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You are here: Home / Archives for children

Hiking in Lesotho

February 3, 2010 By Jillian

As we set off to find the bushman paintings, the village men surrounding the gate were severely disappointed we didn’t want a guide. Sure the paintings would have been easier to find with a guide, but what’s the fun in that. Hearing the owners warning not to go into the gorge for fear of disrupting a boy’s coming of age ceremony, we took what we were sure was the right path. Breathtaking scenery, it wasn’t too long before local children started to shout lumela, hello, lumela, at us. Grabbing our hands, the children smiled, asked us to take their picture and got up the courage to ask for sweets. Without sweets, the children were disappointed, but enthralled by our friend’s camera which recorded video. Playing back their dancing and singing, he excited the children so much they didn’t want to let us go. Eventually we made our way into the gorge, our presence being the excitement of the day for children in every village. With only a few words of Sesotho between the four of us, happily navigated our way downstream avoiding every would-be guide along the way.

Seemingly scratching their heads at us, the villages smiled, said “Lodge”, asking if we were coming from Malealea Lodge, and smiled again when we said yes. “Bushman paintings?” we said and thanked whomever pointed the way. Eventually the hands started pointing up the gorge toward the rim. Confused, we let a local sheep hearder, with the same level of English as our Sesotho show us the way. Hoofing it up the hill, he explained in charades that there were 3 paintings and he would take us to all of them. Nodding our heads in agreement, I decided it was time to learn a little Sesotho. Pointing at animals, rocks, huts and trees, I asked our guide their Sesotho names and repeated them in English. We pointed at our chests, the international symbol for “I am” and said our names.

The first two sites were incredible, and we all agreed without our guide we never would have found them. Colored in red, yellow and black, the paintings represented hunting, spiritual life, and even what we thought was an erotic scene or two. We took tons of photographs, tried to determine the faded figures and marveled at the site. We’ve seen petroglyphs before, but there was just something magical about the bushman paintings. Although their style is thousands and thousands of years old, experts put these drawings at less than a thousand years old. The third site, an overhang above the valley, proved the most memorable. Picking up a stick our friend approached the cave painting as though he was going to touch it. Jumping out our guide said what we can only assume was no, don’t touch it! Without touching the painting, our friend had lined up the stick as though he was painting the image. Snapping away, we each took our turns “painting” the bushman designs. Showing our guide the pictures, he laughed and jumped up to take his turn. We could say no more than hello, sheep, donkey and our names in each others language, but we all had a good laugh over our artistry. Waving good bye, we headed back to the lodge still laughing at the thought of the modern Basotho pretending to paint the designs of his ancestors.

Modern Lesotho quickly came into view although I doubt the view is that different than 100 years ago, there was one striking difference. Along the road the school children, in their maroon and gold uniforms danced, sang and ran their way home. Seeing tourists, the children mobbed us, demanding we take their picture and show it to them. Laughing we snapped away as the children acted like they were models in a photo shoot. Recording video of them singing and playing, our friend shared the video with the children, who immediately huddled around him for a better view. Instantly his head disappeared among the sea of children. Giggling, the kids would have been perfectly happy to spend the entire afternoon at the “photo shoot”. We were treated to a lesson on the planets by one girl, and a recital of the numbers one through ten in English by another.

Running into so many villagers on our hike to the paintings made it a real cultural experience not just a hike through a beautiful gorge. For us, after so many negative experiences with children in Latin America aggressively asking and begging for money, playing with these children was a wonderfully different experience.

Filed Under: Africa, Headline, Hike, History & Culture, Lesotho Tagged With: art, children, hiking, villages

Necessito ir a Banos

August 3, 2009 By Jillian

Alive and happy after Danny’s second attempt on the river, and after overcoming the worst of my stomach bug, we took a very bumpy ride through the jungle back into the mountains to get to Banos. A lovely mountain town, famous really for its hot springs, but also a number of adventure activities from mountain biking to whitewater. Advised against kayaking in the nearby rivers due to pollution, and after seeing the “mountain bike” path (the curvy, heavily traveled mountain road), we decided to just spend some time relaxing.

Heading to the hot springs our first night, we were shocked to find them crowded, no, really they were overflowing with people. Packed in like sardines into two small pools cut into the mountain the setting was relaxing but the atmosphere was anything but. Turns out the hot springs are extremely popular at night and after about 10 minutes we couldn’t take the crush of people any more and headed back to the hostel for dinner.

Taking it easy, we spent the next day hiking through the mountains (really easy at 2000m in altitude!) from view point to view point. After about 3km, we came across a beautiful cafe high above the city. Accessible only by foot or mule, cafe de cielo was part of a luxury spa and resort complex. Very affordable, just not on a backpackers budget, we sprung for two hot chocolates instead. Continuing on our path, we climbed through cow pastures and farm land before reaching the highest viewpoint. Thwarted by clouds, we could only see the bottom third of the volcano.

Heading down to a viewpoint overlooking the city, we came across a shaking tree. Giggles from the tree tipped us off to the children inside before they offered us some fruit. Asking their names and sharing ours, Danny inquired as to what they were playing. We are monkeys they replied in laughter and you are a cow. Not processing what they said, Danny smiled. They called you a cow, I said to him. What? Danny said as he turned to the children. They erupted in laughter and we continued up the path.

Banos was relaxing and delicious. Apart from finding real pizza, we also found the first Ecuadorian chocolate bar that we liked. Unsatisfied with just one bar, we bought four to last us until Lima where hopefully we can restock. Although our packs might be small, somethings are just that important. 🙂

With Banos, our time in Ecuador had come to a close. Instead of 9 days we could have spent 90. This is a country just filled with outdoor activities and culture to go with it. Although we got some river time in and the all important equator, there is a lot we didn’t get to do in Ecuador like biking to indigenous villages or visiting the pacific coast at all.

The big thing we really missed out on was the the Galapagos. We had hoped to find a last minute deal while in Quito but the last minute deals were virtually non-existent because it is the middle of high season…which corresponds to the U.S. school year. Given the timing and the cost we figure that we can book a Galapagos trip sometime during their low season and fly from the USA for cheaper than we could do the trip for now. Since it is so close to the US we’d rather save our “big-ticket” money for things that are farther away and more difficult to return to….like Antarctica!

Filed Under: Ecuador, Food, Hike, South America Tagged With: children, chocolate, hiking, hot springs

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