It's just Boti-ful

This is my first weekend alone since Whit left to be with his family back in Seattle for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Leslie and her friend, Pam, are coming in late December for three weeks, and I am soooo looking forward to that, and there is plenty of research and planning and tour-guide-ish stuff to do. That still leaves a bunch of time - especially on the weekends. No TV, no radio, about 60% finished with the pile of books I brought, and 75% finished with the four books I brought on my iPod - trying to make those last! I even stayed up last night to watch the Apple Cup online, just to feel closer to home.

This morning I washed my underwear. I was down to my last pair and I can't bring myself to take them to the laundry with the rest of my clothes. Especially since they lay everything out on the counter and inventory it when you arrive! After that, I was still at odds, so I decided to do a tourist thing. One of those sites that is so close to where you are staying and working that you may just "forget" to go see it. Anyway, it was worth the trip. The place is called Boti Falls. The falls are touted as 30m high (that's 100 ft. to some of us) and I believe it. Standing at the bottom, I felt tiny, and the sound the water makes hitting the pool from that height is quite a roar.

When I arrived I was the only one there. The air was full of mist and although the falls create a permanent roar it felt very quiet and peaceful along the small secluded pool under a canopy of huge trees. The guidebook says that in the dry season (which started about 6 weeks ago), the falls splits in two and then finally dries up until the rains come again.

This video shows what it looks like split into two falls, but given the amount of foliage visible at the top, it's hard for me to see how it would come together as a single cascade in the rainy season. But, wow, when it does it must be massive - and the pool must be huge. There is a little ledge behind where I am standing when I start the video, so I'm assuming that's where the pool stops when the falls are at full strength. Even like this, though, they are beautiful. I especially like the tight striations of rock. It makes my heart happy.

In the foreground in the video is my little camp stool and pack with my tuna sandwich and 1/4 watermelon (watermelons are about the size of our honeydew - more on fruit in another post) and thermos of water. That was it, just me and my lunch in the sand, in the shade, with a nice breeze and mist from the falls. It was like being in line for a ride at Disneyland with the misters and fans to keep you cool. (Just kidding, it was way better than that).

Here are a couple self-portraits with the falls as the backdrop. Honestly, I'm not bending over to show my cleavage, I just didn't know how much headroom I had left in the shot when I setup the
camera. And, I'm not a total dork. The guidebook said there can be a lot of army ants and you should tuck your pants into your socks. So I did. But I didn't see a single army ant.


After a bit, the sun peeked between some branches in the tall tall trees overhead and made the most beautiful rainbow in the mist at the base of one of the falls. I tried to zoom and capture it, but this is the best I could do.

All in all, it was a lovely picnic for one - and the 250 steps going back up to the parking lot were a nice after lunch stroll. :-P
XO