Carmelita

The road to Carmelita- our point of embarkation for the hike- is not paved. The scenery is poor, decrepit, full of squalor. But, the people seem happy. Everyone was laughing and waving. Kids were being kids. Our driver, Oscar, is also a tour guide and he provided a ton of commentary along the way. His English, the last we would hear for a couple of days, was pretty good.

Senora Rosa and her family prepared our food and loaded the donkeys for our trip. Usually, when travelling with a language barrier, both parties make an effort to be demonstrative and patient. Rosa and her family did not grasp this norm. They spoke quickly and in enormous sentences. My limited Spanish requires the native speaker to adhere to a word count. In a typical lost in translation moment, I thought Rosa's daughter was asking whether I spoke Italian. She was asking whether I liked pasta. An hour later, pasta in tow, we met Jose and followed him into the jungle.