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We rose early again this morning, had a light breakfast of pineapple, grapefruit, papaya, and toast, and met in the main house at 8 a.m. to start our Mayflower Rainforest hike. The intensity level was advertised as “rigorous,” but they also had said that the black bean soup the night before would be spicy, and it had no heat whatsoever. Based on that, we figured that they wanted to weed out the people who couldn’t handle a little uphill walk.
Wrong! They were trying to weed out everyone. This hike was one of the most difficult physical activities that I can remember doing. It was worth it in the end though.
We drove in vans out to the Mayflower Rainforest national park, and began our hike up to 750 feet above sea level. The first part was easygoing enough, mostly flat with a few moderate inclines and downhills, very muddy. Golden and Lorenzo, our guides, pointed out interesting plants and animals along the way. We saw a cacao bean tree, a rubber tree, philodendrons, cohune palms (where we get hearts of palm from, and I learned that it involves cutting down the entire tree to get it, so I don’t think I’ll be eating those again), coconut palms, bastard palms (covered in needle sharp spikes that hurt like hell, and the only way to soothe the pain is to cut down the palm to get at the liquid inside), tourist trees (whose bark is reddish and peeling like a bad sunburn), leafcutter ants, soldier ants, toucans, hummingbirds, and a 6’ long black rat snake — I spotted it myself on the way back down the mountain, shrieked like a little girl and hauled ass back towards the visitor center. Nish volunteered to eat a termite from a mound in the fork of a tree. She said it tasted like carrots or jicama.
After 15 minutes or so of hiking this moderate trail, the difficult part began. The path was steep — about a 75 degree incline in parts — and slick with wet leaves, wet roots, wet rocks, and lots of red mud. It was tough going. We had to grab roots and rocks to pull ourselves along, and in several places, we used knotted ropes tied to trees to haul ourselves upward. And this trail seemed to never end. I was panting and heaving and sweating in the 90-degree heat with 100% humidity (hello, rainforest!). I had to stop every 15 uphill feet or so to catch my breath. The hikers had split into two groups by this point, and most of our group seemed to be having similar troubles with exhaustion, although I think I was having a more difficult time than anyone. The other group seemed to be in much better shape, as they got to the top a lot faster.
About halfway up we reached a scenic viewpoint, Antelope Falls, which was only semi-interesting – a small stream pouring through big chunky granite boulders. We stopped for a drink of water and a bit of a rest here. I didn’t realize we were only halfway up. If I’d known, I might have elected not to go any further because I was so hot and sweaty and my leg muscles were twitching with exhaustion.
The remainder of the uphill trail was the worst part — extremely steep (those 75 degree inclines I was talking about) and treacherous with mud and steep drop-offs. In places, the trail was less than a foot wide before it went nearly straight downhill into the ravine. After a very difficult journey, we made it to the top, where we were rewarded with a gorgeous natural pool at the base of a waterfall. It was about 20 feet in diameter, and 20 feet deep. The water was very cold, maybe 65 degrees or so. We all stripped to our bathing suits and (eventually) took the plunge. Going in gradually was just not going to work – it was an all or nothing situation!
I got bitten by what I think are sand flies on both hips, probably while sitting on a rock in my bathing suit deciding if I really wanted to plunge into this water. I am really glad I did. It was incredibly refreshing after that hot muddy sweat-soaked hike. We swam around in the pool for a while and sat on a rock ledge under the falls themselves, pouring down cold and hard on our heads.
Eventually we had to put our sweaty clothes back on and go all the way back down the trail, which was almost as difficult as going up. The danger of slipping and falling down the trail or into the ravine seemed much greater while going down. We all tried to be careful but I think we were so tired and our legs were kind of like jelly by this point, that most of us bit it at some point. Doc twisted his ankle and whacked his forearm against a rock hard enough to form a knot. I thought he was going to go off the edge so I dove for his leg and grabbed on tight, while Nish dove for me and grabbed my legs. He caught himself in plenty of time but I was really frightened that I might lose him to the ravine. I slipped a few times, landing on my right wrist and whacking my tailbone on a rock. What impressed me was how easily our group worked together coming down, alerting each other to slippery spots and helping each other along the way.
The wildcard in this whole vacation turned out to be another guest who was with a large wedding party of Canadians. The Canadians were nice enough, and we couldn’t figure out why they’d invited Tom on their vacation because they seemed like they were actively trying to avoid him the whole week. Tom looked like Stephen King in a fishing hat, and he took every available opportunity to inject his knowledge of geology into every situation, whether it was appropriate or not (it usually wasn’t). His wife seemed very meek, and I only heard her speak two or three words the entire week. She also seemed to be doing her best to avoid him. He usually prefaced his lengthy monologues with “Well, you know, in Manitoba…” While we were at the pool at the top of the mountain, I glanced over to the bank and saw Tom COMPLETELY NAKED from behind, shorts around his knees, digging in his bag for his swim trunks. I feel even worse for poor Doc, who was standing on the other side of him and happened to glance back at that crucial moment. On the way down the mountain, Tom wound up at the back of the line with our rear guide, Lorenzo, who probably wanted to pull his own eardrums out of his head by the time the day was over.
When we arrived back at the visitor center at the bottom of the mountain, the other group of hikers (who were mostly the Canadians) had been waiting on us for 40 minutes – and they were hungry and pissed. It seems that Lorenzo had the keys to the van containing the lunch cooler. They gave us some pretty dirty looks, but frankly, since they stuck us with Tom at the back of the line, I had no sympathy for them. Lunch was delicious tuna salad sandwiches, roasted rosemary potatoes, grapefruit juice, water, and a wonderful little treat: a mini Snickers bar in each lunch box. It was hot and we were filthy, but I was so hungry I did not care that we were eating while sitting on a dirty concrete floor with flies buzzing all around. The air conditioning in the vans on the way back to Hamanasi was one of the most wonderful feelings in the world.
When we got back to Hamanasi, Doc had developed a mildly nasty cluster headache so he napped while I joined the others poolside for a drink and chatting. Later we met for dinner (tomato/mozzarella salad and shrimp pasta salad, strawberry ice cream, pinot noir, and coffee). Then we all climbed up to the rooftop of the main building (where they plan to move the restaurant some time this fall), so the smokers could smoke. We chatted for a while, watched the stars, and then came to bed.