I had planned a trip back to Illinois for the last couple of weeks in January, but unfortunately that fell thru as I decided the cost for the flight had gone up too much. I found a flight thru priceline that was good, but the lack of control over when exactly the flight would arrive etc. made the decision easy to refuse. I have decided to wait for a while and see if I can get a cheap flight this spring. Perhaps mom and dad can bring some of the things that I wanted to bring back along with them when they arrive in Puerto Rico in February.
The last exciting thing that I have done was called "canyoneering" by my friends who invited me along last week. We were dropped off way up in the mountains in the interior of the island near Utuado where we started the trip off by hiking a couple of miles away from the road until we intersected with the Tanama River. At that point, we began following the river. Following the river was by no means easy; we had to walk/swim in the river, which was generally cool and clear and contained smooth river-worn rocks at its bottom. I selected a nice long piece of bamboo about six feet long as a prop for crossing across the swift current and off we went. At times we had to take off our packs and swim from one point to the other. The first day came to an end as twilight began to approach. We set up camp on a small sand beach just beyond what I thought was the best part of the trip so far. The river cut thru the rock in a huge sweeping curve that resembled the inside of a tire in that the rock was smoothed off and not only curved to the left but also curved up and over. I thought of an accelerator for atomic particles as I swam thru the deep water for a couple hundred yards. I was told that the following day would be even better.
In the sand of the beach I set up the tarp-tent that I had sewn up the previous day just to see how it would function. It worked out ok, but now I can begin making improvements. I hollowed out a spot in the sand to lie upon since I did not carry a pad of any kind. So the night was spent in relative comfort to no comfort at all. Luckily I brought a small pillow for my head. However, this item turned out to be a bad thing on the second day. The night provided a starlit sky with only a crescent moon, which set after a few hours of darkness. Unfortunately there were no meteors to be seen as I lay on a huge rock nearby and gazed at the heavens for a long time while the others in the expedition sat around the fire and tried to dry out the socks and other articles that had become soaked that afternoon. Most of the six-member team had hit the sack by ten pm, but two of the party remained at the fire till a later time.
The next morning most of us were up and ready to go and waiting on the other two who had stayed up later. As a result, we did not get going until at least 9:30 am! This would prove to be a disadvantage later in the day.
The second part of the trip did not disappoint me. As a matter of fact it was better than the first in many ways. The terrain became more rugged, involved much more swimming and climbing over rocks, and also introduced us to some caves and waterfalls. The pillow became soaked each time that we had to swim, and made the pack heavier each time we were hiking - regardless of how much water I was able to squeeze out of it. We went thru a huge cave with hundreds of bats in residence. The opening of the cave was enormous and the amount of bat guano that had accumulated on some parts that we were able to walk thru was amazing! Some was probably at least two feet thick. Good fertilizer if you cared to pack it out. The cave was a couple of hundred yards long and curved in the middle such that you could not see the other side until part way thru it. There were huge stalactites and flowstones with no evidence of people breaking them off for souvenirs. There were other caves and some we had to swim a hundred yards as the channel narrowed and became at least seven feet deep where I checked with my bamboo staff. Then there were waterfalls that we had to negotiate around. I was told that at one particular falls a couple of college kids had died a few years back. Apparently they may have tried to "shoot" the falls and died in a collision with a huge rock that is submerged just below the falls. A couple of our crew jumped into the fjord-like depths just beyond the falls, but I decided not to since I did not want to loose my glasses or any other equipment on impact. I went around via a cave route that I discovered while our leader jumped in and just about lost his glasses since he forgot to take them off. He was lucky enough to thrash around in the water and snag the pair thereby not allowing them to plummet to the depths. One of the guys along with us was a 240 pounder that smoked. He also had stayed up later the previous night. He carried a large tent that when wet really drug his shoulders back. He began to slow our progress throughout the day. We kept trying to get him going, but he was always lagging. Toward the end of the day we finally arrived at the spot where we would leave the river and begin our hike out of the valley. That meant hiking up. The area had become overgrown since the last time the leaders had been there, so it was a bushwhack upwards to find the trail out. This slowed the progress as well. The trail finally appeared, but had not been well used either, but was a little better to follow. The large guy was beginning to get tired and not good at hiking on the uphill, so the distance from the leader to the end guy increased. I told everyone that we had to keep eye contact at all times since only two of the six knew the way out. Several times we had to stop to regroup. I found a small orange that I picked up for later consumption just in case we did not make it out by nightfall and had to camp again. I had eaten all other food. I also found a group of bananas in which some were ripe enough to consume, so I and a couple of the other laggers ate one each. When the leaders found out we had eaten them, they became concerned since they said that you had to be careful of eating them without washing because rats piss on them and people have died from eating pissed on fruit. I had heard that several months earlier and that was why I only took nice fruits that were not split open or showed any sighs of rat presence. One last time I told them we needed to stay together. They said that the trail would turn left and then begin the ascent to the top of the mountain and then hit a road. I asked which direction at that point and was told they would tell us when we got there. We arrived at the point where the trail turned left and I yelled, as I could not see any of the rest of the party. A reply came back immediately as they were just off the trail checking out where the river had come out the other side of the mountain thru a cave. At that point the trail began the ascent. We were soon outdistanced as I hung back with the slow guys to keep an eye on them. I yelled again as we came across a trail junction. I assumed the correct route was the one that went up, but yelled to find out where the reply would come from. It indicated up as the right way to go. That was the last time we had verbal contact. Darkness was approaching. I thought, "at least I have a banana and an orange to eat." And the big guy was carrying a tent and the water bottle of the leader with the last remnants of water. The frequency between stops began to increase until the big guy was telling me that he was about out of energy and was considering taking some energy pill that one of the guys had given him earlier. He showed it to me and I said that it was probably just a caffeine pill and would not do him any good. I offered him my orange and he accepted it. Up to that point he would not accept our offers to carry some of his stuff, but I convinced him that there was no problem with my taking some of it as I had over 5000 miles backpacking experience and even though it had been a while since I had done it, I could manage to carry a lot more than he could. He relinquished the tent in the end - which I carried in my arms rather than on my back. It got to the point that no one returned our yell - he and I were apparently by ourselves at this point. We trudged a little and stopped, and trudged again… He collapsed for another breather. I said I was going to go up the trail and check it out since it seemed as though it was getting near the top. After doing that, I returned and informed him that he was almost there and that the rest of the group was there waiting for us. We had finally arrived! And it was still light, but barely. The trail ended at a small cabin - apparently someone's home perhaps at the very end of the road. One of our group had a cell phone and had called our ride, which arrived not long after to haul us back to civilization.
Freyda was all worried since she thought I would be back not long after lunchtime, and it was not until six o'clock that I arrived and called her from the end of the trail. We all had a great time, even those who suffered on the uphill, and are ready to do it again.

On the carving front, we continue with the class to carve a Puerto Rican Screech Owl, and in the meantime I have finished carving the main part of the Virgin of Guadeloupe for a competition in March in Ponce.