Thursday, October 11th

Casa Elemento, Minca, Colombia

Dear Obiwan,

Well rested and almost stomach bug free I was ready to finally hike! I headed off with my bags on my front and back. I was told it was a very difficult 3 hour hike to Casa Elemento from El Rio Elemento.

But I believed in myself Obiwan! I thought I have hiked for longer and have done some trying hikes in my life!

Here are some pictures of the beginning of the hike before it got difficult.

Welp, I was wrong. It. Was. So. Difficult. Also- I had bags on my front and back so I was all off balance. As you hike many motorbikes pass you honking to offer you a ride. Eventually, as I was huffing and puffing, possibly weezing?- I finally said yes to a motorbike.

And this bike looked like if I sat on it, it would tumble. And the driver looked about 17 years old. But man, this bike was tough and so was the driver!

His name was Jesus and he said he was 24.

Here is a video of what it’s like! (Somehow I did this without dropping my phone!)

But…about 20 minutes into the ride it started to rain…first it was light. But then Jesus paused, asked if I wanted the poncho, I said no cause I had my nifty REI rain coat.

Well, I chose wrong.- again Obi! This poncho meant business and my rain coat didn’t comprehend monsoons.

He puts the poncho on, and honestly I’m glad he took it!

The rain was madness. Absolutely pouring buckets. It was like in Cartegena the other night. Just SO MUCH. It was so much rain I couldn’t see most of the time. The road became so wet and slippery and mud everywhere. I kept thinking, “should I get off and walk?! WHAT’S SAFER?!” and someone who worked at the last hostel said something about walking being way safer.

But then I also kept thinking, “you’re gonna die walking in this, have you seen yourself walk?” Like I trip and fall daily when the ground is smoothe…Motorbike wins!

Eventually we made it!!! I was so grateful of Jesus after. Wow, amazing job.

Finally arrive at Casa Elemento and the guy at the front desk didn’t want to show me my room due to the sky raining buckets…all I wanted was a shower and to dry off. I ended up meeting two really nice and funny British guys, John and Brian I think, they showed me to my room. John lives in Bogota! I walk in and Hermela and Olivia were there! Olivia was leaving and Hermela was staying for one more night.

Anywho, I ended up being in the same room as the British guys and we hung out for a little- played pool and had some beer.

And Obi, it was just so cold and miserable. We were in the mountains so its cold and the rain never stopped, so no point in showering (also you had to walk in the pouring rain to even get to the showers). I was feeling pretty miserable but they had just finished hanging up a TV by my room and I sat down next to Javier, this really nice awesome guy from Venezuela! He looks 22 ish but actually is 18! He and his ‘sister’ had blankets and were watching one of the super hero movies. They invited me to watched and we all got under blankets sand watched movies. It was everything I needed!

(This is me with one of the cute doggies!)

At one point a group of people vetoed the movies and forced us to watch the Colombia vs US soccer(futbol) game….me and Javier and his sister wanted to still watch ‘The Mummy’ (one of my favorite movies!) but the game actually ended up being so much fun to watch!

I went to bed early and me and Javier and the two British guys planned to hike at 5am to see the sunrise…

I’ll tell you what happened with sunrise in the next entry Obi!

Love you!

Your Mama-cat,

Carly

P.S.- oh, if you didn’t figure it out yet, no hammock yet, it was pouring rain and miserable!