Horseback Riding up a Volcano

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Woke up at 7am for breakfast at 730. I opened my eyes to my mom eating the chips ahoy chocolate chip cookies I had been saving for an emergency (most likely for lunch today since the Russians we met last night said the sandwiches were tuna and vegetable...gross). I was like, WHY ARE YOU EATING THE COOKIES I´VE BEEN SAVING!?!?!? "Because I´m hungry and wanted a snack" was her reply...I was not a happy camper because now I was most likely going to go without food for the majority of the day. At breakfast I met a local Ecuadorean and shot the sh*t with him for a bit. After breakfast we met the rest of the group we would be with for the day, a spanish chic and a guy from holland who are doing north and south america, and a Calgarian named brad who is voluteering/vacationing for a few months...seems like all the canadians I meet are from Calgary! We hopped in the truck and headed to Volcan Sierra Negra in the southern part of Isabella Island. Of course we went through several climate zones until we hit the misty highlands.

We arrived at the start of our horseback riding trip in a misty rain condition...in the middle of a cloud cover. While the guides were getting the horses together, I saw a mule and pointed it out to my mom...told her I felt bad for the poor sucker who would get that one...a couple minutes later it was pulled out and set up to ride and who gets pointed at to ride it?...that´s right, ME! So I got stuck with a mule for my horseback ride...a stubborn one to boot...did not want to run or do what I wanted it to do. So everyone grabbed horses...I was the only one with a "non-horse" and we started the trek up the volcano. As we climbed, the mist went away and the sun came out. Also, the mule only wanted to be in first the whole trip. so the only way I could get it to run is if another horse came up to pass, then it shifted gears and started trotting/galloping. We got to the top of the volcano and looked into the Caldera (A caldera is a giant crater)...this just so happened to be the largest active Caldera in the world. After we parked the horses after our hour long ride, we treked another 45 minutes to a viewpoint near the caldera where you could see the ocean and half the island...pretty cool. So after grabbing pictures, we headed back the way we came.

My mom, as clumsy as usual, started tripping over small things and I kept telling her to pick her feet up. She was holding onto me for part of the trip back. After about 10-15 minutes, we came to a spot (a step over a rock) where there was only room for one person to go at a time. She planted her left foot on the rock and went to step over with her right foot...and didn´t pick it up enough like I´d been telling her...I knew what was about to take place. Sure enough, like slow motion, that misstep caught up to her 2-3 steps later and she fell leading with her head (still don´t know why she didn´t put her hands out in front of her to protect her head) onto the ground. She immediately grabbed her forhead and started crying. I knew it wasn´t serious because she was still conscious...just hurt now. I checked her head and saw blood bleeding through her fingers...head wounds bleed a lot so I was already expecting this. After we sat her up, Brad pulled out a little first aid kit with some gauze and a bandage wrap and we wrapped her head. I had tape so we could tape it off. I also gave her some 800mg ibuprofen for the pain (even though with a concussion I shouldn´t have allowed her to eat or drink anything until we made it to the hospital). We had another 40 or so minutes ahead of us through the lava fields and desert until we were back to the horses.

I was her seeing eye person for most of the trip, she was clutching onto me for dear life for most of the way and complaining of a headache and wanting more pain pills. I kept saying no. At one point the trail came to a narrow spot where only one person could go at a time, she led...that´s when I was blasted with a half moon in the middle of the day!...that´s right, the whole left part of her pants were ripped and her left cheek was hanging out. I asked if she felt any breeze back there, she said no, and we laughed about it for a good 5 minutes. She took my pants (I was in shorts at this point) and wrapped them around her waist so nobody would see her bare ass. We finally made it to the break spot where we were to have lunch...I told her she couldn´t eat...I didn´t eat either since she already ate my cookies this morning...and there was no way I was going to eat a warm tuna and vegetable sandwich! So after lunch we hiked back up to the horses and were going to strictly walk them down...A) because mom had a terrible headache and B) there were no friction straps on the stirrups and it was bruising/rubbing our legs raw. Also she was stuck with the mule and I got her horse which ended up being a follower...even though I tried my hardest to get it to run or move faster than the pace mule.

We eventually descended into the cloud cover and mist and made it back to the car. We all hopped in and worked our way back to town. We dropped the spanish and holland guy off at their hotel and then made our way to the hospital to get the wound cleaned up. We got to the hospital and they took her in right away to one of the rooms (no check-in or anything). There was a doctor and two nurses...all female. It was a party in our room because I think she was the first patient they had all week! So after cleaning her wound with iodine from a gatorade bottle (no joke, it was really from a gatorade bottle), the doctor asked me to follow her to get some supplies. Apparently they said she needed a stitch for the wound, so I was given a list and had to go down the hall to the supply room and get the needles, razor blade, gloves, etc. for the stitching to start. After returning with the needed supplies, they got to work on her. After putting a stitch in her head, they cleaned the wounds on her hands and knee and we were off. I asked Julio (our guide all day) how much we owed, and he said nothing since it is a free hospital...even for tourists and visitors. Cool.

So we headed off to the bay tour for snorkeling. We saw a few hundred blue footed boobies swarming and dive-bombing a school of fish...VERY cool. After watching them for a few minutes we moved on to the small island where we saw a seal just chilling on the dock under the plank up the gangway. We saw plenty of iguanas and white-tipped sharks in the canal and island...saw some more seals (even a baby one). After the island tour we got in to snorkel, I swam with a school of angelfish and got plenty of pictures. After snorkeling we returned to the port and then to the hotel. I took a shower...hot water and water pressure...can´t go wrong there! After the shower we headed to get dinner at the bar on the beach, it was closed 😞...so we found another place to eat. I had grilled chicken, mom had grilled shrimp. We called it a night around 8pm since we had to be up for another 2 hour boat ride in the morning at 6am...fun....NOT.

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