Mountain Pine Ridge

Monday was my last full day in San Martin! Chanda took us on a field trip to Mountain Pine Ridge!! It was a looooong and very bumpy ride there, but totally worth it!  So beautiful!! Our first stop was the 1,000 foot falls which basically was a large waterfall in the distance of the jungle. It's all unchartered forest around it and you can go to a lookout point, but it's still very far away from the falls. We took a lot of pictures because it was beautiful, but quickly loaded up for the next spot. Our second stop was the Rio Frio cave. It was a short drive away, but we had to stop to get 2 soldier escorts because it was a high robbery area. They escorted us through the cave with their very large guns....hahaha. The cave was beautiful!! It had a river flowing through it and tons of rocks to climb on.... I don't really have any words that can do it justice. (Once I get a computer I can post some pictures to my blog so you can see it all.) We spent awhile exploring the cave and such before heading to our final spot: Rio on Pools..... AMAZING! Rio on Pools was about a mile drive from the cave and we parked and ate lunch at the top and then headed down a staircase to the pools. Well, the staircase abruptly ends halfway down and you literally have to scale rocks down the rest of the mountainside. I seriously thought my life was going to end. My legs are too vertically challenged for mountain climbing without stepping stones or harnesses!!! Luckily, Owen helped me down the steeper part of the mountain or else I may have plummeted to my death.... Just saying. hahaha Once we got to the bottom, it was immediately worth the near-death experience! The first pool was perfect temperature! It was cool and refreshing and had a waterfall flowing into it. I relaxed in it for a little while before heading up to the other pools above it. It seemed the pools were never-ending! It was seriously such a site to see! Unfortunately, being in our bathing suits and climbing practically on our hands and knees (& often falling!), no one brought up their cameras to take any pictures... But it was one of those amazing experiences in your life.... At one point, Matt found a tiny pool that was really deep and had a waterfall that had enough pressure to make it feel like a natural jacuzzi... it was awesome! Another spot we found had a huge and heavy waterfall that was a perfect back massage! I never wanted to leave that spot! We climbed all around Rio on Pools for a few hours before heading back to the bottom first pool and back up the side of the mountain. We were actually able to find an easier way to get back up than we came down. Thank God!!  After Rio on Pools, we headed back to San Martin... it was a bumpy 2 hour drive back to the suburbs.... hahaha.
That night we finished our CBT video footage to present during our Bridge to Service week in Belmopan... it should be a pretty good video... or it will be ridiculously bad... hahaha.
The rest of the night I spent with my family. Of course, my last night in San Martin, little Hector starts to like me and wanna play with me. He's Alana's little brother who's 2 and HATED me til that night. (He lives with his mom in the next village). So he was being so cute and friendly and I played with all the kids in between packing my stuff up before Eluvia and Hector went home. I said bye to them and Eluvia started balling her eyes out. She was so upset I was leaving... it made me sad! She cried all the way down the road... it was really upsetting!  I finished my packing and took a few more family pictures and just hung out with everyone before bed. That night I took my last shower...and I was able to see because they installed a light in there!! Amazing last shower! hahaha... It was a great last day in SM.