After stopping there we continued our drive to Giron Falls. We parked at the bottom of a mountain and started our two hour hike up the mountain to see the waterfalls. The hike was insane. It was vertical almost the whole way up. Within the first ten minutes I was pretty sure I was going to die before I made it to the waterfalls. But I did thankfully because the hike was gorgeous! It would go from grassy hills to having to push trees and vines out of my way to walk. It was so cool. It was also really cloudy once we got up higher. So we hiked through the clouds for most of the hike. Yes I know. Awesome.
When we got about a fourth of the way through our hike we noticed there was a garden on our right with a man in it gardening by hand. He happened to know english because he was was in the army when he was younger. So he talked to us for awhile and laughed at us some because we were all wet with sweat at this point and heaving just a mite. As I was standing there pushing my wet bangs behind my ears I could not believe that he hiked up so far everyday just to work more in his garden. Mind boggling.
Once we got to the big waterfalls at the top I was so happy to play in the water. There were HUGE rocks everywhere we could climb and play on. Also I could walk along the bottom of the waterfall where the water would get up to my hips at some points. And I also stood under parts of the waterfall. It was really really cold but it felt so good after being so sweaty from the hike. It was the most awesome hike I have ever done. And it was so pretty the whole way up and down.
At one point on the hike there was a muddy part where Rodriquez and our tour guide negro had to climb up ahead and pull us up. So on the way down of course they went down ahead and tried to help each of us down. It was so funny because most of us just ended up on our butts from slipping and sliding the whole way down. And of course I was one of them. As I was slipping I could feel Rodriquez trying to grab my backpack So I would not slide the whole way down. Of course me being independent and not wanting any help told him I would just slide the rest the way down on my butt so he could just let go of my back pack.
Rodriquez (My dad while I am here) is such a little jungle man. He wore a hoody the whole time and did not even break a sweat. He would also stop and show leaves that are used for medicines or tea. Or berries or tell us stories. And the hike did not phase him the whole time. He would run up ahead of us and then come back to see how we were doing and then run somewhere else. He did not even ever get out of breath. Crazy little man.
When we got to the bottom of our hike there was another waterfall with a water hole that we could jump into from a big rock. It was FREEZING. I kind of froze for a second in the water my first time jumping in before I started to kick to get to the top. And it was weird because the water we jumped into was like a bowl. It was really deep in the middle where I jumped in, but then you would swim to the edge and still not be able to touch and all of a sudden there would be a ledge I had to hoist my self up on to get out. Very strange.
Needless to say, this day was an adventure that I will not ever forget.
Stairs up to see the continental divide.
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