Climb on Down

This is the last post before I am officially deeming myself as *Caught up*. And compared to the last few posts, this one will be crazy short. I have not been too active since I have been here on the Island and after my week with Dan and Jess I realized how lucky I am to have so much time here and I should make the most of it. I took advantage of the first hike that was presented to me after Dan and Jess Left. Thursday February 28^th, I with a group of my favorite girls on the Island did the Aba Wavine hike. Every time I say the name Joel says “The Avril Lavigne hike?” That’s pretty close to how you pronounce it lol. Alright some back up information. I have heard a lot about this hike, its famous because they say you pretty much have to climb a hill holding on to ropes and vines and stuff, also they say it’s amazing. At first I thought, I could never do that, I have never had any upper body strength...ever. Even when I played volley ball in high school, I could never serve properly. Want to know what I did instead? I kick served. Yup, kicked the ball over the net every time. I had a killer kick serve. Plus I always got the first point because no one on the other teams ever expected it and they didn’t think it would count. Fun Fact of the day-Volley Ball rule books don’t say what body part you have to serve with, there for, kick serving, absolutely legit. Anyways, that kept me away from wanting to do this hike, but then I saw pictures and I was like, good-grief, what a bunch of babies, its barley even slanted! You could walk down that, you don’t need to hold on to anything. I decided it was more then do-able for someone with my lack of arm strength, plus I was feeling adventurous and (an important point to consider when making any of life’s tough decisions) all my friends were doing it.

Alright so down to the good stuff, after a 1.5 hr transit ride we show up on the Atlantic side of the island ready to rock. I was so confident this was going to be an easy-peasy hike that I didn’t even take a back pack, just my camera and water bottle in one hand, and my lunch tied up in a plastic baggy in the other. The island never ceases to amaze me with its beauty. We were hardly out of the van before the guide was pointing out wild pineapples growing out of the ground, and cinnamon bark trees around us, not to mention all the spices. It’s a slightly downhill walk for about 5 or 10 min full of absolute astounding beauty...and then BAM. You find yourself on the edge of a cliff. It’s not a shear drop off mind you, there are tones of trees and plants and different plateaus of ground that could catch you if you fell...but it is strait down. You turn around, grab onto some tree roots (there are also ropes tied to trees you can use) and climb on down the cliff. You will climb for a ways and hit a spot where you are on the ground again, and can let go of the roots, maybe shimmy sideways along the cliff a bit before turning around and continuing you’re decent. Lucky some fantastic friends were good enough to let me toss my water bottle and plastic baggy into their back packs so I could use my arms to climb.

Going down was crazy fun. I felt like a little kid climbing trees, tress of pure awesomeness. I really can’t even describe how much fun it was for me. I was pretending I was in Jurassic Park, you know that one scene where they are stuck in the tree and they have to climb down super fast so the car doesn’t squish them? Yeah, I went down that cliff pretending cars were trying to fall on me, and it was awesome.

(Note: It’s really difficult to get the correct angle on these pictures. A lot of the time the lack of dimension makes it seem as though the trees bellow you are trees beside you, giving the impression its flat ground. That’s the problem I had looking at other peoples pictures before I went on it. Trust me...it’s not flat! It’s straight down! Also, I only held my camera on the way down, and Kelsey and Lindsay were right in front of me, so prepare for a lot of picture of them. I had to put the camera away on the climb up, it was bad enough trying to climb up without worrying about the camera too, so any pictures up-or of me I stole from other people on the hike. Enjoy.)

    

Cinnamon Trees! 

Wild Pineapple

Was a little house in the middle of the...Jungle?

Wrong way Jen

There ya go! Hahaha

This is it! Turn around and Climb on Down!!

See Lindsay balancing on 2 tree branches?

I love that our guide is chilling out on this branch haha.

This is the view from the Side, so this is the Angle we are working down.

Once you get to the bottom you are on this amazing beach that otherwise is only accessible by boat. The sand is so sparkly, like it’s made of Diamonds, and there is a waterfall pouring from the top of the cliff you just climbed down. It’s a sight that will take your breath away.  There was also a big rock on the beach and I was still in climbing mode so I had a fun time playing on that.

 

 

 

Typical me, I am on the most beautiful Island, I just discovered the most beautiful hidden beach, there is a majestic waterfall cascading from a beautiful cliff...and I’m all like... 

 

 

 Alright, so we play on the beautiful beach, eat some lunch, and then...it’s time to climb back up the cliff. I was having too much fun climbing down the cliff to really think about what was going to happen when I had to go back up. Let me just tell you that Up was much less fun then Down was. I honestly didn’t have enough strength to pull myself back up the roots and ropes with my hands. Therefore my only option was to step my legs up as high as I could, get a good foot hold and hoist myself up just using my hands for balance really. That was incredibly scary for me, I was not sure I was going to make it at all. But I did get one heck of a work out! And I did get back to the top alive, so it all worked out. I only fell once, and it was at the perfect place to fall, I only slid down a little bit before catching myself on a rock. It wouldn’t have even been a bad spot to fall if I had kept going, so no problems.

 

 

All in all, it was beautiful and I loved it. I would absolutely love to do this hike again (after a few push ups). My goal for the last 10 months on the island is to get out and do more things like this. Hopefully soon I will have some more hikes to report.