Today was beyond.

July 24, 2013

Today started normally. The monkeys were in the blind. They greeted us upon our arrival. They were well-behaved and responded to our banana call just like we've been practicing. Perfect. We left the woods and returned to our summer home. I tanned a little bit and drank flavored water. Then everyone left. As in, Allison and Natalie went to one cliff to read/tan/text and Yonat went way out to another cliff to fetch cellphone reception. So I was alone at the house in the hammock reading for a half hour. Until Junior came to get me.

Junior is one of Maria's sons. I told him yesterday that I wanted to ride on the dirt bike before I left Boa Vista. So now he had come to get me.

He had to tell me that Noemi learned to drive the dirt bike before I would agree to learn. The bike is huge and the roads are of dirt! I was nervous to try... He showed me the gears and the breaks and all of the necessities. I sat in front of him and drove down the path. The language barrier was an obstacle of safety. I was driving through the sand. Until the sand got too deep, that is. When that happened Junior would grab the handles and maneuver us through without spinning out. Eventually I ran us straight off the road and into the vegetation. It was his turn to drive again, I explained.

He took me down the sandy roads of this place. For miles. We drove through a humungous section of land that had been cleared since our trip to Gilbues last month.... Cleared. All of the trees were chopped down. It was at least a square mile wide... At LEAST. We had heard this happened when Patricia arrived, but none of us have been all the way out there since Gilbues. It was a shock to see so much of the forest destroyed. We just drove past it all because there was nothing we could do.

He kept asking me where I wanted to go. I kept telling him to surprise me because, what the heck, I don't know what there is to see here! Just surprise me! 

He pulled out of the longggg drive way and onto the paved highway. This was rather scary. I was scared, ok? I was doing exactly what I always get onto my mother for doing- riding a motorbike with no helmet. The road was very wide, so when other buses or trucks would pass we would pull all the way over to the right to avoid them. I kept thinking it was unnecessary. 

He slowed down eventually to point into the woods. He would say things like, "that's my father's land" or, "that's my land." Then eventually we pulled off the big highway and into a gravel driveway. He parked the bike and I had no idea where I was. 

"This is my work," he said. We walked through a gate and into a plant arena. I don't know how else to explain this place, 'arena' is the best I've got. Rows and rows and rows of little black baggies filled with dirt lined the ground all around us. And a man stood in the middle of it all. Junior said that trees were being planted in each bag and that the man was his father. I'd never met his father...! I shook his hand because I'm a lady. Then, we left.

I was puzzled because when we pulled out of the tree arena's driveway we turned out and away from the direction of the house. Again, I had no idea where I was going. And I didn't know how fast we were going. All I know is that I saw 50 vultures eating a large dead cow on the side of the road.

Finally, after a short journey on this highway, we plunged down into another dirt driveway. We stopped to open the wooden gate, then continued onto the sandy road. 

Soon we found ourselves right next to a soccer game! Several boys were playing a pickup game on full-length sand soccer field. There were two goals, each made out of chopped down branches and four benches fashioned in the same way. Half of the boys were wearing cleats and scrunched-down socks. The other half were barefoot. "Want to play?" Oh, I would have! I shook one of the players hands, but then we had to go. Adventure!

Down the jagged road we went. I was in flipflops and plants kept whipping my feet. 

Next stop- a small pond river. Junior said it was a river. Looked more like a pond to me. He said it was the same river as the river we all swam in earlier in the summer. Remember? I was shocked to learn that we were six kilometers away from that part of the same river. There were fish here. And a strict army of ants lining the sides of the pond. "Want to swim?" I would have done that to! But it was time to go. 

Down the roads. I thought I had been all over this part of town... But today I learned that there was so much more to this place than I had seen. In fact, we were in Zangado's territory. Zangado is the alpha male of the other monkey group. Twisting and turning and sanding of the roads. And then- we stopped. Right there in the middle of one of them. Junior hopped of the bike and headed into the woods. I followed because it was implied that I do so. 

Soon after we entered these woods, they ended. And out from the ground shot up a semi-huge stack of rocks that I was about to climb all over. It was only when I got to the top of those rocks did I realize what a beautiful valley we were in. And that's when the macaws flew above us. On two opposing sides of us stood massive cliffs, and between them lay kilometers of the green forests I've been trekking in all summer. But not these exact forests... I've never been here before. This place was new. So I carved my initials into the rocks and left. 

Wait, before I left- remember, Leigh Anna, that you dropped your radio all the way down the rocks. It bounced straight to the ground. 

Then, back on the dirt bike. The sun was about to set. We were flying. And I was still uneasy about going as fast as we were. Regardless- that is exactly where I wanted to be. 

We stopped on a hill to watch the sunset's colors change the sky. This is the part that almost made me cry.

But then we needed to start heading home. We passed several houses that I'd never seen before. I was scoping out each of them. Each had their own arrangement of buildings, fences, wells, chickens, blue water tanks, and clothing lines. Gorgeous. 

One house had a pair of very sweet dogs. I was admiring their napping spots before they noticed us arriving. And as we were passing their home they transformed from being cute cuddled-up puppies to raging beasts of fury. They chased us. And not in the loyal dog way. More like in the purebred police drug-hunting dog way. And they were going fast. They made it three feet away from me before Junior could hit full speed on his bike. The dogs around this place are hungry- basic knowledge. These two were barking and chomping their yellow bloody teeth at me and my friend. (Ok, I just made the 'bloody' part up.) I was legit scared, and Junior was legit going only just fast enough. One of the scariest moments of my life, without a doubt. I survived though. Geez, will I EVER die? 

After the dog incident it became dark. And we cruised along through the woods.  We would stop every once in a while to open and close a gate. When we got close to the wetlands the temperature would drop. When we finally pulled up to the house, I was exhausted. 

There is no doubt in my mind that I need to return to this place.