For our debrief between Mexico and Guatemala, we had some down time to embark on our great adventure.
Andrew shouted, “Who wants to go find a way cool waterfall?” A handful of us eagerly shoot our hands up. “It’s about 20 minutes away…up the river. So I’ve been told by some locals.” We put on our suits and hop into the river. “This way,” Andrew motions, as we start our trek upstream. We’re quite the site – every other step we trip over a hidden rock and fall over one another. I don’t thing that we will get through this adventure without a few scraped up shins! In some places the water comes up to our thighs, in others its over our heads. The sides of the river are lined by a hedge of lush, green trees and plants.
I feel like we are magically entering into the movie, Tarzan, as we swing on the vines that hang over the river. Looking up, we see faces peering over the bridge just ahead of us. “Hola!” we yell up at them. They emerge and crawl over the bridge railing. I think that they are entrigued by the “gringo” they see see clumsily making their way up the river. We pass under the bridge and begin to walk on a trail that runs parallel to the river. After a few minutes, I hear voices behind me. Turning around, I see four little boys following us. They are wearing dark blue pants with their shirt and shoes tied around their waist. Come to find out, they jumped off the bridge into the water (about 30 feet high) in order to follow us. They are quite skilled in manuvering their way along the rocky trail. Their barefeet are much more adept to this terrain than our chocos.
After some translating, we find out that the waterfall is about a two hour trek up the river, or we could follow the boys on a shortcut that will get us there in 20 minutes. We abandon the water, head up the steep river bank, and follow the boys through a gate that leads to open fields. We cross through field after field, manuvering our way around giant cow pies and huge mud puddles…not to mention unbelievably, scary bulls with shiny horns. We are surrounded by rolling hills and palm trees and occasionally see a shack or old abandoned farm equiptment. Soon, we begin to hear water. We speed up and push our way through the brush. Wow, the waterfalls are beautiful and they go on forever. It’s like a lost world. I think we just followed “The Lost Boys” to Never Never Land.
We jump in the water and begin to climb all over the falls. Something has caught one of the boys attention. He grabs his friends, they dive into the river and cross over to the other side. “Tigre, Tigre,” they yell, pointing inside a cave-like overhanging. We all rush over to them. “You saw a tiger?” we ask wide-eyed. “An orange tiger?” “Si, Si,” they reply nodding their head. “It’s the last one that is still around here. We have killed all the rest.” I don’t know if they really have tigers here, but I’m not doubting that they did see a big cat. Crazy! I keep forgeting that I am actually in a location where these things exist.
We had an amazing afternoon. It was extremely refreshing and relaxing. God blessed us with “guides” that lead us directly to this sweet place of restoration.
“…To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.” Revelation 21:6b
For video footage, please check out my previous blog “The Great Adventure“
