Canyoning!

Yesterday we went canyoning. It was probably the most fun I have had since being here. We found a company to pick us up in the city. We drove about 45 minutes out into the middle of nowhere. We suited up and hiked about an hour up the side of a mountain. There was no real trail and since it has rained the past three days it made it quite slippery. This was by far the hardest part. Everyone was falling and sliding down. It was one of those 2 steps forward, one step back situations. So after climbing to the top the fun started. There were 18 waterfalls that we used to get back to the bottom of the mountain. The first one was about 15 feet tall and you jumped off into the water below. It was once again FREEZING! We had a few more jumps like that.



Others were too tall to jump off of so we had to repel ourselves down. We were completely on our own for this and it was a lot harder than I expected. Especially since the water was rushing over you making it difficult to see. About half way through I lost feeling in my hands which made climbing and moving that much harder. We did three repels in total.



The last option was water slides. Since all the waterfalls are formed from hardened lava some are really smooth. These you would slide down like a water slide. The guides were really fun and pushed us past our limits. They made us go down on our backs head first. It was sorta scary not being able to see what was coming or when you were going to hit the water, but it was definitely worth it.





We stopped for lunch about half way through then continued to the bottom. All of the pools below the water falls are filled with fresh water eels. They were about 3-4 feet long and I tried really hard not to think about swimming with them even though the water was clear enough for you to see them besides you.



This was by far the most physically challenging thing I have ever done. I am certainly feeling it today.