With My Head in The Clouds

I have a camera!!!!
Enjoy the photos from my "vacation" (although technically I didn't have a camera until yesterday so this is from someone else's photos, hence why some are turned the wrong way) You may ask why I need a vacation. Well I didn't really, but the offer was there and I had no reason to refuse. Also, (and I'm not just justifying) the break from speaking Spanish without a break has been like 16 hours of class a day, 7 days a week. It was nice to have some English for a few days.

I was invited to go to a region called Intag, one of the few "Cloud Forests" in the world. It's very rare to have the mix of dense biology and high altitude (that's what someone told me). I was accompanied by an employee of Hacienda Cusin and a botanist from the States.

As soon as we arrived at the really beautiful "refuge," we were asked to join the caretaker on a hike of the grounds. That meant 1000 acres in the middle of nowhere and a garden with more fruits and vegetables than I knew existed. I decided I wanted some avocados.

The caretaker, Oswaldo, knew everything about every plant and it's medicinal uses and the botanist, Dewie, added some information at every turn. It was fun getting all sides of knowledge.

The landscape was stunning, very primeval.

We came across strange vegetables the size of dogs,

trees that bled (and were used as an anesthetic, great fro bug bites),

and lots of nature I had never seen.

The next day we woke up early for a hike up the hill and into the woods. Once again, great to have specialists along. The family dog came too!

After lunch and a little rest, we had arranged to rent a car to take us to the local hot springs. Oddly, there was no car or truck in the village, but there was a bus! So the three of us rented a bus for the day.

The drive was about an hour, took us through the "city" of Apuela.

Then we passed a mountainside with a face. It was so large that we couldn't see it until we saw the picture we took. Pretty amazing.

We eventually arrived at our destination: the hot springs. Sadly there was only one pool open because the others were being cleaned after Carneval. Still, it was fun and hot.


On the way back, we stopped off at the Andean Bear Project. There is a bear that only lives here with white spots around it's eyes, and otherwise it is black. The director of that animal rescue center I visited had worked here before. There were no bears, just a research center and lots of gringos.

We left the following morning, but there was a hitch. There had been too much rain, which had caused a landslide. Sadly, two local women had been caught in it and died. That meant we had to take our bus 20 minutes to the point of collapse, and then somehow make it across to the car waiting on the other side. We packed up our bags and shovels and pick-axes (always an ominous sign...)

I wanted to make it too, so I pitched in.

We reached the gap, and it was worse than we had expected. Everytime we attempted to make a patch across, boulders and dirt from above would come tumbling down.

We finally decided that we could possibly make it if we ran across, one at a time.

As soon as we tocuhed pavement on the other side, it collapsed again. Luckily, no one else was hurt and we made it back to Hacienda Cusin just in time for lunch.

Love from a Very Rested Traveler,
Kent