Overall, this was harder that any of us expected. And it truly was the journey itself that made it so worth while, but of course the feeling after walking for 3 days in the humid jungle along rocks, mud, dirt, water, mule shit and sweat was just as sweet.
The people we met were just as fantastic, and made every step just as enjoyable. The days were really hot, and the ''paths'' were sometimes just a few foot holds from a 50m fall into sharp rocks or endless jungle.
Day 1:
- Arrived at the tour company, unloaded stuff we didnt need for storage. Managed to spill a full powerade in one of my packs. Wasn't at all happy.
- Met the other 8 people we were travelling with. We all jumped onto the converted land cruiser you see above for the 2hour journey out of Santa Marta to the base village of the trek
- Met Alex Worker (AKA Kiwi) and the NZ vs AUS rivlary kicked off right away. Also met Andy and Sabrina (The Swiss), Mike from the US, Pedro and Juliana (The Brazillians), Tommy from Denmark, Petra from Czech. And of course our wonderful host Jose Garcia, and the chef, Raphael.
- 1st hour was speeding out of Santa Marta till we met the Military Police at the entrance to the 2nd part of the drive, who made us all get out of the car and open our packs. They were actually all really friendly by the end of it.
- 2nd hour was spent negotiating a ''road'' to the base village. Heads were banging against the roof and sides of the very, very squashed car.
- Were treated to a great lunch with real bread (none of the sweet bread we keep getting) and the getting-to-know-you started
- Before we headed off everyone bought a bottle of rum.
- This first days trek was the hardest and went for about 4 hours, its first uphill is the longest, and steepest of it all. Its here we realised that yes, our packs were (even when emptied a little) too heavy for the journey ahead.
- That night we had our first cooked meal from the chef, Raphael, and it was great. Polished a few bottles of rum before heading to bed in our hammocks.
Day 2:
Will be continued shortly..
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