So Tuesday morning I wake up at 3 in morning to go to the airport and catch the flight to Panama. It was an experience too. Like I said before I've never been on an airplane, so the airport was slightly terrifying. I got through all the ticket stuff ok and checked my luggage (terrified that I would never see it again) and headed to security, where I sadly had to say good bye to my parents. It was as terrible as I thought it was going to be, I got through saying bye without crying, so I consider that a victory. Security went ok and airport and blah blah blah I finally got on the plane. It was pretty cool until there was some kind of luggage scanning machine failure and we had to wait and extra 30 minutes before take off. The whole plane thing was fun and I slept most of the way to Miami. When we got to Miami, thanks to our late flight, we only had 20 minutes to get to our connection to Panama so the 17 of us pretty much ran through the Miami airport. It was exciting. The rest of the airplane stuff was ok, it was bumpy and I read proposals the whole time. Good times.
Finally we got over Panama, which was really exciting. We got off and it was humid and muggy and just like I thought it would feel. Customs was easy and when we got out Marc and the Kansas City kids were waiting for us with a bus, juice boxes and sandwiches. The juice was the best juice I'd ever had, probably because I was super thirsty after the plane ride. I still can't get over the fact that I can get on a plane in snow covered St. Louis then get off 6 hours later in an entirely different place... It's so weird...
After we all piled into the bus we then drove 3 hours to El Cope. Cars driving past and people on the sides of the roads looked at us like we were the craziest thing they had ever seen, probably because we had a pile of luggage about 10 feet high on top of our bus :D
Skipping over a few hours of bus ride we finally got to El Cope a few hours before it got dark. We then made a mad dash/hike to La MICA, which is 15 minutes up a trail in the rainforest. I realized that there is nothing like a hike through the rainforest to show you have how of shape you are... And I've decided I'm really out of shape... I feel like the hiking part is already getting easier, so thats good.
Moving on, we got all of our stuff into La MICA. It was carried in by a group of people from El Cope and they walked the trail making us feel really dumb... We then had dinner, which was delicious, like all the other meals we've had. Oh! During dinner the power generator went out, which was fun cause we all made a mad dash to find our flashlights and headlamps. We then ate dinner by headlamp, which was a new experience.
Not much else happened Tuesday besides sleep, so I'll move on. I'm starting to feel a routine going on now. Wake up really early, eat breakfast, grab stuff, go adventuring. We went and looked at the swimming hole and it was beautiful. It's breathtaking... Sadly pictures don't do it justice.
On a very Courtney note I fell down a hill while standing still in camp yesterday... I've cut my leg pretty bad and it's all bruised... so yup. I injure myself on the first day :D
Yesterday we got the tour of El Cope and the Park. El Cope seems like a nice little town, but we really only looked at where the Chino mart (where we can buy food and snacks and drinks) and a few other places like that. We ate lunch in Julies yard, then took chivas to the national park. For those of you that don't know, chivas are pickup trucks and you either ride standing in the back or in my case, sitting and hanging onto a bar trying to hit your head. It was pretty fun on the way up, but the novelty is already wearing off.
Once in the park we wandered around taking pictures while waiting for the other group and their chiva. We saw a three toed sloth and it's baby! It was so exciting :D
When we all got there we went to the visitors center and looked around then went on a hike on the "baby" trail. I'm not gonna lie, I liked it alot better than the hard trail we went on later. The trail was pretty and its so green here I can't believe it. There are so many trees, and it was misty in the mountains because we were inside the clouds. It really is beautiful here. The forest is exactly what I've been dreaming of my entire life. So pretty...
After the baby trail we went hiking down to the river where I'm going to be working on my project.... The trail down there is slippery and deadly. It's so damp in the forest from all the rain and fog that all the rocks are wet and covered in moss. It was kinda like controlled falling the entire time...I had trouble walking there during the day so I have no idea how I'm going to make it down there in the dark to work on my project... Oh well, we'll see... Hopefully I don't fall down too much...
On the way back up the trail we took a different route... It was even worse than the way up and at a super extreme slant... I fell down on my butt, but I'm ok, just my pride was hurt. It also started pouring down rain on the hike back up and we were soaked by the time we got back to the visitors center. Good times.. Not gonna lie... I was pretty upset about it. I'm better now though, since I'm dry and not shivering in a chiva....
We left the park, cleaned up, at dinner, sat around and went to bed. I feel like that's not the best description of our lives right now but it's all I got. It's pretty awesome here and I like it a lot. I hope my upsetness over being soaked yesterday is the extent of my "anger" phase and I can just get used to it.
So now I'll be done. I'm sore, sweaty, and tired. It's a good thing though. I feel like I'll be able to live here for the next two months :D
No comments:
Post a Comment