The Valentine’s Day I’ll never forget

Yes it involves a girl, but not in the way you’re thinking…

Morning sunrise in Arrecifes

I woke up in a hammock, close enough to see the ocean waves, in a shithole place in Arrecifes.  Flies everywhere, chickens and roosters running around, bathroom had a good ½ inch of water covering the whole floor, always, and the toilet had no seat.

Found this dragonfly on the morning walk

These crabs were all over the beach where i found Lesley

View from Cabo San Juan

Lesley had gotten up from her tent and found me reading in my hammock, only to tell me that she’d been up all night puking on that disgusting bathroom floor.  She suspected food poisoning from the previous day’s lunch.  Whatever it was, she was moving very slowly, so she marched on ahead of me.  I told her I’d catch up.

The beginning of the hike was really nice, walking right on the sand, jungle to the left, waves crashing on the right, it was like something out of LOST.  A few beaches over, at La Piscina, I found Lesley laying face down in the sand, not looking good.

She had the look of someone who had drank 25 beers the night before (yes we had a bit of rum and she claimed to be hungover, but I’d guess that was the dehydration talking).  It’s like when a friend is really hungover but you’re not, she looked fine on the outside, but I could tell she was aching inside.

We continued on together, slowly, to the most famous beach in Tayrona Parque – Cabo San Juan.  It really was an amazing spot, like right out of the pictures you see of the Caribbean.  For that reason, though, it was missing the one element of a perfect beach, seclusion.  I went in search of something far less crowded.

Lesley wanted to sleep, face down in the sand a little more, so after a big lunch, I took the opportunity to leave my bag with her and have a little adventure…

11:45am – I bolt out of Cabo San Juan beach for Playa Brava, a secluded beach about 3 hours hike away, through the hills and jungle above.

11:47 – I’m already lost (a theme for the day), I haven’t even started the trek and I’m lost.

11:55 – back on the trail I have to stop to remove my shoes for a shallow stream crossing, I get passed by a fellow hiker who just trudges through, shoes, backpack and all.

12:15 – The trail turns from a normal flat dirt trail, to just rocks and bolters, and very steep.  Most people coming down were sliding on their butts.

1:15 – I reach Pueblito (the half way point).  It’s a place with ruins of some kind, but I wasn’t that impressed and moved on down the other side.

1:20 – I meet Thomas, a German (who passed me at the river) and was headed to the same beach.  We decided to team up, America and Germany, to help navigate the near invisible trail, that was mostly covered in leaves.

1:30 – there were a ton of these really big/cool violet butterflies, we tried to get photos.

Playa Brava

Had time for one photo after swimming

2:12 – We finally reach the beach as I get the terrible news that there was not a super fast way back (like I suspected there was).  There was a slightly easier 2 ½ hour route back that didn’t require as much climbing, that was it.  I was in a bit of a pickle.

2:30 – I swam, took photos, and weighed my options.

1. Stay there and sleep in a hammock, but all my clothes were soaked in sweat and I had nothing warm for the night, or a blanket
2. I was hungry, out of food, with some water left, but I could just walk back.

2:31 – I took option 2 and tried to find the shorter path back, I followed the directions exactly: walk along the dry river bed until it turns upward, take the path on the left, and then later take the path marked Boca del Saco.  Seemed easy enough… only the path didn’t exist, or I couldn’t find it.  I even tried ‘off road’ hiking by following anything that appeared to ‘might be a trail,’ to no avail.

3:03 – so I’m back at the beach, back at square one, having just killed 30 minutes (of both time and energy), and now only have the 3 hour option to get back.  I was also pissed that I couldn’t find the trial and for the guy’s terrible directions, ‘it’s super easy you just walk up the river and find the path on the left,’ – yeah no shit, any trail is easy when you know the way!!

3:04 – I said ‘f this’ and sprinted up the trail.

I don’t remember the timing for the rest, I just know that the trail is said to take 3 hours, and it gets dark at 6pm.  I had no flashlight, and getting caught in the jungle at night might be worse than falling off a cliff.

I thought of nothing but making it out, going faster, and how stupid I’m probably being.  I ran the flat parts and walked the rest, getting very tired and hungry along the way.  I began to think, ‘why am I traveling again, this feels a lot like work.’  The jungle was also starting to make some strange sounds.

About an hour later I made it to a junction, to a trail that led down to another beach.  I didn’t care which, I could sleep on the beach if I needed, I just wanted to get out of the jungle.  I was down the steep slopes to the beach in the next hour, and back to camp before the sun was down.  I was exhausted and all I wanted to do was lay down, hiked a good 7 hours that day.

Cabo San Juan - right after the hike

Unfortunately the story continues, as Lesley was nowhere to be found.  I checked the beach where I left her, all the hammocks, and even the outside of all the tents for any sign of her, nothing… (on a side note, there was a good soccer game going on between people from Chili and Argentina – had I not been exhausted and missing my friend, it would have been cool).

I went to the check-in area where people pay for tents/hammocks, hoping she either left a note, or they’d know where she was (they usually take your passport info).  Lesley didn’t seem the type to just disappear.

Or was she… in broken English I learned that Lesley had fainted, fallen backwards, and hit her head.  She needed stitches to stop the bleeding and had gotten a ride back to Taganga.  My backpack was luckily stashed in a back room.

I really had no idea what to make of all that, my exhausted brain was just struggling to keep my eyes open.  I got in my hammock and fell asleep instantly, trying to wrap my head around what had happened, what had happened on Valentine’s Day.

The next morning I got up right as the sun rose, to hit up a change of scenery, to move on and try some place else, possibly were life threatening situation don’t seem to be the norm…