crazy days
briefly, my ass hurts and I was accosted by 3 large voracious dogs that could have killed me…
hehe..well, having too much fun here! Went on a horeseback riding trip yesterday to a place called Juellas. We left around 3:30, got to las juellas (about 9km?), hiked up to a spot on top of the cerro, picniced, left as the sun was going down, then rode into the night under a star filled sky. We could see the silhouettes of the mountains, cacti, and rode towars the lights of Tilcara. It was so beautiful.
Today, Nathalie and I caught a remis to a place where there are supposed to be some thermal waters. We were going to hike back to town. When we got to the area, there was no pueblo. But we asked someone and they said it´s about a 6 hour ida y vuelta hike to the aguas. We didn´t have time to do it today, so we hiked back to town instead.
It was pretty wild and adventurous. We wanted to go on trails away from the ruta. We walked across tree bridges over the river, and towards an older lady. We talked to her, and she said that we can go down the trail through her fields (she grows lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, and garlic), then encounter the trail that goes along the canal. But she warned us to take sticks, as there are some mean dogs down the way. She warned us about one dog, a white dog about 2 houses down that is mean.
Long story short, we carried our tree branches along the hike. Ascended up a hill, with no real path to go down back to the canal, traversed someone´s fields (no one was home), and as we were almost out of the fields and to the river, 3 big dogs barking and snarling their teeth at us came. I´ve never been so scared in my entire life!!! We pointed our sticks at them, I tried picking up another stick but it ended up to be a tree root (doh), I tripped over another tree root, Nathalie held her calm the entire time, then we got to the river and they stopped at the property line. My heart was beating so fast. It was crazy!
To cross the river, we had to take our shoes off and hike our pants up. It wasn´t too deep. We continued on along the river and onto the canal trail, encountered a few more dogs, then later encountered a fence which we could not go beyond (dogs). We went down the mountain and met with a 9 year old boy named Sergio, who was so sweet. We talked with him for a while, he offered us more than a handfull of a snack (corn like snack). And when we left, he reached into his pockets and gave us both lollipops. Just like that. As we walked away, we searched for something to give him in exchange, and found some caramelos to give to him.
After hours of walking, we finally made it to the hostel and rested for a while.
People like Sergio, I will remember. Last year, it was a piece of bread a lady shared with me in Ecuador, this year it´s a lollipop that was given to me by a boy with a huge grin on his face. I feel like I have learned a lot on this trip, and have a lot more to learn. Compassion, sharing, and being a good person. It´s as simple as that.
Tags: Tilcara, Travel
Marisa
August 29th, 2005 at 10:17 pm
Dogs! Very dangerous, you go first. 😉