I slept decent, but felt something crawling on me in the middle of the night. I finally grabbed at it, squeezed it as hard as I could, then put it down and shone my light on it. A damn tick. I left it there and tried to sleep again. My mattress was shaped like a V, sagged in the middle big time. No snoring tonight, though.
We got woken up early, 4:30 or 5. We packed our stuff and stored it, then went for breakfast. Once again, dad barely touched his food.
After breakfast we headed to the Lost City. It was a short hike to another river crossing, this time the only option was waking through the river holding onto a rope stretched across the river so you don't get swept away by the strong current. Then the steps started. There are something like 1300 stairs you must walk up to reach the Lost City. We weren't sure how dad would do. It was quite a walk up, but we all managed to make it, dad did good.
The Lost City was quite something, much bigger than expected. You only see one typical picture of it, and it looks kinda small, but there's much more to it, and apparently only 10% had been excavated so far. It's not as grand as something like Machu Picchu, but still exceeded my expectation.
After an hour or so we headed back down all those steps and back to El Paraiso for lunch. Dad barely touched his food once again. Dad is not himself.
We started the trek back down to Wiwa, concerned for dad. Ryan and I shared carrying dads stuff so he didn't have to worry about it. He would only need to carry himself.
It's so humid, clothing gets drenched in sweat.
Dad did OK today. I had my doubts whether he could do it, but he managed to make it to Wiwa in reasonable time. The guide and tour company are taking good care of him as well, helping him cross rivers and such. Once in Wiwa, they asked us if we wanted a mule for dad tomorrow. We discussed it and we will get a mule for dad to take him part way back, over the most difficult terrain.
Supper was rice and potatoes and a beef stew, very delicious. I just started eating mine and looked over at dad's plate and it was nearly empty! His appetite is back and he was ravenous.
Thunder rolled all day long and it started raining pretty hard for much of the hike.
After supper Santiago asked us (well Michal, as she's the most fluent in Spanish) if we wanted to know anything. It ends up that Wiwa tours is a family business run by him and his brothers. Santiago is 30 years old and married. Apparently in their culture, when a boy turns 14, he gets to be with an older woman to prepare him for marriage.
We hung out with Michael and Michal for the evening. I grabbed my headlamp and went for a walk down the trail near the river. It was pitch black and kind of creepy being all alone in the jungle. I felt very vulnerable as well. Anything could have jumped out at me. I turned off my headlamp, total darkness. Momentary flashes from fireflies in the jungle was the only light. The rushing river, the croaking frogs/toads and the insects provided the soundtrack for me. Pretty amazing.
I headed back up and Ryan was just coming out, so we coaxed Michael to come along and we went back down and did it again, stood with our headlamps off. I imagined how freaky and frightening it would be if I turned my headlamp on and Ryan and Michael were no longer standing near me.
Dad went to bed early and was snoring like crazy again. It's hammocks again for sleeping. When we headed to bed, we all chose hammocks as far away from dad as possible. His snores were just more background noise now.
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