Oh!!! I can feel how painful !!! Yikes!
I am not sure I would have been able to power through that. I can only say that you have more cajones than I gave you credit for. (Or anybody) I am still stuck on your pain, although I am totally distracted by the beauty that lay before you.
The lens is filled with it and even though you had less than 100% interest at that point, you have all of this to look back on. What a wonderful hike! How did your friend make out? Did he ever get sore or even after, did he manage to escape it?
I am so glad that after the amazing effort you put forth, you made the train, with a perfect reward to top off the end of the trail
Your pictures are amazing and your story is beyond my comprehension. You are either a very brave soul or really crazy. I am not sure which. Congrats! You did it!
The pink flowers are stunning! Are they bougainvillea?
The issue was that there was not option to stop. So I had to keep going. I couldn't helicopter out of there or anything - not that I would have, but...
My friend did better than I did which was surprising because he had injured himself quite bad a couple months prior. I can't remember if it was a torn ligament or what but it was fairly bad. He didn't seem too concerned about it during the hike though and didn't complain.
The scenery was very nice all around.