Over the River and Through the Jungle...

This last weekend we and the Jacksons decided to go on an excursion to find Los Espejillos (Es-pay-hee-yos: The Mirrored Holes of Water, loosely translated). We really had nothing more than some vague directions and a road sign off the main highway to go by, so the first thing we encountered was the Pirai River, which we had to cross sans bridge. We were a little apprehensive about using a borrowed vehicle to ford a river, so Chad and I waded across first, discovering it was no deeper than 12 inches at the deepest spot. We figured if a Toyota Land Cruiser couldn't handle a foot of water, a false advertisement suit would cover the cost of damages. So over the river we went. At this point we're already having a great time.

From there, we chose between two different trails, opting for the more beaten path. We wound through jungle for about 45 minutes, encountering natives pulling their oxcarts, dodging the occasional free-range chicken, and ignoring numerous requests from the wives to ask a local for directions, all the while not really caring if we found Los Espejillos or not. This was already one of the best adventures we had had to date. I'm pretty sure I had a big stupid grin on my face the whole time.

However, the Lord was merciful and granted us arrival at our destination. We parked our Land Cruiser, hiked up a short trail, and were greeted with this amazing sight:


We spent the next couple hours jumping off cliffs and swimming in water holes. It was the kind of thing you'd think you'd only see in a movie. Seriously, amazing. Here's Chad plunging off one of the bigger cliffs.


Also, we were reminded of what studly women we married (if such a term might be applied to a woman), as both Emily and Aileen took a jump into the reservoir. Not a lot of girls would make such a leap, especially without a dry change of clothes. Needless to say, they both went up a notch on the respect-o-meter. Here's my valiant better-half.


I'm getting all goose-bumpy just from recounting the experience. What a sweet blessing! We're already planning a return-trip with some overnight gear. There's a lot more to Los Espejillos than what you see here, but this is already pretty long and I'm tired of uploading pictures. Maybe later.