Back home again, just, after 24 hrs of travelling, mostly because The Joints in Motion people routed everyone through Toronto. Pics to come later....
I've mixed feelings about the whole trip. The hike schedule fell apart completely and was constantly reworked. A combination of too much rain, overly ambitious planning on The Arthritis Societies part, and a Nazi-like guide who believed we could trek all day without any rest/food/pee breaks as he was told to make it difficult.
The planned hikes got knocked down to around 60 k as nobody wanted to 12 - 16 hours through the rain and without a break. That very first miserable 16 hike (was supposed to 22K, see pic to the left), where it rained the whole time - I was completely soaked through, right down to both my undies and wool socks and walked with water squishing between my toes in my waterproof boots - really turned everyone off. This picture is from the 'jungle' part of the road. Nobody was prepared for that kind of rain. It wasn't even on a trail, but on impossibly rocky roads through farmland/jungle. And then we had to travel 3 hrs to the next hotel soaked to the skin while the driver had to keep the air conditioning on to keep his windows clear. Brutally cold trip, that was.
Anyway, the top third of participants went on those 60k. Another third of us did shortened versions of those (including me) which worked out to about 40K over the 4 days. Not impressive, I know, but I was ill the last day and skipped the big hike. Another third just quit hiking altogether and turned the week into a holiday by booking horseback riding tours, etc., from the hotels. So, I did end up where I had hoped - in the middle of the pack.
Jimmy the guide had done what he was told, which was to make it challenging. He was originally from Germany and spoke with both a German and Spanish accent. We called him Jimminy Cricket, and coined a couple phrases after him - the first being 'Jimmy time'. He would say something like 'It's only another 45 minutes', which meant an hour and an half'. Another phrase was 'it's a Jimmy Buffet' referring to the way he pronounced the word 'buffet'. (meaning a dinner buffet). Which we ate the whole time and mostly sucked. Except for the one day at crunchy granola grow/farm-our own organics at Rancho Margot near Fortuna and the Arenal Volcano - I think EVERYONE wants to go back there to either volunteer in some capacity or just chill out for a while.
Met a lot of great people - 4 of whom we called 'the Newf troop' and you can guess where they were from. They were a totally hoot, too. The biggest chunk of people were from Ontario, 8 of 'em maybe, a couple from Manitoba, 3 from Saskatchewan including a woman whose first and middle name is also Diana Lynn (one of the Newf gals had the same b-day as me and another has the same arthritis as me too), 5 Albertans (the other 4 were all from Calgary) and one of whom is an announcer with CJAY radio in Calgary who blogged the whole schmoo and interviewed me and a few others for her listeners, and 1 from BC who turned out being my roommate. About half a dozen of those were my age. We plan to keep in touch, but we'll see how it goes.
After my 'how I got arthritis speech' I certainly was treated differently. Compassion from those who have or knew someone with RA. And on the opposite end of the coin I seemed to be seen as some sort of wimp (I've overheard people saying "Well, Diana can't do that part" when referring to hike, and even having the guide himself saying 'Diana, I'm experienced and know you can't do the top 2 kilos of a particular trip', so I didn't go. This was also after the Canopy Tour zipline (where, yes, I had a little meltddown/panic attack, but had STILL challanged myself to do the damn thing) . I was pretty ticked when the newf gal with RA went on that one - I'm in better shape/younger/and thinner than she - and though it was tough, she made it. Thanks for the encouragement Jimmy. And did I contribute to the tip??? Er, no.
Seems there was a bit of politics happening within the Joints in Motion group, too. A different hike has been previously planned but was nixed by the higher up in JIM as they felt it wasn't challenging enough. Sheesh! They have partipants in other events do as little as walk 5K as part of a marathon! And the provincial rep in Alberta wasn't not fond of the planning of the National rep who planned the trip and doesn't even hike.
I supposed the worst part of the trip was all the hotel hopping. We'd get to some niceish hotel and have no time at all to enjoy it's pool or anything, or even walk around the town for a few hours. We spent hours driving every day, and one entire 10 hour day on the bus trying to see/hike the highlights. They do survey us all after the fact, but I wanted to get it down here before I forget altogether.
Food left a lot to be desired (except at Rancho). Bananas (which I don't ear) fried/sliced/raw/dried, and rice and beans at every meal. Meatless breakfasts. Pineapple and Watermelon was awesome though.
So, a real experience in ways not expected. I saw lots of critters - macaws, parrots, hummingbirds, incredible butterflys. Also a couple of cockroaches, geckos, lizards, stingless honey bees, codamundi(???)(an odd racoon/monkey looking thing that's part of the bear family but is the size of a very large house cat, which scrounges food from tourists at national sites). Howler, spider, and some other kind of monkey, heard killer frogs (but never seem them), giant moths and butterflys, industrious leaf cutter ants... I'm sure there's more critters. Lots of plants.
I'll add one more post to this, when it's not so fresh in mind and all the good stuff stands out more, and post all of my pics, too. I'll also get a link to a photo site everyone is placing their pics on, so I can post that here, too. Right now, I need to throw some clothes in the wash as I'm leaving for Salmon Arm this afternoon.
I making this sound worse than it was (hey, 24 hrs of travel....). And I did challenge myself as planned, though it wasn't from hiking but by hanging and flying scared shitless on a damn zip line (which is absolutely totally and completely for sure crossed off my bucket list!) However, even if it's only for a few hours, I'm glad to be home, where the taps have HOT running water, where I can actually flush toilet paper, where I don't have to worry about a plethora of creepy crawlies in my bedroom, and where beans and rice will NOT be served three times a day!
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