We had another hike on the agenda for today. For this one, the entrance was in a residential area and the local courtesy was to not arrive until after 8:00a. There was no official parking so you just had to find a spot that hadn't been marked as "No Parking" which meant the side of the road where the family had to crawl out the left hand side doors. There was no official entrance sign and there were actually several different spots where you could enter. In hind sight, the lack of direction has lead to several different paths through the jungle. If they made it an official trail they could probably control some of the damage.
The trail itself was for the most part not too challenging but there were a few things that made it tricky. The first issue was the mud. Being on the east side of the island vs the south, it gets more rain so instead of a dusty trail, you had a very muddy trail. The other issue was that as you got closer to the water fall there were some very steep parts that required you to hold on to tree roots and effectively climb down to the waterfall. I think if this had been an officially supported trail, someone would have put in some stairs or even a ladder. The falls were great though we knew not to swim in them as up stream are several septic systems.
Once we made our way out, our shoes were all thrown into a plastic bag as I don't think we'll get our deposit back on the Jeep if we get too much of this mud on the seats and floor. We stopped in quickly at a local McDonalds to get a coffee and use the bathroom before driving to another waterfall. This one was not a hike at all but still had it's challenges. You drove to the top of the canyon and had to just park on the side of the road which meant the road ended up being one way, making it alternatively difficult to get in and out. This waterfall was definitely worth it though.
We made one last stop at a newer shopping mall that didn't have quite the personality that the older shopping malls have. Cramped conditions seem more authentic regardless of where you go. We went back to the condo where Kerry enjoyed cleaning our clothes and shoes of the mud. Carter's white shoes were of course the biggest challenge. She was successful and we are forever grateful. For the evening Callie signed up for a yoga class and on our way to pick her up for dinner we managed to pull over to a spot that we pass every day to take some pictures of the valley and ocean.
As great as the views of the mountains are I'm noticing for the first time how social media impacts your perception of a place. Everything is beautifully green here but seems slightly dull. I'm realizing now that it's because people enhance their pictures with filters when they post, making the greens greener. I'll have to avoid looking at too many pictures in advance of our future trips. Dinner was at a local restaurant called Kalypso. There was a chicken in the rafters above the table next to us. Food was very good and it was packed.
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