Panaca

First of all, I would like to say that MY grade school fieldtrips were a joke.  Trip to Chicago?  Thanks I've lived here all my life.  Springfield?  I'm sorry I know its the capital and all but NO 8th grader thinks its cool or entertaining.  And my class never even got to go to Medieval Times like every other 6th grade class.  What a ripoff.  Now Bolivar knows how to do it right.  I probably had more on our fieldtrip as an adult than I had on any trip I had in grade school or high school, with maybe the exception of New York. 

Wednesday morning we got to school around 6am and started loading children and baggage onto 3 buses and started on our way to Panaca in Quimbaya-Quindio.  Quindio is the department or state (Cali is in Valle de Cauca) and Quimbaya is the municipal.  I'm still struggling with how exaclty to classify what Panaca is, so I think the best way is simply to describe the various activities we had over the three days we were there. 

The bus ride was supposed to be about 3 hours, but with traffic and a certain incident in which a girl "accidentally" (this is still up for debate) broke a window on a bus with the emergency hammer, it took more like 5 hours to get there, setting our schedule back just a bit.  No worries though, if you know me, you know I slept 80% of the time, when I wasn't catching bits of Transformers 3 or Rio. 

We were originally suppose to stay in big malocas or huts with about 20-25 students each, but Colgate was having a convention there at the same time and partying all night, so they moved us into rooms at the hotel nearby.  When we arrived they introduced the kids to a general outline of the week and we had lunch before we were off to our first activity.  The first afternoon the students were split into "tribes" with Panaca guides to compete in Quim y Baya.  After being war painted with natural paint from seeds, each tribe had to complete different tasks from an egg toss to crossing a small pond and rolling team members in a wheel. 

About 1 min after this the boy in the stripes fell in again, and then again.  Being great teachers and principals, we watched and laughed.  And took video.

After dinner back at the hotel, two of the larger groups, including mine, set out for our camping adventure.  It had rained during dinner and looked like it might rain again, so we opted to camp where we had a roof to cover.  After students whined and fought about who was sleeping with who in what tents, the guides helped them put their tents together.  At which point it appeared as though the 6 teacher chaperones whould be without a tent.  We tried to work this to our advantage and figrue out a way to go back to the hotel, but in the end it turned out the guides had set up 2 tents for us.  One old, rickety tent not under one of the rooves and another on the hard floor right next to all the boys tents.  The females opted for the older tent furthest from the kids, even if it was't covered, and left the boys with the boys.  Of course it started raining again over night, and I was awoken by the terrifying sounds of the guides covering our tent with garbage bags so we wouldn't get wet.  I still woke up with wet feet but was greeted by one of the most beautiful views so it all turned out alright.

Day two was another busy day.  After breakfast, my group one started the day with canopying, or zip lining, a first for me.  I didn't really think much about it, so I couldn't syke myself out.  It wasn't until we started climbing the first tower that I freaked out a little bit.  The climb seemed unending.  Near the top I thought I was imagining the tower swaying or that I was just really shaky until Amy said something and I realized the tower WAS swaying because it was so tall.  Freaky.  Once I got hooked up to the cables it was no problem.  Except on the second line when I didn't make it all the way to the end and a worker had to come get me.  He started canopying toward me, flew into me, said "hola", and wrapped his legs around me and pulled me to the end.  It was a super special treat.  Then on the last line they have a photographer at the end taking pictures as you fly in, I got stuck again.  This time I was close enough I could pull myself in on the cable.  I hope a picture of that doesn't show up on the trip DVD.  Embarasing.

All the boys were the first in line.

Brian, the MS principal and Amy the 7th grade English teacher with me ready for canopy!

After canopying we spent the rest of the morning with the animals.  First was milking cows.  Some students even tried milk squirted straight from the utter.  It was both disturbing and gross.  While I didn't try any "fresh" milk, I did try my hand at milking a cow, and I have to say it was a lot easier than I thought.  In the same area were some baby and adult goats we could buy milk and other treats for.  Two of our most troublesome boys were the first to buy a bottle of milk to feed them, which I found cute and surprising.  They didn't even start teasing the animals until about 5-10 minutes in...boys will be boys.  Martin even offered me the rest of one of the bottles so I could feed the little guys too.  They were super cute.  Then there were the sheep.  The guides let the kids lay in the pens, put feed on the stomachs and had the sheep eat off the kids stomachs.  Weird, but funny.  We also had cows licking molasses off our hands and some students put it on their cheeks to let the cows lick it off, again weird and humorous. 

We headed cak to the hotel for lunch and then our afternnon activity was horseback riding.  Much better experience than last time.  Nice and slow, no trotting or galloping, but nothing too exciting.  Except the Zorse, or zebra horse, which I thought was a Quagga that I once taught to a Biology class when discussing extinct animals.  Needless to say, when I saw this thing I was utterly confused and somewhat convinced that Colombian drug lords must have somehow had something to do with this.  However, upon further investigation when I returned to Cali, it appears as though zebra horses do exist in the modern world and there are different variations, some of which (the Quagga) are in fact extinct.  Glad I got that one figured out.  After our horseback riding, we watched the least PC rodeo show ever.  There were little people on little horses, who later dressed up as a little indian child that was kidnapped by cowboys after being lost by there hooting blonde pony-tailed indian friends, or so that is what I gathered from the story.  So weird.  After that little piece there was some pretty cool stunt riding though.

That night after dinner, the other group of students and chaperones camped while our groups went on a senses and solo walk.  The kids all put their bandanas on as blindfolds, and the teachers conviniently didn't have any, so I thought we were safe.  Luckily the guides offered their flags from Quim y Baya as blindfolds and we got to take part too.  We were all lined up blindfolded with our hands on the shoulders of the people in front of us.  The idea was to use our senses other than vision.  A special treat for me was also basically being without hearing as well since the guides, and therefore the students, only spoke in spanish.  I got the majority of it but it certainly was a challenge.  We walked blindfolded and then they put different things on us to touch and taste.  I didn't enjoy that very much.  After our senses walk, we took part in a solo walk in which everyone walked the path alone, without a flashlight until we came to a fork in the road that would lead us to our fire for the night.  Again, it waa difficult because I wasn't really sure what the fork was or where to go, but I managed.  And the moon was so bright we didn't need flashlights anyway.  At the campfire, our leader told some history and stories, most of which I missed because the vocabulary was foreign and the translation part of my brain shuts down after too much spanish comprehension.  They had a sort of graduation ceremony and all the kids got a certificate, a t-shirt and a hat, the teachers got a certificate too for completing the week. 

On our last day Friday my group had the dirtiest of all the activities: the Guadaventura.  I couldn't take anything without destroying or losing it, so I don't have photos, but I stole some from Rob the math teacher who has a waterproof/indestructible camera to give you all an idea.  The guides were also taking photos for the DVD they are making for us.  By the end of the activity I was literally covered head to toe, and everything in between, with mud.  We started by having to repel backwards down a steep hill surrounded by ominous looking plants and branches, down to the bottom where a huge mud pit and creek were waiting for us.  Of course the guides encouraged mud fights.  At the bottom it was quite slippery, so rather than trying to stay on my feet and falling, I chose to just scoot down the hill and embrace the mud and filth.  We had to get into the creek, several shoes were almost lost and countless feet stuck in the soft mud on the bottom.  We walked through the creek, got out up steep muddy hills and jumped back in.  Then we were tied to a rope by our wrist and had to follow the rope over and under branches and bamboo, which meant going under the muddy water.  Some girls cheated and slipped their hands out, so I was sure to give them BIG hugs and tell them what great students they are.  At one point I was up to my knees in mud and up to my waist in water, and gave myself some muddy war paint.  The end of our walk though the creek led us to an army crawl which is where things really got messy.  As we crawled through, those looking on were throwing and piling mud on our backs, easily adding 10 pounds as we slowly crawled through.  I reminded students that grades were due mid October, but that didn't seem to stop them.  Afterward we washed off in the water, then hosed off on our way back to the hotel and then rinsed off again in the shower by the pool before finally heading to our room to take a real shower.  So messy, but so fun and worth it. 

View of the army crawl area

Scott the Social Studies teacher crawling through

After cleaning and packing up at the hotel we had lunch and then waited for the buses.  Although everyone was heading back to Cali, Scott, Durkee, Chirstian and I got off the bus nearby about 15 minutes away and hopped on a public bus to head straight to Pereira for binational games.  Stay tuned for that recap.

Longest. Post. Ever.

Hope you enjoyed our field trip as much as I did!