started off the weekend well...

We might have gotten ripped off by the fees. Turns out the trail is only a few km from our apartment. Which is incredible, a 3 minute taxi and an hour walk to a breathtaking waterfall in the middle of a jungle.

They gave us each a hiking pole. But ¾ of the hour walk was through a village. Can you just imagine two white girls walking through a village leaning on poles through the muddy roads? Nobody else needed poles to get around. A woman in her 60’s saw the irony in this as well, she came up to me with a smile and made a gesture toward the pole, as if to say she wanted it and would be able to put it to better use. Somehow despite the language barrier, I shared with her my agreement, and she laughed and turned and carried on down the road, at a JOGGING pace.

There were so many children that collected around us as we stopped to admire the avocado, mango, papaya, and PEACH trees. We could hear them shout MA- ZUUUN- GU! From far away and suddenly they were right behind us. One particular group was all whispers and giggles and kept trying to sneak up behind us to scare us. So I turned around quickly to startle THEM. The poor kids, you should have seen the look of terror on their faces! Though this quickly melted back into their fine senses of humor and we all laughed for some time.

We finally made it to the waterfall, which involved some jumping over ant hills and sliding down steep mud hills. We came across another American (who just graduated from a Quaker school, go figure) and his two guides. Just as we made it down to the bottom of the climb, before I could even pull out my camera, the sky OPENED up. We were caught in a downpour. Thunder pounded and fat raindrops made it difficult to see. We took quick pictures and then scrambled back up the hill. Victoria, myself and our guide joined with the other hiking group and they led us to a small cooking shack to keep dry. The problem was we were already completely drenched. So after the rain showed no sign of letting up, we convinced them to let us keep walking.

What a sight that must have been. The roads were FILLED with water, and people were standing under cover, staying dry. And here we come traipsing along in a thunderstorm, with our metal poles mind you, and covered in goosebumps having to wipe the heavy rain from our faces. They shouted to us in sympathy, “Poleni!” One lady even offered us to come to her house for milk. A little later we came across a couple of trucks that had gotten stuck in the mud, I shouted “Poleni!” to the men trying to free the vehicles, and got some great smiles back.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get warm for quite some time, despite drinking hot tea and wearing two pairs of sweatpants at a time. And not surprisingly I feel like I am coming down with something. But it was SO worth it. That was the most fun I have had since, last weekend. :0)