World Ecuador Puerto López

Kindy Does South America 2008/2009

Puerto Lopez- Bola de Oro RainForest Hike and Horseback Jan 31, 2009

Well today we decided that we wanted a caminata/cabagata (hike and horseback ride) adventure into the nearby cloud forest. We had visions of jumping into waterfalls to refresh ourselves (at least I did since that was advertised, alas it never happened). We were driven up to a community up in the forest and greeted our numerous guides (one for each of us who would stay by each of our horses- I guess they were expecting/used to having gringos who didnt know how to ride horses and were paranoid that something bad would happen). We each chose our horse, I got a nice bigger one and I named him Juan though he took a back seat in the line, preferring to stay close to Laura's mule who we named Juanita. The forest was gorgeous and we stopped every once in a while to view howler monkeys and the sort. Eventually we got off of our horses and hiked up even further into the jungle. We ran into problems when I mentioned that we wanted to swim in the river. Well I had the wrong idea I guess. We made it to a beautiful clearing with great views of the rainforest and several of the guides went marching down the face of the hill with their machetes to make a cleared-off path for us to navigate, down towards the river. We made it but it began to rain and the river was full of slippery rocks and the sort that we had to hike amongst. It was actually really fun though... until I fell. Now falling is a common thing for me. I especially like to fall while dancing salsa so I can embarrass myself in front of masses of people. And well I fell plenty on the Inca trail and survived. But this time it was different. I was one of the first of our group to try and make it up a slightly muddy and slippery hill but I fell back. Now the falling part didn't hurt but I made the common mistake of putting out my hands to help cushion the fall on my bum. But I fell into a huge patch of "ortigas" - stinging freaking nettles! I had them all over my bum and my hands, which quickly blew up twice their size. It feels like your whole body is on fire, like big time. The tears were rolling down my face uncontrollably and it wasn't made any better when Alex and the guides were standing back laughing at me. I guess I was a sight to be seen. I had quickly rolled down my pants (don't worry people, I had a bathing suit underneath!) and my four girlfriends were staring right into my backside looking for the nettles- to get them out or I don't know what. I was covered in them. The pain goes away in 15-20 minutes, fortunately, though the nettles stay in you and the pain can come back from time to time. However, the guide wasn't taking any more chances with me, he held my hand the rest of the way. Hours later, we were soaked and tired but loving in and we remounted our horses to go back to the ranch. I was desperate to get some fun riding out of the experience so Marianna and I kicked our horses into higher gear (I fondly called Juanito "molasses") and quickly sped our way back where I happily took off my muddy wet clothing, wrapped my beach towel around me and we made our way to a local house to have a lunch of chicken and rice, very delicious! Though we couldnt help feeling bad that we had taken away one of the friends of the many chickens who were walking about our feet. The owner's daughter couldn't help herself and at the end, curiously asked us how it was that one boy was with 5 girls! We explained he was just our friend but the girl wasn't convinced. She just couldn't understand it! We had another mellow night, ate at the Picanteria again (i mean, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!) and Mar and I chose to hang out on our porch, chat and give each other massages while the others went to the beach for a bonfire and drinks.

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