Wednesday Feb 21, moving day, training day.

We woke to another nice morning, with the usual light cloud in front of the Potrero.

Then we said good bye to our first house

And moved down the road to:

We were helped transport all our bags, and there was only minor delay in moving in. Our new landlord seems very nice and was anxious to please. After we had moved in he took as down town to buy a couple of jeroboams of water which should last use til we leave.

Needless to say it was quite late before we left for the cliff. We had planned an easy first climb and to train David in belaying from the top of the climb on a hanging belay. A necessary skill if we were going to do any multi pitch routes. Well first the route we had planned for this was occupied so research and debate were needed . Then a 10 minute scramble up to the base of Jungle Warfare. We were followed by our usual canine accompaniment. G led it D seconded and then belayed me up and then lowered me down under G’s watchful eye. It did not go easily, though quite safely, so a second run was made with D leading and setting it all up by himself. Lessons learnt it went much more smoothly. While we were in the shade at the base of the climb it was very warm on the face. The route had cacti to both left and right of it, and occasionally in the centre. This made it hard for the final person down on repel, but we manage to avoid getting the rope stuck when finally pulling it.

During all the the moon rose behind us, just visible in the photo if you look closely.

After this we scrambled down again . G wanted to do Las Chimeleas again. So we scrambled up to the base of it. By this time I was pretty over heated, undernourished and tired, plus it was the climb that had given me major knee issues a few days earlier, so I opted out of climbing it again. So G led it, seemed to take for ever setting up the top belay, then D followed. The idea of then continuing on to the second pitch was mooted, to G’s surprise. After due consideration they decided their belay set up was not conducive of a safe continuation, so they dropped that idea and returned, without difficulty or mishap to earth. All were fairly frazzled by this time so we scrambled back to road level. G had another climb in mind but it was taken so me joined the crowd at the margarita stand. We got talking to others there, they described and demonstrated more efficient techniques for anchoring and belaying that have been developed over the last 10 years. We need to get some of the new equipment it requires. It seems especially useful for parties of three, which is us.

However, with only three days left, we may just concentrate on doing lots of single pitch climbs