Day 15 ~ The Water fall in Wai Pio, our biggest adventure so far

It's sunny! SUNNY!  YES!

Again, I have freaking bad ass good luck when it comes to the wild life! Imagine this;

We camp next to the river, on grass people, ON GRASS! No jungle, no lava - GRASS! The river is coming from the huge water fall further in to the valley and right in front of us, it make it out to the ocean - beautiful. The trees are green, the sky is blue. Mmmmm! You listen to the sound of the waves and look at the beach: the sand is black! Baby, we are camping on a black sand beach!! (Fine; on the grass, next to it! but still..) Anyways, the cherry on top! Right there, Wild horses! Woooaaaaah! How awesome is that? They even let us pet them and everything!

It's a great day! I have so much energy and I am so playful! We start walking the beach, checking cool fruits, playing with the sand crabs and just try to take in how awesome our trip turned out. After some pushing Corey gives in for some tag, black sand ball fight and ocean play in these huge waves. They just curved over us before they hit and I have never felt stronger waves before. The underwater current was crazy and just knocked me of my feet! At one point  I almost lost my swimsuit and I couldn't get up to the surface. Scary. But I am here writing so, phew, I made it! ;)

Today's plan was to see the waterfall up close. Some Mexicans pulled up by our tent, so I ask them if they know anything about it (I mean, they also had cars and a BBQ going... but.. I didn't think about that. Never!) It took about 2 seconds and we had a ride to the fall and they filled plates with pitas and steak and brought out beer and sodas. What was that american word again? Oh wait, it's Awesome! It was so tasty! Corey also took the opportunity to try his luck in Spanish and then we were of to see the fall. 

When we get there we look for a road or a path. Pssshhhyyy, of course there's nothing. We ask a local and he's not very keen on us going there. He say's there is no real path and that you have to walk the river and swim. Well, that was the magic words for Miss Hansen, now I really had to do it! 

Time to start swimming

Our Mexican friends back out and we thank them for everything. We try one of the small paths next to the road. KAPU! NO TRESPASSING! And other signs with long legal threats and warnings. Uuuum, I don't think so! We cross the river and walk through the jungle, were there at least won't be any signs... It's really cool. The vegetation is one of a kind! Pretty flowers here and there, enormous elephant ear plants which would work as umbrellas for sure, and other cool looking growing things. We walk through ruins from old houses that used to be there a long long time ago. All you can see is the blocks/rocks from what the houses were made from. It's pretty cool to see how nature take back control over the area climbing, reaching out all over the place.  W hit a small path every now and then but nothing special. After a while we decide to cross the river, and there we meet a family. They didn't make it to the fall since they had their kids with them, they were also rushing back cause of the sunset. They didn't want to get trapped in the dark. We decided to keep going, I was determined to see the falls if I so had to set the jungle on fire to make it back later. We hide our stuff so we will be able to swim, climb and run later. We bring my underwater camera though it really wont do the fall justice, not the green walls either. There is not enough light and my camera didn't have a flash. Hopefully they will still give you a picture of what we saw and did. 

Now, it's here the hike really starts; 

Corey about to start swimming, while saving his shoes

We have to start off with a swim, I throw myself in with shorts and shoes. Wohooo! Well, Corey think that he'll be able to protect his poor shoes. He takes them off and start swimming with one arm. Silly Corey. Okay he made this first one... Up and down the hills and huge rocks, in and out of the jungle, criss crossing through the river - hahaha, who drops his shoes??!! ohhh good times, good times - more rock climbing, past the little bamboo forest, run through the mud, swim some more. And there finally! We reached it, before the sunset! 

Me climbing

Almost there, just a little bit more

We made it!

Corey by the fall

We are speechless, really, we couldn't explain in words what we saw. We were like; "This is... it's.... this is totally..." but we couldn't find words 'good enough' to describe. 

You can kind of get a glimpse of the mist here

The water fall over 1000 feet, into a small pond. The walls of the valley are now sharp deep V-shaped instead of wide open U-shaped. They are covered in a beautiful green and steeper then any natural mountain wall I've ever seen. The fall itself is the biggest fall I've ever seen. It's loud, and surrounded with mist. We stare straight up and it's like the mist forms clouds around the fall. Interesting small monuments, made with lava rocks, made by previous visitors make the place feel even more magic and spiritual. We hug each other for making it all the way there and just keep stare at the fall. 

Me swimming under the fall

Corey doing the shaka sign under the fall 

We swim out to the pond to touch the fall, to feel it rain down over us. It's so loud and strong. We get under parts of it, as far as we can and dare. It was amazing. At the same time as the fall is extremely loud, it's one of the most quiet places I've been too, time just stand still. 

We didn't want to leave, but had to. We made it back out in no time, finding better paths and ways, not afraid of trespassing anymore since we were heading out, trying to leave, not get in. What next? WHO do you think we meet when we get back out on the road? The hippie guy who made us camp on the lava field!! He's driving by in a freaking Jeep! We about dropped our chins to our knees, luckily he rode with a bunch of people and couldn't talk, just say hi and 'speed catch up'. Seriously, how random is it, that we keep bumping in to all these people in various places twice?! This time on a tiny muddy back road over an hour away from where we first met (I did put it out there for Corey that maybe he put trackers in the passion fruit?), It's an island, but it's called the BIG island for a reason. It's BIG and everyone do not know everyone. 

Back at the camp ground we see some people, and I decide we should make friends with our "neighbors" so we head over. They are super dirty and look really shady, but it turns out they are hunters. Listen to this; They hike 9 miles over the mountain, through the jungle, to the next valley with their dogs. They let the dogs loose and have them find boars. When the dogs find the boars, they attack and try to hold it down so that the hunters can come up close with a small knife and stab them in the heart under the arm. Crazy! We got to see videos. All dogs but one got stabbed this time and the cuts looked bad and gross! They had dogs thats been stabbed to death.. It was brutal and so.. I don't know, just so cruel and cool at the same time. Like cavemen or something. The one guy was our age and I just stared at him bombing him with all these questions...

It was a great great day. Filled with adventures. I was in my happy bubble for sure. We both were.