A few weeks back, my friend Colton began organizing a trip to La Quebrada del Condorito, which roughly translates as "the canyon of the Condor". The day of the trip was to be November 1st, the day after halloween. People were hesitant to go because of halloween, and of course because of the party the night before. From day one, I said I was in. The more people we got, the less it would cost us. 100 pesos was the most it would be. Even when I learned about the party, my plan was to go to both if it didnt cost too much.
Three days before the trip, Colten handed me a form. He told me I had to fill it out by the end of the day and pay 100 pesos to go. I told him, I dont plan ahead and I dont sign my life away when I cant understand what I am signing. About an hour after I received the form to fill out, my Tutor Pancho came along.
I asked Pancho if he was still going to go to the Quebrada. He told me that he had another plan. He told me that he had the car for the weekend. He invited me camping with two other people. We were going to camp friday night and meet up with the group going with Colten Saturday morning. This sounded like a great plan for me. The trip would be free, I would get to spend time with my tutor and go camping.
All of this was only a thought, and never for sure. Pancho was supposed to get back to me. Well, time passed and Pancho never got back to me. It turns out, he could not gather enough people because too many had to work or wanted to go to the halloween party. I found this out a couple hours before the halloween party. (Again, why I never plan ahead). All of a sudden, I was free for Friday night, so I went to the halloween party.
The problem is that I still wanted to go to the Quebrada. Friends and family had told me how beautiful it was and that it was an all day hike, so I needed to get a lot of rest the night before. I never turned in any of the forms or paid the 100 pesos, but found out the group with Colten were meeting at our school at 7am Saturday morning to catch the tour bus. I decided that I was not going to go and try to go another weekend.
Then, once again, along came Pancho. At the halloween party he told me that he was still planning on going in the morning in his car, and that I could come with him. We planned to meet the group at 7 in the morning. (Remember what time I got home Friday night/Saturday Morning.)
I took a 30 minute walk to school Saturday morning. I met Pancho and another Tutor Niko, who had yet to make it home from the halloween party. He decided to come with us. There was space on the bus, but we were both two cheap and did not want to pay for the trip.
We went in Pancho´s car. We stopped and bought some sandwhich stuff and snacks for the day. We met up with the bus at the trekking site. Niko decided that he was too tired and was going to wait in the car. We told him it was an all day hike, but he waited anyway. He wanted to sleep. We left him the bottle of water we had because we figured he would need it. Come to find out, he didnt even use it.
Pancho and I went on the tour with the group. We hiked for about 3 or 4 hours in the sun without water. The others had water, but there was not enough to share. We stopped for lunch in the mountains and to look at the Condors off the cliff. We saw a few. They were beautiful. Part of the tour was that they included lunch. Pancho and I cracked open our sandwhich ingrediants, so that we did not have to pay. After lunch we hiked a little more. The group was going to go down by a small river and do some activities. Pancho and I decided we would start heading back on our own. There were also rain clouds moving in. We said thanks to the group and parted our own way.
I could have stayed with the group, but I did not want to give them any reason to charge me. Pancho and I started hiking in the direction of the car. We were not exactly sure where we were going, but we managed. It started raining not ten minutes after we split from the group. Luckily I had a light jacket with me. It did not do any good. The rain got harder and soon it was pouring. Finally, the rain started to hurt. It wasnt rain any more, it was little pieces of hail. Then came the lightning and thunder. Pancho and I continued through the mountains for a couple hours. We got soaked. We made it back to the car, where Niko was sleeping peacefully. Just as we reached the car, the rain stopped and the sun began shining again. We changed into the somewhat dry clothes we had in our bags and headed back to Cordoba.
Pancho was late for work, which was not a big deal, and I was exhausted. I caught a bus near Pancho´s house. I returned to my house around 7:00pm. I had been up 34 hours all in which I went to a party and hiked through the mountains all day. I took a hot shower, ate dinner and stayed up a few more hours. I went to bed around 11:00 pm despite having invitations to go out. I was simply out of gas. I slept 14 hours straight. It was a great LONG day, or days.
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