A Tiring Expedition
A scorching 90 degrees heat in Tlayacapan, Mexico. One couple decides to try and beat the heat to hike up one of the tallest rocks around the area. All this happened during January of 2021, on a trip to visit family in Mexico. We decided to visit multiple other cities and towns, to see what each has to offer and to of course brush up on my Spanish! So many unique aspects of each little town we visited is what made this trip particularly special. But, we were most excited to get up early in the morning to conquer this hike. Joined by many members of my boyfriend’s family, we were excited to see who would be the ones to make it to the top and who would fall short. We drive up to the parking spot, making sure to stop and hit the bathrooms as we have no idea how long this expedition will take. We look up in front of us and set eye on our challenge. The mountain looks menacing, but we only get more excited. We start our trek, passing by little souvenir places before the actual mountain itself. Many of us are second guessing, and figure it might be instead worth it to explore the area than go up this hike. Some of the family taps out. One family member in particular, my boyfriend’s uncle, we had bet would tap out with the rest. He was set on proving us wrong though. We see the long trail of steep dirt stairs ahead of us that start this hike off. We start to go up, watching as others come back down from it, clearly sweating from a-lot of hard work. The one thing that keeps us going, is knowing the beautiful view of the city that lies awaiting us. A reward that we are worth to fight for. There are vendors along the way, selling gatorades, refreshing drinks, and anything else that might help us replenish ourselves as we go forth. We climb and climb, until we see something and hear something that doesn't seem to promising. Disappointing groans of people ahead of us as we reached the top. As it turned out, the viewpoint was locked off, for coronavirus restrictions. Not what we wanted to see to say the least. We could see no beautiful view, and the worst part was seeing one last line of stairs that led to it, but not being able to reach it. One surprise did happen though. My boyfriends uncle, the unexpected hiker, came up almost ten minutes after us, proving us wrong and providing us with a good laugh at the top.