At long last...

Jarabacoa! After all Steve's build-up I hope this blog is all you've dreamed of. Back in January Keith had a couple of friends come to visit so he worked out this plan to go horseback riding to the Jimenoa Falls. This just so happens to be the same waterfall in the movie Jurassic Park! Keith, his friends, Andrew, Beth, Steve, and I went straight from church, though Miguel delayed us. Miguel is one of the political candidates and he was having a demonstration that day so he hired almost ALL the guaguas to take people straight there. We waited SO long for one on the normal route and then sat on laps to all fit in. After that we took a second guagua which agreed for a reasonable price to take us all the way there and to come back later to pick us up.

We finally arrived in time for the buffet of delicious Dominican food! We stuffed ourselves full and sat for a few minutes to digest before heading out to the horses. They were saddled up and waiting. We got on and there were some young boys there working with the horses. They asked me if I wanted a piloto (pilot). I said no, but since Steve didn't understand he got one. We headed out carefully through a river and walked down the road a bit but once we got farther out we started galloping. The boys, our only guides, liked going fast. They also knew which horses were the fastest (Steve's being one) and knew how to really get them going. Steve even got to do some racing.
After close to an hour, we got out to the Falls and were told that without the money we couldn't enter. I guess the boys were supposed to bring some and didn't... Anyway, we convinced the lady that the problem is with the resort and not us so they let us in. We walked across a series of hanging bridges and made our way out to the waterfall.

This picture does not really show how precarious the brides got because farther along I was holding on. After about four of these bridges we reached the Falls. Although swimming was prohibited several people jumped in. Since we did not know the fine we opted not to and just enjoyed the beauty from the rocks.

After a while we headed back across the bridges and galloped back to the resort. We didn't even stop for the river just before the resort. The boys yelled "El gran final!" which means "The grand finale!" and the horses sped up splashing us all good and wet for the guagua ride home. Well, mostly just the lower pant leg was wet but most of my jeans got it so I ended up wearing Steve's swimming trunks home. It was a great day- one of the highlights of our time here.

Coming soon- 1st grade field trip (Santiago), 7th & 8th grade field trip (salineras and dunas), and 6th grade field trip (granja de chocolate)!