff and I headed up to Lake Garzas for the 2009 Espeleolimpiadas (caver's Olympics). We had some basic information but the announcement was in Spanish so we didn't really know the categories or what the weekend would really be like. We didn't bring camping gear since we didn't really know what it would be like and figured it couldn't be that far away - we'd come home Saturday and go back on Sunday. ha

Jeff said there was a way on our GPS TomTom that said to go through Penueles and up to Adjuntas. We headed that way. Let me tell you about the adventure we had... we drove through Penueles (not a problem) and then started winding up the mountain on roads about like the ones we live on. It then got a little narrower and started looking not-at-all-right. The TomTom (I'll just say Tom from now on) said to turn right up this implausible looking road. I told Jeff he would need to drive - I wasn't going there! We headed up (this is after 45 minutes or so of ok driving) and the truck started spinning its tires. No way this was happening! We could see the big pipes that were fed by the lake so we know we were REALLY close so this was disappointing. I told Jeff our neighbor said to drive to the Ponce letters and go on 10. First we had to get out - and I mean BACK DOWN literally this road to the other not-so-big road. We did a bunch more circles and then got on 2 and went 52 to 10.

10 started out pretty good and then turned into...once again...the implausible this-doesn't-look-right road. We went through Adjuntas and up and up and up on teeny tiny roads stopping along the way for directions - "go to the bridge" (there is always a bridge), "follow the river" etc etc. Things were really not looking right. This Olympics thing has a lot of people coming to it - could it really be up here? After about a half hour after passing through Adjuntas we arrive at the Gigante Fishing Club which is a private fishing lodge. There are other cars there so this is good.

Lake Garzas is a man made reservoir at 2,400 feet. It is pretty large and we didn't get to explore as much of it as we'd have liked (competitions called). Jeff is standing on the kayak launch area ready to go! We did kayak for a bit and it really needs more exploring. There is a public launch area but we didn't see a public park area or anything (maybe it was further up past the lodge?).

The lodge had showers and bathrooms and the main level had cooking facilities and tables and rafters to hang the ropes from. Some people camped which would have been nice. We didn't know the food situation (I like hot food and coffee in the morning) so we had decided to go for the day. This lodge is WAY up in the mountains about 30 or more minutes out of town so there was no quick run for breakfast - next year if it is here we will come prepared to stay with camp stove and food things.

We kayaked for 45 minutes maybe with some other cavers from different groups.

Then it was inside for the competitions! I went for the 25 foot rope climbing and took first place for climbing in 35 seconds! I kept climbing until I reach 50 feet just for fun but had some confusion so my time was not great 1 minutes 26 seconds. I got all the way up to the pulley and when they didn't let out the rope I thought I was done but I wasn't. By then I lost my momentum and rhythm and when they let out more rope things were screwed up. Next year Jeff can feed the rope and I'll try to beat my 50 foot time. My time was great for 25 feet though so yah huu!On the next post Jeff places 2nd...keep reading...

Olympics Continued and Dos Anos Aqui !

Here is Jeff's 2nd place rope climb - he was moving pretty fast! What you can't really tell is that the rope is on a pulley so as the human climbs they let out more rope and it doesn't look like the person is going anywhere! It is hard to view this way but I couldn't figure out how to rotate the video - sorry. He missed first place by 2 seconds! If he practiced just think what he could do - that's next year. The competition was 25 feet of rope as fast as you can go.

This was a lot of fun. When the rules and categories were announced it was all in Spanish so we missed it all. We could have helped our team (SEPRI) if we tried the rope walker category but we had never done it before. Now that we know the categories and how it all works we can learn some other systems and participate in them next year. By then hopefully we will have gone in more caves, rappelled/ascended more and will be better at it!

We did participate in the Obstacle Course which I couldn't get video of because we did it in the dark! It involved running and sliding/crawling under survey tape that make an L shape on sloped grass that was only a head high. After that you dive into the lake and swim/walk for a bit, then come out (extremely tired) and walk/run up a slope, run on the flat area behind the building and then climb a spider like netting up and over and then a run down a steep slope in grass onto pavement and to the finish line. Each part was timed separately and amazingly I tied for first with another gal with a time measured to a hundredth of a second! There was another woman who was going to do it in the morning who might beat us though since she'll have the daylight advantage... This was great fun and all the events, as short as they were, were amazingly tiring! How can a 35 second rope climb tucker you out? The obstacle course for me was 3 minutes 26 seconds or something - how could it be tiring? I tell you though, after the swim (in boots and helmets etc) I was really tired. The best time on the course was one of the guys from a different caving group who did it in 2 minutes something! Wow - I won't be able to do that I don't think ever! Neither will Jeff, who beat my time by 11 seconds or something (he was in the guy category).

All in all it was a really fun Saturday that ended with bad Chinese food (served with french fries of course). We met many nice people - some we know from caves and others who we met in Cueva Zumba but finally got to talk to. A lot of other folks are probably interesting but our Spanish isn't good enough to really join a conversation. Lo siento for us. We drove back down the mountain and went home on a flat tire that we didn't discover until morning. Sunday was our second anniversary in Puerto Rico and we opted to go windsurfing at a friends house rather than drive up to Adjuntas again. I caught a glimpse of a manatee and kayaked around to get closer and never saw it again. Jeff windsurfed until the wind died and then we had waffles and strawberries and whipped cream (and coffee and conversation) until almost dark. A lovely weekend!