Misol-Ha Waterfalls

We had a bit of a lie in today only stirring from our beds just after 9. We were soon dressed and caught a collectivo into town. Whilst on the plane from Lima to Flauderdale Mae had been informed that she MUST try the 'Huevos Rancheros' whilst in Mexico and so we decided that we would do this today. We found a little cafe where we got a set breakfast of eggs, Mae had Rancheros which was a flour tortilla covered in refried black beans then 2 huge fried eggs and smothered in a tomato sauce whilst I had Mexicana, eggs scrambled with tomatoes and chilli, with refried beans on the side, a small bowl of guacamole and a basket of tortillas both came with toast, coffee and pineapple juice. The eggs were amazing and after our breakfast we felt substantially more alive. As we were leaving the cafe one of the collectivos we needed to catch was just passing so we lost no time in climbing on board. We were headed for the waterfalls at Misol-Ha where we had heard there was a pool you could swim in. The journey took just over half an hour or so through some lovely scenery of jungle covered hills until we were dropped off at a junction in the road where the trail starts. Shortly along the road we came across a small booth where we paid $1 each and proceeded onwards, it turns out that this fee is only for the use and maintenance of the road. (or so they claim although the road hasn't had any maintenance in at least 10 years!!) This meant of course that there was a separate entrance fee of $1.50 (recently dropped from $2.50 apparently) to actually get in to see the waterfalls. The waterfalls themselves were stunning though, the main one dropping from at least 100 feet up into a deep pool which had ropes strung across for the swimmers to sit on/hold on to it as it's too deep to touch the bottom except at the edges. We decided to walk along the path which follows the rocks around behind the waterfall first. Taking plenty of pictures along the way of course. Mae commented on how American Mexican tourist attractions are, with nicely built paths and barriers everywhere to stop people injuring themselves and suing. At the end of the path we found a cave in the rocks and went inside where there was a man with torches telling everyone it was $1 entrance. Since there was no signs of this anywhere and he had no kind of official documentation and because we were quite frankly fed up of people trying to charge us for every little thing (you have to pay to use the toilets in here as well, on top of the entrance fee and road fee!) we decided to ignore him and use the LED light on the camera instead, we made our way down the second, slightly flooded passage to avoid the 'guided' group who had paid and soon found ourselves in a large opening inside the rocks where we could hear a waterfall although the light from the camera wasn't quite strong enough for us to make it out properly. We waited for one of the groups with torches to come along so we could see by their lights, and be told once more that we had to pay, which we ignored. Since while there was some light illuminating the chamber we decided to have a quick swim in the pool which was surprisingly warm and then left when the group did, back down our side passage of course to avoid being told to pay once again. We left the cave with no further problems and went back to the outside waterfall where we had to take the obligatory picture of us under it. The water falls from such a height that it actually stings when you stand under it, but it's a lot colder than the water in the cave and very refreshing. After this we went down to the side of the water (slightly surprised there was no one trying to charge us here) where we left our stuff and went for a swim in the cold pool. We used the ropes in the water to find some rocks close to the falls where we could sit and relax for a while, it was lovely and peaceful, no one else bothered to come this far in and the sound from the waterfall managed to drown out the tourists making it feel like we were alone if you closed your eyes of course. We sat and admired the views for some time on our small rock until we felt sufficiently alive to swim back to shore and start the walk back to the road in the sun. We didn't have to wait very long for a collectivo to arrive and pick us up and we found ourselves riding back to town in the back of a pick-up truck which had been converted by the addition of wooden benches and a tarpaulin roof. We got some more bits for dinner and a small bottle of Tequila to try before going back to the camp-site where we of course immediately fell into the lovely pool, for an hour or so watching the howler monkeys and drinking some of our tequila with lime juice (NOM). We decided to stop for dinner around 6 at which point much to Mae's delight a Toucan flew over head. She informed me that this almost completes her list of animals she wanted to see while travelling. By the time we had eaten our dinner it was getting dark and quite windy so we thought it best to retreat to the tent before the storm broke and listen to our audio book until we were too tired to stay awake.