lite & lucid

23 Mar 2015

Well, I’ve been talking about minimizing and traveling and here I am doing it.  I’m in a hammock after the first day of my hike to the Lost City in the Colombian jungle.  This is where I’m sleeping tonight.  Today was brutal – a 600m climb to end up about 400m of altitude at the first stop, living in the first Cavanna.  There are beds and hammocks and they all have mosquito nets.

I’m sleeping with my personal hammock as my sheet tucked inside of the cloth hammock that they hung for me.  My hammock sleeping spot is between Pedro, our volunteer translator from Argentina, and Juan, Liz’s Colombian friend.  Juan is the only Colombian on this trek so far – and he seems to be appropriately cautious and vigilant about safety.  No guerillas seen yet and apparently that is not much of a problem to tourists anymore although they fill the hillsides.

I’m tired so I’m just going to take notes on today.  We got picked up and went to the tour place where we paid.  Then it took 3 vehicles to take all 13 of us to the trailhead, El Mamey.  There we ate lunch and I forgot my long sleeve shirt.  We walked about 40 minutes in the beginning and we were all excited and fresh.  We stopped to change into our swimsuits and play in the crystal clear mountain stream.  It was beautiful and refreshing.  I soon found out why we stopped so soon into the hike.

The next part and actually the entire first day was full of brutal ascents, only amplified by the fact that I am hardly in shape.  I was sucking water and wind the entire day, and sweating like I hadn’t since a summer basketball practice in a humid Missouri gym.

The views only became more an more magnificent as we climbed today.  Different than the Rocky mountains I’m used to, these vistas were lush and the sounds of the jungle were intoxicating, or distracting if you’re struggling as much as most of us were.  We saw a boar, toucans, and a hummingbird along with the trail dogs that apparently befriend whichever group it’s near and stay with them throughout the entire hike.  We had representatives from Argentina, Germany, The UK, Australia, France, Czech Republic, Holland, Colombia, the US and a skinny sweet blonde kid.  I haven’t figured out where he’s from yet. It’s a good group!  We walked through some lush areas that used to be used to grow cocaine but have been burned by the government.  Now only the indigenous people are allowed to grow it.  Our guide is Nelson, but he doesn’t speak English so that’s why Pedro translates.  The Czech asked if I was Swedish, Icelandic or British when we first met.  Those are firsts for me too.  We stopped and had oranges (green, the oranges here are green) after the hardest part and watermelon overlooking quite a view.  Someone in the group said they felt it was a stage.  It certainly looked unreal.

Quite a descent to finish the day.  Got the headlamp out.  Got to camp with a headache.  Chatted with Liz and Juan.  Took a cold shower in austere conditions.  He’s flown helicopters around here for the Colombian Air Force and stayed in camps like this.  Dinner was ready after my shower and it was chicken and rice.  Nelson talked about tomorrow – we’re making it longer so we can see the indigenous people sooner – the Kogi.  Another first. I’m using my hammock as a sheet.  Oh and we are not saying military.  Fake stories but no one has even asked.

24 Mar 15

Today we walked all day.  Apparently both tonight and last night I’m going to be before 9pm.  I GOT THE GERMANS TO SAY SQUIRREL!! Germans Saying Squirrel  My life is complete.  I felt pretty good in the morning.  The river was beautiful.  I guess I figured out how to sleep in a hammock around a lot of people.  Maybe there’s something very primitive and normal about it.  We had a lot of fruit – papaya, pineapple, etc. granola and yogurt with coffee.  The place was so primitive.  It’s like my childhood dream.  Cook stoves from firewood, dirt floors, tin roof.

I am starting to learn a little more Spanish.  We hiked a lot today.  Lots of climbing – saw a lot of amazing things too.  Beautiful, clear river, which we swam in and I took a nap on a rock.  We ate a delicious soup with rice and corn for lunch.  Their ‘lemonade’ is like tasty juice.  I saw indigenous Kogi for the first time.  They didn’t care about us. I saw a couple more giant butterflies, wild orchids, giant bamboo trees, and wild plantains and bananas.

We had a trail dog hike with us the entire day and saw a few more.  We crossed a crazy rickety bridge.  I think I talked with nearly everyone at least a little bit today.  I am enjoying getting to know everyone.  I learned to go to Myanmar from the Belgian kid (the skinny blonde who’s 23), Jerome. I always want to remember the scene today when 4 indigenous were crossing the river.  Liz and I were on a rock, Juan wasn’t there yet.  We didn’t have our cameras but I seared it into my brain.  3 were women, and 1 was a man.  But the men wear their hair really long too.  The men wear the bags though and have the ‘popurah’ in it, a gourd with a stick in it to show their standing in their community.

Nelson learned how to say ‘chocolate bar’ at lunch.  It’s the important things we learn in other languages first.  We hiked for another three and a half to four hours but saw some cool shit.  Just seeing the mountains is breathtaking.  At one point the path opened up to a grassy knoll, and it looked like a scene from Lord of the Rings.  The Czech loudly chimed in ‘and now…we are New Zealand’.  Traveling like this with this group is amazing – simply.  I would love to travel like this more.

We got to camp, 1km from Ciudad Perdida.  Tomorrow we will leave our bags there at the base camp and trek up the 1200 stairs.  We are at 800m right now.  Tomorrow in 1km of hiking we will climb 400m.  We’ll hang out up there with Nelson (Liz practiced being the translator today – she did a great job!) then we’ll head down to one of the camps – the one we had lunch at today.  We’ll sleep there then head all the way back the next day.

Once we got to camp we claimed our hammocks.  I lined mine with my hammock again.  It’s keeping me clean and warm.  We also got blankets tonight because we are at a higher altitude.  It will be colder.  They sell beer here, but I refrained.  I’m too sensitive at altitude.  I took a bath in the river and washed my long pants.  I hung my clothes to dry but they probably won’t because it’s so humid.  Soon we had chips and pork rinds.  Some (most) people were smoking and having a beer.  We had a whole fried and delicious fish for dinner, a plantano (fried plantain cake), rice, onions and tomato, and lemonade.  The fish was seriously amazing.  I also realized how they transport all the food and supplies.  It’s by mule on the same trail we’ve been hiking so every once in a while you get a surprise from some cargo-carrying mules or donkeys running down the steep and narrow path at you or behind you.  I recommend getting to the side toward the mountain.

Many of us sat around and talked.  We talked about nuances of languages, dialects, accents and also stupid, funny stuff.  No one had phone service.  There were no blue screens, just candles and conversation.  The Germans have a weird wizard card game that apparently exists in another version in many countries – Argentina, France and Belgium.  Liz and I tried to learn but didn’t want to play.  We had delicious green tea with honey and now I’m nestled in again. Communal, simply amazing.  The guides and cooks are sleeping in the kitchen where there’s a fire.  The older men are playing cards at a table.  I can’t believe I’m doing this.