Fourth day at Cloudbridge

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This is Kate.

It is my 4th day at Cloudbridge. Yesterday, I went on my first hike with Andrew and Tom. Both are experienced hikers, and were going quite fast. Our first little hike was to the hydro-source behind Tom's house. There was somewhat of a path there through the forest. He wanted to show us where he was making his hydroelectricity and also point out where Andrew might want to get some samples. I was wearing a ballcap, and on the way there my head had a very intimate meeting with the trunk of a tree that had fallen across the path and I fell backwards and slid a little. I was SO embarassed in front of these 2 experienced hikers, and I felt my eyes water up a little. They asked if I was alright and I told them I was fine of course, then Tom said, "Don't worry, that will happen a lot".

It was also the day to break in my rubber boots and I was straggling behind as we were headed straight uphill. It felt like I had 20 extra pounds on each foot! Realistically, it was more like 3 - 5 pounds, but my legs ached. I was out of breath most of the way up as well, but I tried to push through both of these things to keep up. Tom was smart, realizing my energy levels were depleting, he would stop every so often to point something out or to show us a view. Finally, we made it up the hill to Casa Gavalon. I'd say it took 30 - 40 minutes. We rested for a bit and looked around the casa, then headed straight into the rainforest.

On our way to Casa Gavalon, we had a trail to follow that is well-maintained. Once we headed into the rainforest, there was no trail. We were going to the water source for Casa Gavalon, and we were following a rubber hose, that was it. Our feet stepped wherever we could on the side of the hill. It was steep, but if we lost footing and started to slip, there were plenty of trees and vines to catch us. I was much more careful to pay attention to when I needed to go under something, so as not to hit my head and fall straight down the side! There were many slips and near slides, but we made it there. My legs KILLED and my feet ached with blisters all over. I got to rest a bit while they hiked up to the filter to clean it out, but the little creek that was the water source was too small to get any samples out of. We started slowly making our way back.

Throughout this hike, we were playing a game Andrew suggested. It was called Rookie Mistake. You play for a week actually, and whoever makes the most rookie mistakes is the loser and has some punishment. Of course, on the way back to Casa Gavalon, I slipped and actually fell on my butt. If you slip but recover before you fall, it is not a rookie mistake. If you slip and fall... well, you get it. So, now I have 1 rookie mistake against Andrew and Tom's 0. Yay for me. Actually, I am surprised I didn't make more than 1 mistake. I have never been hiking like that, where there's no path. We cleared our own path much of the time with Tom leading the way with his machete. Andrew had his too in the back, and I was in the middle. It was a fun hike, and good experience for me.

The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do my own research study. I am interested in what Andrew is doing, but I want to have a creation of my own. I am tossing up 2 options, and my try to do both. I want to use somethin called SWAT (soil and water assessment tool) that is a computer program which allows someone to investigate a variety of aspects of a watershed. Cloudbridge wants someone to do this and hopefully come up with data on the effects of their conservation effort on: water flow, erosion, and river contamination. That sounded interesting to me and I would get to learn new software. The other thing I would like to do is I.D. flora. I am interested in the plants and trees here at cloudbridge. If I ever wanted to be a guide or naturalist, I need to become familiar with different types of plantlife. So, those are the 2 things. It would be easy for me to go out and I.D. plants in my spare time if SWAT was going to be my main project, but I have so many other things I need to do. I have to complete my online TEFL course by Sept. 15 which I think I have only gotten 1/5 of the way through. I also need to practice Spanish and will be starting some semi-private lessons soon out here. Lastly, starting Aug. 25, school will begin and I will need to work on that stuff.

Enough about me, Eric is back at Villas Jacquelina. He told me he's keeping busy and looking for things to do or stuff to help Steve with. Steve has had an interested buyer or renter for the whole villas come by. His name is Jason and he runs the TEFL school that Eric attended. The rent has gone up on the building they're currently using, and he doesn't want to pay that much. He is interested in the villas to us as a TEFL school and to house students. It would probably be good for Steve to work out a deal with Jason, because there aren't enough tourists for him to sustain his business as a hostel/guesthouse. Plus, he wants to start on his new project, which will be up on the hill he owns behind the villas. They will be eco-hut/treehouse type of places but as luxurious as possible with the least amount of impact on the environment. It sounds really neat. Anyway, if Steve turns over the villas to Jason in one capacity or another, Eric will not have a place to live while I am here. Therefore, I will either need to cut my stay short, or he will need to come here and stay with me. The first will probably happen, and we would start traveling early.

So many things are going on. It's impossible to even contemplate plans for the future. We still don't know what we're doing after Christmas, and we probably won't know until that time. It's so wonderful, I think, to not know where your life is going. For so long I just wanted to plan plan plan. Everything was a plan. My life was a schedule. Even time with Eric was scheduled in. Now, everything is free... it's so relaxing. I love it. Of course, it will have to end one day... but not anytime soon!

Pura Vida

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