All of us linked together, hand in hand, and carefully navigated our way behind the waterfall and into a cave that really reminded me of Tom Hanks’ crib while he was on the island in Castaway. We sat there for a while, listening to the waterfall, and then when we had had enough, Raphael took us out from under the falls, and we swam in surrounding small lagoons at the base, under rock formations, all while being no more than 15 meters from the crashing water. The final leg of the tour was the best, where Raphael pointed up and then led us to ledges high above the lagoons we were swimming in, and we jumped off (30 ft was the highest we got) into the different lagoons below. Now although this was for fun, there was a moderate level of danger present. The lagoons were small, and there was only a small window area where you could land, otherwise you land on a rock and, well, that’s just not fun. This is where we all wish we had already taken our Spanish lessons as Raphael pointed out the dangers, where to jump, and all the intricate details of what we need to do to successfuly live through this jump. In Spanish. But don’t worry, he did the jump first to show us where to land, and then would splash water in the area we should aim for in case we weren’t looking. Apparently these forms of communication, along with our limited Spanish knowledge were enough, being that we all survived unscathed. We even got Don to do it, who for being in his mid 50’s, was quite impressive. After a day at the waterfalls, we headed back to drink some microbrews and a nice bottle of tequila that Don, gracious traveler that he was, shared with us.

The next morning, Lyndi, Jennifer (our new friend from Canada, and secret love of Don), and I woke up at 4:45AM to meet our guide to go fishing on Lake Yojoa. Our guide for this tour was also named Raphael, so it was easy to remember considering yesterday’s guide. We followed Raphael, who carried bait, rods, paddles, and yes, a machete, to the row boat and headed out to the lake via a small canal. At this point I would like to tell you that the black bass were jumping – we all caught our weight in fish, Lyndi wrestled with an 8lb’er for a half hour, using nothing but a hook, worm, and a line wrapped around a roll-on deoderant bottle, I caught 2 fish on one hook, and Jennifer topped out the largest catch of the day- a 9 pound black bass…………………………..But none of that happened. Unfortunately, the only thing biting that morning were some mosquitos. Jennifer did catch a black-and-white striped prison t-shirt, and I did manage to catch the only fish of the day, one so small that I didn’t even notice he was caught until I brought in my line to check the bait. But on the bright side, the lake was beautiful. Leaving that early in the morning, Lyndi and I were able to get some great pictures of the sunrise, the mist coming off the water, and some local fishermen out for an early morning catch. After about 3 hours of no bass, we decided to head in and call it a morning.