Feb. 28
Once again we didn't have to get up at dawn but this time the other groups were a little more considerate so the noise wasn't too bad at 5 am. The previous day at dinner Filipe had surveyed if anyone had had enough with hiking and wanted a mule for the day. We were only hiking 4-5 hours but two of the hours were steep ascents. Four people opted for the mules, including Meg.
The first hour was a straight ascent for an hour, thankfully mainly in the shade. We were retracing our steps but they were heavy ones. We had a pineapple/orange break at the camp where there were still Columbian soldiers and rifles all over the place. We heard about mule drama from the riding team with our equine friends kicking at each other and narrowly missing Felix.
Next was a descent down to the river with the metal bridge where we had a break as the sun was out fully today. We were now on a dusty, deeply grooved path in direct sunlight for another hour of ascending. One of us would voice hope if ahead we saw anything resembling our camp for the night. Finally we were correct and collapsed in the dining area, with the mule people already there being annoyingly fresh and perky.
Now the fun started. A few people had found ticks on them so everyone partnered up and had pre-shower tick inspections. I had two, one of which I had noticed the day before but thought it was an old scab. Wendy, with her medical training, became our resident tick puller although her previous tick removal experience was solely with felines. Our cook, Chavez, gained notoriety when he removed one with his bare fingers from one of the women's butt. They looked It certainly was a new and creepy experience for most people on the trip.
We spent the afternoon playing games in the dining area including Skip Bo, dice, Scattergories and Handbanz with only Skip Bo in commercial form and the rest with pencil and paper. Good to see so many gamers of different ages amongst the group.
Before dinner we gathered in a circle around a fire to hear stories from Felix and Raphael. The pile of logs were huge but they burned quite nicely as we settled in. Felix told a long and rambling but funny story about Unlucky Pedro, which was a trickster-like character who got into lots of trouble but solved his problems by dressing as a woman and stealing all of the treasure from a king who fell in love with him. We asked Filipe (who was translating these stories from Spanish) why he was unlucky and he said that he didn't understand either. Felix said that the moral was if you did bad things but made up for them later you could be forgiven, but he made up for them by stealing from someone else so it didn't seem really moral.
While Felix was telling his story, Raphael was digging postholes for our G-Adventures banner and impatiently pointing to his watch. His stories were more traditional ones about how the toucan got its beak and how people arose from their shadows but they were short and to the point, lacking Felix's skill for embellishment. He told a few of them, telling us how many stories he knew and that the full creation story would take several days to properly tell.
While we were sitting there some people noticed that there were many ticks on the ground so many of our group tucked their feet up. I flicked off a few that I noticed on my hand, they were small and tough like fleas. Just before dinner a scorpion walked out of the fire and Raphael chased it off. In case anyone needed reminding that we were in a jungle...
We dove into our dinner, which was Chavez's last with us so Felipe put out a box to collect tips in. It was delicious and we finished off with a headbanz game before climbing into our bunks to sleep.
Once again we didn't have to get up at dawn but this time the other groups were a little more considerate so the noise wasn't too bad at 5 am. The previous day at dinner Filipe had surveyed if anyone had had enough with hiking and wanted a mule for the day. We were only hiking 4-5 hours but two of the hours were steep ascents. Four people opted for the mules, including Meg.
The first hour was a straight ascent for an hour, thankfully mainly in the shade. We were retracing our steps but they were heavy ones. We had a pineapple/orange break at the camp where there were still Columbian soldiers and rifles all over the place. We heard about mule drama from the riding team with our equine friends kicking at each other and narrowly missing Felix.
Next was a descent down to the river with the metal bridge where we had a break as the sun was out fully today. We were now on a dusty, deeply grooved path in direct sunlight for another hour of ascending. One of us would voice hope if ahead we saw anything resembling our camp for the night. Finally we were correct and collapsed in the dining area, with the mule people already there being annoyingly fresh and perky.
Now the fun started. A few people had found ticks on them so everyone partnered up and had pre-shower tick inspections. I had two, one of which I had noticed the day before but thought it was an old scab. Wendy, with her medical training, became our resident tick puller although her previous tick removal experience was solely with felines. Our cook, Chavez, gained notoriety when he removed one with his bare fingers from one of the women's butt. They looked It certainly was a new and creepy experience for most people on the trip.
We spent the afternoon playing games in the dining area including Skip Bo, dice, Scattergories and Handbanz with only Skip Bo in commercial form and the rest with pencil and paper. Good to see so many gamers of different ages amongst the group.
Before dinner we gathered in a circle around a fire to hear stories from Felix and Raphael. The pile of logs were huge but they burned quite nicely as we settled in. Felix told a long and rambling but funny story about Unlucky Pedro, which was a trickster-like character who got into lots of trouble but solved his problems by dressing as a woman and stealing all of the treasure from a king who fell in love with him. We asked Filipe (who was translating these stories from Spanish) why he was unlucky and he said that he didn't understand either. Felix said that the moral was if you did bad things but made up for them later you could be forgiven, but he made up for them by stealing from someone else so it didn't seem really moral.
While Felix was telling his story, Raphael was digging postholes for our G-Adventures banner and impatiently pointing to his watch. His stories were more traditional ones about how the toucan got its beak and how people arose from their shadows but they were short and to the point, lacking Felix's skill for embellishment. He told a few of them, telling us how many stories he knew and that the full creation story would take several days to properly tell.
While we were sitting there some people noticed that there were many ticks on the ground so many of our group tucked their feet up. I flicked off a few that I noticed on my hand, they were small and tough like fleas. Just before dinner a scorpion walked out of the fire and Raphael chased it off. In case anyone needed reminding that we were in a jungle...
We dove into our dinner, which was Chavez's last with us so Felipe put out a box to collect tips in. It was delicious and we finished off with a headbanz game before climbing into our bunks to sleep.
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| Meg and her gallant steed. |
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| Jungle dressage. |
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| Some of the scenery we were constantly surrounded by. |
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| Felix the storyteller. |
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