Hurricane season in the Caribbean shuts down most cruising. Cayuse is now tied up at a dock at Marios on the Rio Dulce near Fronteras, Guatemala. To take advantage of the available time, we are flying to Africa and joining a trek to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Kilimanjaro is the largest free standing mountain the world, rising from the African plain near Moshi, Tanzania on the border with Kenya. It also is one of the tallest volcanoes in the world, the tallest peak in Africa, and one of the 7 summits. It is 3 degrees below the equator and currently has two peaks, Mwenzi at 16,890 feet and the Uhuru Peak on Kibo at 19,340 feet. We are going to climb the Uhuru Peak on Kibo. In Swahili, the name of the mountain is Kilima-Ngiaro, which means “journey which has no ending.” The mountain was formed about 750,000 to 1 million years ago and originally consisted of 3 peaks, Kibo, Mwenzi, and Shira. Shira and Mwenzi have since erupted. The Shira peak has mostly collapsed and eroded and Mwenzi appears as a jagged peak at 16,890 feet to the east of Kibo (there is a photo of it late in the Kili slideshow). Because of its size and height, Kibo presents a real challenge to climb. The climb is mostly hiking, climbing, and scrambling. There are no significant technical aspects (ropes) to the climb, just lots of hiking and climbing up and down each day. If you are in reasonably good shape, the real challenges are presented by the altitude and the weather. About 15 climbers die each year from Acute Mountain Sickness on Kilimanjaro. There are no helicopters if you get into trouble. You have to walk down to the park entrance or be carried down in a stretcher by porters. The key is to go slowly or “poli poli” in Swahili, acclimatize to the thin air, recognize altitude sickness symptoms early on, and then respond to them. We have been training in Houston (walking, running, and climbing stairs) to get ready for the physical aspects of the climb, but, since we live at sea level, there is no way to know how we will respond to the high altitude. We will be on the mountain about 11 days. We will be back in mid-September and post blog updates of the trip then.