Jungle trails

Five days now of hiking in the heat in the same old T-shirt. It reeks of sweat and dirt and has taken on the smell of an overipe gym locker room. Ewwwwww.... I'm looking forward to arriving back in Taganga for a proper shower, bed, and change of clothes. In order to shave off an extra day of hiking we are fitting two days into one now and by this evening I will be in the comparitive lap of luxury.

I swam in the cool river one last time, meandered through banana and coca Kogi farm plots, up steep hillside trails carved out of thick red mud, and along ridgetops and valley bottoms. I saw toucans, oropendulas, and small dancing manakin birds along the way keeping me company. Up one hillside I even passed a fer-de-lance, its head lobbed off by a clean machete cut. Fer-de-lance are responsible for more deaths by snakebite than any other in South America. A reminder to watch your step and tread carefully. I even managed to observe this beautiful mushroom fruiting body in the foliage complete with a bright white skirt and visiting wasp. When Darren asked what the wasp was doing though I came up at a loss making me wonder at the unknown connections and cycles of which we barely understand still. It thrills me in a way to be utterly stumped. I could never get bored with ecology.

Finally arriving back to the plaza of the small jungle town whence we began each of us slumped back into a chair and ordered a round of beer from the local tienda, it was even cold (!) and nothing could have felt better at that moment. Salud!