Days 35-39: Flying kites in the rain

Apparently, this place sells nice bikes.

I did a 7 mile mountain bike ride on my road bike to grab these photos.

=] Everyone had been telling me that I'd been so lucky to have missed the rain for the majority of my trip. A group that I met from England actually told me that for almost a full month of their trip they had just been sitting in their van waiting for the rain to stop. And now, well, I'm in Arco and it's raining hard. So common were the storms on this beautiful lake.

I have had some very good fortune here though. I met Inez from couchsurfing.org who has let me stay with her for three nights. She is from Argentina. It's hilarious how we communicate. She speaks to me in broken English and I speak to her in broken Spanish. We've had fun with one of her friends trying to make the best of the rainy days.

It's been hard to stay here and not climb though. Arco is surrounded by huge walls of climbable rock. This is the only city that I've ever been in to celebrate with such vigor a climbing championship that's not until 2011!

Arco is at the northern tip of the beautiful lake Garda. The regularity of the wind makes wind surfing and kite boarding quite popular. I've signed up for some kite boarding lessons and I'm now waiting for them to call Inez to tell us that there is good wind! I can't wait!! Rain or not, I'm going to give this all I have. I've wanted to learn how to kite board ever since Danielle Boromisa got me hooked on the sport by taking me kite skiing back home in Colorado. The guys who took my money for this kite boarding lesson also snapped this photo. Then, they dropped me off in the water only to leave me without instructions. They drove the boat away while I sat in ice cold water pondering what to do. I'd seen those crazy video's of kite boarders flying through parking lots and decided to become a statistic. I moved the kite into the power of the wind and let it rip me through the water. Although I couldn't get up on the board, I had a blast.

After two full days of rain, I couldn't take the temptation to climb on my finger that is not ready to climb. I went to some overhanging cliffs to look for partners. I met some really cool folks and got to climb in Arco on a beautiful day.

Mike and Kathy have an adorable child named Maya. This was their first day climbing as a threesome. So when Maya started crying, they were happy to have me around. It's funny how meeting a family like this can make me long to have children one day. They were so cool!