Toro Toro ridiculousness

So Toro Toro was pretty much ridiculous, and also the three most physically grueling days of my life. The first day we were there, we went on a 2K hike, and then spent three hours running round inside a cave. And while most of the cave wasn´t so bad, there were some parts where you had to literally squeeze your body through tiny little rock crevices and twist around to drop into little tiny holes and all sorts of silliness. We were told that it was a test to see who could physically handle the cave on Saturday.

Friday was a long long long hike. 10Ks through the Andes, up and down giant rock cliffs and scrambling over boulders until finally we got down into the bottom of a canyon, where we got to play in the waterfall. However, the waterfall turned out to be full of recently melted glacial water, and it is my personal opinion that diving into a pool of ice would have been warmer. However, now I can say that I have swum in a pool of recently melted glacial water.

Saturday was the hardest day by far. I decided to go try the really really hard cave, and the first 30 meters were you pulling yourself through a crack in the rocks along a rope. And it didn´t get easier after that. Some parts of the cave, we had to shimmy with our backs against one wall, and our hands and feet against the other, with a river down below. Other parts, we had to slither on our bellies through miniscule holes tht you didn´t think you could fit through.

The scariest part inside the cave was the first time we had to swim, mostly because it was dark, and the water was deep enough that we couldn´t touch the bottom, but we couldn´t see it either. After I got over that, the swimming was actually kind of cool.

However, the scariest scariest scariest part was when we got outside the cave. Our guide (who was a crazy little spider monkey man) told us we would be swimming out through the waterfall. Apparently something got lost in translation because we actually came out over top of the waterfall--and then had to scale a rock face on a slant with no handholds of footholds, and oh yeah, if you slipped, you feel six hundred feet into a gorge. So I had a mini freakout because I don´t like heights (note to self: six hundred feet above a gorge on a rock face is a bad time to get sensible). After scaling that one part of the rock face, we then had to shove our tippy toes in a crack in the rocks and shimmy the last part to the trail. It was the scariest thing I´ve ever done in my life and I am currently working on forgetting that it happened.

For the record, I wasn´t sore at all after any of the Toro Toro days, even though it was very physically demanding. I am, however, still sore from jiu jitsu on Monday.

Tuesday we had our despidida, our good bye party with the women´s group. I missed most of it because I got put on babysitting duties (not that I mind). We taught the kids how to play duck duck goose (pato pato gallina), stuck in the mud, and then somehow erupted into a spontaneous conga line (if you check out my professor´s blog, there´s a picture of me and said conga line.) It was quite fun. Today we have our goodbye party at the orphanage, at which I fully intend to cry my eyes out.

Anyways, that´s the story of my life right now. Leaving Cochabamba Monday, and Bolivia on Thursday. Will be home Friday. Do not want to leave :(