I agree, there's 2 of us with almost daily contact with family by phone, text, zoom, plus chatty neighbours. But it's too long now and we need to spend time with people. We are clan/sociable animals, are we not. We're getting fidgety/restless. We walk a bit and just seeing other human beings feels good, and connecting with people on here. Getting outside in wind, rain or snow is the important thing, for those who can.
This is exactly how I thought the trip would be made, i.e. via the Refuge, both coming and going.
I'm not sure how you would pay for the Refuge electronically except in advance, and ED didn't even know whether it was open or not. Unless subsequent to talking to DC at the top of the Pic, she got on the Refuge website, found out whether it was open, and paid in advance. If true, I think that would have been mentioned in the dossier or by LE.
Snipped for focus
I think she could have had an accident much further along than we'd imagine. It's possible she felt harangued and annoyed and didn't want to take phone calls for a couple of days.
desaparecidosaragón
@desaparecidosar
Hoy se cumplen 2 meses de la desaparición de MARIA ESTHER DINGLEY. #desaparecido #sosdesaparecidos #Missing #Benasque #Huesca #Aragon
Today marks 2 months since the disappearance of MARIA ESTHER DINGLEY.
BBM
Prob because in Spain loads of women are called Maria Something. So you could be officially Maria Teresa, but be known as Maite (mix of the two). Maybe not so much now, but def 30 plus years ago. They maybe assumed the Maria came first.
Plus, Esther was just hiking, she wasn't skiing, climbing, scrambling, mountaineering, crossing avalanche zones, or any of the high risk mountain activities that Alpine Club members typically do. I've never heard of ordinary hikers needing insurance. Search and Rescue is typically provided for free, just as are police services.
I'm not sure I get this, since Esther's name doesn't begin with 's'. The "th" might create some phonological confusion to a native Spanish speaker, however, because we pronounce the "th" as "t" (likely to transliterate the Hebrew, perhaps via a Greek translation of the Hebrew with theta transliterated as "t" with an aspirate, and the aspirate dropped in the course of history or because our tongues are lazy and couldn't handle it all). And if the Spaniard happens to be a Castilian, wish them luck; at utterance, the layers of language might be head-spinning.One of those things that Spaniards do when they feel at home probably.
Linguistically, Esther is a difficult name in Spanish. Spaniards take a little breath to pronounce the S at the beginning of a word when that S is followed by a consonant. For instance, many languages have no problem with "Spain", but Spain calls itself "España".
At the same time, the emphasis does not fall on that first "es".
This makes "Esther" a complicated name. Esthér instead of Ésther would be the natural pronunciation, linguistically.
However, when you put Maria before Esther and pronounce it as one name, the problem disappears completely, the emphasis does fall on Es and even the a-e is bridged seamlessly.
No doubt they check their texts befor they publish the posters, but IMO "Maria Esther" does not look as a mistake that someone would necessarily notice.
