This morning I tried my hardest to sleep in. Byambison was up around 5:45 or 6 am moving stuff around and making noise. I sat up and said “What are you doing… quit touching everything, or just go on to breakfast.” I’m not sure what he was doing. He may have been sleep walking. I opened my eyes later and he was asleep again. Anyways,I slept until maybe 6:30 – 7am and then headed to breakfast. Everyone was already up. They were making omelets for breakfast for everyone. I’m not a huge fan of omelets but it looked so good. I ate half of it and gave the other part to William. Then I got some oatmeal and coffee. We all sat and discussed our dreams and how we were sore after sleeping on real mattresses.
After breakfast we all took part in Yoga on the patio. It was so much fun. All of the staff were watching us (and laughing) but we were having a great time. It felt great to stretch after my run yesterday.
After Yoga I saw the owner of the Hotel so I went to talk with her. She had already given us a discount but after I told her what I did, who we all worked for and what we were all doing she gave us an even bigger discount. It was so nice of her. She even worked up a special menu for us with dessert and a surprise for J-Wat’s (Jean Wadson) birthday.
After my talk with the owner, I went down into the garden to do a devotion. The gardens here are so beautiful. I finished with the devotion and everyone decided they wanted to go on a nature hike. This is where the day starts to get crazy… We just started walking down the road and then started taking random paths. We ended up at the Catholic school and orphange… inside of the gate. So all of a sudden, 8 white people and 2 Haitians started popping out of the gate onto the road. It was a lot of fun. We continued walking down the road and then we saw this little path go off to the right. We started walking down it and saw an incredible view. Knowing us… especially Nathan and I… we had to continue. We just kept walking and walking trying to get a better view. We started going down the mountain on the little tiny goat paths. Before long we were fully committed on a full hike down of the mountain. We lost 2 individuals to the hotel at the beginning of the journey. They turned around and headed back home. The rest pressed onward. We were slipping and sliding down these little paths, rapidly making our way in to the valley. This is a much deeper valley than the one I was in yesterday. Everyone was in awe of the beauty of the mountains. It was a great bonding experience. There were Haitians all over the place working in the fields, picking peas and planting new crops. They were all looking at us like we were crazy as we blazed out our own path straight down the mountain. We were all holding hands as we tip-toed straight down. Off in the distance we all spotted these 2 huge waterfalls. Nathan and William decided they wanted to go one way and we all decided we were going another way. We started on our separate journeys. Nathan’s route was more along the top of the mountain and then down into the valley at the waterfall. My route was going down into the valley and then following the river up to the waterfall so we could see everything along the way. We started our decent down into the valley. It was very steep. We were led by 2 small Haitian children and followed by one crazy old man. We slowly made our way down and finally reached the river. We were all so happy to see the water. The day started off very cool but had turned warm. We played in the water as we worked our way up the river. There were lots and lots of small waterfalls. We had a great time. We took a lot of pictures. O yeah, I forgot to tell you. Gracie has been climbing and walking this whole time with no shoes on! It was crazy! Anyways, we keeping on going and get to a bigger waterfall. I am getting really excited now because I know we are almost there. There is small thought in the back of my mind that this crazy old man is leading us to his small village where we are going to join them for dinner. By join them I mean be the main course. It was a funny thought I entertained just to heighten the level of suspense. There was absolutely no danger involved at this point. There was no mountain to fall off of or to slide down. After climbing up the next waterfall I ran ahead with Byambison to see what was next. It was about a 12-15′ waterfall that we climbed up. It was pretty slick so everyone else found a path around it. There was a waterfall that went through a cave that came up next. Byambison, Gracie and myself all climbed into it but only Byambison and I made it up to the top. It was such a cool cave. The water rush all down through it. This place is one of the mist beautiful places I have ever been – if not the most beautiful place I have even seen. We continued on to the last and final water fall. It was about 40-50′ and there was no way for us to climb it. There was only a 3′ deep pool at the bottom but it was all so beautiful. I felt like we were in the movie “The Beach” with Leonardo Di Caprio were they are running around the island. I was thinking at any moment we are going to run across a field of drugs or either some large drug plantation, but thankfully we didn’t. I think that would be the bad decision in the “choose your own adventure story.” After we played for awhile at the big waterfall we asked them to take us back to the Hotel. They said no problem. We started our climb straight up the side of the mountain. I am not lying when I say straight up. It was hilarious watching everyone. O yeah.. we haven’t seen or heard from Nathan or William yet. As we start to climb out it starts to get kinda dark. A big storm is brewing and we are about to get soaked. We continue to climb, knowing that everything is going to be really slick in a few minutes. We made it to the top of one mountain and then started to cross over to another mountain. As we are crossing we start calling out to Nathan. All of a sudden we hear them calling back. They are way up in a valley not to far from us. They had made it to another waterfall. They started to head our direction but we weren’t stopping. Now it has started to rain… not just drizzle… but come down pretty good. I think I can confidently say that this was the best time I have ever had in my whole life. I was out in the Haitian wilderness playing in waterfalls, hiking up dangerous mountainsides, shirtless, with my newest friends having the time of my life. All we needed now was a camera crew to capture the moment. We are now walking on little dirt paths, maybe 1 foot wide, that drop off down the mountain on my right side. It was amazing. The clouds were also settling in so we were being covered with the clouds. Everyone was getting really tired, but everyone was having the time of their lives. Nathan and William finally caught up with us close to the top of the mountain. It was a crazy hike. Very very strenuous. I am glad everyone did yoga this morning 
It got everyone nice and stretched out.
We finally made it back to The Lodge, with the help of our Haitian friends. We were all starving when we got back, so we demolished our supply of food. PB&J all over the place.
Showers were definitely in place… supposedly they have hot water here… but I am not real sure. I let everyone jump in the shower first. I decided I would wait until later and give the hot water heater the chance to heat back up. It also gave me a chance to catch up on my blogs and story time with you.
I am going to stop for now and finish this blog tonight. Currently it is 3pm. Crazy… look at all the fun stuff that has already taken place in such a short time. I think hide and go seek is on the schedule after dinner tonight. This should be a lot of fun.
Peace for now!
Ok. So I’m back. I have been sitting in the lobby of the Lodge for a while with everyone. We have all been trying to get on the internet but we haven’t had much luck. We think a tropical storm is on the way… I take that back. We believe a tropical storm has surrounded the mountain in which we are on. It has been flooding for an hour or two now.. which means no internet signal. It is really nice though because it is really peaceful. We have been trying to decide on a game to play but no such luck.
Here is something EXTREMELY crazy. There is a fireplace in the lobby area where we are all sitting and it is cold enough to need a fire. We have all been soaking wet all day and would really enjoy a fire. Who would have ever thought I would want to start a fire in Haiti??
Next thing on the schedule: Dinner – Steak – cooked medium, covered in mushrooms and a red wine sauce. Served with mashed potatoes, tomatoes and mozzarella, salad and more. After dinner – dessert and PARTY for J-Wats birthday around the fireplace.
I think tonight will be another game night.
Comment just made…. “We are going to freeze to death in the hottest country on earth.”
For the rest of the night we sat around the fire telling stories, playing the question game and just laughing. This has been an amazing trip. The rain has continued to pour and pour and pour. Hopefully the roads will be drivable in the morning :/ . If not… looks like we are staying another night!
I think it is around 11pm.. off to bed I go.
Always with Love,
Stephen
