Jason and I walked north for Christmas. Well, we started out walking. We were told that it would be able to eat lunch in Nabarangiut if we started at 8 am. We started at 8 am. At 9 am we got to Melsisi. We stopped there for an hour to get mail and pick up a few things from the house there. At 10 am, we started down a small, slippery “short cut.” In this case, I do believe that the short cut was significantly shorter than staying on the big road. This did not remain true.

So, we took a short cut. A narrow, half-rock climbing short cut while carrying a backpack and a basket apiece. We made it down to the shore carrying our muddy shoes, having given up on actually wearing them. By shoes, I mean flip-flops. We stayed on the path, which was our first mistake. We should have gone and walked on the beach, it would have been nicer to our feet.

Around 11:30, we re-connected with the big road. We started walking up a gently incline. We stopped and split a grapefruit. (They are super sweet here and really, really big.) We kept walking up something that was turning steeper than a gentle incline. In fact, it turned into a giant hill. It turned into a giant hill that just didn’t end. Every time we thought, “that next bend will be the top” it went on. It was a large enough hill that we stopped for a water break. Twice. Then we ran out of water.

Around 1, we got to the top. We stopped in a village to refill our water. They were very confused as to why two white people were standing in the middle of their village.

Then we got to go down the big hill. Though up is worse than down, down is rather rough, too. Slipping and sliding in flip flops down a steep incline is a really good ass and hips workout.

At the bottom of the hill, we decided that a boat was in order. Another hour in the boat got us to the village nearest to our friends’ house. From there, it was only a ten minute walk up another slippery though wide path to their house. We were very, very glad to see their house and put down our backpacks.