WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE (RIVER LODGE!)

After 6 days it was time to Ramble on and we headed to the mainland. 8000 foot peaks rising from the sea. The largest untamed rainforest in central America loomed off the bow of the speed ferry that flew across the water. Flying fish zipping across the water. I prepared for pickpockets at the terminal. And for all the people that would hassle us…

And instead was met by nice folks. Friendly smiles.
Hmmm…

So Hannah and Fabian have a dog, Fluffy (who isn’t actually fluffy at all, lol), whom they adopted from a rescue place in Mexico. The guards said they had to pay some tax for the dog. So Fabian went to the office, said he didn’t have any money, and the lady ended up letting him leave and he just waved at the guards and walked out. It’s common, or so it’s said, for cops to do this kind of hustle to tourists in countries down here. But honestly, this was the only time I saw it happen. Not saying it doesn’t, it’s just not as common as I was expecting.

Sweet Ride!

Which one might Fluffy be?

We hop in their VW, it’s rad! And stop at a techno dancing grocery store, and head up the Rio Cangrejal valley to find the Jungle River Lodge.
The sun set.
We were on a dirt road.
I was jokingly saying “This is how horror movies start.” and going through a whole scenario as we drove.





Well horror movie it was not, instead it was absolutely AMAZING.
A hand made lodge with a deck over looking natural pools. A clear river flowing around HUGE house size boulders that you could cliff jump off of. The sounds of the river outside the treehouse like rooms. Huge jungle covered mountains towering up both sides of the river. Hand carved wood tables and furniture to play games on (Guillotine made it to yet another country! It’s been to almost as many as me. And of course FARKLE!  (Thank you Uncle Kev and Jordan for that one!).  We loved that. 
And the cost: $10 per person per night.

The next day and half were what travel is all about.

It began with a jungle hike in the Parc de Bonito national park. (Beautiful National Park).
The hike was just up from the lodge, and involved crossing a bad ass, Indiana Jones suspension bridge across the boulder strewn river.

Then up into the thick jungle and steep trails all on the way to a big waterfall.

 It was hundreds of feet high, thin and free. The climb down to the bottom was crazy steep, and eventually was just over big slippery boulders… so we stopped on the top of them rather than try to figure out how to get to the bottom. It was awesome to just stand under the falls and let them crash down on me. There’s something magical about waterfalls in the jungle. Not sure what it is, but I can’t get enough.

The hike out ended with a really friendly man and his daughter selling hand made souvenirs, and I got a little canoe keychain that I’ll turn into a magnet. It says Rio Congrejal!


CANYON RIVER RAFTING ADVENTURE!

So Hannah and I went for an afternoon rafting trip. It was $25. And worth every penny.
Our guide, Juan Carlos, who’s been rafting the river for 24 years, picked us up at the lodge. He put the raft on his head and carried it up to this old school Toyota 4x4, which just happened to have a 222 on the license plate. (For those who know the 222, or have heard me talk about it. There were so many 222’s on this trip it was almost comical. Phone numbers. Receipts. Gas prices. License plates. On and on and on. That’s good sign… it means I’m on the right path.  And for today that was Definitely true!)

Ride up the river, and Juan Carlos carried the raft solo down the slope. And with our life jackets on, we left the raft behind and did some Canyoning. Which consisted of going up river, swimming in the current, jumping off rocks, sliding down other rocks. Drinking water trickling out of the rocks: 2000 meters of limestone purifying the rainwater in this one spot. Yummy. There was a HUGE spider (okay, the side of hand) that he picked up by it’s legs and then set it on the water (they can hop). Well, it hopped onto his neck and crawled up onto his face! So he ducked under water, and then it comically hopped away on 6 legs, with it’s front ones way up in the air.

There were these red flowers that you could crush up and make soap with! Juan Carlos said that his mom is a healer and there are all sorts of roots and flowers and plants they use to treat illness in the jungle. He’s originally from the Moskito Coast (Eastern Honduras… and a movie starring Harrison Ford (to keep the Indiana Jones thing going). Anyway, they have lots of medicine hidden in the jungle waiting to be discovered (or already known by the locals. ). I’m fascinated by what’s out there.

Back to the river. Locals were fishing off the top of a house size boulder for fish that were swimming up stream like salmon. They were leaping up this small waterfall… most of them failing spectacularly. Bouncing off rocks. Sucked down stream. But every once in awhile some made it. When we watched for 5 minutes, hundreds of fish went for it. It was crazy.

JC and I jumped off that rock to cross the stream to the 11 meter (34 foot) jump. We had to overhand climb out of the river for the first 2 meters. I won’t lie. It was out of my strength zone. So he attached his rafting safety rope to me and LIFTED ME OUT OF THE RIVER. Man! For a thin guy this guy is strong!
We climb up to about 7 meters (21 feet) and I think this is good. He says “nah! we go to 11!”
So we did.
He jumped right off… I might’ve hesitated a little.
Truth is I felt like I was taking forever, but on the video Hannah shot it was only like 20 seconds. lol.
YEEEHAW!
That was fun!

Then we float, swim down the river to our raft and begin one of the wildest, most technical rafting trips I’ve ever been on (and I’ve been on a fair number.) The boulders are the size of cars, buses, houses, and the water snakes through them barely wider than the 3 person raft.

And sure enough, 3rd rapid… I fall right out.
Under the water.
Raft over my head.
Head hits a boulder (go helmet!)
And push out from under the raft.
JC grabs my paddle and Hannah does the river rescue and pulls me in…

… and then my paddle falls out and we have to chase it down the river!
We got it and hit more rapids.
Some, a good 10-15 foot drop around a rock.
It was wild and fun and exhilarating.
I thought “They’d never raft a river like this in the USA!”

Apparently 7 days ago, after a lot of rain, the water was 25 feet higher.
Yep.
25 FEET HIGHER (That’s 8 meters for everyone not in the USA!)
So most of the boulders we were going around would be under water.
That’s crazy.
(They don’t raft when it’s like that).






Finally we came to the amazing boulders and cliffs by the jungle river lodge, where Fabian, Franzi and Stefi were hanging by the natural pools up above. And Fabian jumped off the cliff right behind us!

What a ride! So fun! Amazing!

The 5 of us sat on the rocks as the sun set, cracking a beer. (not the “Healthy Life” brand, but the almost as good, but much cheaper one! lol). That my friends… was a great day.

Of course there was one more jump off the cliff!

Then tasty dinner, and Farkle to the sounds of the jungle river.

ONE MORE WATERFALL…

The next morning we woke early, and Fabian and I went to the cliffs and started our day with some cliff jumping! We even brought snorkels into the water for some snorkeling and peering around. It’s spooky down there. All the overhangs and in some places you can’t see the bottom.
We floated around this island boulder, jumped off others, and eventually Hannah joined us.
Not a bad way to start the day!

After breakfast, Fabian, Fluffy and I went for a walk down to a river crossing, where a path leads up into the jungle. We hiked up in search of one more waterfall… one more pool… one more paradise before we Rambled on…

And we found it!

An amazing 30 foot. It was so lovely. Perfect temperature to swim in and stand under the bottom of the falls. Sunlight piercing the canopy of shady trees. And just… AWESOME.

Fun fact:
Rio Cangrejal, to the astute reader (or spanish speaker) means
CRAB RIVER.
Apparently it used to be FILLED with thousands of crabs. But the spiders (what?!?!) and some other animal eventually ate most of them so there are very few.
So that means, Hannah and Fabian and I have had yet ANOTHER great crab adventure!




So Many 222s!
 

HERE THAR BE DRAGONS

--> Four days. 25 people. One small boat. And dragons. 

As is the case when traveling, sometimes I like to do things outside of my comfort zone. Things that are a challenge. Things that push my limits. And here in Indonesia I decided to do so by taking the four day / four night boat ride from Lombok to Flores with a stop or two in Komodo National Park to visit the dragons. And as if it wouldn't be hard enough on it's own, I decided to take a long ride and attempt to meet the boat at the port rather than meet with everyone else at the originally meeting spot. Why? In order to see some of Lombok off the beaten path. And my friends, it was.

This started with us leaving Gili T on... so many days ago I don't remember. :)

We took the $1 public ferry over and hired a car to take us to Senaru where the waterfalls were. (This will be another email, as the waterfalls were AMAZING and very Indiana Jones).

Wow.

It was 2 hours away and there was no Wi-Fi. No Internet. No ATMs. Sweet.

Rather than double back we decided to head over the mountains the next day. Now, this is a 4 hour drive. Cost about $50 to have a driver take us. The road was barely 1 1/2 lanes wide but has 2 way traffic. (In fact that is the normal here in Indonesia. Tiny roads that somehow manage trucks and buses and mopeds). It was so steep and full of blind curves that we would race up, horn honking and somehow noone ever got hit. The views were incredible. Steep slopes with tiny towns at the base. It felt more like Switzerland than Indonesia.

We arrived in Labuan Lombok, the port town that has a blurb in the Lonely Planet saying "This is where you come to take the ferry". There are no hostels, guest houses, tourist services. The ATM wouldn't take my card, but did take Alicia's. Otherwise we would be in trouble. Though we do have some US $100 to change if need be. The only place to stay, and supposedly where we're meeting everyone the next day, was a hotel for $7 a night with no sink, no shower and no fan. It's hot. Balls ass hot. So no fan is no good. And we're about to be on a boat for 4 days, so no shower is no good.

So we have the driver take us north, back along the coast, hoping to find a place to stay. Any place. We kept looking for a sign with the indonesian word for "Lodging" on it. We drove and drove and I thought... hmmm, this might be a problem. Then we lucked out and found a little bungalow place. It wasn't fancy. But it had a fan and shower. It was in a dirt, tree covered lot. Had a little shop. A bunch of folks who didn't speak English and a town with one tiny shop and one warung (food stand). And it was awesome. Black sand beach. Nice sunset. Frogs. Geckos 18inches long. Sweet. We ate at the warung and it was Soooooooo good. We sat on the floor. Chatted with this dive instructor who was also eating and had a lot of smiles with the locals.

So good!

The next morning we had mom and dad who ran the bungalows take us back to town, we got some supplies, spent 1 1/2 hours buying our return plane ticket from Flores to Bali, and sweated. The ticket had to be gotten from a travel agent and they had to ride a moped to another office because of some issue. There were all these super cute kids that kept coming in to say "hello" in Indonesia (which happens to be "Hello" :). We took pics. Ate some food. Made some friends.

Hello!

Then we got picked up by the Kenchana Tours dude on a moped. One at a time he took us to the port and our boat. I went second. As I rolled in I saw a nice big boat with multiple levels. Sweet!  Oh wait, that's the Perama tour boat. A different company. Oh well, the one next to it is good sized, if not as nice... oh, wait, we're driving past that one too. And stopping in front of a boat that was so small I couldn't believe we were about to take it on the open ocean. I don't know the dementions, but it looked to be maybe 45 feet long. By 9 feet wide. There was a "simple toilet", meaning a squat toilet with a hole to the ocean. There was an upper deck that you could barely sit up in that had dozens of mattresses. There was an open front area with a shade cover. And then the front deck on the bow you could sit on.

Hmmmm.

I'm on a boat?

The Lonely Planet says this is no luxury cruise. In fact they say it's often sketchy. That a boat sank last year year. Yep, sank. (It was a Perama boat (which is why they have a new boat now!). (I'll find the link and include it later to the story of the sinking. They unfortunately for them, had a travel writer on board when it went down). I made sure to see all the life vests and Alicia and I were thinking... hmmmm....

Then the buses arrived. And the people started filing out. Like a clown car. They kept coming on board. The boistrous Canadian dudes, the Dutch gals, the Russian, the Aussie, the Brits etc etc etc etc etc. As they piled on with their gear and bags and selves there was literally no place to sit and barely any to stand. Hmmmm...

Alicia and I thought about getting our money back and taking the Perama boat 3 days later. But we didn't.

We didn't jump ship.

The boat sailed.

We were in it. No turning back.

It took awhile, but it was interesting how little personal space I needed. How much it didn't matter that we were on top of each other. HOw we all found our spots to chill, to visit, to experience. They put the big bags in the holds which opened up space.

The first day was 5 hours of cruising with a beautiful sunset. BEAUTIFUL sunset. Over Mt. Rinjani on Lombok. We sailed into the dark, ate a decent meal cooked by our kind crew of 5. (yep 5 crew folks. 19 travelers. Sound clausterphobic yet?) I chatted with the Canadian's a lot. They're fun guys. We put music on the ipod speakers and had some fun.

The boat anchored by an island for about 5 hours. Not sure why. It was dark. Couldn't go ashore. I jumped in with a couple folks and we swam in the bioluminescence. It was pretty sweet. Creepy too. Pitch black ocean. Swimming in the dark. But cool.

We listened to Dark Side Of The Moon and looked that the stars. I think this is going to be alright.

We all go to bed around 11am. Silence. Peaceful rocking...

... and LOUD ASS engines. Around 2am they fired up and we set sail for the next destination. Earplugs helped a lot. But the waves were kind of wild and spray splashed in on the folks on the lower deck sleeping. I was at the front of the top deck, so I had a good breeze and even a little spot for my stuff.

DAY 2:

Paradise. Right there. We anchor off an island. Have breakfast. Snorkel about. Then head for a waterfall.

Now those who know me, know that jungle waterfalls are one of my favorite things. I love to trek through jungle and find some perfect waterfall, and this was one of them. Only a 15 minute walk, and there it was. Cold. Flowing over volcanic rock pools. The rock was rough enough you could climb up in the current of the falls. Which was awesome. Up at the top you could jump into a deeper pool. Ryan from England lept off this rediculously high tree branch, as did Oksana from Russia. (I was starting to get names down, though I often call people where they are from.)

I could have stayed here all day. In fact, me and a dude from the other boat were the last to leave. (Oh yes, there was a second boat following us. They were no where near as much fun as our boat. We were team Awesome. They were team... not so Awesome. :).

We move along to the next island. Easy crossing. Snorkeling and fun were had. Everyone is starting to get to know each other. It was fun... even though there was no place to sit. But I figured out to use the very hard pillows as cushions to sit on. That helped.

Then came ocean madness.

We left at 2pm for 18 hours of motoring to get to Komodo National Park. It was open ocean and felt like rough seas. The waves were half as big as the boat. It was tossed and turned. They came from the front and sides, so the boat would roll in odd patterns. It was hard to stand up. Harder to use the toilet. And impossible to do anything but look out at the waves. Sometimes the bow would drop so hard it would rocket spray up into the air and it felt like it would plunge into the waves... but it never did.

We enjoy the sunset... sort of. It was beautiful, but hard to truly enjoy. Alicia felt very ill, took motion sick meds and napped. I took some too before bed. Dinner was not good tonight. Some buttery fish stew. On a rocking boat. No good.

At 7:30pm, everyone went to bed. No shit.

Except me and 2 other guys. I put on the Pink Floyd. Yep, All about the Pink. And rode out on the bow. SPLASH! WOOSH! The biolumenescence was awesome in teh wake. The stars were bright. It was cool.

Sleep... 12 hours... kind of.

A number of times I woke up to a KABOOM! as a wave slammed into the front of the boat. I thought, why I am here?

DAY 3:

Calm.

Total calm.

We've reached the Komodo area. Which is AMAZINGLY beautiful. Island after island. And the water, though filled with wild currents, is very calm. We made it!

Team Awesome! (most of them anyway)

We passed where the boat sank in 2011 (the currents took the wreck to the depths, so nothing's there). We pull up to a beach and hop in. There's a path to climb to the top of the island and get a view all around. Pirate ships abound (okay,they're dive boats), and the view is amazing. It's interesting, the fauna and islands ehre look a lot like...

... Southern California! Yep. I came half way around the world and sailed 3 days to get to the Channel Islands Nat'l Park 40 miles from my house. :)

The vegetation and climate of Indonesia apparaently changes as you head east. From the jungles of Java and Borneo, each island become more arid and more like Australia as you go east. Cool.

This is the Tale of Captain Jack Sparrow!

After the hike and a quick swim we're back on the boat. Moods are great now that we're in calm seas. We listen to music. "I'm on a boat" is a favorite. As is "Captain Jack Sparrow"... even though no one had it. Shoot!

We snorkel at the red sand beach. It's more pink than red. But still cool.

Then lunch on the way to Komodo. Finally, there will be dragons.

We get off, join the rangers and go for a 1 hour hike in the heat. I felt like I was in Jurassic Park. I kept looking for dragons at every corner. Under every bush...

... but there were no dragons.

Hmmm...

We head to the cafe, gift shop (yep, even here) and ranger station...

... and there are dragons!!!!

The 8 foot long lizard just waddled up near us, under a stilt house and laid down. We got within 10 feet of it. They can move very quickly and their bite is deadly. Everyone thought they were poisonous until a few years ago. But apparently they have so much bacteria in their mouths that the prey dies of infection. That, and they eat their prey whole. Bones and all. They have 3 different kinds of poop. One for bones.

Nearby another sat in the grass. And just over there were 4 of them. ONe had to be 10 feet long. And a wild pig trotted in amongst them! Sweet!  We're gonig to see them kill the pig!  ...

... or not. Ballsy ass pig and four Komodo. ANd they just hiss at it a little, but the pig doesn't give a shit and gets to licking up the blood from the goat carcass hanging in the tree. Yep, this might be how they make sure you see dragons. It might be something the rangers were going to cook and eat. Not sure.

It was really cool to see. And when the dragons came towards us hissing and stomping, we all backed up pretty fast.

Back on the boat and set anchor on a calm bay as the sun got low.

ANd the flying foxes came out. Thousands of bats heading to feast.

We ate. We drank. We danced. We laughed. We listened to music. It was a blast.

It's Bintang Time!

ANd the sea was so calm it was like glass. You could see the reflection of the stars in the water. And the bioluminescnece flashing too. It was AMAZING. TOTALLY AMAZING. I've never seen anything like it. I thought that scene in Life of Pi was just fantasy with the stars reflected, but here it is. Totally real.

And yes, Pink Floyd came out again.

DAY 4.

Up before sunrise. We're tooling into the calm seas. Sun. Islands. Sand. Sweetness.

Not going to lie. Even though I've made many friends, I'm ready to be off the boat. Onto dry land. Take a shower. Yum, shower.

We head to Rinca (pronounced Rincha) Island for more Komodo. The island is smaller. The food is different. It's very pretty and full of rolling hills and grass and palms. Saw numerous buffalo, but the only Komodo were back at base camp. Though there was no goat this time. Our guide, Cuba, was awesome. A 20 year old from the island. He knew his stuff.

Welcome to Jurassic Park

Really? I'm watching you

Out to sea for lunch, and a final snorkel, frisbee, swim spot. It was fun.

Lots of laughs. Even saw some RBR's brewing. (Random Backpacker Romances).

We head to town, and with little ceremony all get the fuck off the boat and head for places to stay. There were some thank yous and smiles, and ultimately it was a great adventure, but I'm glad to get our room way up on the hill overlooking the bay and with the shower. Oh thank god. No Air Con, but a fan and the view is incredible.

View from the room

We all met at a bar that night and laughed and danced and talked of the future, of the adventure and where life will take us. Many don't know. Some will rent scooters to explore Flores. Some will fly back to Bali. We're going to dive before we go.

And there you have it.

I have seen the last Dragon's on earth.

Did they fly and breath fire and did the Kaleesi mother them?

No.

But they were dragons none the less.

Craigo

A DETOUR WORTH TAKING

Hey Team,

Wow, I'm really typing a lot of updates for this trip! I guess it's because after dinner there is NOTHING else to do. Sure, I write my journal, or read, or have more than once had solo dance parties in my room. But other than sitting in cafe's drinking mint tea or coffee, nothing goes on. And that doesn't even go on very late. (Though now that I'm FINALLY feeling much more comfortable because I'm outside of the big cities, I think I'm going to join them some night to watch a football game (the cafe is packed right now)).

So Azrou...stands for "Awesome".

Not really, but it is. I got here last night and bumped into Youness and Rachid. Two guides who offered the hiking proposal (I think I mentioned in the last email). I thought about it and figured, "why am I in a hurry?", so I said "let's do it". And on top of that, I met a cool New Yorker named Mike, and he joined me.




So today we four went by grand taxi, and then small car to this mountain town of Zouiara Idris (?) in the Middle Atlas, and had a wonderful day. It's a tiny Berber town, with a charming home we could have stayed at. And above and behind the town was a volcanic rock face overgrown with green and sporting 6 waterfalls falling down it's multi-hundred foot face.

Awesome.

Youness and Rachid were great guides. (I'm so glad I met some in Morocco. They are legit. They knew there stuff. Were fun to talk with and very enthusiastic. And not pushy at all. They let us go at the pace we wanted. They rock... if you are coming to the middle Atlas of Morocco, let me know and I'll give you there emails. ).

We hiked, took pictures, explored small caves, drank super fresh spring water pouring out of the mountains, took to darn many photos of the mountains and animals and falls. Enjoyed a snack with our feet dangling over the edge of a cliff as the Mosque's prayers echoed over the valley.

A darn good day. Great conversation.

When we got back to the Berber village, we had an AMAZING Tagine (traditional Moroccan dish) of chicken and vegatables and honey and man it ruled. SOOOOO Good.

Being out in nature, fresh air, lots of friendly people around.

I'm so glad I ended up here, and it was just by chance. And sticking around an extra day wasn't part of the original plan (which was to leave today and head to the desert, which I will do tomorrow). But I trusted my instincts and finally am starting to feel more comfortable here. Which is good. Learning some Arabic from Rachid and Youness. Getting to hear about cool other countries Mike's traveled too. (he's been to 48, and most different from my 30 which is cool.). I even talked to the hotel desk guy for 30 minutes last night.

I tought Rachid "Awesome".

I'm just rambling.
Things are good.
Tomorrow it's off to the desert and camel's and camping in the dunes, so it will likely be a few days until the next update.
After all, I must find the Fremen and the Spice and avoid the Sandworms.

CraigO