I almost died yesterday

After I broke my toe on halloween, my Grandaddy emailed me to tell me that I need to find myself a "keeper." He said that I was always getting into something and need someone to look after me. Well, he is completely RIGHT.

Yesterday, I went hiking. The hike was to one of the highest points on the island, the nose of Mount Cara (mount face). It was a great hike, but by far the most dangerous one I've been on. For those of you who know me, you know that I have hiked all over the US and the world. I thought that hiking in Peru was the scariest, but now that has been topped. We began our ascent at 6:30am. The sun was coming up over the city. As you can see in the photos, the harbor of Mindelo is beautiful from that height. We hiked about 3 hours to the "top" or the nose of the mountain. The terrain was mostly all loose gravel and about 3 foot ledges with 200 foot drops. So, we were carefully making our way around and up the mountain. I was with a group of 8

others who are very good hikers. They were lots of fun. We made it to the summit where we relaxed and hung out. I was the first to the top, so I was named the winner and the best "cabrita" (which means little girl goat). I went up to the peak with no problems. The top was great and there is a message bottle there where you write down your name and the date you made it up! I got to write first, which was the big honor!

The trip back down, like many descents, can be more daunting. Looking down toward the bottom makes you realize how far up you are! Well, when we were about an hour away from the bottom, we were walking on a narrow ledge. There was a big rock wall on one side that we were holding on to as we crossed about a 1 foot path. The person in front of me stepped out, then I stepped in the same place. Unfortunately for me, the gravel gave way and I fell. Unfortunately, there wasn't much room to slide, so I slid, dug my fingernails in and like on the cartoons, I finally stopped just short of falling 200 feet to my death. My legs were hanging off the side of the rock, I was only held by my fingers. The man behind me, Ceasar, got to me when I stopped. He jerked me up by my arm and I am now here to type about this. Well, barely. I can't move my arm, the one that he jerked. I have about a million cuts and scrapes and bruises on my legs, arms, head, etc. BUT, I am alive.

That was the closest to death I have ever come. Seriously. I am not joking. I couldn't sleep last night because I kept replaying the scene in my head. I almost died. I am so thankful that I didn't. I am blessed....