Internet is Awesome. So are showers, mirrors, and bathrooms.

Today is a good day. I have internet! As amazing as that is….I’ve also had a hot shower (which can never ever EVER be overrated), have put on clean-ish clothes that are dry (emphasis on the dry), I’ve washed my hair (and not in a dark creepy shack with a bucket of water and spiders), I’ve looked in a mirror (well…perhaps that was not such a good choice hence all the previous things I’ve mentioned thus far and will mention throughout), I’ve used a toilet (yes! Something else that can never ever EVER be overrated!), and I’m sitting on a soft bed typing on my computer. Luxary. Luxary at its finest.

Please don’t misunderstand however. I LOVED my time in Betampona and will detail it for you – however, there are so many things to tell – I think it best to break up into sections. So for tonight, I will start with our trip from Tamatave (a city near the beach with restaurants, hotels, etc) to Betampona (a remote village at the top of a mountain in the rainforest).

Traveling to Betampona was a trip. A trip! 14 people crammed into a bus (I’m using that term very loosely) with all our gear, clothes, food for the next 30 days. I know what you’re thinking. A bus? Why is that weird?? 14 people can easily climb into a bus. Nope. Wipe everything from your mind that comes into it when you read the word: BUS. This “bus” was made maybe 500 years ago (that could be an exaggeration), it’s half the size of what you are envisioning with all upholstery gone, most of the seats ripped open by time, the doors are closed and held closed by wrapping the seatbelts we should have around us…and wrapping around the door frame instead. And we need the doors to be closed because the road is maybe ¼ road and ¾ craters filled with mud and water. All we do is rock back and forth and drive at a pace we could probably all walk faster than, with exhaust (again!) blowing everywhere. All of our stuff is piled on top of the “bus”, with a roof mostly likely also made 500 years ago. It creaks and gives with every crater and we are all thinking the same things….oh my…this roof is going to give at some point. I literally had a game plan for how I would shove the boys out which window to try and save them from being crushed by a potential roof collapse. I imagined them telling people as they grew up, “yes, my parents were crushed to death by a bus roof collapse, but they saved us by throwing us out the window!”.

After 2 ½ hours we arrived at a river crossing. We all piled out and were canoed across the water which was pretty fun. Then we piled back into a different car (again, used loosely) and drove another 40 minutes on the same time of road to a village.

We were dropped at the village and told to start hiking up a mountain basically. The hike took an hour and a half (we got faster as the month went on) and was mostly just up.

Up and up and up.

11 river crossings through remote little villages and then it just continues up, up, up until Betampona. Yep – our remote village was on the top of mountain, right up against a beautiful rainforest reserve.

We stayed in cabins. The place was powered by solar panels so when it was sunny we had electricity and could plug in laptops, enter data, etc (which wasn’t really very often). And when it was rainy (much more frequently) we had water available for drinking and showering. If we ever went a few days without rain, the wells ran out and we had to walk down a hill (a steep long-ish hill) to fill our buckets for showering, water bottles for drinking, etc. We also washed our clothes down the h

ill.

At least if you walked down and then back up the hill with your bucket of water for showering, you were good and sweaty and your bucket shower did not seem quite as cold J . I also use the term “wash” loosely as this is much more difficult then it seems and the boys (punks that they are) were forever getting muddy on a daily basis which is like the dirty of a post-soccer game times 34! Plus if it’s never very dry, then things don’t really get DRY. They stay damp and then you put them on. Yep….eww.

I can’t wait wait wait to start telling about the villages – but this is all I can muster (that’s a word, right? I think I can use muster) for now.