Titou Gorge

On Wednesday (2/18), the kids and I went on a trip to Titou Gorge (and a couple other places but they will each have their own post because of all the pictures). It was a long bus ride - but I'll focus on the positive. We made it there safely. It was not at all what I expected. I heard it was part of the pirate film so I expected the big gorge where the men were climbing up the side of the cliff in the ball cages. Now that would be a neat gorge (or whatever you would call it). This was not that particular part. What I saw was the part after the climbing, when they eventually fell over an edge in the cages and landed in water and the natives were throwing sticks at them. They were swimming in the gorge and protected by rock walls. That's where I went swimming. The water was crystal clear (wish I had my mask and snorkel) and it was cold. I almost didn't venture into the gorge because it was cold. But I couldn't go and not swim in - so I went. It was amazingly beautiful inside and I wish I had a waterproof camera to capture it. I swam all the way to the waterfall and it got loud and there was quite a current pushing me the other way. It was really neat and I'm glad that I went. When we first got there I sent the four older kids with friends but the kids all got out saying the water was too cold. I hiked around to get a top view (still expecting the larger gorge to appear) so when I got back to the mouth of the gorge I decided I had to go in for a swim. I wish I had done that in the first place so that I could have taken the kids with me. They all had their floaties on and might have gone with me instead of our friends. I just didn't have a floaty for Kemiah and she really wouldn't have liked the cold water. Oh well. Maybe we'll go back during break with Dad - except for the whole 1+ hour car ride to get there....

This is at the entrance into the gorge. The waterfalls are directed by a gutter type thing and I'm not sure where the water comes from.

This is the entrance into the gorge. You can see how clear the water is.

This is a top view looking into the gorge. I think the bottom of that waterfall is where I swam to, but I'm not really sure.

Here's a view of the area that we were trekking through. Just thought it looked neat.

Here's a picture of Xiomara walking with our transport driver, Rhen (not sure if that's how you spell his name). The brownish black thing to the left is a wooden pipe built a long time ago and it still carries water to a hydroelectric plant.