The Fateful Adventure

Diego had said he would meet the four of us at Sra. Anita’s house at 8, so I was obviously not surprised when he and his girlfriend showed up around 8:30 - right on time by Latino standards. We were only momentarily taken aback when we walked outside and saw that we would be riding in the back of his pickup truck. This is hardly unusual in Ecuador, even on the freeways. I, to be truthful, have found a surprising liking for riding in the back of pickups, particularly when I get to stand-up. (I think I feel my grandmother cringing right now – sorry Mema, of course I wear my seatbelt :).

Off we went, all the way to Diego’s office, where we picked up his dog – a rather hyperactive black lab – and about 20 guys from his work. Yeah, that’s right – this was a company vacation. Friday was El Dia del Trabajador – or our version of Labor Day – and Diego (as part owner of the company) was taking all of his workers on a day to the park.
About ten or so of the guys (two bringing young daughters) piled into the back of the pick-up with the four of us while the rest piled into two other vehicles…
Not quite sure what was going on, but still going with the flow, the four of us sat back and off we went!

Now Diego had said that the Cascadas he was taking us to were close to Pifo – the same place we had just spent the last week working. I figured since the bus ride took about 50 minutes, that a car ride to Pifo would take about 30 (since buses have to stop all the time and cars can go faster). It was actually a pretty fun car ride….except that Justin and I didn’t recognize where we were going. This wasn’t the road our bus took to Pifo. About an hour later, we turned onto a cobblestone road and started slowly winding our way upward…
It was about this time that I started getting the nagging suspicion that maybe this wasn’t going to be some quick jaunt to go swim at some falls and return. Our half day trip was taking half the day just to get there…

Thirty minutes later we finally arrived at the falls….err, rather the trail to the falls.
After watching some men load up a poor donkey with food and beer, Justin gave me a look that shared the sinking sensation I was feeling. It was a bit of a walk to get to the trail head, and from there it was going to take about an hour to hike to the falls. It was already almost 11, and we still weren’t even close to our goal….and I was hungry. My hunger worries were slightly assuaged when I heard Diego talking on his cell phone about ordering food, and with a slightly determined air, I headed up to the trail head. Because Ilse had just arrived from Holland and wasn’t acclimatized yet, Diego had the four of us go up with him to the trail head while the others waited for some other vehicle (pretty much the whole day we didn’t really know what was going on – but I was hoping that the other vehicle was brining the food. Visions of picnicking next to a cute waterfall were lurking in the back of my mind). We wanted to be able to go slowly, so Ilse wouldn’t overdo it (this didn’t turn out to be a problem, she handled the entire hike without any altitude issues). He left us at the trail head to wait, saying he’d be back in 20 minutes with the rest of the group (and with the food, I hoped).

An hour later it started to rain, and there was still no sign of Diego, the group, or the food. We huddled under an overhand, while I snacked on some 30 cent crackers I’d bought from a vendor. About 30-40 minutes later, Diego and his girlfriend showed up, sans group, and definitely sans food. Only one other guy and his little daughter were with them because apparently the rest of the group had gone ahead – as we didn’t know anybody else, I guess we hadn’t recognized them when they passed.

Now grimly determined to enjoy ourselves, we headed down the trail head in the rain. As the rain let up a bit and the sun peaked through the clouds, the mood began to brighten and we were able to take in the beauty of the scenery around us.There were multiple small waterfalls along the trailof which we had to cross over a few.
part of the trail went through the river (which I actually thought was fun, despite the fact that the water was mind-numbingly cold).
We even got to cross over a rickety wooden bridge!!
The forest was lush and green, and
I think it brought out a bit of the explorer in all of us. I caught myself humming the theme song from Indiana Jones a few times as we trekked..

And then we got our first view of the waterfall. Even from that distance you could here the thunderous roar. An amazing amount of water was pouring down off the cliffs. Closer views were even more impressive.Justin and I braved the blast to get a closer look. I decided against swimming there…hey, even I have limits.
It was after three by the time we got there, and after four by the time we left. Justin and I were both ravenous. We hiked quickly back up the mountain with the rain picking up again the higher we went. We were quickly getting colder, and the little girl with us was getting less impressed by the minute. I gave her a piggy-back ride up the last leg of the trip (in the pouring rain), and by the time we got back to the trucks my adventurous spirits was teetering just a bit. We were cold, wet, tired and trying to figure out where the heck the food was. Whenever I asked, the guys just laughed and said “it’s further down.” Which in Latino-speak could mean anything. Ilse and I managed to cram ourselves in the back of a truck that had an extended cab, so we were sheltered from the wind, but Justin and Vickie weren’t so lucky.
When we finally arrived at the restaurant where we were going to eat LUNCH, it was a bit after six pm. The little girl was crying about being hungry, and I seriously considered joining her :). Fortunately, the food came quickly, and oh how good it was. It was a huge plate of mashed-potato styled platano, some sort of starchy food, pork, fried banana, and some onions and tomatoes on top. If I could have held off even two seconds I would have tried to take a picture of it. By the time I was finished, I’d eaten an amount even my dad and brothers would have found impressive. I’m drooling now just thinking about it. Yum, yum, yum.
Unfortunately, lunch…err dinner? ..lasted longer than we would have liked and by the time we crawled into the back of the pickup for the long drive home, it was a typical cold Quito night. The only thing I’ll say about the trip home was that being cold and wet in the back up a pickup truck speeding along at 50 mph or so for about 45 minutes was an exercise in endurance. We reached home quite finished with adventuring for the day and all headed off for long hot showers. Adventure number 864, over, thank God.