The Week in Review

The highlight of this past week was this weekend's multiple trips to a beautiful and nearby waterfall perfect for swimming and cliff jumping. Baker loved it so much, he went three times. We first found it Friday afternoon after school. Baker and I and his friend Omid and his dad Koz, and another friend Stone ventured off to the falls on ATVs. After a 15 minute ride, we parked the ATVs and took to foot, led by Stone, the only one who had ever been to the falls before.



He navigated admirably, if not choosing the shortest path, at least choosing a correct path. He also forewarned us about the dangers ahead, primarily a snake-infested section of field where the grass grew tall. Stone led the way and with the other four of us trailing close behind, the serpents fled for their lives. The waterfall we arrived to was sheer magic. First of all, after two months of purely salt water swimming, it was an unexpectedly large pleasure to swim in fresh water.



The falls consisted of two parts--a smaller falls on the right hand side under which one could actually climb and get a powerful back massage from the pounding water. The other falls stemmed from the major flow of the river Malanoche and was so powerful that one simply could not swim up to it (believe me, we tried). Between the two falls was a rock wall that was relatively easy to climb, if not a bit slippery, and which featured a number of jumping off spots at, say 2, 6, and 10 feet above water level. The pool below was at least eight feet deep in most places. (I tested by touching my toe to the bottom with arm extended). Stone showed us all the best jumping spots and even led us to a place where we could jump or slide into the heart of the powerful falls to be swept away by the current for twenty or thirty feet.



Baker loved it so much that he took his mom back there on Saturday while Riley was at a birthday party. And, then we went again on Sunday with Riley and Tae. The video below is from that trip. It is my new favorite place in Nosara!

This week, we also purchased an ATV. It is a great way to get around here and very fun. Today, in fact, Baker, Riley, Tae and I all climbed onto what is officially a 1 (or max 2) person vehicle, and drove off to school. Baker is loving driving it, mostly with me or Tara on the back with him, but he has tooled around a bit by himself on the road in front of our house. Here is some video of him driving...

Just last night, Tara started a month-long yoga's instructor course. Each day through the end of the month, she'll have classes from 6 to 9 in the morning, 11 to 2:30 in the afternoon, and 6 to 9 in the evening. At the end of it, she'll be qualified to teach Yoga and will undoubtedly be even more enlightened than her currently formidably enlightened self. Hopefully, she will not simply disappear under a Bodhi Tree. We would miss her too much.

And, during the week, I took my first, and last, gyrocopter filght lesson. It was very fun and exciting. My instructor Guido took off and landed, but I manned the controls the rest of the time, taking us up and down, turning us around and more. It would be very fun to learn, but alas too time consuming. I would have to spend the enormous bulk of the next two months taking lessons to really make it worthwhile. And, that's not how I hope to spend my time.

One final note: Apparently, this blog is now being shared outside our circle of friends and family, even as far afield as France. So, in each blog entry, I will now include some French as a way of welcoming these readers. Without further delay then, this entry's French:

Bienvenue a nous blog. Je suis tu ami. Un deux trois quatre cinc!

Au revoir!