Rio Claro!!

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Hello everyone!!

Heres for the last entry.....!! Sorry there werent many photos in the Santa Elena entry.... will add some more when i have more time and also Paula has quite a few of the photos!!

Got a bus to Medellin and from there we got a 3 hour bus to Rio Claro! Paula was trying to give me a Spanish lesson but some weird guy sitting in front of us kept turning round and staring at me non-stop and was starting to make us a bit nervous because he seemed far too interested and we are still quite paranoid about the FARC so Paula started praying for him to get off the bus, so I thought id join in - the next stop he got off! He was replaced by a guy in a Bayern Munich football shirt which made me smile, until I realized he was a weirdo too and did exactly the same thing as the last guy, no matter how many evil “what are you looking at” stares Paula gave him, so she started praying again, I joined in and again he got off at the next stop! The only thing which didn’t work was praying for the little boy sat at the front of the bus playing his recorder the WHOLE way to get off the bus too…. Unfortunately he stayed on the bus for the whole 3 hours and his mum didn’t seemed to realize that he was driving everyone crazy…..maybe she was immune to it! When we got there, we had lunch in a café on the side of the road as once we got into the jungle resort everything was apparently quite expensive! Had fish again…think im going to turn into one soon….hehe!! :o)

When walking into the park the woman at the entrance asked us if we had a reservation as she said it was very full and was worried there wouldn’t be enough beds for us….we spent the whole walk through the jungle worrying that we would have nowhere to sleep but when we got there the place was completely empty so we weren’t sure what the woman was talking about! The hostel was soooo cool….. it was like a big jungle house with a huge balcony with lots of beds lined up on it….no windows, doors, nothing!! So knew it was going to be another cosy night with the insects! :o( We got there about 3-4ish and decided it was too late to either go to the marble caves (as the tours were at 10am or 2pm) or rent an inflatable tyre to go down the river, so we decided to go to the marble beach which was only a quick walk away for a quick swim! There was a rope going across the river so Siemei was able to come in too (she cant swim!) which was really fun!! Nearly had a heart attack when all 3 of us were in the middle of the river holding on to the rope, as the current was so strong, as a guy and a little boy came on to the marble beach and seemed to stop and pick something up exactly where Siemei had put my camera after taking pictures of us! Paula and I both thought we had seen him bend down and pick something up and despite the fact he didn’t seem to be leaving in a hurry I was soooo scared! I have never swam and run through the water so fast in my life…..i think I was definitely way quicker than the people in Baywatch hehe! But where I was trying to climb out of the river and on to the rocks where my camera was, was too high and I kept slipping on the rocks…..soooo frustrating as the guy was still only 20 meters away so I knew if it was gone id still have time to catch him! Eventually I just threw myself on to the rocks (have a few little bruises hehe!) and could lift myself up far enough to see my beautiful little camera still sat there!! Phew phew phew!! :o) Walking back to the rope I realized how sharp the rocks on the river bed were and could barely walk on them, had to swim, but I hadn’t felt a thing when I was running over them in blind panic to reach my camera…. I guess panic knows no pain hehe! :o)

A while later a young guy and an older man came along and started chatting to us, well to Paula, they like everyone else here cant speak English, and told us that there was another beach a bit further up the river with a rope where we could swim and they took us there! The others got there a bit before me as id stopped to take photos and by the time I got to the beach Paula was already in the water swimming towards the rope! By the time I joined her on the rope she was shouting how much stronger the current was and suddenly started laughing/screaming as her bikini bottoms were coming off and she was trying to fight against the current to hold them on! I was trying to get nearer to her to help her but the current was just so strong that I could barely move along the rope towards her! Suddenly I saw her face change and realized it wasn’t at all funny anymore and she started screaming help in Spanish at the guys sat on the beach, in what seemed like 2 seconds the younger guy was on the rope too shouting at me to go back while he went and helped Paula! I didn’t see what happened but apparently he told her to grab on to his back and not let go whilst he tried to swim the other way (Paula was nearer the other side of the river bank), being dragged under by the current! By the time I got back to the beach they were both on the other side of the river behind some rocks where there was no current! Paula was fine just quite shaken up - it was all quite scary and I was quite annoyed at myself afterwards for not doing more to help her but I just didn’t think quick enough and the current was just sooo strong! Paula told me later that evening that the older guy was also on his way in to save her but in his panic he had ended up taking off all his clothes including his swimming shorts and by the time he had put them back on, the other guy had already rescued her! Hehe bless him!! On the walk back to the hostel I was walking behind Paula and the guy who had rescued her and I noticed he had a faded cross on his shoulder, which I thought was maybe a faded tattoo or something but when I looked closer I saw it was just a horizontal scratch and the vertical line was nothing, just the light or darker skin or something! I thought I was going a bit mad because of the shock of what had happened so I asked Paula and she could see it too and asked him if it was a tattoo but he didn’t know anything about it! It really was the most perfect cross! We decided it was a sign….fate that he had been there to save her! Apparantly if he hadn’t have rescued her she would have drowned. I had looked at the river afterwards and saw that about 20 meters downstream there was barely a current so thought she would have been able to get out there but the guy told us that before that point the current gets even stronger and sucks you under the water and people aren’t found until much further downstream when its already too late!! VERY scary! :o( We looked at his shoulder the next morning and it had already faded and wasn’t as obvious as the day before! Weird hey?!

After getting back Paula bought the 2 guys a beer and we all had a shower and went down for dinner, which was included in the expensive accommodation cost! It was spaghetti and without a doubt the worst we had all ever eaten it was soooo sweet and sickly! But luckily the rest of the time it was Colombian food which they were a lot better at cooking… phew! :o) Had to remove quite a few bugs from our beds before getting in but apart from that it wasn’t too bad during the night! Paula had said that bats and birds etc sometimes fly through but luckily I didn’t see or hear any! We used earplugs though as the jungle noise (animals/insects) was soooo unbelievably loud!!

The next day, we had a yummy breakfast and then got a lift down to the main road in the hostel truck with the rescuer guy where we rented tyres and then went back to the hostel to get lifejackets! We took our tyres to Marble Beach and Siemei practiced getting in and out of the tyre etc. as she wasn’t feeling very confident about doing it as she cant swim! In the end she decided not to as the river was much higher and the current was a bit stronger than the day before because it had rained so much in the night! It was really fun, especially when you got to a rapids bit, although it was quite hard work paddling when there wasn’t really a current! We nearly floated by our hostel (where we had been told to get out of the river) but luckily Paula saw it at the last minute and we managed to paddle over to the river bank, although getting out was hard work, scrambling over trees and rocks with a massive tyre against the current! After lunch we waited around for the 2pm tour, quite worried it wouldn’t happen as the woman had told us there needed to be a minimum of 10 people and there was only Paula and I (they don’t recommend doing it if you cant swim!) and another couple but luckily they said they would make an exception as they knew we had come especially to see the caves! By 2pm the couple were nowhere to be seen so it was just the 2 of us but we begged the woman and she said we could do it if we paid a tiny bit extra so we did and also paid the guy taking us a bit of a tip as we knew he was only doing it as a favour!

The 3 of us took the tyres with us, which we hid near the exit of the caves (where Paula nearly drowned!) so we could float back down the river after coming out of the caves instead of walking! Then we trekked through the jungle to the cave entrance…. Oh my goodness I have never been so exhausted in my life - the guy was practically running through the jungle and it was sooo difficult - we were climbing over trees, huge slippery knife-edge rocks and all sorts and it was SO hot! Luckily Siemei had lent me her trekking sandals as I think I would have died trying to do it in flipflops! After about half an hour of running through the jungle, we could hear thunder and the guy told us that if it starts to rain hard that the caves would flood and we would drown so we would either have to run even faster to the caves to get there before the water level started rising or we should turn back! Sure enough we were then sprinting through the jungle, trying to brush the creepy crawlies off us in mid-flight hehe! By the time we got to the caves I was the colour of a tomato and a very sweaty betty!

The guy said the water level was fine so in we ran and he said if he noticed that the water level was rising we would have to sprint through the caves and get through in 15minutes instead of the hour its supposed to take! Needless to say we were a little bit nervous! Going into the caves was really scary too….the water was freezing, it was pitch black and just to make things worse there are millions of blind birds (cant remember what they are called) who live in the caves, but a big higher up, who make the most horrible screeching noise and flap their wings, which is a bit scary when you cant see a thing!! Although we got used to it really quickly and it was sooo much fun!! All of the caves are made of marble and coral as it used to be under the sea and in lots of places we either needed to slide down the marble into pools or water or jump in which was mega fun!! :o) The guy kept trying to scare us though and would suddenly turn off the torch and make the scary bird noises in our ears until we hit him! One time Paula was so scared that she accidently punched him in his privates in her panic!! Oops! Hehe! And one time I pushed him, not realizing that he was standing on a high ledge where it dropped down into a pool of water and he nearly fell in backwards but luckily we both grabbed his legs in time!

Luckily I could take my camera with us as the guy had a plastic tupaware container which we put it his life jacket which had a little bag attached to it! So managed to take a few photos! :o)

Whilst we were walking/swimming through the caves, I asked Paula to ask the guy what the best thing to do it if the water levels start rising quickly - to swim out as fast as you can or to climb as high as you can and wait for the water level to go down! He said neither would work as if the water level rises too quickly then the water comes in as a huge waves which crushes you instantly……great not exactly what we wanted to hear!! We got a move on after that! Finally we got to the cave exit where we had to absail down the side of the cave and into the river, which was quite difficult as it was raining heavily by the time we got out so the water was gushing out of the cave and into your face as you were trying to get down! Another guy was waiting for us at the exit and helped us down, I think he had been sent to check if we were OK because of the storm! We then crossed the river, holding on to the rope, with no mishaps this time and went to get our tyres! We had to give the tyres back that day so the guy said we could just float right down to the bridge where the main road is and get out there! We were a bit worried as it was getting late and the river was a lot higher but the guy assured us it would be fine! It was really fun although it had gotten quite cold by then!

The guy (sorry I really cant remember his name!) kept stopping to show off by climbing high trees and jumping in (with my camera still in his life jacket!) so by then we had decided that he couldn’t be much more than 18 years old! We managed to get out of the river at the bridge, gave the tyres back and said hello to the military men patrolling the roads and started walking back to the hostel, absolutely freezing and soooo tired! Luckily the rescuer was picking something up in the hostel truck and passed us on the way back so gave us a lift! We then asked our tour guy how old he was…..15 years old!!! We couldn’t believe we had entrusted our lives to a 15year old!! Holy guacamole!! That night we had dinner, played cards with the 15 year old and then had an early night as we were sooo tired!!

The next morning we got up early, packed and then walked back to the main road where Paulas parents were picking us up and taking us back to the mountain house in Santa Elena as Paulas aunt is getting married so they were coming for the wedding which was quite handy! On the way home we realized that the scares of the last few days weren’t over…the ride home was very scary, saw quite a few accidents and nearly had quite a few as well as everyone, including Paulas dad, was trying to overtake lorries and trucks on hairpin bends!! But we got back safely in the end!!

Havent done much since back here! Yesterday Paula and her family were out all day and evening so we just had a lazy day and went into town to the internet café and ended up having to come back in the dark again as we waited so long for a bus! Tonight we are leaving for Mompos on the night bus, although apparantly have to change a few times and eventually get on a bambo cargoo float thing across to the island at 4am which i think we will do the day after tomorrow as wont get there in time for the one tomorrow! Mompos is an island on the Magdelana river where we will stay for a day before heading up north to the Caribbean coast! So probs wont have internet until then!!

Will quickly add some photos and then have to dash!! sorry!!

Lots of love, me xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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