Sunday, December 7, 2008

Ok, Soy Vago

I really haven't posted anything interesting lately and it is long over due. I am just going to point everyone in the direction of Adam's blog, he does a good job of cronicaling stuff, which I don't so. Everyone should read the post labeled Pululagua and the one about the bull fights because I may never get to it...
Two weeks ago I went to a river called Morinuco with my family. There is a waterfall that is relatively famous. And it is close to my house. It is passed Sangolquí, which is a city in the same valley but a little farther away from Quito. We made a couple of wrong turns but finally got to the Morinuco cabañas which is a hostal of sorts for visitors. We parked our car and started walking down to the river. We passed the lodge which has soccer, and vollyball fields. We continued down the trail, stopping to look at the river below. There was a turn off to a smaller waterfall whcih we bypassed to the entrance to the second, it was a big wall with three paintings, each had a name above it: Big Adventure, Medium Adventure and Small Adventure... So we paid a couple of bukcs and entered the place. There were some benches, another soccer field and a wooden play structure, bathrooms and a restaurant.There was a guide who explained to us the adventures we could embark on. There was the Small adventure whci would take about 30 minutes, the medium about an hour and the big adventure 2 hours. There was a map and the guide explained all of the places we could go to. All had some name like Eden, Little Cotopaxi, Girls Waterfall's and odd things like that. We were wtold that there were high levels of energy in two places, the waterfall, which is 50 meters and pyramid rock. Anywasy, the guide made the place seem like it was full of magic and new things to be discovered... but with all of the labels I wasn't so sure.
We began walking down the trail towards the river, the first place that we came to was a rock that extended out into the water, there was a tiny little rope swing and not much else... this was the place called Eden. We continued walking along the river to another spot that had another name like the last and was non-descript. There were some people following us so we continued along rapidly. The third place that I can remember was the sport fishing pond... sport fishing is where there is a tiny pond full of trout and you can pay to catch one. Passed that was little cotopaxi... which was a tiny rock painted with white to make it look like a mountain on the other side of the river...
This river was really cool, I was thinking of my Dad and Ben the whole time. There are some crazy repids. Falls, chutes, closing holes... I definatly noted rapids at class 3 or 4. The water was funneled in between rocks and made some really wild rapids. The rapid at Little Cotopaxi was about a 50 foot rapid which fell about 25 feet in the same space, with the river about half the width. At the end was a drop and a closing hole. On the other side of the river was a sign that said only good swimmers should swim there.
Continuing on we passed two guys fishing for trout with minimal equipment, a stick, wooden leader hook and line. We saw a series of small waterfalls which were named Girls Waterfalls, they seemed to be springs that were running down the canyon walls. The pyramid rock was a real let down. It was a rock in the middle of the river shaped like a pyramid, but some one dumped white paint over it so it wouldn't be missed and painted letters for the four directions. We then crossed the threshold to the big adventure, there was a sign making sure that we wouldn't forget. But really... before that we had to cross the river as it widened out. When the water is low you wouldn`t have to do this but we did. We got there at the same time as a family that had drunk to much, a couple of the men and women were drunk... it was really stupid. My family crossed without incident. I walked the rest of the way without my shoes. We caght sight of the falls about ten minutes later. It was huge, the wet wind could be felt really far away. The day was overcast and was like 60º F. So I definatly felt the cold. My sister told me that we could walk around the other side of the waterfall, so I stripped to my shorts and hat...
If anyone remembers the hat I always wore, it is still the same. My mom made it for my brother and I started wering it... hopefully he doesn't mind. But it has some real value for me. I'm always fighting with the inspectors at my school over the use of my hat. Anyways, I never wash it, it gets wet, smells bad and is good again. So I wore it to wash it with a mixture of energy and water power. Just walking towards the falls was amazing. The bottom of the water fall wasn't very deep. So this attributed to the cray water works. I was soaked before I got within 50 meters. There are rivers of water forming from the water that is collecting on the rocks. At about 25 meters I crossed over the ock barrier and the winds were crazy, at this point I couldn't walk and look at the falls. There weren't any more plants, wate wind and rock. I took of my hat because it wasbeing blown off of my head. I put my hand in front of my face, the water collected on the other side and the wind blew the droplets into my face... I stood behind the falls and my sister was off to one side. The power of the waterfall was amazing. I was completely drenched. We returned to my mom and dad where it turned out that my sister hadn't brought any jacket. So my dad gave her his. I shared my last mojo bar with my sister and we walked back. When we returned to the gate we bought choclo, which is corn on the cob but with another specie of corn. It was a really fun adventure to share with my family. We got back to the house tired and happy. The waterfall had blown away the bad energy!

1 comment:

Ben Small said...

Ha, rad man. I wish I could tottaly be shredding those gnarl closers with my hardy. Sounds a little to burl for a sofy like you though... JK. But yah man, thanks for thinking of me that sounds rad!