THE GREAT FRUIT BAT ADVENTURE

I recently found out that in an area about 2 hours away from us there was a colony of fruit bats living out in a rain forest. Fruit bats are a very large species of bats that can have a wing span of up to six feet. Well, naturally, I wanted to go see the fruit bats. So I asked this person that I knew who lived in the area, Steve, a peace corp worker, if it was a hard hike to get in there and see them. His reply was, "no, easy hike. It is on fairly level ground, you do have to cross a stream a couple of times and at the very end there is a little bit of uphill climb." So, I thought, piece of cake, I can handle that. NEVER trust a 23 year old skinny peace corp worker!!! We did not have to just ford a stream, but we basically had to slog through the stream, upstream I might add for miles!! He was right, it was fairly level ground, but if you are following a stream UPstream, you are going up in elevation! AND, we were walking through 2 to 3 inches of water the whole time, also having to climb over rocks and holes in the stream. AND, the stream had a gravel bottom so the gravel was getting into my water sandles and chafing against the skin of my feet!

I was with a group of 8 and there was only one person there who was anywhere close to my age. I had at least 20, sometimes 30 years on most of them! I kept trying to be quiet and take it like a woman, but after about 40 minutes I said, "guys, can we please take 5?!?" It was killing my pride, but I figured that was better than killing my body!! Well, after another 10-15 minutes of walking I said that we should be real near, and the peace corp worker said that no, it is an hour and a half EACH WAY!!! Well, it was at that point I knew I was in deep doo-doo!! We finally got to the "little bit of a climb" part and it was the steepest trail I have ever seen! By this time I am mumbling to myself and in my mind casting nasty thoughts toward all peace corp workers in the whole world!

I asked Steve about how long was it up the mountain and he said about 20 minute walk. Well, yeah, if you are 23 and in shape! I told them to go ahead and I would catch up with them. They wanted to wait for me, but I finally convinced them to take off. Needless to say, I would have been perfectly content to wait for them there; at that point I didn't care if I ever saw a fruit bat! But, my pride prevailed, and this one Filipino guide came coming back and saying "mahirap" (difficult), but come on. He even at one point took off his t-shirt and wanted me to hold one end so he could help pull me up the mountain!! That wasn't going to happen! So I would take about 25 steps and then fall panting to the ground and he would laugh and I would cry and then get up and take another 25 steps. I FINALLY MADE IT TO THE TOP! And there were the fruit bats - across a valley, in trees on the other side of the valley! I could hardly see them in my telephoto lens!! Actually it wasn't that bad, it was great to see them and that is a photograph I took while at the top of the mountain.

I wish that was the end of the story, but of course now we have to get all the way back!! By the time we had gotten to the bottom of the "little bit of a climb" part of the walk my legs were shaking my muscles were so fatigued!! But, it was not like I could tell somebody to go get the car, we were in the middle of a rain forest!! After another grueling hour and a half we were back at the car with me swearing I would never again ask anyone under 50 to guage the severity of a hike for me. The photo below the one of the fruit bats is my feet the next morning! I am doing church at home today cause I can't get them in a pair of shoes or sandles yet! If any of you want to see the fruit bats when you come over, I will gladly send you out with Eddie, the guide, and be waiting to minister to you medically when you return! By the way, I got in my hours of exercise for the next two weeks all in one day!