A wee walk in the woods

So Cindy asked me if I wanted to take a little walk to the waterfalls today. Um, 6 hours later I wobbled my way into my room.

The guide apparantly decided to take an alternate route to the falls... 15 river crossings, and a whole lot of rock scrambling later we made it to the falls. Where I promptly jumped in fully clothed. OK, I took my top and boots off. Sports bras make good bathing suit tops. It felt wonderful. I skirted around the river crabs and had a nice long soak under the sun.

Which I deserved, after the gruelling trip in. The path had started out dry and meandering. We made our first river crossing at a point I had been previously, and continued up following the river. Cross. More clambering. Cross. At this point the guide remarked that we had 15 river crossings to make, and he thought taking my boots off each time was a waste of time. I tried to explain that keeping my boots dry was kind of important because things don´t "dry out" here.

It all became a moot point when I lost my footing at the next crossing and in I went. Perfect. Boots wet. Lunch wet. Camara wet. Crap. Again the entertainment express as the guide laughed himself silly. Not really cool considering I hit the rocks quite hard and was feeling it. So my boots stayed on after this, and I had to learn a new dynamic... the squishy boot treking reality. Ugh. I truly hope they aren´t ruined.

So a couple of notes:
Clay pathways get very slippery when they are wet.
Mossy rocks get very slippery when they are wet.
River rocks get slippery when they are wet.
And, well all the rocks in the river are slippery.
It is hard to balance on slippery surfaces.

Are you sensing a pattern here?

Muddy, slippery, often near vertical pathways = very dirty clothes and lots of bumps and bruises. Not a good place for a broken bone, I kept telling myself. The trail in became heavily tropical, humid, moss on every surface and plants crowding the path. Wet clay turned into packed leaves. I took more photos of pretty plants, and tried to get shots that would convey the essence of the path. Don´t think it can be done.

So Lunch was at the waterfalls, and I ate my cake and oranges while everyone else had a "Juane", which are meals packaged and cooked as little packets wrapped in large leaves. Cool little things, and an apparently typical food here. Chicken and rice... I took a picture. Too bad I still can´t just upload for you, but I have previously lamented on the photo situation. Oh well.

A wonderful wind took flight, and was welcome as both a cooling factor and mosquito deterent. The trees were waving and the leaves were rustling. Lovely.

Different route home, and this one was difficult. Using roots, vines and stones for footholds we climed pretty much straight up for almost an hour. Many rest stops. We changed vegetation zones as we got higher. It got drier, the jungle undergrowth was exchanged for grasses and bamboo, and the path became gritty and a different kind of slippery. I took a rest laying against a tree and found myself swaying in the breeze. We continued along the ridge for about an hour, and then the dreaded DOWN. Steep and slippery on Jelly legs. I seem to recall this sensation from my last trip. I would soooo rather climb. But home was "way down there" and so on I carried.

We stopped at the guides family farm so he could feed the dogs and chickens. Which are almost as hard to photograph as butterflys. We got fresh bananas from his trees (oh, my, god, what a difference in taste!) and admired his cacao trees ready for harvest.

Then we continued down for another 45 minutes. I was thinking I am so glad it is not me taking the harvest to town.

Back at the hostal, I poured the water from my boots & wrang out my socks. Heavenly shower. Good food. Back hurts. Hip hurts.

Perfect.

Hope tomorrow is as much fun.

Oh, and I really hope my cameral will live to take more pictures...

Hasta luego.