Swine Flu

Please be praying for continued good health and healing in the ministry down here.  It seems like many people from the church have been coming down with the flu this week.  I just got off the phone with one of the homeschool dads and two of his children were diagnosed with the H1N1 flu today.  On top of that, the oldest son has the beginning symptoms of pneumonia as well.  I'm not paranoid about it, but need wisdom to know if/how to take any precautions.  Today I also found out that one other youth from the church also has the swine flu.

Soldados

When it rains... it pours....  I've gotten in a lot of trips this week.  On Monday I was in the jungle, Friday Girón, and today I went on a fishing trip with pastor Santiago, Juan and Josue.  We only caught one fish, but it was a good time, and there was beautiful scenery. 

Girón Waterfall

Friday afternoon we went to Girón to see a waterfall.  I'm not sure how tall it is, but hopefully you can get an idea from the pictures

Caving in the jungle

In the town of Logroño some of German's relatives took us to a cave in the area.  We had to cross a very narrow suspension bridge with the car and follow some rough, rocky roads.  After that we had to hoof it following a narrow path through the jungle.  The path was so narrow, it was hardly discernable at times.  It was a good thing we had guides.  There is nothing quite like walking through the jungle, and whether you decide to enjoy it or not depends on your perspective.  It is lush, green, and must have a million different types of plants.  Impatience grow wild, and don't forget the butterflies.  There are butterflies of every shape, size and color.  Some red, some yellow, and my favorites... the 8 inch metallic blue and black ones.  Of course, if you prefer the negative side of life, there's that too.  There's the mud, there's the biting bugs, and there's the steamy, sticky heat, and don't grab onto any plants when you trip on a log.  It seems at least half the plants in the jungle either sting or have nasty thorns.

 

When we got to the cave, only German and I went in.  The cave was large enough so that we could walk with no problem.  There were bats all over the place, and other critters.  In one of the pictures you can see a spider.  In the picture it's hard to gauge it's size, but with it's long, narrow legs, it was at least 8 inches across.

 

After going in 300-400 ft, we came to an underground river.  It was noisy and flowing very fast.  There were logs in the river that were caught amongst the rock formations.  At this point, we had to turn around, but I was reading today that if we could have kept on going, we would have found a 90ft. underground water fall.  Oh well, that will be for next time... whenever that will be.

Jungle nights

One of my favorite parts of being in the jungle is the sky.  The dark green of the trees and foliage make a striking contrast for the blue sky and clouds.  The night sky is also amazing, but so difficult to capture with a camera.  Here's a shot I took at 11:30pm.

Long weekend in the jungle

This past long weekend German and I went down to the jungle.  It was a much needed time to relax and take in the beauty of the Lord's creation.  We slept at a Christian camp and during the day went to see different sites in the area.  We went to a zoo, swam in a few different rivers, and also went caving.  German has family living in the area so we also visited some of them.  Here are some pictures from the time