and they dropped everything they were carrying, and they ran. there was no discussion. they were going back to paya. end of story. in moments, they were gone, and robert s gear and our food and everything were just on the trail. mark, are you okay? and now it was victor and meg and robert and myself. before we could talk about what we wanted to do or what our plan was, two of the men who had passed us earlier in the day showed up. one of them was bleeding, and they were completely terrified. apparently they had been cutting bamboo and people had just started shooting at them. that s all they could say.
take us as far as paya, which was the last panamanian village. inside days we would be inside colombia. i certainly didn t think we put the most difficult part of the trek behind us. we had yet to enter the border region, the real heart of the jungle, if you will. we hiked all day through the jungle. i remember victor kind of laughing with the guides about the amount of water we were drinking. and then we did run out of water. at first it s like wow, i m really thirsty. i would like some water. and then it s i don t feel well. i feel light-headed. we need to find water soon. eventually, we found a grove of green bamboo. bamboo.
of feature of vegetation, and you ll swear you already walked by it. we camped at night and expected to be in colombia the following day. the next morning we woke up, we had breakfast. hey, robert, are you all packed? all packed. what about your hammock? and we continued. we knew that we were probably going to cross into colombia that day. right around noon, we decided to stop for lunch. and while we were eating, three men we knew from paya passed us. they were headed to the same village, and they were moving quite quickly. they had heavy bags, but they were moving much faster than we were. exchanged pleasantries and they were off. we knew we wouldn t see them again until we got there.
paya was our last village, and then beyond that, the really serious part began. hiking through the jungle is what you would expect. everything is sharp and pointy or trying to eat you. i had a compass, but you can t just pick a direction and walk east there is ravines and valleys. you could hike and bush whack and bleed all day a couple of miles and not really be any farther than where you started there would be points where the guide would turn around and we would go back the same way we came, went off in another direction. you don t have any line of sight, and you re down under the canopy. and you really don t even have a sense what direction you re walking. what i notice more than anything was this feeling that we were almost walking in circles. you ll pass a tree or some sort
paya was our last village, and then beyond that, the really serious part began. hiking through the jungle is what you would expect. everything is sharp and pointy or trying to eat you. i had a compass, but you can t just pick a direction and walk east there is ravines and valleys. you could hike and bush whack and bleed all day a couple of miles and not really be any farther than where you started there would be points where the guide would turn around and we would go back the same way we came, went off in another direction. you don t have any line of sight, and you re down under the canopy. and you really don t even have a sense what direction you re walking. what i notice more than anything was this feeling that we were almost walking in circles. you ll pass a tree or some sort of feature of vegetation, and