We had a lot of rain over night, so the water level of the river was over a foot, maybe two feet higher than yesterday, and the ccurrent was fast. The only way in and out of the hotel is by canoe. It is on an island, so there are no ro\nads. Luckily, it temporarily stopped raining in time for us to leave. However, due to the water level and the tempestuous current, we took four boats for our group instead of the normal three. With our guide Wilson standing at the prow of his canoe just like Washington crossing the Delaware, (except it was a baseball cap wearing Wilson crossing the Amazon) we headed back to the town where we had left the bus 2 days ago. Except this time, instead of a 10 minute ride, it took us nearly an hour to make it to our destination.

After a couple of hours driving, we arrived at our first stop of the day–el Pailón del Diablo, or the Devil’s Cauldron–a raging and tumultuous water fall on the Green River. The river must have been named when the water level was much lower during the dry season because this was a raging, muddy mess of brown water. There’s an awesome (and slippery) suspension bridge to cross so that you can get closer to the waterfall. I’m not sure if I got more wet from the rain or the intense spray of the waterfall.

After that we were off to the town of Baños for lunch and a vegetable ivory demonstration. Vegetable ivory, or tagua, is a seed that comes from some kind of palm tree, and when its carved, it looks just like elephant ivory. I couldn’t get a good view of the carving demonstration because the group was in my way, so I shopped instead! (of course). I’m easily distracted by pretty things.

Then we were on our own in Baños for the afternoon with many possibilities. We could go bungee jumping for the low, low price of $30 (um no!); walk around the town, visit the cathedral, and shop (tempting!); or take a taxi up the mountain to a giant swing with amazing photo ops that has been featured in National Geographic (shut the front door! We are so doing that!).

So we hopped in a taxi (just $20 for him to drive us about 20 minutes up the mountain, walk us to the swing, wait with us, add a second bonus stop we didn’t know existed, and drive us back down the mountain to the hotel.) and we were on our way to Instagram glory and fame. Our destination: la Casa del Arbol or the Treehouse. They charge a dollar admission, and then everything else is included. There’s literally a giant swing hanging from a tree at the edge of a mountain and a man standing there that pushes you once you are seatbelted into the swing. If your sister stands at just the right angle it looks like you are flying way high in the sky. That’s why I had to do it twice because she didn’t get the proper pictures the first time! Sisters! Anyways, this man pushes you really fast as he jumps up and down to do it. It’s exhilarating just like riding an out of control roller coaster on the edge of the world. He kept telling me to put my hands in the air, but I wasn’t brave enough for that. I kept my hands tightly clasped to the swing where they belong!

Then our taxi driver told us that this was just a baby swing and that the daddy swing was about a kilometer down the mountain and that he would take us to see it too. Full of adrenaline from the “baby” swing and bursting with excitement to see the next swing, we headed down the nearly vertical mountainside path back to our yellow chariot.

The parking lot of the big swing was full of the open air tourist excursion party buses called Chivas (sorry, I didn’t think to take a picture of any of these) full of adventure and thrill seekers. There’s a tall tower and platform that you climb up to get into the swing, and you have to wear a helmet and climbing harnesses. Safety first! This swing is legit and they mean business. It costs $10 a person to do it, and they will video you for just $5 more. What a bargain! So after watching a few people swing, thetwinsontour had worked up the nerve to do it. We paid our money and got our gear on, but then we didn’t know what to do with our purses–our purses with our money, passports, brand new one week old cell phones, tic tac gum, emergency snacks, etc. You can’t take stuff on the swing and there’s no lockers or anything to leave them in. We were all alone because no one from our group wanted to do it with us. So the taxi driver said he would hold our purses. I was a bit leery about handing off my valuables to a complete stranger, but what was I to do? I needed to go on this swing. I kept out my cell phone though so that we wouldn’t lose everything if he took off with my official travel purse and everything of value in it. So we decided if my sister was going to leave her cell phone in her purse, we may as well have the taxi driver take some pictures of us too! Right? So she showed him how to use the brand new phone. But guess what, you don’t need the password to work the camera! So he wouldn’t be able to use it if he ran off with it. Sneaky! So with that, we began the climb up the stairs to our imminent doom. It was quite exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. We got latched into the swing, and all too quickly were swinging down the mountain with a scream coming from each of our throats. It’s a long way down. Then we were flying in the sky above the side of the mountain, literally flying in the air, back and forth, back and forth until the swing lost it’s momentum. Just like the taxi driver said, it’s really just the first swing that takes your breath away. After that the swinging slows down dramatically. I still can’t believe that we did this, but I would so do it again. Once we were off the swing, there was our taxi driver at the top– smiling and cheering us on. So of course we smiled and waved back, delirious from the swinging and the fact that he was still there with our purses.

And that is all of the excitement that a person can endure for one day, but there is one more thing. Our beautiful hotel had a resident peacock and peahen. That excitement nearly did me in. Peafowl roaming the gardens of the hotel with a backdrop of mountains shrouded in clouds. It’s nearly too much for one day. But I chased that peacock around the grounds working to get the perfect picture because I am not a quitter. Not when there are pictures to be taken!

That’s all I got for now.

Love,

thetwinsontour

PS-Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook so you can see some of these adventures in a more timely manner. And for those of you that inexplicably still do not have a Facebook page, or are too hip for that we have an Instagram page now too. But someone stole our name. The nerve of them! So look for the_twins_on_tour on Instagram.

PSS. I can’t upload the video to this blog because I don’t pay for the premium site. So no video for you here, just ads about indigestion and toe nail fungus. I am going to try to upload it to Facebook, so if that’s not enticement enough for you to join Facebook, I don’t know what is!