day 227: i grabbed a cactus today. no, i didn't mean to.

'Sup friends.
So do I have a story to share with you!

Last Friday was my department's regional meeting, wherein all members of the department are encouraged to show up to the regional capital (i.e. Trujillo) to partake in a meeting that covers the basics of things that concern all volunteers (the big camp projects, committees, etc.)

Since a few volunteers live rather far from the capital (they live in the mountains and it takes about 6 or so hours, I believe, to travel for a few of them), we decided that it might be a nice idea to set up a hike for all those who are interested to partake in. The day of the hike was set for the day after the regional meeting- we would be heading out at 6:30am to the bus terminal to Viru, where a combi had been hired to take us on an hour long ride to a small village before we hiked up to see a waterfall that had been estimated to be somewhere between 40min to 1.5hours away...

The mornings starts off rather well. Although we were running a few minutes late (because honestly, when do we not?) our late departure had been calculated into the plans. We arrived in Viru without a hitch and stopped at a lovely bakery for some noms. I wish I had taken a picture of this absolutely heavenly ball of fluffy, buttery dough that enclosed a soft, sweet, warm apple inside. Instead, I devoured the most delicious apple turnover I've ever had, EVER, in a few bites and with a tummy full of yummy, we waited for the combi and taxi to arrive.

During this time, I slathered myself with sunblock and copious amounts of bugspray.
I did this three times while waiting for the bus to show. The sun here is FIERCE and the bugs/mosquitoes that were now swarming at us made me want to scream. I don't deal well with bugs that fly and bite, and for most of my life, I have been what I refer to as a "lightning rod" for these very bugs. While friends around me are ignored, mosquitoes and other bitey things seem to zoom into the deliciousness of my exposed skin, as if I were the apple turnover to them :c

HOWEVER having now applied what would be 1/2 of the bottle of bug spray (literally) that I had been given, I walked away with only a handful of bites here and there. Other volunteers were not so lucky...

Anyway, the combi shows up and we're still waiting for the car when finally the taxi rolls up and the driver steps out...

The driver has no left arm, and his right arm ends at his elbow.

Interestingly enough, I'm not worried about his ability to drive. I mean, this is his car and his route- he must've been doing this for some time, so whatevs. I was, however, intrigued by how he drove the car. Sadly, I was in the combi and not the taxi so I couldn't observe but the other volunteers mentioned that he'd modified it to meet his needs.

Legit.

So we're on this combi/car ride for a bit when the combi's going up this dirt hill aaannndddd boom. Apparently, something is broken and they need to take the car back to Viru to get the part. What did that mean? It meant, the hike started earlier than planned.

All of us get out of the combi and car, and get to walking. It's an easy walk up some dirt roads so I decide that a good idea would be to run the uphills, just because. The hike reminded me of the ones I used to do in cali with my mom, up Rocky Peak.

About an hour or so later, my mouth coated in dust, we show up to the village where the hike was originally going to start and TA DAAAH! The taxi shows up right then and there. I go buy some water, only to find that the only store there only has carbonated water, and start snacking on some trail mix I had brought with me before heading back out to actually start the hike.

The trail is pretty simple and easy, meandering in a generally upward incline, until we start to hit some tougher patches- scrambling over rocks and more dirt. I take the time to reapply more and more sunscreen and bug spray throughout this time, while trying to race after the "guide" who is booking it like he wants to lose all of us behind him. In the end, he actually does- except for a few of us who managed to trail him (more or less). We're now climbing up a lot of greenery- a lot of plants with super sharp spikes hidden in leaves, prickly things that are grabbing onto my clothes and embedding me with their splinter like appendages, longs blades of plants whipping at my legs and face, etc. We don't seem to be following a trail anymore, having scaled up this slippery, dangerous bit of mountain, and I am finding myself walking on less than an inch wide rocks, running water on one end and a cliff drop on the other. I feel pretty BAMF, hopping around and managing to catch myself a number of times when I step on what appears to be grass, only for it to turn out to be a hidden soft hole, and narrowly escaping a fall off the edge of a cliff to what may be my death.

Sadly, this is starting to build up a rather cocky attitude and at this point, I am exhausted. Running up the hills was probably not a good idea. I'm rather dehydrated, but doggedly chasing after this horrible "guide" or ours, who is walking through this entire thing without a glance back at anyone and booking it like he's in a race against the world. In any case, I hop off a rock to land on another rock, but my ankle rolls when I land and I slip. Rather than fall to my untimely death, I grab for something to stop myself, anything to keep me from rolling down all that I had climbed up.

I grab at and manage to hold on to a cactus.

A. Cactus.

Needless to say, once I find that I am not falling anymore, I let go of the cactus and bolt up to take a look at my hands.

It ain't pretty.

There are tons of thorny things sticking out of all the fingers of my left hand. The giant ones (about 3 inches long) are the most BAMF looking things ever, but also the easiest ones to immediately remove. They leave a bloody mess, but nothing compares to the teeny tiny ones that I can feel but cannot get out. Thankfully, one of the other volunteers had a mutlitool and with some quick thinking from another volunteer, I am handed a small pair of pliers to remove as many of these awful things as possible.

The good news was that we were pretty close to the waterfall by then. The bad news is that it's the height of rainy season and this waterfall is a torrent of immense power. There is no way we can swim in that (it was less pretty than the gorges in Ithaca, but reminded me of them during rainy days), but the sun is nice so we sunbathe, snack, nap, and just chill out. I manage to pull out most, if not all, of the things in my hand. An hour goes by and we all decide to head back.

At one point, I got lost and separated from the group on the way back. That was kind of scary, but I used my super sleuthing sherlock skillz and managed to find my way out of the desert mountains of Peru so go me! If you want the whole story on that, you can chat with me. We got back to Viru and headed back to site a bit later than planned, whereupon I took a shower (a layer of dust on me that felt an inch thick) and immediately passed out in my bed. I was exhausted.

I got back to site the next day and have resumed my daily life here.
What a crazy awesome weekend! I have now added 2 things to my list of "things that I've never done before Peru" (grab a cactus, get legit lost and figure my way out of it) and even though I slipped on a chunk of my resolutions this weekend (didn't get my p90x workout in, had some beers, etc.) I will definitely get back on track.

Well, that's all I wanted to share with you for now! I just did my p90x workout and am now officially on week 3 of phase 1. I have a meeting set up with a nurse at the health post (see? told you I'd do it!), a socio at the benificencia, and the lawyer at the CEM. All I need to do now is make an appointment with the alcalde and someone at the police station, and my month of January will be satisfactory to me.

Hope things work out.
And I hope there are more new experiences! So far, all of them have been very interesting, so here's to hoping for more~ Happy Lunar New Year everyone! Year of the RABBIT (aka, best year ever) is coming to an end, but the year of the dragon will hopefully offer much excitement!

Until next time,
Love and Peace <3