The trip from Hell
Imagine
a field trip where everything that could possibly go wrong goes wrong, and
every chance your professor gets to tell the truth, he tells a lie. That was
the story of this weekend. We had to meet at the school at 8 for the bus to
come. And as the first of many disappointments, there was no bus, and instead
there were two vans with no AC and the rows were so close together that your
knees were touching the seat in front of you. Such a lovely way to spend a few
hours, driving through the countryside on narrow winding roads, barely swerving
in time to get out of the way of oncoming semi-trucks.
Before
our trip began, our professor gave us some information about what to expect. He
said that we would be driven to a small store where we could buy snacks
and then to the gate of the
biological reserve where we would be met by a truck. We would then but our luggage
in the back of the truck, and hike about 6 kilometers through beautiful
rainforest until we reached the reserve. We would have to wear long sleeves,
long pants, and tennis shoes/hiking shoes. We were also given a bug lesson
before leaving. We learned about all the different insects we might encounter
on our short trip, including one that crawls out from under your bed, bites
your face, poops in you face, and gives you a disease that eventually makes you
die of what seem to be natural causes. Lovely. Teacher Carlos (as we like to
call our ecology professor) also informed us about the large quantity of snakes
in that would be in this area. He told us about how he never takes a group into
the forest without closed toed shoes because of snakes and insects. But of
course he reassures us that as long as you get to a hospital within 3 hours of
being bit by a snake, you will be fine. Oh and that he is certified in first
aid for whatever that is worth. And the wonderful news? He tells us that
farthest we would ever be away from the hospital is 3 hours. Great, so at least
we know there is a pretty good chance we will make it to the hospital if we get
bit. So of course, this heightens my interest, so I asked what the
circumstances of said snake bite would be. If I go off the path and provoke a
snake it will bite me? Or I’ll be walking down the path minding my own business
and a snake will just jump out and bite me? Unfortunately, he said the latter.
When
we arrived at the “small store” there was nothing to buy; but rather, it was a
restaurant. Lie number 1. Unfortunately, our van drivers told us they would not
drive us up to the gate of the reserve because it was “too muddy.” Lie number
2. So we were going to have to carry our luggage and hike about 5 kilometers “or
so” to the gate where we would have trucks to take our bags.
And
so the hike began. It started off not so bad, I enjoyed looking around at the
rainforest for the first time, something I had been dreaming of practically all
my life. I had wanted to go to the rainforest ever since we did a “rainforest
unit” in second grade. But it was hard to enjoy nature with a heavy backpack
weighing you down while wearing long sleeves, long pants, in the heat of the
day, hotter than hot weather, up a mountain in the rainforest while sweating
more than I had ever sweat in my life from walking. When the trail was flat,
the hike was no big deal. But when we started hitting the steep hills it was
like walking up a wall. I actually had to bend my head over my knees to keep
from toppling over backwards. We were really lucky we didn’t have any
incredibly large or out of shape people in our group, because if we did they
would never have made it.
We
hiked all the way to the gate of the reserve to find no truck waiting for us.
Lie number 3. Our professor said it was all basically flat from that point on,
and we only had to hike about 6 more kilometers… Lie number 4. So we hiked, and
we hiked, and we hiked hiked hiked. Eventually, I started to fall to the back
of the group to make sure the three girls at the caboose didn’t get left
behind. Like the rest of us, they were not too happy about our circumstances. I
believe there was lots of talk about dying, and giving up, or something like
that. When we had about 2 kilometers left to go, we heard a truck coming. We
threw our hands up in the air and started shouting. The guy waved us over, and
we didn’t even hesitate. We literally just hopped in the truck with him (sorry
dad). But who else would have been driving on that road? It was the director
from the reserve. He had waited for us for 2 hours, but since the vans didn’t
take us, we didn’t show up on time. So a bunch of us got a free ride to the
reserve while the other half had to finish the hike, sorry guys! It was the
best car ride of my life. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy. The director
kept stopping and showing us where the snakes were! That was a little creepy.
But luckily they were all sleeping.
When
we got to the biological reserve, it was literally just a big building. There
were several rooms with bunks, a large kitchen, classroom, and bathrooms. It
was right on a small stream. They even pumped their water right out of the
stream and didn’t have to filter it. We all got settled into our rooms and took
some time to rest after the hike. We ate some interesting food at the reserve,
but what else is new. It wasn’t horrible, but it was a little worse than
cafeteria food. After resting our teacher took us out just a little bit in the
rainforest. It started pouring, and we really learned why they call it a
rainforest. It rained so much that the little stream turned into a raging brown
river. We couldn’t shower or drink the water because of all the sediment. That
night, we went to observe all the bugs on the bug screen. It was amazing how
many bugs come out at night. But a lot of them were extremely creepy. Our
lovely professor told us about all the horrible life threatening diseases that
certain bugs here in Costa Rica spread. But he reassured us that we had nothing
to worry about. He also told us to check our beds for cockroaches and
scorpians, and that he had woken up with a cockroach in his mouth before. And
this made Chandler cry. She soon rediscovered that she is a resort girl. Not a
reserve girl.
That
night we found several cockroaches and SCORPIANS in our beds! Let’s just say we
did not get much sleep that night. The next day we went on what our teacher
Carlos called, a “short nature walk.” I actually really enjoyed this hike. We
got to go deep into the forest, on an unmarked trail surrounded by green. It
was absolutely beautiful. We climbed over tree trunks, under fallen trees,
through mud. Not to mention we had to cross the river 28 times. That was great
fun. After about an hour and a half, we made it to this serene spot with a
clear waterfall and little pool of water for us to swim in. We spent an hour
swimming in the cold water and relaxing. It was pretty awesome.
When
we got back to camp and packed up, Carlos told us that he had talked the one of
the workers into driving us all back down to the “small restaurant.” The only
thing was, we were going to have to fit 17 people into one truck. Sounds
impossible right? Well it’s not. We put to girls up front with the driver,
three of us in the back seat, and 11 people STANDING in the bed of the truck.
Don’t worry dad, I sat in the cab of the truck. What a wild ride. It felt just
like the Indian Jones ride at Disneyland. Except for the fact that we weren’t
on a track and anyone could have gone flying from the truck at any moment. To
add on to that, the driver was getting a kick out speeding up as we went
downhill and splashing through the puddles from the previous night’s rain. As
we sped up at one point, we heard this awful hissing sound. I thought for sure
a giant snake was jumping out of the forest to kill us all. But I was wrong. We
had a flat tire. Great. But we had a jack! Perfect! But it was rusted and didn’t
work. Ah poop. So we were already about halfway down. Luckily, the one boy in
our group (who just happens to be a native Spanish speaker) volunteered to run back
to camp, explain what happened, and get another jack.
So
we waited and waited. It was hot and the sun of pounding down on our faces. We
decided to play the game signs, and that was pretty fun. Eventually Jose came
back with a jack and some oil. He saved the day! Poor guy was dripping sweat
from head to toe. But us girls sure were glad to see him. Teacher Carlos and
the driver changed the tire, and then we loaded everybody back into the truck
and made it all the way down! I was just glad we didn’t have walk all that way
again. So, it was a pretty memorable first fieldtrip to say the least.
Sorry this is so old! But I’ve really just been living it up
here J I’ll
try to find more time to write before I leave soon!
Kristin
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