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Published: April 15th 2007
Well, rumors swirled the other weekend about the fact that we may only have to teach on Monday (to celebrate ¨Day of the Teacher¨ we got a week off, go figure), and as a result I proposed heading off for some hiking on a backcountry backpacking trip. Several foolhardy volunteers expressed interest, figuring this may be a good idea and that I know what I´m doing. The rumors (about not having class, not about me knowing what I´m doing) proved true and on Wednesday I headed to Quito to: rent tents, hire a pickup to the starting point and obtain the appropiate maps, then we planned to meet as a group Thursday at the bus station. Unsuprisingly, Thursday morning came, and I had: no tents, no driver and unwittingly only two thirds of the maps needed. However, we hit a patch of good luck - that would hold through the entire trip - and in a reasonable amount of time we were equipped and rolling through Quito in the back of a pickup, about to commence on our adventure.
About lunch time we headed out of Lloa in pleasant weather soon encountering a pleasant woman who chatted with us - and more interestingly, let us pet her llama. Then we noticed a wall of clouds rolling in unbelievably fast and began trudging through a rainstorm. As we were heading through a cloud forest and into a rainforest, this weather was expected, however having to decipher the instructions in our guidebook was not. We were able to find a small covered patio to duck into for the worst of the rainstorm and here three of us tried to figure out what the guidbook was actually telling us to do. Soon thereafter, we realized something interesting, that our path would soon be hiking directly off our map onto a map not in our possession because the guidebook instructed us to purchase only two of the three maps needed.
We soon spoke with the owner of the patio and ended up camping next to some nearby hot springs, sharing the field with three llamas that wandered around our camp. However, a partially constructed building provided a small lean to that provided cover from the rainstorm as we stood around eating our dinner. The next morning we woke early and quickly head off on the dusty (well, muddy) trail.
Soon enough I found myself scantily clad, standing in a swirling thigh-deep stream passing packs across rapids, which we actually crossed uneventfully. After clearing this obstacle we were overtaken by an older gentleman who had extensive knowledge of the trail, but spoke Spanish at approximately Mach 2. He warned us of an upcoming river crossing that could possibly be dangerous, this obstacle was mentioned in the book, but it merely instructed us to ¨cross the river.¨First, this gentleman tried to get the ricketly zip line onto our side of the river, but it looked more dangerous than the rapids themselves. Unsuprsingly, the zip line did not seem to be working, but he did offer to rent us mules to take across the rapids. Seeing no other option, and with the offer of a reasonable price we agreed that this was the best idea.
While the others rested, two of us went to a nearby farm, I found myself laughing at the diversion from hiking to standing in knee deep mud, assisting in the capture of mules. Soon the beasts of burden were saddled and I rode back to the group on my new steed. He load our packs on one mule, then swung up to his precarious perch on top of our backpacks, to add to the fun, his mount required a blindfold before anyone could mount - a fact which made us a bit apprehensive. I was the first of the group to ride across and was a mite nervous at the strength of the current and the fact that the water was deep enough to fill one of my knee-high boots. However, once again our good luck held and we all made it across with all of our gear. The gentleman headed back home, and then we looked around and realized we didn´t now were the trail was, after some searching we found it again - at the top of a crumbling dirt cliff. I headed up first to see if the trail was there, and since it was we had to pass the packs one at a time, after which everybody scrambled up as the dirt cliff crumbled beneath hand and foot holds. I helped with a hand up, while another volunteer had a firm grip on my other hand to prevent me from taking a tumble, and another volunteer held onto this person as an added measure of safety - at times the trip bore and eery resemblance to a huge team-building exercise. The trail did exist, but was very difficult to find and we all wondered if maybe bringing a machete would have been a good idea. Our good fortune came through again and the trail quickly firmed up and we were able to make good time.
We pushed on, and then things took a turn for the worse. As expected the rain came pouring down at about 2, but now we were walking though endless cow pastures. It was a hellacious ordeal, as the trail detiorated solely to mud that was calf-deep along with a liberal scattering of cow pies to make the inevitable tumbles all the more interesting. More than once, a volunteer with rubber boots had one sucked off in the muck, and somebody else had to stumble over and pull it out for her. I can´t complain because I at least had on shoes, while other volunteers only were able to wear sandals because of blisters. While this part seemed interminable, it only lasted for about two hours before we came to the hacienda we were looking for. Two of us fruitlessly wandered the property in search of somebody to ask if we could sleep on the patio. Afterward the whole group discussed the situation and everybody agreed that this deck was the only flat dry place we could find, and so the seven of us promptly hopped the fence and sloshed through more mud and water before finding our slice of paradise, consisting of a concrete deck with a tin roof. We changed into dry gear and had a civilized dinner sitting around a table.
The next morning the alarms went off at 5:00 am as we still had to cover serious ground to make it back to Quito in time to return our rented tents. About half of us had the pleasure of pulling on clothes still soaked from the previous day´s ordeal, and the other half spent a good deal of time attempting to bandage feet in a way as to finish the hike in as little pain as possible. We pushed on without any major suprises until the trail quietly disappeared, we were stumped for a bit but after about an hour of bushwacking we were able to find it again. After another couple of hours our good luck pulled through and we came across men building a bridge across the same river we had crossed via mule the day before. They told us the route to Mindo required crossing the river and tried to charge us a ridiculous price for use of the bridge, we haggled a bit and eventually crossed. We then came found ourselves at a fork in the road not mentioned by any of the people we had previously asked for directions so two of us staggered up a hill to see if it was the correct way. Eventually, we were overtaken by a carful of Columbians, and two of the other volunteers. After a brief round of musical chairs, I was in the car with one other volunteer bound for Mindo, upon arriving I pushed on to Quito alone to get the tents back and the other hired a pickup to get the others.
The whole bus ride back, and on the trollies in Quito I received stares because I was making everybody else´s eyes water due to the fact that I had a certain aroma because I had been hiking for three days straight without a shower. The tents got back in time and everybody safely made it in from the trail, we had a quick reunion in Quito for chocolate cake followed by another smelly bus ride to Otavalo. Once home we even managed a group picture where we all look like were still friends.
All in all, it was crazy at times but a heck of alot of fun. I was really impressed by how well the members of the group handled: blisters, disappearing trails, incorrect maps, mule rides through rapids, rain, more rain and early mornings, all without complaining, whining or fighting. Also not mentioned above, we covered some absolutely glorious terrain, we started in highland grasslands, wandered through the cloudforest and emerged in the jungle, and while the rain was tedious the clouds playing over the moutains added a certain dramatic feel to the scenery.
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Maria
non-member comment
Hello
You are sooo cool Peter!