Camping

Well, camping was certainly an interesting experience. El Cajas, a national park about 30 miles from Cuenca, is an absolutely beautiful place. That is when it's sunny and nice, although I did have a great time despite that, minus some trials and tribulations along the way.

It was raining, and cold, the entire day we went hiking. It was a really ugly, and muddy day. We had rubber boots, so we didn't have to worry about getting our shoes all nasty, but the boots had no traction whatsoever. That translates into a lot of slipping and falling, which many people did, including me, at least 3 times. My foot also got stuck in the mud all the way up to my knee. I did have one pretty nasty fall. I tried to catch myself in the process and ended up bending my knee, my bad surgery knee, all the way back until it couldn't go anymore. It was bad. I stood up, crying all the while, and didn't move for a few minutes to let it settle itself. At that point, I was saying to anyone who would listen, "Screw camping! I'm going home."

I was also saying that because I had to pee, and I was determined not to go in the woods. Well, I was sick and tired of waiting, after hours of holding it in, so for the first time in my life, I peed in the woods. That didn't happen until after a crash course from Katie in effectively peeing without getting anything on my pants. Indeed I was successful, and that has to be one of my biggest accomplishments ever. After that was completed, I obviously felt a lot better, so I was now telling everyone that since I finally peed in the woods, I could do anything. Meaning,I was going to stick it out and camp.

We ended up staying in cabins because it was really cold and rainy. We did all the usual camping stuff. Ya know, the smores, fishing (I was unsuccessful.), the kiddie games, slumber party stuff. We, 9 girls, called ourselves the giggly gringas because we did a lot of that.

Our sissy fire burnt out around 10pm, so we all decided to go to sleep. I wish I could have fallen asleep. We all slept on about 5 twin mattresses in sleeping bags in a tiny room in the cabin. Of course, I was on the crack of two mattresses. I was pissed. That's only one of the reasons I only got about 1 hour of sleep. First of all, we talked and talked and talked, like little kids way into the night. I don't even know what time it was when everyone, minus me, fell asleep. Secondly, I had to pee so bad and I didn't feel like getting up to go outside. (I finally did at about 5:30am.) Thirdly, my feet were frozen. Everything else was fine, except my feet, which I could have sworn were going to be frostbitten by the time I woke up. So, I was paranoid all night, and wanted to be awake to make sure that

I could feel my feet. Dude, I'm an idiot. So, basically, I laid with my eyes closed all night hoping that I would fall asleep, but never really did. I just wanted it to be morning so that we could get up and start moving again. Well, when we did get up, my thighs were so sore from the day before, I thought I wasn't going to be able to move at all, let alone walk or hike anymore. However, when we stepped outside, the sun was shining, and it was one of the most beautiful sights I think I've ever seen.

My thighs were really sore the next day, so I was not looking forward to more hiking, and as it turned out, we didn't really go hiking. We just walked around a lake and through the forest for a while before heading back to Cuenca. Thanks Gott. I was pooped.

So, all in all, camping was a very fun experience, and definitely something I will always remember. Especially the peeing in the woods. That will go down in history as one of the highlights of my life. For sure.