Thursday, February 23, 2006

Sigua Falls Hike

On Martin Luthor King Jr. weekend a group of us went on a hike up to Sigua Falls. This hike I enjoyed much more than the one to Priests' Pools. There was a bit more of a challenge and quite a bit more climbing. These two pictures were taken about an hour or two into the trip when we could finally see the falls across the valley. We walked part of the way and then a few of us sat on our feet and just slid down the side of the mountain. (It had rained the day before, so everything was very slippery.) Believe it or not, I loved it!

























After we reached the bottom the the falls, most of our group chose to go for a little swim, diving in from a few feet up by the waterfall. At this time, I wasn't really interested in swimming. I was more cureous to see if I could climb to the top of the falls. Judging from the steepness of both sides of the falls, I decided it would be more efficient to climb over the mountain and then down onto the falls. Once I had planned my route, I was off on my adventure. I discovered later that I actually chose the more difficult way. Oh, well. The greater the challenge, the more enjoyable the success:) I really did enjoy this extra little hike, possibly more than I would have if I had gone the easier way. I took quite a bit longer than I had expected, though, and my companions began to get a little worried. It all turned out alright in the end, though. This picture was taken from the top of the mountain, looking down on the smaller fall at the top. I had to hold my camera out over the edge because I couldn't quite see where the ground started to decline. It had rained the day before and the ground was muddy and extremely slippery.
Coming down the mountain was a bit more challenging. I was climbing over trees, burshing ants from my arms and dodging giant spiders (probably the most exciting, most difficult, and longest part of my excursion:), but I finally made it to the river and the waterfalls. I took this picture while sitting on the edge of the larger water fall.

This is our hiking group. I reached the top of the falls just in time to see them gather for a group picture just before leaving. I didn't feel like we stayed at the falls for very long at all, but that could be because I was climbing the whole 45 minutes while they were swimming. I wouldn't have traded activities for the world, though. Some day I'll have to go back when we can spend another hour or two out there. I'd like to walk down the river just for the sake of seeing what else there is.

Priests' Pools Hike

During Christmas break, April and I hiked to Priests' Pools. I would describe it as more of a long walk than a hike. Some of the sights were really pretty, though. I always love seeing the ocean. The Lord has really made such beautiful place here! I enjoyed the hike, especially once we reached Priests' Pools.
I thought this was a nice view. You can see Cocos Island just below the horizon. There really isn't much to it, but it's a nice little tourist trap:)


There were seven pools here in all. Most of our group stayed at the upper pool which was the largest. I was surprised to find out that these pools were really rather deep. One of the men in our group jumped from the top were you see them all into the top pool and still didn't reach the bottom!

Believe it or not I'm standing in this tiny little pool! The floor and sides of all the other pools were covered with a slimy moss, so I was relieved to stand on what felt like rocks at the bottom of this pool. After I got out I discovered that those "rocks" were alive! I had been standing on shrimp of all things. I had gone in bare foot, not wanting to wear sopping wet tennis shoes and socks the whole way back, and came out without a single bite. April on the other had went in with zorries and said that they had bitten her. Go figure:)

April and I were the only ones to go all the way down to the end of the stream? waterfalls? what ever you would want to call them. We were curious about the rest of the place. This is at the end of the water looking back. This was also were I had my first run-in with saw grass (to the right of the picture).