Journey to the Center of a Cave: Where I lost my Sunglasses, but not my Dignity

17 de septiembre 2016
Cueva de los Aviones, San Vicente de Chucuri, Santander, Colombia

Work life is getting pretty busy down here, so my blog posts end up being pretty late.  I am about to tell you of my adventures on 4 de septiembre 2016.  At 3:30 in the morning, I grabbed a taxi to nearby Provenza, where I met up with a group called Caminantes de Santander (caminar = to walk, hike, so caminantes = hikers) for a trip to La Cueva de los Aviones, en San Vicente de Chucurí.  My coworker Nestor had gathered a group of us to go (the two of us along with Rosa Maria, Colleen, and Dan), and had told us that it was going to be a short hike to a waterfall, where we would picnic.  It would be muy tranquilo.

It was anything but tranquilo.

But we'll get to that later.  For now, it's 3:30am, we're on a (very full) coach bus, and we're traveling about 3 hours on little to no sleep.  For the most part, the journey was fairly uneventful, if very bumpy.

I did get to see the sunrise over the mountains from the bus!

At one point, the bus stopped, and we were told to get off.  We were all a little confused, as it did not seem like we had reached our destination at all.  Turns out the bus was having problems driving on such steep hills.

Our bus got stuck driving down the hill, hitting its front bumper on the cross-street.

Luckily, after a bit of work backing up and making sharp turns, the bus made it onto the next street.  We were only a few blocks from breakfast, so we walked there to eat.

Good morning San Vicente de Chucurí!

After a delicious traditional Colombian breakfast, we walked through town a bit to get back on the bus and onto the next leg of our adventure.  Along the way, our guides explained a bit about what to expect, but I was not able to follow most of it (I really need to learn Spanish).

We arrived at the top of a mountain, where we disembarked and were told to bring only what was truly necessary.  We changed into our swimsuits and hiking clothes, grabbed our water bottles, and left our bags at a little farm.  We were ready to go.

The hike began by walking down a very steep switch-back path.  Along the way, I made some friends, and we chatted about our lives and tried not to fall.  There were some expert hikers who helped me out along the way, teaching me different methods, or having me put a hand on their shoulder for stability.  We made it down the mountain and out of the sun into the tree cover.  After a bit more hiking (more level and easier), we made it to our first waterfall.

Time for a swim break!

It was cold and refreshing and wonderful, and we all swam around a bit.  We were having a blast.

So fun!

Well, not all of us swam around blissfully...

After a brief respite, we noticed the guides had started having people climb up out of the water onto this huge rock to continue the journey.  It had foot-holds and hand-holds, sort-of, so they had not yet broken out the rope.

Ok; that doesn't seem too bad...

We all made it up with a little push from behind and pull from above (thanks Caminantes!).  We were proud of ourselves, but we hadn't seen nothin' yet.  Our next task was much steeper, and there was a rope involved.  It was very difficult, but I made it after ~3 -4 tries with some extra help.

Go Nestor! (Sorry it's blurry, my waterproof camera case was dirty inside.)

Uh oh, how am I gonna make it? This is not "muy tranquilo"!

I made it, but not without getting a little bit dirty!

We had made it up the steep climb, and we continued walking, sometimes through the jungle and sometimes through the river without much mishap.  We then got to our next waterfall and little swim break.

I'm Queen of the Rock!

Water polo prepared me for the moment I would be treading water underneath a waterfall.

Blissfully unaware of our next task.

We were all swimming around, climbing on the little rock in the middle of the pool and jumping back in, just like a bunch of kids at summer camp, when we noticed the guides setting up another rope.

We were going to climb the waterfall.

Now I don't know what muy tranquilo means in Nestor's mind, but climbing up a mother-fuckin' waterfall doesn't sound tranquilo to me.

So, I watched a few people do it, and I watched a few people climb up the super-steep alternative path as well.  I pondered both.  I discussed the options with my new Colombian friend Sara and German friend Hanna.  We decided that the waterfall was the better option, as there were guides and experienced climbers there to help.

It doesn't seem too hard....no wait, it does.

Well, I gave it a try.  And I got stuck.  So I gave it another try.  And I got stuck.  So the guide had me sit on his shoulders for a boost up to get me past that part.  And....I got stuck.  So I decided to take a little break, watch a few more people, consider the alternate route...

I considered it, and was walking towards it, when the guides told me to stop and wait for help.  I trust them better than I trust my own abilities, so I listened.  I went to go try again.  I jumped off the rock into the water and I lost my sunglasses.  RIP sunglasses.  I hope some fish get to enjoy them and be super-cool now.  I shrugged it off, they were old and scratched up and fairly cheap.  I was going to conquer this waterfall.

I did not conquer this waterfall.

I tried again, getting on the guide's shoulders, stepping up to the next foot-hold (the guide shoved my foot up to the next foot-hold), pulling the rope, grabbing the next guide's hand, and....I got stuck.  I panicked.  I didn't know where I could go and the guide was pulling on my arm so hard I thought my shoulder was going to dislocate.  I was crying.  I dropped back into the water and took another break.  I watched all my friends, old and new, climb up the waterfall.

The guides told me to wait, they were going to check if there was another way around.  Turns out there was, and one of the guides brought me through it, practically dragging me by the hand.  Another guy came with us too; he probably could've done it but he was worried about his phone.

We made it back to the group, and it turns out that my most recent failures had really badly scraped up my leg and I was bleeding, but we had no first aid with us so I just washed it in the river and kept on keeping on.  People kept asking me "¿Como estas?" and I kept answering that I was "Bien!"  One of the guides asked if I wanted to stop, but I said no.  It was around this point that I started accumulating a fan club.  A group of Colombians asked me something about a photo; I thought they wanted me to take their photo.  Turns out nope, they wanted a photo with me.  Was I a celebrity?

Well, they later all friended me on Facebook and said I'm a "warrior to be admired," so I guess so.

Well, we kept on going, and we walked and we swam and we climbed a little more, and we finally made it to La Cueva de los Aviones!  We swam through a little gap that opened up into a beautiful cave with a cool waterfall.

Worth it.

We hung around in the cave a bit, taking cool photos and swimming around.  A few people (including Nestor!) climbed on top of the cave and jumped in the hole in the ceiling.  A few other people exited the cave through a smaller gap that required holding your breath and going underwater.  We took a group picture inside the cave before we moved on.

We continued our hike, our spirits bolstered by the wonders of the cave, and we approached our next and final waterfall.  This one was stronger and larger than the others, so we all took turns receiving back massages from the falls.

Who needs shiatsu?

As we were all swimming and splashing around, we saw a local climb up and then slide down the waterfall.  It looked crazy.  It looked fun.  We climbed up, since our destination was in that direction, and I decided that I was going to slide down this waterfall.  I may not have conquered the last one, but I decided that I would conquer this one.  I watched the local kid do it again, but had him do it slowly while explaining that you simply have to go the same path as the water.  He said the bottom was just sand, so no worries there.  And then I did it.

As I was sliding, I heard lots of people cheering "Go Katie!" and I heard Colleen shouting "Wait Katie WHAT ARE YOU DOING STOP!"  But I did it.  I conquered that damn waterfall.  And I had a FANTASTIC time doing it!  10/10 would scare the shit out of my roommate again.

The rest of the hike was a pretty easy walk through the cacao trees and then up a gravel road back to the farm.  My legs were super banged up and though this was objectively the easiest part, it felt like the hardest.  

Can't beat the view from the top though.

When we got back to the farm, they cut a leaf off an aloe plant, shaved off the green part to let the soothing goo out, and rubbed it all over all my scrapes, bandaging part of the aloe to my worst scrape on my upper thigh.  

We all had some delicious lunch cooked by our hosts, changed, and got back on the bus.  We stopped for an hour in San Vicente again, had some ice cream, bought some souvenirs, and got back on the bus.

Little chocolate bombs to make hot cocoa!

A hot cocoa mug shaped like a cacao bean!

We were excited to be going home to sleep, but then our bus stopped at a gas station to change a tire.  We had a snack of empanadas and fresh guanabana juice, which was tasty at the time but ended up giving all of us food poisoning later that week. 

My scrapes are finally almost healed, and my food poisoning fiasco is over, and my legs finally don't feel like they're going to collapse every time I take the stairs.  This adventure was definitely one for the books.  It was the hardest day of my entire life, but it was also one of the best days I've ever had.