Wednesday - I don't know about you, but I think 4am is a bit early too get up for a hike. But, that's what we did this morning. Fortunately, we didn't need to take down camp so we were on the road by 5:10am with our headlamps on. It lightened up quickly and we met our indigenous guides, Oswaldo and Alexander, to cross their lands and a nature preserve.
This day was a very difficult, very exotic experience. We hiked around 12 miles, but there are a few differing estimates in our group. The entire day was on indigenous trails through a lush, wild jungle with steep climbs and descents under a canopy of massive trees with vines hanging to the ground. Our guide explained about vines used as ropes to construct huts, nuts as perfume, seeds as spices, and sap as a fire starter. He also shared Spanish words for many things such as mariposa, mapache, and loro. One highlight was watching a sloth in a tree above is.
We had three water crossings, the last being a cable car, as we traversed a handful of mountains with around 4000 feet of elevation.
The trail was treacherously muddy with the majority being a steep drop to a river or climb to a ridge top.
Another highlight was stopping for a snack at an indigenous NaiRi AwaRi farm and befriending a pair of piglets. When we hiked on, these two joined us on the trail for almost a mile.
After riding a cable car across the Pacuare River, our hike ended with a 650 foot climb up to a road where our shuttle can waited. A beer and fresh pork sandwich while the rest of our party arrived was a most excellent way to finish this great day.
We have been shuttled to El Ceibo for our evening rest. This is a quaint 'glamping' spot with very nice screened tents, nice hot showers, and a wonderful staff. We had a great dinner and a bottle of tequila while we chatted about our day.
I love self-supported long distance hiking, but I've discovered that going with a group can be a ton of fun.
Fabian, who owns the tour company ViaLig Journeys that we are using, shared an interesting thought with us this evening before dinner. He said that we should be proud of completing this most difficult day hike of our trek, but to realize that the indigenous people here do large portions of it nearly daily just to go to school or to get groceries.
(Pics on Instagram)