Pico do whatever-it’s-called…

…is what I called Pico do Cabugi for weeks.  Pico do Cabugi is an extinct volcano about half way between us and Mossoro (where Ken & Lori Stucky live).  And last Wednesday, for my 26th birthday, Ken, Lori, Ana, Joel, Arlen, Brian & I hiked it :)

To accomplish this feat, we rose at 4:00am, filled our waterbottles, packed our breakfast for the road, and brewed our coffee to go.  You can still see a lot of stars in the sky at 4:00am.  We were on the road a few minutes before 5am, and saw the sun come up—so beautiful!  Wish we had a picture, but it was one of those try-and-see-the-beautiful-view-BEHIND-you-with-three-passengers-squished-in-the-back type of photo opportunities that is difficult to capture.  Here’s a facing-forward photo from the car instead….

6:38 am:  We’re almost there!

7:14 am:  Starting our hike-- Joel, Lori, Ken, Ana, Jocelyn

Jocelyn & Lori

Yes, we are actually on a path in this next picture.  That was actually a bit scary at times…  At the beginning of the hike at the bottom of the hill, it’s just straight forward, walk towards the goal.  As the walk gets steeper and rockier, there’s a Zig, a Zag, and then a final Round encircling the cone to get to the peak of pico do Cabugi.  We did the Zig just fine (probably what we’re on in this picture), but the Zag had been buried/fallen in a rockslide/avalanche, and so we kind of had to just kind of make it up as we went along—hands and feet going almost straight up (more like climbing or possibly bouldering, just on LOOSE rocks!)  Thank you God for protecting us!   

8:48 am:  Arlen, Ken, Ana, Lori, us, Joel—safely at the top! 

Talk about a shadow….

Every year for my birthday, Brian gives me music and a memory.  Climbing a volcano?  Yes, I would call that memorable.  Yellow shirt, orange shorts, and a rainbow of “LOVE”?  Man, even the pictures are unforgettable! I wonder what we’ll do (haha—or wear!) for my 27th birthday…?  :) 

In other news…

I (Brian) am going away on a film location scouting trip, leaving tomorrow or Wednesday.  Along with Arlen and Joel, we will be travelling around the State looking for areas to film our next episode.  The main goal is to find areas for the next episode, but if possible we will take time to gather information for other future episodes also.  We should be gone for about a week, but possibly up to 10 days.  We will camp at night and make our own food as much as possible to save money.  After the trip, we will prepare to begin filming!

*sniff sniff*  7 to 10 days is a long time (this is Jocelyn again :) 

And that’s what we’re up to in our corner of the world…Thanks for praying for us—we need it!

Adventurously,

Brian & Jocelyn<><