Hola Stemians!
Hoy les contaré cómo mis cuatro (4) amigos y yo sobrevivimos en el intento de llegar a un punto exótico catalogado monumento natural en Venezuela, ubicado en el estado trujillo llamado "La teta de niquitao" el nombre se debe a que esta montaña tiene forma de seno de mujer.
Aunque no es un sitio muy conocido, existen organizaciones que planifican rutas desde niquitao a este lugar y promover el turismo, pero mis amigos y yo no queriamos hacer la misma ruta y mucho menos pagarla. Así que nos aventuramos.
Aqui estamos! María de los Angeles, Hector, Jesús, @arqui.traveler y José.
Investigando previamente los distintos recorridos que podíamos utilizar vimos que la ruta turistica mas utilizada es la linea naranja desde el pueblo de niquitao y la ruta que tomamos fué la linea de color azul desde cabimbú.
Para llegar a la teta de niquitao teníamos que hacer el siguiente recorrido:
Maracaibo-Valera-La Quebrada-Cabimbú.
Desde Maracaibo, nos fuimos en un Wolkswagen escarabajo hasta Valera.
Desde Valera a La Quebrada utilizamos transporte público (pueden ver la ciudad de Valera).
Desde La Quebrada a Cabimbú nos fuimos una parte caminando y otra parte a dedo. Gracias al Sr. Alberto pudimos recorrer la mitad del camino.
Luego estuvimos caminando por aproximadamente 5 horas para llegar a la casa de un familiar del Sr. Alberto que nos podía dar un techo donde dormir para salir al día siguiente, pero nos perdimos, ya era tarde, estaba oscureciendo, había mucho frío, estábamos a 900msnm. Lo bueno es que los pobladores de esas regiones son muy amistosos, asi que en la primera casa que encontramos, nos dieron asilo para comer, descansar y partir al día siguiente.
Al día siguiente seguimos caminando otro buen rato y logramos llegar a Cabimbú, un pequeño pueblo donde se cultivan en su mayoría fresas, me encantan las fresas, atravesamos el pueblo y las personas que cosechaban nos regalaron fresas en cantidad.
Luego de conversar con las personas que vivian en el pueblo al vernos nos preguntaron a donde nos dirigíamos, les dijimos que a la Teta de Niquitao, todos se quedaron asombrados y nos dijeron "que je evuelvan" en un acento andino tipico de los lugareños, nos dieron que no fuéramos porque no teníamos la ropa adecuada para la cantidad de frío que hace en la montaña y en la noche salía el "chirake".
Pero hicimos caso omiso, seguimos caminando por 12 horas mas, nos habíamos perdido de nuevo, subimos rocas y por debajo pasaba un río, vimos acantilados que teniamos que rodear, cuando ya estabamos agotados, sin ganas de caminar, Hector caminó 400 metros mas arriba, al ver que el caminaba yo lo seguí y en la punta del cerro vimos, estábamos en la "Teta de Niquitao", cansados, nos llenó de alegría haber llegado a la meta, así que nos acercamos a la laguna para preparar la tienda de acampar porque ya iba a comenzar a oscurecer.
Buscamos un sitio para acampar a 50m de la laguna, y con una planta que se llama "frailejón" acolchonamos el suelo y sobre ella ubicamos la tienda de acampar, tambien buscamos ramas para encender una fogata, pero el viento no dejaba mantener el fuego asi que nos comimos la cena sin cocinarla. Cuando oscureció comenzó a llover, y llovía y llovía. Toda la noche llovió, despues nos dimos cuenta que el llamado "chirake" no era más que la lluvia constante desde las 6pm a las 6am.
En la noche había tanto frío que todos temblábamos, luego comenzó filtrarse la lluvia por dentro de la carpa, con nuestros bolsos atajábamos algo del agua que entraba para no mojarnos, la noche se hizo eterna, el frío, la lluvia, el cansancio, el miedo de sufrir hipotermia, estábamos a 1.500msnm, fue desesperante.
Cuando se hicieron las 6 de la mañana dejó de llover, salimos de la carpa y vimos que estabamos casi en la orilla de la laguna, el sol comenzó a salir, nos alegramos que la noche tormentosa había terminado, recogimos todo y comenzamos a caminar para devolvernos a cabimbú.
Encontramos un atajo bordeando otra montaña y logramos llegar a cabimbú luego de caminar 2 horas.
Esta aventura hizo crecer mi alma, la naturaleza es implacable, indomable, duele, pero es hermosa.
Sobrevivimos al arriesgarnos sin conocer mucho el lugar, no tener la vestimenta adecuada, solo instinto junto a las herramientas que teníamos disponibles. Y es una historia que recordamos cada vez que mis amigos y yo nos encontramos, solo al decir "que je evuelvan" nos miramos, coincidimos y nos reimos.
Esta aventura la recordamos con alegría, "La Teta de Niquitao" es hermosa.
Hello Stemians!
Today I will tell you how my four (4) friends and I survived in the attempt to reach an exotic point cataloged natural monument in Venezuela, located in the trujillo state called "La teta de niquitao" the name is because this mountain is shaped of a woman's breast.
Although it is not a well-known site, there are organizations that plan routes from this place and promote tourism, but my friends and I did not want to do the same route, much less pay for it. So we ventured.
Here we are! María de los Angeles, Hector, Jesús, @arqui.traveler and José.
Investigating previously the different routes that we could use, we saw that the most used tourist route is the orange line from the town of niquitao and the route that we took was the blue line from cabimbú.
To get to "La teta de niquitao" we had to do the following tour:
Maracaibo-Valera-La Quebrada-Cabimbú.
From Maracaibo, we went on a Volkswagen beetle to Valera.
From Valera to La Quebrada we use public transport (you can see the city of Valera).
From La Quebrada to Cabimbú we went one part walking and another part to finger. Thanks to Mr. Alberto, we were able to travel half the way.
Then we were walking for about 5 hours to get to the house of Mr. Alberto's family who could give us a roof to sleep in to leave the next day, but we got lost, it was already late, it was getting dark, it was very cold, we were 900msnm. The good thing is that the inhabitants of these regions are very friendly, so in the first house we found, we were given asylum to eat, rest and leave the next day.
The next day we continued walking for a long time and we reached Cabimbú, a small town where strawberries are grown, I love strawberries, we went through the town and the people who harvested gave us many strawberries.
After talking with the people who lived in the town to see us asked where we were going, we told them that at La teta de Niquitao, everyone was amazed and told us "que je evuelvan" in an andean accent typical of the locals, they gave us that we did not go because we did not have the right clothes for the amount of cold that it does in the mountain and in the night the "chirake" came out.
But we ignored it, we continued walking for 12 more hours, we had lost again, we climbed rocks and underneath a river, we saw cliffs that we had to surround, when we were exhausted, not wanting to walk, Hector walked 400 meters higher , seeing that he was walking I followed him and at the top of the hill we saw, we were in the "Teat of Niquitao", tired, we were very happy to have reached the goal, so we went to the lagoon to prepare the tent camping because it was already going to begin to get dark.
We are looking for a place to camp 50m from the lagoon, and with a plant called "frailejón" we padded the ground and on it we located the camping tent, we also looked for branches to light a fire, but the wind did not let the fire stay We ate dinner without cooking it. When it got dark it started to rain, and it was raining and raining. All night it rained, then we realized that the so-called "chirake" was nothing more than constant rain from 6pm to 6am.
In the night there was so cold that we all trembled, then the rain began to filter inside the tent, with our bags we cut some of the water that came in so as not to get wet, the night became eternal, the cold, the rain, the tiredness, the afraid of suffering hypothermia, we were at 1,500m, it was exasperating.
When it was 6 o'clock in the morning it stopped raining, we left the tent and saw that we were almost on the shore of the lagoon, the sun began to rise, we were glad that the stormy night was over, we gathered everything and started walking to return us to cabimbú.
We found a shortcut bordering another mountain and we managed to reach cabimbú after walking 2 hours.
This adventure made my soul grow, nature is implacable, untamable, it hurts, but it is beautiful.
We survived by taking risks without knowing the place, not having the right clothes, just instinct along with the tools we had available. And it's a story that we remember every time my friends and I meet, just by saying "que je evuelvan" we look at each other, we agree and we laugh.
We remember this adventure with joy, "La Teta de Niquitao" is beautiful.