When I was 17, I got lost in Los Andes with a group of hippie-wannabes, skaters and potheads.
It was 2012, and if the world was coming to an end, my last wish was to have traveled by myself for once, at least. One afternoon, I got a call from my cousin Gio, who told me I was invited to spend one weekend in our grandparent's holiday house, which we used to visit often as children.
This house was located in an old, forsaken town on Trujillo's mountains, where my grandpa Rómulo Durán was born. He's now resting, but back then, when he was still with us, it was entertaining to hear him mention this town called Lomas de Bonilla, and how whenever you asked him what people did for a living in the town, all he answered was “nothing”. “But aren't there cattles?” – “there aren't nothing cattles, everything's lost”.
(wordplay in spanish: “¿de qué se vive en el pueblo?” “de la nada”
“¿y no hay ganado?” “aquí no hay nada ganado, todo está perdido”)
He had been outside of the town for at least 40 years by then, but he loved that place, and whenever he got some free time he and my grandma would visit his beloved hometown.
It was exciting for me to have the chance to visit Las Lomas without my parents, and finally getting this self-sufficiency vibe my younger self craved so much. My cousin told me some of his friends would be there as well, and since I liked the idea, I prepared my suitcase with everything I would most probably need.
My parents took me to the bus station, where the group would first gather, and as soon as I arrived I saw my cousin, bid goodbyes to both of my parents and suddenly felt I had the world in the palm of my hand, free to do whateved I wished. He took me with his friends, and I soon realized there were seven people joining my cousin and I, which meant there would be seven of us. This trip would for sure be an adventure.
One of them had really long hair, another one was so lethargic he seemed to have spent days without sleeping. There was a light-eyed guy who talked a lot and was our designate chef for the trip; also a guy that was maybe way too nice to me, a very quiet guy with a very loud laugh that had this camera, one guy who not even once removed his sunglasses, and one that was most definitely the group's clown.
After an eight-hour-long trip that felt like forever, we finally arrived to the town, with the bust leaving us exactly at our grandparent's house. We went inside for a short while to have some snacks and quickly left for the beautiful park where we used to play when we were children. This place looked the same, just as perfect with trees hovering over a small lagoon, ducks and horses all around, and awnings built for human comfort.
We obviously didn't want to leave this place. This was the first time I ever tried marijuana, which brought an incredible sense of tranquility and relax that perfectly mixed with the place we were chilling at. The night came soon and we lied on the floor; I had never seen a similar amount of stars in the night sky, reminding me how small I am within this vast universe. This was the only picture I could find that closely resembled to that marvelous sky:
Next morning we woke up pretty early, eager to visit a river close to the town. My dad would always tell me how, whenever he came to Las Lomas for holidays, he walked to such river, where he bathed in and spent the day fishing, only to return those little fishes to water. My cousin and I were euphoric over the idea of going to the river, so after getting some tasty arepas andinas for breakfast, made by a kind old lady in exchange for some milk powder and toilet paper, we tried to see if we could find the way to the river, before going back to the house and getting water and groceries.
(traditional Venezuelan dish based on wheat
flour, butter, sugar and some salt)
We reached the top of the hill, gifting ourselves with wonderful views of incredible landscapes and mountains. We spent hours admiring this beautiful place. And of course, it didn't hurt to smoke a little joint.
The dude that never stopped talking started following something that looked like a path and we were following close behind. It seemed like this was the way to the river, and we walked to the end of such path for a couple minutes, where we could only find some undergrowth and a hole. After deliberating for a while, we decided entering the hole was a “clever idea”.
We basically creeped down a natural-formed slide; the long-haired guy complained that his hair was getting tied to the branches, and we spent quite some time trying to reach the end of the slide until we finally found a small cliff, which we skipped only to fall on some huge rocks. It was then we realized we wouldn't be able to go back, even if no one said a word, the only option left was to keep following the rock path.
Hours down the road, we had no water in our bodies or anything that could give us some energy, and it seemed like the walk was endless. The guy that was very nice to me offered to give me a piggyback ride, but I preferred to keep walking because it would be exhausting to him. We stopped to rest for a while and analyze the situation, we took a look around and the sleepy dude realized we were walking down a dry water path, which meant that if it rained, we would be in great trouble, so we decided to keep walking as fast as possible.
After a couple more hours we stopped once again, reaching the edge of something that seemed like a dry waterfall of, at least, 16ft approximately. “Fuck!”, I thought, “there's literally nowhere to go, what the fuck are we gonna do now?” I was so worried, while everyone else decided to smoke a bit and sit to relax. Yep! They indeed didn't bring a drop of water, but marijuana was essential. I was extremely annoyed, so I started to look around for a way out. Fortunately, I found another path from which I could hear the river, so I shouted “I FOUND IT!”, and didn't wait for an answer, way to eager to get in the river. I got inside with my clothes on, and as soon as I turned around, I realized the very nice dude had followed me and gotten inside the water, where he ran to me in order to kiss me since we were alone. I understood then why he was so nice.
Minutes later the rest of the guys arrived, deciding to drink from the river water, and even though I was just as thirsty, I abstained from doing the same. Instead, I got out of the water and walked to a small, humble house that was near; a nice old man that seemed to live alone came out to meet us and let us in, giving us some fresh water and bread, sitting to talk with us for a while. We asked him if he had met our grandpa, and he immediately recognized the name, laughing before finally saying that he was, for a long time, my grandpa's mother's lover, and that she was the prettiest girl in town.
The dusk came soon, and the old man advised us to go to the nearest stop as soon as possible, since it was kind of impossible to take a bus at night that would take us to our town. We left then and got to a desolate bus stop, it had gotten pretty dark since it was late already and we knew we wouldn't be able to take a bus.
Some cars passed by and we tried to hitch a lift, but it was useless (I wouldn't have stopped to give a ride to some guys that looked like us, either), our clothes were wet and we were freezing in the night's chilling wind. So basically, we sat there, shivering from the cold, resigned to wait for the sun to rise.
But, just like a strange miracle, an ambulance passed by, and the man driving it stopped to ask where we were going to. When we mentioned Las Lomas, he just said “that's where I'm headed to, to drink some beer”, and we anxiously got inside the back of the ambulance. That's how we met mr. Rafael, or how he preferred to be called, “El Loco”, a very nice guy who spent the whole way to Las Lomas making jokes and just being pretty loud, reminding us how stupid we were to go to the river without taking provisions and telling us stories of how he used to have sex with women in the back of the ambulance. “This ambulance is more of an hotel and less of a transport for the ill”.
We finally arrived home, and casually, it was right in the supply store across the street where Rafael would be drinking beer. Some of the boys stayed with him for a while, and the rest of them, including me, decided to go inside to finally grab some food.
Food that, by the way the great majority of them threw up later, after getting sick from drinking the river water, while I slept placidly the whole night.
And that was how I experienced this crazy adventure. We stayed one more day, and though we dreaded the time we would have to return to daily life, we had to go back home, despite the wonderful adventure we just had lived.
Very nice story full of basic human life/youth.
Great story, man! I can tell that you made some pretty amazing friendships on this trip, fleeting or not. Thanks for sharing! Upvoted and followed. Keep it up!
Undoubtedly it was madness haha
Disfruté demasiado leyendo tu historia jajajaja estuvo que si de película! tienes mi voto!
Btw, such a great pictures!! I really enjoyed read ur post!
bellooooo