A trail not taken

6 days and counting… that is all the time between me and Vancouver.  Hard to believe.

The sun has been kind for five days now, and I have been able to wander, enjoy and basically soak up all the reasons I love this place.

There has been music in the main square the past couple of days, and today kids are parading through the streets behind school banners, waiving balloons, playing drums,  blowing whistles and playing with water.  Very colourful. 

Life has been full of meal invites and laughter. 

New friends Lally and Cliff (from the States) and I have been getting acquainted, and ventured out on a rather ill-fated self tour a coulple of days ago.  I had wanted to re-walk the trail from a neighbouring town high above chachapoyas, and when I mentioned it Lallie and Cliff enthusiastically agreed to join me.

Linda.  Tour Guide.  Something missing other than knowledge? 

We took a cab on the curvy, dusty, 20 km. dirt road up to Levanto, and spent a few moments wandering around their pretty main square.  The loony lady that I found caretaking the gardens on my past visit was not in evidence and the gardens had a neglected look to them.  Beautiful blooming flowers in an overgrown setting.

On to the trail.  My instructions had been to ask any local and they would show us the trailhead, and once there just follow it.   I remembered last time that it was easy to follow, with no intersections of note to confuse things.  What I didn’t remember was a set of freshly constructed stairs leading up, up, up.  At the top left or right?  Left said the gentleman tending his garden.  Up the road to the next intersection, where a group of men were playing music and drinking cane juice.  Offers of liquid refreshment politely refused and we were directed up a nearby set of stairs, these looking old and well worn.  Again with the up, up, up… I remarked repeatedly that this was not at all what I remembered.  (OK, so I whined).

But the directions had been clear and we soldiered on, avoiding mud where necessary and stopping to catch our breaths and drink water.  Levanto itself is several hundred metres higher than Chachapoyas, and very soon we were looking way down on Levantos’ main square.  It did not compute for me, because I remember walking DOWN from the town.  HMMM.

We came to a part of the trail where a choice had to be made, left and up or right and down.  HMMM.  Along comes older gentleman who, when asked, pointed down for the trail to Chachapoyas.  Didn’t feel right because we were on the wrong side of the mountain, but we deferred to his knowledge. 

Wrong.

We ended up following what became a mud hole ridden cow path, and several rights later ended back at the road that had taken us into Levanto.  A 30 minute walk would have had us right back where we started. 

None of us being in the mood to retrace our steps up the muck ridden cow path, nor wanting to trek back to the start point, we settled down for a rest at the side of the road and waited for a passing car / taxi that could take us on the 20km road back to Chachapoyas… the thought of walking back was simply too much to contemplate. 

Every few minutes a motorcycle would whiz by, drivers looking at us curiously.  A pickup went past on it’s way into Levanto, which we hailed down and asked if they were going to be heading back… no they were continuing on to a remote town past Levanto.   A large truck stopped, but finally I understood their explanation that they were not going directly and could not take us.  Finally a taxi came barrelling bye, and we stood in the middle of the road to stop it.  The driver didn’t want to go to Chachapoyas because this late in the day he would not get a return fare. 

“How much?”  I asked.  Hesitation.  “How much?” I asked again.  The driver names a ridiculous sum.   “Complete?”  I ask… “Nada Mas?”.  He agrees and we gladly pay the highway robbery price.  Back in town we profusely thank the driver for his willingness to bring us down… Our Hero.  (price tag notwithstanding)

Back in town I told Carlos we got lost and he then informed me that the trail we took was a totally different one that I had previously, up, up, up was correct… the right hand turn is what apparently got us.  So much for asking a local.

I finally got over to my land to take a good look at my fence.  Manuel did a good job, and the land is now cleared and planted.  It is good to know it will be cared for.

The hot afternoon sunshine is calling me out… so that’s it for now.  Shout out to a Stacey… a friend that is having a hard time right now.  Hang in there!