Full Moon Ceremony

As I mentioned in Sunday’s blip, the walk down to San Gerardo station was completely downhill. Which means that the walk back up to civilization would be completely uphill, with all of our gear. We headed out after breakfast, it was hot. Really freaking hot. So hot I had to take off my shirt halfway through the hike because I thought I might die. Someone threw up their breakfast. Yong-Ju and I powered through it together taking a 100 steps or so before taking a break. We’re supposed to take notes on all of our hikes. My only notes from this hike was “The hike back up from San Gerardo SUCKED.” It’s true.

When we finally got to the top all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and sleep. I felt bad for Yong-Ju and Evan who were ambitious enough to go for a hike before breakfast to try and find the Umbrella birds again (they didn’t) and then did that hike. Unfortunately, since Professor Shepherd has a never ending supply of energy from the student’s souls he consumes he decided we should hike around the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve. The trees were thick with moss and epiphytes this high up. It was a very pretty hike. A guide who we passed by told us that they had seen a quetzal (bird) up the road and had marked the spot on the path. We sat there for an hour waiting for the quetzal to show up only to be just as disappointed as we were by the damn Umbrella Birds.

A black faced solitaire (bird) was staring at Dan from the trunk of a tree when he turned the corner of a trail. It flew away, but we peaked in the trunk and saw this nest. It was staring at us from a nearby tree so we kept on going quickly after snapping a picture.

We had lunch in the cloud forest and then piled in the cars to head for La Colina Lodge. About 10 minutes down the rocky road Jeff (our driver/chaperone) realized he forgot his bag at the place and we turned back for it. Someone made a joke that it would be hysterical if we saw a quetzal while Jeff was inside grabbing his bag. I kid you not, a quetzal flew past just as soon as Jeff was out of sight. Several people in the parking lot saw it too and Evan and I jumped out of the van to chase after it.

The ride down to La Colina Lodge was uneventful after that. The lodge in itself was a bizarre experience. The lady named Kelly who owns it greeted us and then asked us to be quiet because she needed to meditate before cooking us dinner. We went on a “bat tour” shortly after we got there. We had no clue what to expect but were greeted by an old man who was not too different from Professor Shepherd. He led us into the forest and showed us his large bat catching nets and then lectured us about bats. While he spoke a strange man would come forward out of the darkness and hand him a bag with a bat in it from time to time. I learned a whole lot about bats (since I knew very little to start with). He let me hold a bat and then let it fly away, really cool experience overall.

After about two hours listening to him we headed back to La Colina for dinner. I should have suspected it but the dinner Kelly cooked was completely vegetarian and pretty disgusting. I broke out in a very strange hive/rash while eating it and was itching all over. I stopped eating it.

Kelly’s “volunteers” started a bonfire for us after dinner. About 6 of us sat outside around it drinking and learned that the people who work there get free room and board and in exchange work for free which is why Kelly called them volunteers. They were the same age as us, most of them had finished college in the US and then came to live at La Colina for a while before going to the real world. Or maybe that became their real world, I couldn't tell. One of them asked us to participate in a “full moon ceremony” in honor of the full moon. We were told to write down all of the bad things we wanted to “let go of” in our life and all the things we wanted to “bring into our life”. She then had us bang on the table and tell each other what we wrote. We then got to burn the paper into the fire. Then, she had us lay in a circle with out heads next to each other holding hands and visualizing the things we wanted “coming into our life” as we did deep breathing exercises. All the while the other volunteers were banging on bongo drums, chanting, and playing the didgeridoo. Very strange experience.


Quote
"It's the unknown that draws people."
-E.A. Bucchianeri