Reminders

for some reason today i just suddenly remembered one day in the danum valley when we tried to trek to a waterfall with the guys from the forestry department. it was so hot and humid deep in the rainforest and we hardly had any water so we wimped out and turned back after about a half hour. there was only a ragged grown over remnant of a trail so the guys all had machetes (i still remember how weird it was sitting in the back of a land rover on these crazy mud rut roads with machetes just stuck into the back seat pockets). they didn't even seem to get hot or tired at all in the hike and i felt like such a wimp...though annie and hillary were exhausted as well. all our faces were beet red. redder than any sunburn. it was that hot. i was carrying a pretty heavy backback full of camera equipment and i think i had another one strapped to my front, though i can't remember on that specific trek. all i know is it was probably the sweatiest i've ever been in my entire life. the trees, the plants, the bugs, everything were HUGE. jurassic park style. there were huge birds that flew over too...and i kept imagining they were pterodactiyls. man i miss it.