2007 July Team Folsom

Day 8

After such an exciting day yesterday I figured today would be a nice laid back day. Since we were done working concrete all of us were looking forward to sleeping in this morning. The plan for the day was to head out to the "waterfall" that we have been hearing about for months and then to finish the day out with dinner at the Cerrato family home.

Guadalupe had a wonderful breakfast of french toast and scrambled eggs ready for us when we awoke. Alfredo and the gang arrived around 8:30 and gave us a rundown of what to expect at the waterfall and to review some safety precautions. He also made it very clear that we were only allowed to jump at only 2 designated locations. The whole thing is sounding pretty scary/fun at this point. A last minute scheduling change prevented Alfredo from coming with us but he was sending along Douglas in his place. Douglas has been to the falls almost as many times as Alfredo and would keep us in line and intact.

We all piled into the bus with Alfredo "Dos" Gutierrez at the wheel and began our 2 hour trek. Driving on the roads in Honduras is something that everyone should experience at least once in their life. There is nothing more exciting then passing a slow moving semi truck going downhill on a blind curve. Don't worry its perfectly safe and its legal (everyone does it so that makes it legal right?), its all part of the imaginary "3rd" lane that is apparently built into all Honduran roads, at least the paved ones. If you would like a brief rundown of the traffic laws just ask us when we get back but the short answer is: Its all just a suggestion. The drive was beautiful and took us back along a less beaten path away from the busy highway that is also know as the "Dry Canal".

When we finally arrived at the park where the waterfall was we all unloaded, changed into our swimming trunks and ate lunch. We then headed to the observation point to look at the waterfall before beginning our walk to the bottom for our guided swim/walk/climb/jump tour. The falls were amazing! They are about 140 feet high and beautiful with tons of water flowing over them. We went back to the bus to meet our guide and the Wheaton team needed to drop off their cameras, luckily for us we brought along our trusty waterproof (hopefully) camera. After a short walk we were at the bottom of the falls and our guide lead us through a wood and barbwire gate and onto a muddy and rocky trail. We then had to make a 3 foot jump into a pool and wade across. At this point we are maybe 100 feet from the bottom of the falls and it feels like you are standing outside in a torrential rain storm. We then crawled over rocks and felt our way through mini rushing rivers until we were actually standing underneath the waterfall. The sound was deafening, it was almost hard to breath because of the amount of water raining down on you but the sight was something I have never experienced before. The guide then took us to a cave that was also behind the waterfall, it was completely dry inside and had some very "molten" type rock formations that you can see in some of the pictures. After making a few other stops at the falls we began making our way back out away from the falls. Almost to the gate we stopped for the big jump. This was close to a 30 foot jump into a pool of water and it was so cool to watch everyone jump in from this height. We all made our way back to the bus and headed for home. There is no way to accurately describe the feeling of being behind the waterfall and even the pictures don't do it justice but it will definitely be something I remember and it was a great end to a fantastic week here.

After we got back and cleaned up we all met up at the Cerrato home to share a meal of tacos that Guadalupe had prepared. Tacos in Honduras are not the tacos we think of at home, they are more like large taquitos and way yummier (not sure if that is a word or not but they are). We had a great time talking about our time here and expectations that we had about Honduras before we arrived and our thought now that we have been here for a week. We also had Alfredo and family sign a large river rock that we found while mixing concrete at the La Providencia site and we are planning to add the rock to our pile of partnership rocks at the church.

We will be leaving for the airport tomorrow around lunchtime and leaving is going to be bittersweet. I know I am going to miss everyone we have met here but we are leaving knowing that Alfredo is continuing God's mission here in Honduras in a way that only he can and that God will continue to bless his work.