Our First Excursion

This past Saturday, our group had our first excursion. Every Saturday, we will be going on these excursions, for the main reason of getting away from schoolwork and Spanish frustrations and simply exploring the country. We went creeking this time in a little mountain community called Los Higos. It took about an hour to get there. We waded through some pretty tough rapids and even floated down others. When we arrived at our designated location, we were greeted by a local woman named Mary who had lunch ready for us. She had walked a half hour with a huge pot of water on her head and food in her arms in order to meet us there. She had been cooking it since 5 in the morning! I learned that Mary makes all of her meals this way, over an open fire in a pot. We enjoyed a lunch of chicken, rice and bean stew, and the most delicious potato salad I’ve ever had. After lunch we had time to just relax. We swam, sunbathed on boulders next to the river, and even mini-cliff jumped. We also shared our time with some local boys who had come to the same spot for recreation and in order to bathe their horses. On the way back, Neil, another girl Rachel, and I led the way and we chose a pretty tough path through the river. While we were wading through just upstream from some rapids, we found ourselves stuck up to our chests in a super strong current. But we were already halfway across the river so there was no other choice but to keep going. It took us awhile and we had to catch each other multiple times, but we eventually made it. What an adventure! This country is so beautiful! In one day we experienced a rushing river, wild horses, the view of a beautiful mountain range, and the hospitality of a local woman. It doesn’t get better than this.