Pico Duarte Day 2....

We woke up when it was still darkand cold. After some bread, jelly, and coffee we hit the trails for Day 2 around 6:30 am. The morning started with an hour and 45 minute hike to La Cotorra (1720 mts) and an hour to La Laguna (1980 mts). The picture on the right is at La Laguna, where we hiked to the top of the mountain in the background and then back down part of the other side. The first part of that stretch was a steep 25 minute hike up to El Cruce (2180 mts). Then came our hardest stretch of the trip, a 2 hour and 45 minute hike, going up 500 meters over 3 km to Aguita Fria (2650 mts). Luckily we stopped for lunch in the middle because that was a tough hike. From there it was down hill 200 meters through a series of swtichbacks to camp for the night. Once we reached La Comparticion (2450 mts) we hopped into a spring for a "shower" in 50 degree water. We had some spaghetti for dinner, made a fire, and went to bed about 8:30. We had hiked from 6:30 am - 5:30 pm, so it was a long day, but tomarrow we reach the peak!

We hiked 14.1 km and climbed about 1200 meters on Day 2...