Thursday, January 18, 2017
Getting up the next day was a struggle, despite the extra sleep Jeanne and I had scored ourselves. We somehow managed, got around bright and early, ate another breakfast, and boarded the bus on time. The bus ride to the day’s destination was a drive away, meaning a few of the students went back to sleep while others (like me), did our best to rouse ourselves and get ready. After a wet ride (we are in the rainforest), we arrived at a hotel in the next town over. Here, we traded our tennis shoes or hiking boots for rain boots.We all got a little snack and then boarded the buses again so that we could continue on to our destination for the day, la Caverna de Giocta. On this trip there was one large charter bus, and two smaller Amish haulers. I just happened to be in the large charter bus (my mistake). As we traveled to the caves, the bus got stuck in the mud. We were in a part of Perú that is technically the Amazon Rainforest but is still quite mountainous. This means that it is the rainy season, so all the roads are completely muddy. This also means the buses are going up winding paths. Putting the two together sadly meant that the good old charter bus got stuck, which resulted in all of us exiting the bus and walking.
Walking down the muddy path was certainly not what we were expecting to be doing that morning, but sometimes life takes the unexpected route. However, after walking what felt like a great distance, a savior appeared. An Amish van that had already dropped off its initial load was making a second trip so that the students’ journey would be completed sooner. Anna (USA) and I quickly jumped into the Amish hauler, there wasn’t that much space left. Now in the car, we got to drive by all the other students still walking (I only felt a little remorse).
Once we arrived, all the students that had been waiting around 40 minutes (the originals of the amish haulers) all questioned what had taken so long (hmmmmmm I guess we had to walk uphill through mud). We had to wait a bit longer for some students to arrive, but we quickly started trekking downhill to reach the Cavern. Wet, muddy, and excited, we all eventually got down, used the bathrooms, registered, and began the tour. I was somehow blessed and put in charge of a giant flashlight. This really helped my path through the cave, along with my group of Courtney (USA), Salome (Switzerland), and Emilie (Denmark). While I have been labeled clumsy my entire life (and rightly so), Courtney makes me look like a graceful ballerina. So our group ended up being the last of group A to go into the cave. Nonetheless the cavern was without doubt impressive. While it had stalactites and stalagmites, it also happened to have human skulls and bones. Yes, you read that right, there were skulls and bones throughout the cave (encouraging, right?). The journey through the cave is not something I would describe easy, it was VERY slippery, and at some points you had to cross through water your couldn’t see through, hoping that your foot found a rock and didn’t sink completely into the mud.
After the journey back to daylight, we quickly rinsed our boots off and boarded our original charter bus (which was now unstuck). Group A then went back to the hotel where we had gotten our boots and ate a quick lunch (you guessed it, chicken :)). After lunch, we hit the buses again and headed to a new destination and hike. This hike also happened to feature some more deceased humans, to be more specific, Sarcophaguses.
The journey to get to the Sarcophaguses was in no way easy. It was once again a muddy path, but this time with a very steep decline. Steep declines mean steep inclines when you return, meaning as you pudder down, you know that you will have3 to struggle back up. The power of the exchange students somehow got us to our next destination however, and we all made it down to the Sarcophaguses and waterfall.
After we took it all in, we all made our way back up. Hiking at this point had become a game for me. You have to scan the path to avoid the mud, find the stable stones, and make sure you don’t end up in the horse poop. I was a winner in this game, I even ended up helping the other exchange students not slide down all the mud.
After the sarcophaguses, we had a quick bite to eat before we returned to the hotel and all slept off our exhaustion. We all attempted to take showers, but there was first no hot water, and then no hot water. I was lucky enough to get a freezing shower :)
No comments:
Post a Comment