Day 2 in Toray starts off with the Spanish class, 8:00am-12:00pm, we are in the room that have a wall-to-ceiling window facing a mountain, just behind the temporary white board. Imagine how difficult it is to focus on the white board instead of the yellow and green behind the window. Aislinn (from Boston) and I are in the same class, we are in the classes since the first week. It seems we are going to repeat what we have done last week, not exactly the same way, since we have different teachers, but the topics are roughly the same. I am not surprised if I have to repeat some lectures as I am so bad at listening. I already felt it was moving too fast for me. So repeating what we learned last week probably will do me good than bad.
After the class, we have lunch. Some people just come back sweaty and dusty, they have hiked into the hillside to find a waterfall. Said it's really beautiful, at first they have taken a difficult path and spent 1.5 hours to eventually find to the waterfall, but then realize the easy path is actually just above and it takes 0.5 hour to hike back. So, anyway, about maybe 10 of us are heading our way out to the hill to find the "acclaimed" local waterfall after lunch. We are advised to take the easy path. That is the our original plan anyway, but beautiful things never come easy, don't they? We somehow walk into the difficult path before we know. Perhaps I should not say it's a path, it's really not a path, we just try to get through the bushes, the water and cactus.
At first it is still ok. We have 6 guys and 5 girls. We pass by a door standing in middle of nowhere (it's really just literally a small wall with a door, look like we are breaking into someone's property). Through there, I guess there are two ways ahead, go down or go up. We simply miss the path going up I guess, and we all (except 2 girls at the end) head the way down. We definitely hear the sounds ahead, but the path gets more and more difficult to get passed. At some point, we slide down a slope. Right there, we know it's no turning back. Meanwhile, the other two girls choose to hike upward and that's the path we should have taken! It's too late for us, there is no way we can climb back that slopes (we think, not knowing what lays ahead), we are still a big group, so it isn't so bad or scary. We pass by some rapid water coming down from the mountain, with my see-through walking shoes, my feet got all wet, the white socks literally turns dark brown with mud and water all mixed together. It's really gross.
There isn't lack of beautiful stones, running water and greens around us though. Eventually we do get to the waterfall, or at least we think that's what we are looking for after all. We can see the other two girls standing way up there on the hillside, looking down at us by the running water. At where we are, there isn't really any path one can go up, steep slopes everywhere. I have to say, at that point, we are kind of scattered (scrambled) everywhere trying to find our ways back to the easy path or at least somewhere walkable on our own. A few daring ones try to get closer to the waterfall, while others try hard to climb up the slopes to where the two girls are. I am among the latter, since the sky is getting stormy, rain is coming down. It is really kind of freaky at that point, I am alone at my spot, trying to climb up the muddy wall, standing on some stones sticking out from the mud which apparently isn't the safest things to do and I realize that too, but there is no other ways. I am grabbing grass, tree roots, whatever I can grab to get myself up. At one point, I cannot find another to hold, grass get pulled off, the muddy wall is too loose to stand. There is really nothing I can hold on to, except that I see a tree just a few feet ahead. It is at that point, I really feel like one of the contestants from Survivor! I continue trying to find any tiny spots I can borrow some forces to reach to that tree. I do get there and one of the girls above calls me and I know I am close, thanks God, I really feel relieved. She helps me to get up to the easy path. And I am looking back down and see what I have done. I cannot even see where I have stood, it is that steep. Rain is getting harder, and it start to hail for a few minutes too. I look at my arms get all scratched, like I just fight with a cat, my own jeans get all dirty, and the shoes and socks are just nasty. I throw my socks away after I come back to the school.
It is really a real adventure, which I am glad that I get through without any real harm but I doubt I would try that again anytime soon. Coming back to the school, I throw away my socks, change into my flip flop, we head to Pisac for a dessert and coffee in my latest favorite cafe, where we also play a game of Monopoly (in Spanish). It is kind of funny, for some cards we draw we have no idea what it says. But all good, I won. Back to the school for dinner, all I want is a shower, but we are told that the water is out, except one building for the teachers and the housekeeper. It is still working in the afternoon, what the hack, don't know what happens. Anyway, I don't think anyone takes a shower today, despite that we all dirty and sweaty.
Adventure has not ended in the "jungle" in the afternoon, at night, we are trying to set up fire. We only bought some small woods which will be burn out quickly. The housekeeper said he knows where we can get some bigger woods back, and he needs guys to come along to help out, said it is only 5 mins away. So I just go along in my flip flop, I thought we are just going to BUY some woods in a nearby shop, turn out we are actually going back to the "jungle" in the dark to search for a big piece of woods. We do find it, but that m-f-er piece of wood is triple my weight or even more, we try to lift it up onto our shoulders, but there is absolutely no way to be done. We start to roll it down, it again seems like forever to roll it just a little bit and it at least takes 3-4 guys to push at a time. It's madness. My legs are already kind of sore from the afternoon hiking, and now I wear out my arms as well. The last 100 feet before we get the piece of woods back to the school is hilarious. We load it on a wood ladder, there must have 12 of us, men and women, pick the whole thing up carrying it back to the school. The scene is totally wickedly funny.
Fire is up, with marshmallow on sticks, beers, we sit around the fire. The second day in Toray is really exhausting but the whole experience is not to be traded off.
Photos here: Day 21 (Jungle Fever), Day 21 (Toray y Pisac)
