Cliff jumping and Hot Springs: Who needs a theme park?

View from the cliffs..

So, apparently Honduras is amazing. We just had a great weekend a within hours from where we live, all the while thinking.. do we really live here?

Saturday, Ken, myself and Jorge took Ken's kids and some american high school guys out to do some repelling down a waterfall. Pretty amazing stuff. Scenery was great, the younger kids we took down the jungle path off to the side, but it still required a harness and gear to get up and down the rock, slippery often vertical path. A great starter climb for the kids, and good fun on the falls for the more experienced. The guys have all the pictures of the cliff, but so for now here's just two of the area leading up to the giant falls.
Picturesque river leading up to the cliffs.

Next, on Sunday, our house, Noel, Katharine, Amanda and myself went on a road trip with Ken's family and the guys to the Hot Springs, a couple hours away. Lucky we prayed before the road trip started because one thing after another went almost horribly wrong.

(above, to get to the Springs you need to pass through a cave. At points you're surrounded by steam and can't see a thing)

First, Katharine's front tire almost fell off while we were going down the winding mountain road. Seems the guys who rotated her tires didn't thought tightening the lug nuts by hand was a enough. The hot springs themselves were pretty epic; a river with multiple waterfalls to climb over, a set of falls to climb behind, rapids to float through, a cliff to dive off, and small little pools of really hot water to sit in.

The group picking their way towards the main rocky beach..

Next blunders on the list; while underneath one of the falls, Megan got swept out and Amanda panicked. Got that on video. Next, Noel swims with the current. 'Buddy you're too close to the falls' Noel: 'It's okay I know, .. I know.. .I thought knew!' Noel's head dissapears over the falls. I hugged a couple rocks too right and got some bruises but the Gold medal goes to Amanda for stepping in boiling hot pool and burning both feet. We took care of her and carried her limping to the car, put her feet in a cooler of water the whole way home and she's doing all right today. Good thing we all know the doctor's cell numbers here and they were waiting for us at the hospital when we drove up.

The four of us climbing under the waterfall..

So that's that. Honduras is amazing. I'd write more but I'm going to post up some pictures. If you want a more detailed read, I refer you to Katharine the very English girl's blog, who is currently boasting 15 pictures of the weekend fun.. She has a better camera than me too. :) Amanda and Noel wrote too, we may be blogging all at the same moment :)