Three Things I Learned Today

Hi-Yah!
Originally uploaded by zassink

We took a bus this morning to El Sapote, a place about 13 kilometers from Copan. We got off the bus in the middle of nowhere, hiked across a valley, over a stream, and up a mountain. Soon we were looking out over the whole valley. It was a great exploration...not so much a hike. We went about 3 miles on our hike, but the majority of that was finding a way into the jungle. Once inside the going was so slow we covered about a mile or 2 at the most in a couple hours of hacking, climbing, and slipping. I learned a lot of things today while on the hike....Here are three of the things that I learned:
1) Tall grass makes the going tough....but not impossible. With a little bit of ingenuity you can get through any grassy situation. I just took out the machete and sliced a path through the tall grass.
2) Rainforests have no paths....we were exploring and exploring and kept thinking, "follow that path up the hill!" Then as David so astutely would point out..."I don't think that's a path, I think it's a runoff for rain water." He was always right about that as we tried following a stream but found no path in the jungle.
3) Few things dry in the rainforest...the bottom of my pant legs got wet at the start of the hike when trying to get into the jungle through the grass...and they never dried out. I think that the majority of uncovered forest floor was just mud. I don't think that very many things ever dry out fully in the rainforest.