trip to the waterfalls

Ive received a complaint that i don't put many fotos of my weekend trips and what-not up here. So i'll try to be better about it, starting now. Oh, and a general apology for my bad spelling, age 6-now.

This weekend i made a long and arduous journey up to a secluded lake/waterfall in the northern part of the island. yes, a wonderous adventure. the further north you go, the more signs you have like this: "watch out, weird turtle/bird/snake crossing area!" with a cartoon picture of a very disgruntled loooking beast on it. My safari (consisting of christina, amy, juhi, and myself) dutifully screeched to a halt (or screeched and then backed up into the mountain guard-rail, uh-um, Christina was driving...) to take a picture of each and every one of these signs.

Back to the beginning of the story: after an intense night of karaoke at the Sakura Story in Nago, we dragged ourselves from bed at the early hour of 11.15, and set off. An hour or so of perilous twisting mountain roads, turtle crossings, and decoding of directions taken from an ancient fellow with a towel wrapped around his head (and the better part of his teeth lost somewhere along lifes path), saw us arrive at our destination. That is, at a very dubious looking dirt trail that someone clearly deluded soul had chosen to call a road. But luck was on our side! Christina`s faithful mobile is quite small, and we successfully fought our way down the thin rocky path into the heart of the jungle. This leg of the trip was made easier by the spirit of Aerosmith (he had lingered on in our hearts after a hearty rendition of Cryin the night before at karaoke, and had taken over the vocal tracts of 3 of our 4 passangers with gusto for the last hour of the trip). A great cheer.
Not to be outdone by the so-called road, the path leading to the waterfall was not really a path, but a gently sloping CLIFF, and some ropes to help you retain your life during the descent. Definitely not a handicap accessible tourist attraction. Though we did see one fellow scaling the descent with a 3 week old babe strapped to his chest. Props to you, duders. This picture is a view straight down the path.

Ah, it was worth it however, when after a bit of huff and puff, we arrived at the serenic lake/small falls.



In years of yore, or whatever those things are called, some thoughtful person had shimmied up a tree and tied on a rope swing, which created great group-enjoyment during our visit.

All in all, it was a good day! Heres a shot of the group looking jolly on a rock. One of the best things about the day was getting to watch 4 Japanese students who decided to prove their manhood to one another by leaping down a fantastically high ravine/waterfall into a rock-strewn pool below. Look how high this cliff is.

On the way home, we took the scenic highway and passed through many a pineapple field. Pineapple plants are a lot shorter than I ever would have imagined them to be... I always imagined them tall and imposing, like coconut trees. Check out these short little fatties.

Oh, to be a pineapple.