Our first stop was a quarry, seemingly, in the middle of nowhere on the side of a random road. Of course, as soon as we got off the bus and grouped up and starting talking about what rocks we were to collect, it started raining. Big drops too, not just little drizzles. By the time we had collected our designated 3 rocks [granite, basalt, and natural asphalt], we were all soaked.
Second stop to collect clay shale involved stopping at the side of another random road then climbing up a hill made of clay bits. Combine this with rain and you have pretty squishy ground. Result: very muddy and wet students.
Stop number three was our best example of Theo’s insanity. Again, stop on a random street where we walk a block, go through seemingly someone’s field, over a barbed wire fence, then over a super rickety bridge. Then, all 60-70 of us RUN across this bridge (complete with holes and super creaky and breaking wood at some parts) to cross the river. Shall we say intense?
Then we go marching up into the hills, without any trail, I should mention. We hike for a short period of time through some vegetation, mud, and water. At this point, we’ve done the caterpillar thing and the front of the group was stopped in this small gorge. Theo says “ok, we’re going to keep going” and of course we assume farther up the gorge. Instead, Theo jumps into the bushes on the side of the hill and starts to just climb up the wall of the gorge. We think he’s kidding, but he’s not. So up we all go. In case you’ve never done it, climbing up the side of a heavily vegetated, also pretty steep hill, in the rain and mud, is ridiculous. For a good part of the climb there wasn’t stable ground or holds (roots, branches, etc). As I was at the end of the line (literally 2nd to last) the ground had all been smoothed down or the vegetation had been ripped out making it an especially adventurous climb for us.
When we finally made it to the top of the hill, we found out that we were just going down the other side, which was mostly just sliding and holding onto bamboo and trees as you just kind of went down with gravity. At the bottom, we then jumped back and forth across a river/walked straight through it. We then came out, please pay attention here, at the exact same gorge we just climbed out of. Insane? I think so.
We then came out of the gorge, back the way we came in, and took a right, walked through a wide path that had become entirely mud after 60 people walked through it. This, followed by tromping through the forest and we ended up at a huge rock face. This was actually very cool as Theo explained how the Andes were formed and other geology things. We collected another rock [Andasita] and made our way back out through the mud back to the bus.
We were all super dirty and tired but this was not our last stop! We drove to another random spot, got off the bus, trekked straight through a river, up along it through the forest and came to a small waterfall (we didn’t have time to go all the way up to the larger waterfall) where we collected two more rocks [quartz and a metamorphic rock].
We finished off the day with an awesome trip to the natural hot springs in Papallacta. Sitting in the wonderfully warm baths after spending all day muddy, cold, and wet, was the best way to wrap it all up.
Although it was a crazy day and at points frustrating, challenging, and exhausting (I now have a splinter/thorn in my finger that won’t come out, makes typing a pain—haha! that’s a pun!), I had a GREAT time. I love hiking more than anything, and I think mud and rain just make it even more fun. Although it was hard to go in such a large group, I had fun hanging out with everyone in my class and just being out in general. I came home, showered (took all my clothes and shoes into the shower with me because they were so dirty) and promptly fell asleep by 1030 on a Saturday night.
Another gringo amigo, Chris, and I in front of the forest we hiked through
oh man katie that sounds so great! i get what you mean about getting out and not being at home. you are totally right!
ReplyDeleteWow that sounds RIDICULOUSLY intense! I have to say I'm jealous though. Although probably life-threatening it sounds like a great workout, and you slept like a rock (haha) afterwards. Thats one of those days you'll never forget.
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