Hiking in Paradise

On Sunday we took a break from the administrative hoops that we're working on and went to have some fun. We sailed to the next bay over and hiked to the world's second (or third depending on what book you read) highest waterfall. Some other cruisers joined us with their kids, so it was lots of fun. The hike is fairly easy, not too steep, through the jungle. The river comes down from the falls to the ocean and we had to cross it several times. It's quite refreshing to get your feet wet after a hot hour of walking.

At first glance the trail looks a lot like a hike in the Cascade foothills. Viny trees like maples, criss cross the undergrowth. Rocks and roots mar the trail. But on on closer inspection, the leaves on the path are dinner plate sized and the ground is littered with huge flowers that have fallen from the canopy. Looking up, the difference is striking, instead of fir trees there are palms. Coconut husks instead of pinecones line the path. We walked about 2 hours in and had a picnic at the base of the falls. The kids did great, I almost couldn't keep up with them on the way out. Small lizards scurry out of the way with every step. The kids had fun counting them.

We finally finished getting the $4000 out of our acct that we need to get our 90 day Visa. Now we can go explore the other bays on the island. There is a vanilla plantation nearby that I'd like to see. Several more waterfalls are in the next bay and a pod of melon headed whales bask there. Sounds good to me. On Saturday the local dance school is having a performance, so we think we'll come back for that. Hopefully Peter V. will be flying out soon, as he is still not feeling well. Then we'll probably head south to the next island, early next week.

By the way if you haven't explored the rest of our website in a while, have a look around. Just before we left MX we posted several more picture pages under Log, and Boat. We will try to get a page going of the crossing and the island soon.

Thanks for reading, Kellie