Kelly and Quang's Global Roam

We´ve been out of town, way out of town. We´ve been in Chile´s lush Cochamo Valley. We signed up for a 4-night, 3-day trip with Campo Aventura, a small, family-run operation that put us in the saddle and sent us up a mountain side to its cabin near the clouds.

To get there, tall and solid horses carried us into a valley flanked by tree-covered fjords. We stopped for lunch near a rushing river where the water was impossibly clean. Our guide bent down and filled a bowl to the brim. "Go ahead, you can drink it," he said, passing the bowl. Quang decided to drink staight from the source instead.

After drinking our fill, we hopped back in the saddle and continued on our way. We left the valley behind and entered a temperate rain forest. Ferns spread wide, bamboo-like shoots crowded near, tree trunks rose high above, slimy moss crept its way over every surface. The air went from hot and dry to chilled and damp. We reached for our fleece pullovers and put them on. The path was thin and muddy. Tangled tree roots inched across the forest floor; the horses stepped in and around their mess. They clopped across uneven boulders; they waded through rushing streams.

After five hours in the saddle, we were ready to back on our own feet. We reached a group of log cabins clustered in a small valley surrounded by granite moutain tops where no electricity poles blocked our views. Our horses were let out to pasture, we were given cookies and hot tea. Finally, seated around a table, we began to chat with our fellow travelers. We met Michael on a Chilean tour from New York. Sue and Emily were an aunt-niece duo from Pennsylvania. Sue promised all her nieces and nephews she would take them on a trip when they turned 14. It was Emily´s turn. She picked Chile.

After lunch, we hiked to the nearby Rio Cochamo. Quang rolled up his pants and headed into the water. He yelped and almost turned back, but Emily dared him to keep going. Quang decided he couldn´t let a 14 year-old show him up and soon he and Emily were egging each other on. Sue and I found a washed up log on the bank and watched Quang and Emily accept dares to wade deeper and deeper, but we didn´t go in. We were content to sit and stare into the river´s depths. It was the purest, clearest water I have ever seen and at its deepest points it glimmered a tealy green, a sign, we´ve learned, that means the water is glacial run off.

We crawled into bed early that night. It was New Year´s Eve, but we didn´t stay up to usher in 2006. It was densly dark outside. A wood-burning stove had toasted up the cabin. We yawned, blew out all the candles, slipped into our sleeping bags and were asleep.

We woke up to pounding rain. We would not be venturing far. Instead, our cabin mates gathered around the kitchen table. Six loaves of hand-made bread were baking in the wood-burning stove. Coffee was hot. A game of Pick-Up-Sticks called from a shelf. We passed the morning in deep competition, our game lit by flickering candles.

The rain let up in the afternoon and we dared slip into ponchos and take a walk. We hiked into the forest in search of a waterfall. The path was muddy and dark. The mesh of branches and frens above us let in little light. Plus, it was cloudy. There wasn´t much light to begin with. We picked our way through twilight following a path we lost more than once. "Trolls live here," I told our group.

"Have you seen one?" asked Sue, laughing.

"Do you feel like you are being watched?" joked Quang.

"Yes," I said from the back of the line. And I did. It was slightly eery in that woods, all dark and dank and slimy. Our feet sunk and sloshed on the forest floor. We passed massive, ancient trees. We came upon an alerce, Chile´s version of a California redwood. It´s trunk spread wide and tall. We looked up but couldn´t see its top. After an hour, we reached the waterfall. It lept off a sheer granite cliff and pounded towards the forest floor with surprising force.

On way back to our little cabin in the clearing, Emily and Quang moved ahead of Sue and me. It grew quiet in the forest, the only sound the suck, suck, suck of Sue´s boots and mine in the mud. "I feel like I´m in Costa Rica," said Sue. "Well, I´ve never actually been there. But I imagine this is exactly what it looks like."

"I still think this is a place for trolls," I said. "Like right there," I pointed to a hollowed tree trunk. "They could live right there."

Suddenly, on the path in front of us, there was a crashing of branches and leaves. A scream pierced the air. Then another and another. Then, a string of laughs. Sue and I stood still in the path, our hands over our hearts, breathless and sure we´d met our end.

Quang and Emily giggled from behind a tree. "We so got you!" Quang teased. "Oh! We sooooooo got you!"