21/03/2011 (posted 03/04/2011)
We were up at 3:30am to finish packing and get a taxi to the bus terminal. The same taxi driver who was cagey about having all eight of us in his flatbed managed to fit all of us plus all of our luggage in.
There were three people (thankfully not me) who wedged themselves in among the bags in the flatbed. From a health and safety point of view it was an interesting situation.
We got a bus from Changuinola to David and upon arrival there, were told that Albin and Ryan were on their way to meet us and take us to the next place. We had an hour to kill so I went to an internet cafe to check my emails and Facebook.
Albin and Ryan arrived at 11:30am and we then went for lunch and a catch-up at McDonalds. It´s been three weeks since we last saw them. We ate a gross amount at McDonalds - all the intense sugar and salt and fat made us all feel disgusting afterwards but it was nice at the time.
We then got a two-hour bus ride to another place and were then taken for another couple of hours by 4x4 to another place. The road was the most amazing I´ve ever seen - petrifyingly tight turns and steep ascents and descents which were made infinitely scarier by being in a 4x4 pulling all of us plus a trailer behind it.
All of this was set against some breathtaking mountain scenery - we are now well and truly in the sticks but it´s stunning.
During the journey into nowhere, we passed a few indigenous kids who were waving and shouting at the truck. Bless ´em.
We then arrived and for the first time this entire trip, put our havasacks on our back to hike to this week´s destination. In Albin´s words, the mission is now becoming more extreme. Apparently this and next week´s destinations are within hiking distance so this is our final place of the mission.
And what a place to end - stunning doesn´t do the scenery justice.
The girls had their bags carried for them, so I thought it only fair that my second and much smaller bag got carried up for me.
We hiked for over an hour during which time the natural light disappeared and it became pitch black.
To put this into perspective, we were walking up and down steep hills, slipping and skidding on loose mud and rocks whilst carrying full backpacks with a gale blowing across us. At any point, if we had fallen to the right we would have kept falling for some time before being brought to an abrupt and probably messy halt by either rocks or a barbed wire fence.
When you add darkness into the equation, it really was very dangerous. We crossed a few rope bridges earlier in the day but they were positively safe in comparison to the rest of the route.
At 7:30pm we arrived at a small place with a church and a couple of houses. According to our indigenous guides we were around half an hour from our actual destination but Albin said that this could mean an hour and a half at our pace.
Taking into account the pitch black night and how tired we were after a long and exhausting day of travelling, we decided to stop here for the night.
We were made some rice at 8pm which was very welcome. Despite us stuffing ourselves at lunch, everything we have done since worked us up a real appetite. I had seconds but felt it a bit much to ask for thirds.
I then set up my sleeping bag. I have a Thermarest inflatable mattress with me but couldn´t be bothered to inflate it for one night only so I slept on the concrete floor.
I was knackered.
JG
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