Equator: waterfalls, rain forest and countryside

2 weeks ago, I had a very busy week end. It all started with going to the Aquatic Park with Cecibel's class, kids aged 5 yrs old. This park is located in a beautiful place, surrounded by mountains with a river flowing nearby.

We all got on a big truck then headed to Balsapamba. Unfortunately for us, the day would be all grey and cloudy and we would not have a chance to see the sun. As soon as we got in, the kids jumped in the water. Kids..., no fears, no problem with being cold, only focused on playing and having fun. There was a big speaker with the music not only loud as, but unbearable for those staying just below it...So much like in the Dominican Republic all this! :-)))

When I felt the presence of the sun under the clouds, I did not give it more thinking and jumped into the water. I first tried the swimming pool with artificial waves.

Funny how it worked, just a small wave turning into a regular movement forming several waves all over the places. I thought it would be fun but I finally felt seasick after a while... it was too regular and unnatural for me, crazy hey when you think of all the sailing I've done with no worries, but this pool was not my cup of tea! Then I decided to give a try to the big toboggan with curves. It was really fun, at one stage I thought I was going to exit the tube! One of the kids' mum tried it after me and said she was had been really scared and would not do it again.


I was really getting cold so after that, I was delighted to have a try with the hydromassage tub. All for me, nobody else inside, sweet as bro! Then a bit of sauna, and after a while, everybody got hungry

then cold also

It was time to have a fast lunch, then go back to Montalvo.

I was very tired but no time to rest. 30mn after being back, I had a meeting with locals living in Montalvo and interested in coming along to walk in Montalvo's surroundings. Oscar introduced me, my goal, what I was doing for the Foundation then left me to speak. God knows I hate that but that was not too bad. I spoke about the importance of having a regular exercise, the benefits of sports and of a healthy food. Then we invited people to sign up for the walks and agreed on 3 times a week, mondays, fridays and saturdays at 3pm. The aim would be to walk around 2 hours and also have a bit of work out for abdominals, legs and arse... I showed them how to do it and we had a bit of stretching together. Around 20 persons were attending this information meeting. Kids, women, much more than men. Everybody seemed motivated and ready to start on the coming monday. Back home, I was on kitchen duty and made a spanish tortilla with a mozarella/tomato salad with olive oil.

I had just finished cooking when one of the teachers stopped by the house to invite me over for a walk on Sunday with friends of hers in the countryside. I thankfully accepted the invitation as I was really eager to get out of town. Meanwhile, she also invited me after dinner to hang out with her friends. I jumped in the car... and we actually did not leave the car! I was surprised to see and hear that they'd usually drive around, listening to the music loud as, speaking and just hanging out inside the car. I could not help from laughing out loud, that was such a different way of doing things as the one I was used to, like going to a bar, have a drink and talk with friends... we spent around one hour, driving around, getting close to the Park I'd been during the day then back... I had interesting conversations with some of the girls who turned out to be fervent catholics, keeping their virginity for their husband...I was really shocked it could still exist, furthermore in this country where girls have their first sexual relationship around 13 or 14 years old. These two girls were 23 and 30 yrs old... I was undoubtefully learning everyday a lot about different cultures and ways of life...

On Monday morning, 9am, we took the bus off to the mountains with Rocio, her brother Armando and three other girls, Janina, Diana and Rosita. Two of them had simple ballerines, no sport shoes, no water nor nothing to eat... city girls :-)
The drive was amazing, beautiful sceneries, greenish, showing awesome hills a bit like the ones you can find from Sanchez to Las Terrenas in the Dominican Republic. We left with the rain in Montalvo and one hour and a half later, we arrived, all in a very good mood, at Bilovan with the sun, being able to see at last the sceneries. I was getting very excited to start the walk.

I was over the moon. No traffic at all, no noise, just a dirt road made of stones, Mother Nature in its whole glory! Unfortunately, the sun did not stay with us and we quickly had a very dense fog as travel companion which did not leave us during the whole walk! It was a bit of a pity not to be able to see the sceneries but I was so happy to walk in the countryside that it could not alter my happiness. I met friends on the way,

found a professional 'bull fighting place'... :-)

took a picture of the map in case we got lost, which turned out to be helpful.

This road was the former road going from the mountain to the coast, used by the very famous Simon Bolivar called the 'liberador'. A monument had been built to remember the facts.
We started the walk, happily chatting, slowly starting to warm up and also get a bit wet by the fog. At one stage, there was a road going right, smaller, and the main one going down. I could hear the cars nearby and thought if we'd choose the main track, we'd reach the main road where the traffic was... it turned out I was right and we had to go up the road we'd just gone down, not for the pleasure of the girls but for mine, as I was keen on having some exercise and this was just up to my standards! We joined a group of locals who were coming back from buying food in a village and was going down to one of the places mentioned on our map. They suggested a shortcut, which was quite slippery and downhill. The girls were screaming all along, it was so funny to hear them, city girls! :-)



The others were very fast walkers, used to do this trip every week and having a healthy outdoor life. Lovely people, happy to help us out and chat to find out who we were. They also gave us interesting information: we had another 2 hours of walk... we had already been walking for 2 hours, which was supposed to be the total duration of the walk... I was happy to hear the news, but I was the only one! Anyway, there was no other option than to keep walking. The road was way too steep for anybody to ever dream of going back up.

What a beautiful rainforest! All so green and lush, no noise at all, nor sound, not even birds. I was overwhelmed with joy, peace and was high up in spirits, feeling my body alive again! No pollution at all, beautiful ferns and leafs, plus a cool waterfall that we reached crossing the river on bare feet.




The fog was with us till the end of the walk.




We were starting to be very hungry, having packed only a few provisions for a 2hrs walk. Mother Nature did not let us down and we found some tasty bananas, more than welcome at the end of the walk. Then, not far away, Armando had a very lucky strike at shooting some oranges which fell on the ground to our biggest surprise, the most surprised being Armando himself. The oranges were more than appreciated and turned out to be juicy and delicious!
I love this kind of place where you can find your own food in the wild, isn't it amazing?!
What a day! My legs were tired, not used anymore to work out, but also due to the steep road we'd been following down for 5 hours!!! I had sore calves on Monday but I was not the only one :-) However, I had no time to rest. After school, I had my first walk scheduled with the people here in Montalvo. I can't say I was very motivated, having a big headache in addition to the tiredness I'd been facing for the past 3 weeks but I had to go. I did not regret it! Around 15 persons came, and while waiting for everybody to turn up, we've been working out abdominals and legs, then headed out to the countryside, slowly leaving town.

It was a dirt road again, made of stones and I was surprised and stoked to see almost no traffic at all, so no pollution, only dogs barking. Again, there were some beautiful sceneries, the moutains surrounding fields of rice, flowers planted in gardens, a vivid light.

Amazing roses smelling so good, not like those you can buy...

Everybody felt good and decided to keep on walking further on, coming back a different way, doing a loop. We crossed a river, kids running ahead, women struggling behind but everybody still motivated to keep going. I was so surprised to see that so close to the house I could find this kind of pittoresc sceneries and peace... too bad I could not come on my own!

When coming back to the village, everybody admired a few very simple houses but with lovely flowers and plants.

The walk finally lasted bit more than 2 hours and we happily agreed to meet again on friday for the next one. I had a bit of a chat with everyboday and it seemed to me that they were all delighted with this initiative and happy at the end of the walk.

On friday, we went for our second walk. We first had to go down the main street, highly polluted, but we quickly turned on a dirt road, away from noise and cars. The road was quite muddy due to heavy rains fall in the past days. The sceneries were pretty different, mostly fields of cocoa, banana and mais.


We had to cross 4 small rivers..On the first one we met people washing clothes, on the second others cleaning a truck...
Some of us removed their shoes, other jumped on stones but the majority of us being kids, they just wet their shoes by walking in the water with their shoes on.
I removed my shoes for the first one, then jumped on Oscar's back to avoid doing the same on the 2nd and 3rd rivers!

After walking around 1 hour, we arrived at destination, "Las Mercedes" where I found a weird fruit, not eatable but with a funny shape... called "pepa del monte", meaning "seed of the mountain"

We started our volley ball game with a beach volley ball given by my mates and had a lot of fun. Nothing of strict rules there, just trying to make a few passes and pass the ball over the net which was around 2.5m high!!! Most of the players were kids, apart from Oscar and me, who were each playing in a different team. We played two sets, each team winning one, and after sweating a lot, walked back to the village.

We crossed the rivers again. On the second one, the truck was now out of the water but the engine was running on, polluting the river. I told them it would be better to turn it off and avoid polluting for nothing but they did not seem to understand... I later on talked with Oscar who said he had told them exactly the same when crossing the river!!!

Half way there, we started to run, the kids being excited to swim in the last river. When Erika asked me if I would have a swim with them I first had a reaction of 'adult' telling her I was not sure, that I not did not have my bikini on nor a towel to dry. She answered "So what? You'll just come back home wet!". It was so true! I kind of felt the stupidity of my answer when I made it, ashamed to give such a poor reason, so quickly agreed to join her and when getting there, removed my shoes and followed them in the water with my short and t shirt. The water was delicious. The kids were jumping from the banks of the river, having fun, screaming, splashing water over each other.


I got amazed how free spirits they were, so far away from our 'western' model, where kids are over protected, forbidden to do things without supervision of parents always worried that they get hurt, sick, dirty or damage their clothes... These kids grow up in the streets. Most of them spend their time outside, all together, playing with a ball or inventing games, stimulating their creativity and ingenousity. They do not spend many hours in front of the TV, internet or playing video games.They are used to be playing by themselves, walking with no shoes on, getting dirty all the time without parents screaming not to do it... so they just seize the moment, live life to the max, with no fears, no 'adult' rules to spoil their pleasure of playing like the kids they are.

I love it! Don't get me wrong, it's not all pink, they are many things I do not agree with regarding education here, but I like this freedom they have. Here, people do not have umbrellas. When it rains, you see people walking in the streets the same way as if the sun was shining, with no rush to walk faster, they just get wet... In Europe, people open an umbrella as soon as a few drops start falling...

But let's go back to the point. It was another really good walk, different from the first one but as enjoyable. On saturday, we could not go due to bad weather but on sunday, I went with my friend Rocio and her mates to discover another waterfall, a place called "Cañolta". I had a ball! Again, the rain forest and its beautiful exhuberant vegetation.



We left Montalvo with a big sun and got there under a grey sky. A few minutes later, the rain was starting to fall. Mother Nature provides it all and I used a big waterproof leaf to protect my camera. The track was easy, a bit going up but nothing too bad, although very muddy at the end.

We were surrounded by tropical vegetation, saw amazing flowers,

rivers running all over the places

to lead us where?...

In english, it means "Only God knows my destination" :-)

The waterfall was nothing exciting, just a nice one.

A kid of the village came us with to the waterfall and caught a kind of a crab

I got into the water, and had a few jumps from a very slippery stone on the side of the waterfall. I repeated it at least 4 times so that one of the girls take a picture but she never succeeded, either too slow or too fast! Bugger, I gave up and came back to where the girls had stayed, on a stone. I suddendly slipped, my camera in my hand, screaming while going into the water " my camera!" my arm high up in the sky and two of the girls wanting to rescue me also slipped into the water! I just could not stop laughing!!! It was so funny to see them wet with their clothes on whereas they had not wanted to swim! What a crack up!

The rain was now pouring down and we walked back to the road. We could see the sun in a distance shining not far away and it finally reached us, hurrah! We came back a different way and crossed the river on a really cool suspended bridge.





I was happy, even if it was not a long walk, for I had filled myself with all this beauty, loving the rain forest, the green. I am now doing like the locals, and do not mind anymore walking under the rain, I even love it!