Hidden Canyon

On our sixth full day in Bali, we once again called upon our favorite Indonesian driver, Yung, to escort us to our next adventure. As always, she was very friendly and informative during our drive. We learned that her frequent honks while driving serve two purposes. The first is obvious: when there is a blind corner or intersection and she wants to make sure any approaching traffic knows she’s there. And the second is when she passes large trees with altars near them because the Hindu people believe there are spirits living in those trees and she is being polite and essentially saying “excuse me” to the spirits as she passes by. She explained that she herself is not Hindu, but honks out of respect since the vast majority if Bali is Hindu.

An hour of driving and many honks later, we arrived at the Hidden Canyon Beji Guwang, which we were told is the only canyon on the island where people can safely explore on foot. The local villagers serve as the guides, and since they provide a guide for every four people, we had two men lead our family of six through the canyon. The journey was a mix of mild climbing, swimming, jumping, and waist/chest-high water trekking for about an hour. I think I was the one who thought it was harder than anyone else. For some reason my entire family can scamper across elevated rock ledges like a pack of cats, whereas my legs shake so hard and my head spins so much that I occasionally just have to sit or lay down and hug whatever solid ground I can find. I caught our two guides giving each other knowing looks and signals a couple times to make sure they both knew that I was clearly the baby of the group. They were trying to be discreet, so I appreciated that!

Regardless of who was terrified and who wasn’t, we all really enjoyed the trek, and some of us may have been slightly more relieved than others once we made it to the end.