Tunnels Hike

We have started a list of "to dos" while we are here, and we've been knocking off a few adventures recently. Saturday, we went for the "Tunnels Adventure" as it is named in the guidebook. It is under the adventure section because it isn't really a hike...it's more like sludging through mud and blazing trails. In fact, we were all under the impression that the man who wrote this book never actually went on the hike, and received his information from outsiders. Case in point: he claims that the first 100 meters have the most mud. Well, this is what we looked like after that...

Ew, but pretty fun, right? As you can see from the ground, we are slipping on mud, but it is manageable. After this point, however, it was so muddy and slick that we rarely took the camera out for fear it would be the last time we saw it. We were usually more than ankle deep in mud, with times that the mud was halfway up our calves.

A few miles in, we came to the part of the hike where we needed to find the first tunnel. There were five paths that led off the original trail. We took every single trail, scrambling through bushes and all sorts of tropical plants, and finally found it at the last possible option.

We invite people to come with us on our hikes, but this was the first time people took us up on it. These guys work with Brady. They are by far the most hard-core outdoorsy people I have ever met. Seriously. Their wives are moving out in a few weeks, but in the meantime, they go surfing in the morning before work, and hiking every day after work. They mean business.


Here is the entrance to the tunnel. If you look hard, you can see a tiny speck of light (not the pail on the left). The tunnel is a mile long, and was dug out to transport water for the sugar cane plantations. It is a completely straight shot, and that tiny speck of light stays small for a while! We purchased head lamps (like Dad Edwards!), so we had plenty of light to navigate through.

After making our way out at the turn after the light (and crawling on our bellies through mud to get out), this sight was our reward. We all decided to clean up by taking a swim. Brrr...

The second tunnel was tricky to find, and in fact, everyone we've talked to here that has done the hike has not done the second tunnel. It was trickier to navigate, too, with shoring to climb over, and waist-deep water. (There is something disconcerting about walking through a tunnel that is a mile long that requires shoring! Especially when the shoring is disintegrating in your hands!) The waterfall was worth the trek, though. It cascaded through the cliffs in three different directions.

Looking at these pictures makes me think that it might have been worth it. Then, I think of the way back. All told, the hike took us almost 10 hours, and it was rough. I lost my shoes in the mud a ridiculous number of times, and was pretty chilly and banged up from the foliage. There were parts that were too steep (with long drop-offs) for the muddy conditions, and I think that we were probably not the smartest to go over them anyway.

I like to think that I can hack it, and we all did. However, if you all are interested in this adventure, we might just hand you a map and tell you to enjoy your day. We might even buy you granola bars. We'll swap stories with you the next day, when you are too wasted to do anything else.

An adventure? You betcha.