Nov. 5th, 2003

proxodimec: (Default)
Sorry you've got to read all this old crap - i'll just post this last memory and that's it, O.K.?
Day 4.
...And the next morning i woke to find that my clothes are still wet, it's cold and life is cruel and generally unhappy. Mornings are all like that, right? So i just pulled what's remained of my jeans on, hunted down the guide (the land is private property there, so one needs a guide to get around; it might be O.K. without, but if it's not - locals have machetes) and we set off to Nacimiento. Nacimiento is yet another place where yet another river (Ik'bolay) comes from under yet another rock, having successfully pierced yet another mountain range. Locals, most of whom haven't been to the other side of the range, believe the river is born there; hence the name.
Normally, during the wet season the only sane way to get there is by boat - upstream. Of course, despite the warning it's likely to be impassable (i've already confessed i'm nuts), i went on foot - on all four (the guide, being more accustomed to the jungle, was somehow managing it using only three). The first part was rather nice, with birds flying around, cardamom plantations and lots of brooks with logs put across them for bridges. But after a while we came to what looked more like a small river - with what looked more like a whole tree floating in the water and only tied to a couple of sticks by the edges, which let it shake and twist freely. With my backpack full of photographic equipment i couldn't afford taking a dip; so, the time for creative thinking had come.
First idea: using a pole for support: dismissed. The longest pole i could get wouldn't reach the bottom.
Second: using a raft (there was something basically like one): dismissed. The rotten raft would submerge if you put a feather on it.
Third: repairing it. I collected some extra logs, the guide chopped down a small tree, striped the bark of it, with the long ribbons of bark i tied the new logs to the rotten ones (it still wouldn't hold my weight), then made a rope of the same stuff, attached it to myself, put the backpack on the raft, swam across and pulled the raft over. One hell of a trouble for no real reason (and one hell of a disappointment for the guide, too - he hoped i'd turn back, saving him half-day of work and still paying full price).
Half an hour of easy hiking later, the trail disappeared in the middle of rainforest. By the look of it, it was built by elves who only needed to get to this or that palm, and then would just enter it. None of trees opened for me, however - maybe i should have said "friend" in Elfish. On the other hand, machete seemed to work just as well...
Cutting the path took time, as did crossing miniature "nacimientos" every so often - enough time to develop new reflexes: after SEA i got used to dodging every thin liana hanging horizontally at eye's height (the so-called "wait-a-minute" plant has leaves ending with almost invisible vibrissae full of tiny fishhooks); here i had to learn inspecting every tree trunk before grabbing it for handhold: pacaya palm has long, needle-thin and very fragile spikes - once embedded in your skin, they break and split, which makes pulling them out a hopeless effort.
It was afternoon when we finally made it to Nacimiento, which looked like a huge sponge in the process of being squeezed - nothing really fascinating; i stayed there as long as i took to have my feet wet, and then turned 180*, let out a sigh and started fighting the same obstacles in reverse order...

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