Ryan woke us up today,  pretty chipper in the mornings I’d say. I think we had breakfast, then started packing our stuff. Damian and I were finished in 10 minutes, so we started on the food. By 10:30 we were sitting, waiting for lunch before we set out. Damian decided to drop a bowl of rice on his crotch, so we decided to leave. We drove all the way around the mountain almost, then the route we are climbing will bring us back pretty much right to the hotel. The drive was really cool. Dirt road through the jungle. We drove through “villages” which pretty much consisted of 5-10 huts. It is extreme poverty. There is nothing except tin or wooden huts, poorly made. The people survive off of what they grow. It was straight from a movie; the poverty, the people, everything. And it’s amazing how they survive and how the kids wave when you drive by. What seems so extreme to me is everyday life for them. They know nothing else. We stopped to grab some beer and Coca-Cola for the trip, then unloaded when we reached the park gate. It seemed like chaos, 30 guys running around with bags everywhere.  All in the dirt. One thing that makes this different from other trips is the lack of buildings and floors. Everything gets dirty. Not a big deal, but its different. The guys cracked a beer before we left and packed up the rest. Then, tragedy struck. Apparently the beer was terrible. Fruit beer. So they unloaded the stock, and we left. Immediately everything got dusty. The dust was 2 inches deep sometimes, it penetrated everywhere. Thick coats of it lay on your pants, on your legs, shoes, socks. So we wound out way up through jungle farmlands, into thicker forest jungle, then up into higher ground. We hit camp 1, chilled, ate dinner, and were in bed early, kind of disappointed at the lack of elephants.