2017-11-15 Day 195 Wed

Left camp at 7am wondering if we would be in the Consulate in an hour as the road/track so narrow and rough. Within 5 mins we popped out onto a tar sealed road. Wow! then we came upon a dual double lane road of concrete in the middle of nowhere. Then back to a small tar sealed road again with holes. Arrived at the Consulate at about 7:30am so john had a shave while waiting for it to open. I got my passport and visa back and John put his application in to be picked up between 1200-1400hrs tomorrow.

Drove to Samacaya and Sergio’s sauna which was close by. Had a sauna and swim then a vegetarian lunch which Samacaya had cooked. The fact that the soup was made from Zucchini was hidden from John. He did like it though, the soup was followed by a vegie curry and rice. A little salty for our taste but that is common here. A very enjoyable meal seated outside under the big mango tree.

We said our good byes and headed back south to visit a waterfall for the night. Bought some mangoes and locuats strange that the locuats were more expensive than the mangoes. 20 mangoes for $2.

The Espejallo falls were quite extraordinary A short walk from the grassy car park up a ridge led us to th lower most pool, where a group of youngsters were cooling off after the heat of the day. Over the eons the clear water had carved its way through the jungle and into the solid conglomerate base. As we made our way up from one cascade to the next the jungle on either side afforded only a narrow view of the sky above. There must have been 20 pools each easily accessible and inviting for its unique shape and clear water. Most fascinating however ,was the cascade into each pool. Rather than gouging a path into the rock, each

cascade had deposited (limestone perhaps) under its path, forming a skirt over which the water spread. We made our way up from one pool to the next until a gap in the jungle revealed the upper most falls, we were presented with an idyllic vista of these 35m falls plunging into a large pool surrounded by cliffs, and capped by jungle. Here the water began as a narrow flute and fanned out evenly over its elegant skirt measuring perhaps 8 meters at the base the water glittered as it fell the final 3m from the hem into the pool

After dinner we discovered that the locuats were in fact something else. Although looking identical they had a hard skin and a solid white flesh surrounding a seed. Quite tart.