Oh what a weekend
In Susan’s email she asked me if its still fun or if its overwhelming. It is overwhelming but it is still a BLAST.. the big, hard, sometimes heavy moments come easier onto paper but there are soooo many moments of laughter and joy with this group of people, with the kids in my site and laughing with Sor about relationships and all sorts of silliness.
But yes, as you can tell from my writing this is not the typical study abroad program. Im not living the life I would at home, Im not going out at night or traveling much and Im seeing a lot of poverty and pain. And I am LOVING it.
Still, taking a weekend to relax is a beautiful thing.
We had the most fantastic weekend. We left Saturday morning bright and early already laughing headed to Juyua (why oooo a) to explore the waterfalls. Nate planned it and 5 of us girls just went along with his plan. We took a two hour bus ride on kinda packed busses through beautiful curvy roads surrounded by forests, fincas and mountains and arrived in the little town. We walked through the market where we could have bought anything from raw chicken to fake rolex to silly stuffed animals. We got to our hostel and walked into a beautiful, little, peaceful oasis with such friendly people. Ten minutes later we were on our way with a guide and a lunch the lady at the hotel packed us to explore the 7 waterfalls.
It was SUCH an adventure. I really wish we would have had a videographer with us so I could just show you all because it was absolutely REDICULOUS. This was no trail hike in a National Park in the States where the Forest Service keeps everything well kept. We trekked through mud, jungle, rivers and all sorts of craziness. We bush wacked trees and plants out of our way and when necessary our amazing guide (Douglas) pulled out the trusty machete to get things out of our way. We slipped and fell and laughed so much. We climbed over rocks, tried our hardest not to slide down steep hills and keep up on the uphill’s and could only hope that our Chacos would do us good.
Just when we were getting a little tired of all the crazy hiking, (something that I cannot even put into words it was so ridiculous. Imagine George of the Jungle mixed with that crazy guy on TV who does crazy stuff in the wilderness. There were no trails, tons of plants and trees and every kind of terrain you could imagine.) I turned to Emily and said “ok Im ready to be there” around the corner and over a few rocks and there we were in front of the first of 7 beautiful, huge waterfalls. We stopped to take pictures, rinsed the fire ants off our feet in the water and took in the view and continued. We eventually had to repel down one of them on a rope tied to a tree with the guide helping us all the way down. Sounds super sketchy, probably kinda was but I felt completely safe the whole time and if we really wanted to we probably could have sat down and slid down the rocks on our butts. The scenery continued to take my breathe away and after every hard feat we were reminded how worth it the journey was “vaya la pena” as we say in Spanish. We saw water fall after water fall and continued our falling. Finally we got to the biggest one and got to sit and eat lunch. Our guide cut up the vegetables and we ate the most simple yet most delicious veggie sandwiches I have ever had in my life. My black shorts were brown, my legs covered in mud and sweat was dripping off my face. We were exhausted and the sandwiches were exactly what we needed. We spent a little time in the water and took some pictures and we continued. We made our way through the river to two more and then starting heading up a huge heel. Our legs kinda felt like they were gonna give at any second and we were exhausted, but just like the first time every time we were tired of it we saw another beautiful site. Lastly we went to some man made water falls and swam through a tiny tunnel where you could barely see anything. After another long walk up hill we finally got back to town and to our hostel with hot water. I know most of you take hot showers every day and that feeling of your whole body being warm and clean is normal but for us it is a TOTAL luxery and after an exhausting, dirty day it was about the best thing I could imagine.
The day was perfect and exactly what we needed. Challenge, exhilarating, beautiful and adrenaline rush after adrenaline rush. It was so peaceful just to be in nature. Something that for as long as I remember has been a place of happiness, peace and solace for me. A place where I feel so alive and like nothing else in the world matters. We talked about how for the past month we are so often blow away by pain, or the juxstaposition of beauty within this pain. But this weekend every time we felt or said “Wow” it was because of pure beauty. Something we are so privileged to be able to experience and was such a breather for our hearts and brains. Part of me wished I could bring all of the people from my site to these waterfalls, let them forget, relax and just enjoy the beauty that is nature. It felt so good to conquer challenge after to challenge, to be physically exhausted but mentally and emotionally completely relaxed and at peace. We laughed all day at people falling, when I almost ripped my arm out of its socket and when Lindsey hung on a stick by her shorts. Everyone overcame fears, everyone was tired, but everyone had a total blast. And it was so so beautiful (lotsa pictures to come soon on facebook). I so wish I could explain because it was absolutely ridiculous and SUCH an adventure. I loved every minute of it and feel so refreshed coming back home. It was exactly what I needed and for the first time in a while I felt so in my element. I felt completely able and comfortable, I felt like I could do anything I put mind to even if it was painful and scary and hilarious all at the same time.
It was just a really great mental break and such a beautiful place to spend the day in. It was nice to get out of our bubble and see another side of El Salvador.
We went back to our awesome hostel, took hot showers and went out to this little hipster café we found. Juyua has this funny little colony of hipster Salvadorans They must have been of Spanish decent because for the first time in a month we didn’t stick out as total Gringos but still their accents were completely Salvadoran. We ate hamburgers and paid the most we have for a meal yet but we totally enjoyed ourselves. We totally took a little vacation and it was absolutely wonderful.
We came back Sunday to a house of people ready to share stories, eat Papusas, refreshed yet exhausted and ready to continue on this amazing journey. Diving in, learning and reflecting every moment, running like crazy and always staying up a little later than planned is great, but makes a break even better. Now Im ready to dive in even deeper, to soak up the moments, to look and listen hard and to take in all the juxstaposition, life, struggle and beauty this world has to offer me.
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