OP
OP
Alaskan Adventurer
Full Member
- Thread starter
- #21
Re: Diablo's Cave Ecuador
So we set camp the night of our second full day in. My night is amazingly restful considering the anxiety of the next day. Our young guides felt that we would be approaching the cliff in about 2 more hours of hiking. The night was pretty much uneventful besides the usual thunderstorm in the middle of the night as well as the still crazy howl of the howler monkeys. It is obvious they don't enjoy finding interlopers on their land. At around 7am our young guides proceed to awaken us for this scarey, but exciting day. Our day started out with good vibes, so I wasn't too worried about the rappel after sleeping on it. Tony agreed with my feelings and we proceeded towards our fate. At about 9:30 am, the older of the two brothers stopped us and pointed ahead. Apparently we had reached the cliff. The older brother and I headed on down the trail and we were headed at a slight decline. Eventually we ended up at an impressive cliff and it was a LONG WAY DOWN! The weather seemed okay, with just a few medium sized clouds in the area. No danger of a major thunderstorm like my Belize trip. What a relief! The older brother quickly ran back and grabbed the other two guys along with the rope. After about 15 minutes of prepping, our ropes were secure on a decent sized tree. The night before we spent an hour or so tying knots at about every 3 feet to give us some handholds. I was still extremely nervous and then it hit me....how the heck do we climb back up? I had never even really though about it until then. I mentioned it to Tony and we both agreed....uh oh. It turns out that the two young men knew a way back up, but they didn't know how to reach the trail. Basically, it is not a problem. I knew that if my life depended on it, I could climb back up if it was absolutely necessary. A long rope ladder would have worked best. :P After a chat with Tony, we decided to go ahead and trust the two brothers. They could have easily killed us in our sleep, after all.
Now we get to the point on the decision of who is going to start. After awhile, I decided to hell with it. The decision was made for the older brother to head on down first, followed by myself. This is when the two young men pull out some leaves of some kind of plant. It turned out to be Coca, the plant that cocaine is made from. Simply by chewing on the leaves, it will give you a great burst of energy and it is really effective dealing with altitude sickness. The Incas pretty much worshipped this tree, and this is one of their secrets in being superior on the battlefield.
After about 5 minutes, we hear the yell from down below of OKAY!!! He safely made it down. The hardest part of this whole process is the beginning and of trusting the strength of the rope. It took us about 20 minutes for all three of us to make it down. Besides a couple burns from the rope, we had no other problems. What a relief! My faith in the Shuar is now quite high and it was a wonderful feeling of accomplishment. Until you are at the bottom of the cliff, looking up, it doesn't really hit you on the distance you just free hand climbed. We weren't using rappeling gear for securety. What a rush! So we decide to have a little break and eat some cold yucca. Mmmm, not really. The root is quite filling though and when it is hot, it basically tastes like potatoes. Good thing I love potatoes!!! After a nice little snack of yucca, we commence our hike. It took us about 4 hours before we were approaching the cave. For the most part, we were in a small valley and the cave happened to be in this valley. The mouth of this cave was quite large, about 10 feet in height. The only way to see it though, is if you are looking for it at the right angle due to all the vegetation.
Approaching the cave I noticed it was for the most part, under water. After a lot of hand signals and much wasted time(AGGGGH, must learn Spanish!) we learnt that the cave is unusually high. We are towards the end of the rainy season and just got a bit unlucky. As part of our supplies, we did bring a snorkle, and small mask, just in case. (cont...)
So we set camp the night of our second full day in. My night is amazingly restful considering the anxiety of the next day. Our young guides felt that we would be approaching the cliff in about 2 more hours of hiking. The night was pretty much uneventful besides the usual thunderstorm in the middle of the night as well as the still crazy howl of the howler monkeys. It is obvious they don't enjoy finding interlopers on their land. At around 7am our young guides proceed to awaken us for this scarey, but exciting day. Our day started out with good vibes, so I wasn't too worried about the rappel after sleeping on it. Tony agreed with my feelings and we proceeded towards our fate. At about 9:30 am, the older of the two brothers stopped us and pointed ahead. Apparently we had reached the cliff. The older brother and I headed on down the trail and we were headed at a slight decline. Eventually we ended up at an impressive cliff and it was a LONG WAY DOWN! The weather seemed okay, with just a few medium sized clouds in the area. No danger of a major thunderstorm like my Belize trip. What a relief! The older brother quickly ran back and grabbed the other two guys along with the rope. After about 15 minutes of prepping, our ropes were secure on a decent sized tree. The night before we spent an hour or so tying knots at about every 3 feet to give us some handholds. I was still extremely nervous and then it hit me....how the heck do we climb back up? I had never even really though about it until then. I mentioned it to Tony and we both agreed....uh oh. It turns out that the two young men knew a way back up, but they didn't know how to reach the trail. Basically, it is not a problem. I knew that if my life depended on it, I could climb back up if it was absolutely necessary. A long rope ladder would have worked best. :P After a chat with Tony, we decided to go ahead and trust the two brothers. They could have easily killed us in our sleep, after all.
Now we get to the point on the decision of who is going to start. After awhile, I decided to hell with it. The decision was made for the older brother to head on down first, followed by myself. This is when the two young men pull out some leaves of some kind of plant. It turned out to be Coca, the plant that cocaine is made from. Simply by chewing on the leaves, it will give you a great burst of energy and it is really effective dealing with altitude sickness. The Incas pretty much worshipped this tree, and this is one of their secrets in being superior on the battlefield.
After about 5 minutes, we hear the yell from down below of OKAY!!! He safely made it down. The hardest part of this whole process is the beginning and of trusting the strength of the rope. It took us about 20 minutes for all three of us to make it down. Besides a couple burns from the rope, we had no other problems. What a relief! My faith in the Shuar is now quite high and it was a wonderful feeling of accomplishment. Until you are at the bottom of the cliff, looking up, it doesn't really hit you on the distance you just free hand climbed. We weren't using rappeling gear for securety. What a rush! So we decide to have a little break and eat some cold yucca. Mmmm, not really. The root is quite filling though and when it is hot, it basically tastes like potatoes. Good thing I love potatoes!!! After a nice little snack of yucca, we commence our hike. It took us about 4 hours before we were approaching the cave. For the most part, we were in a small valley and the cave happened to be in this valley. The mouth of this cave was quite large, about 10 feet in height. The only way to see it though, is if you are looking for it at the right angle due to all the vegetation.
Approaching the cave I noticed it was for the most part, under water. After a lot of hand signals and much wasted time(AGGGGH, must learn Spanish!) we learnt that the cave is unusually high. We are towards the end of the rainy season and just got a bit unlucky. As part of our supplies, we did bring a snorkle, and small mask, just in case. (cont...)
