Jungle Hike!Sunrise!Village Tour!

The alarm went off at 5:00AM so we could meet our guides for the Sunrise and Village Tour. I knew the old boy was really not feeling well when he declared that he was not going to come. He never misses anything ... but unlike me ... he had not slept well at all!!

Between his chronic sinus issues, his burgeoning headcold/chestcough and the never ending thunder, lightning and rain we got through the night ... he barely slept. The rainstorm was so loud that I could even hear it through my earplugs!!!

So, I got dressed, brushed my teeth and doused myself with the organic mosquito spray supplied by the resort. I packed a bottle of water (that I promptly forgot) ... and ... I headed outdoors into the pitch black darkness to meet our guides.

Debra and Wendy (two other Wheel & Anchor guests) joined the tour as well. We hadn't received much information about what we would be experiencing other than going to a viewpoint to enjoy the sunrise ... having a light breakfast and coffee ... and then ... finishing up with a tour of the village.

Well ... had any of us been thinking ... we might have realized that the best viewpoint for the sunrise was probably UP the mountainside! What we never saw coming was that we would be trekking a fair distance up the jungle on the mountainside ... in the mud (due to the rainstorm) ... and .... completely in the dark. Fortunately our guides had two small flashlights, but it felt entirely precarious!

The rain had caused the middle of the path to become a trench that you certainly didn't want to slip into with your footsteps. It got harder and harder to feel any sense of certainty with our foot placement as our feet got wet from all the foliage and were slipping around in our skimpy footwear!!

Fortunately, Wendy brought an umbrella so she used it as a walking stick. I had the arm of one of our guides ... but Debra ... made it up that mountainside all by herself!! We were grateful to finally reach the vista. There was considerable cloud cover, but Mother Nature served up some lovely colors ... and ... our guides served up a fabulous breakfast!!

We enjoyed some sticky rice cakes with palm sugar and some lovely fruit. One of which I had never tasted and can't remember what it is called. They even drummed up some hard boiled eggs for me ... at my request ... for protein. We also had some black coffee and tea! It was really so nicely arranged!!

After our sunrise, we continued walking into the jungle where we bore witness to a fellow who climbs the palm trees to retrieve the palm nectar TWICE a day. Apparently it's a dying breed of people who are willing to do that perilous climb!

We tasted the palm fruit as well. And then, we were walked to the residence of "Papa" who takes the juice and cooks it into a candied state (much like we do when make fondant) and then stirs it until it starts to get the consistency of fudge!

After that we found refuge under a thatched hut where a fellow was weaving palm fronds into roofing. We huddled on his workbench until the downpour stopped.

We proceeded into the village of Sambirenteng and came upon  a woman weaving baskets. We learned so much about the life of the locals as we chatted with our guides. They were an uncle and nephew. The young fellow was still in high school and was such a gem! I thoroughly appreciated his presence during our experience.

We also visited a school and got a sense of how the village works together to honor and optimize what each of then can do to make their community and the world a better place.

We left at 5:30am and returned four hours later. It was an absolutely fabulous outing! I wish I had room here to put in all the pictures that I took!

We spent the rest of the day lazing around the pool. The old boy was feeling a wee bit better ... so ... that was also good. We enjoyed a nice vegetarian lunch and rounded it off with some high-spirited conversation about American politics!

And, at dinner we laughed so much our cheeks hurt! Our day ended with the four of us on our deck. Wendy snd I sipping tea and Debra and the old boy sharing some Scotch that Debra had brought!

It was a perfect end to a fabulous day!

With full hearts,
❤️ k&j ❤️Read more