While my goal is to explore La Libertad and see new places, the trip I recently took to Viru wasn't my idea- it just kind of fell in line nicely with my new goal. There are a couple of volunteers who live in Viru which is about an hour south of Trujillo (department capital) where, outside of the town, there is rumored to be a waterfall that few people seem to have seen. After trying to get a group together for about a month to visit this mythical place, we were able to organize a group to leave Trujillo at around 6:30am and head to Viru for a hike to said waterfall.
This being Peru and all, nothing went according to plan and no one was surprised by that. Our combi broke down on the way to the trailhead, adding an extra couple of hours to our hike. There was an entire civilization of mosquitoes that no one was expecting to meet. Six of our sixteen people didn't make it to the waterfall and one got lost on the way back. As for me, I had underestimated how healthy I was. I had been sick earlier in the week and thought I was better--- I was not. Diarrhea and the desert do not belong in the same sentence. Taking myself into the desert by foot while ill is no one's fault but my own. No room for whining, but damn I screwed myself on that one. I've gotten so used to being sick that I just deal with it and don't really think about being sick as a reason not to do things anymore... but applying that concept in the desert while hiking is impossible and kind of just makes you a tool. I don't think I held the group up too much though and I made it to the waterfall, so it wasn't that big of a deal other than an uncomfortable day for me. But again, my decision. I don't regret going. It was a nice hike aside from being sick and it was great spending time with other volunteers.
This would be our combi leaving us to walk about an extra 2 hours...
...and there it is :)
Yeah. When we finally got there, we napped.
January 21, 2012
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