Puerto Rico Citrus Hill Project - Day 19

We spent the morning at one of our favorites spots - Charco Frio. It’s a river with some swimming holes, cliff jumps and natural rock water slides and we love the fresh water in the middle of the jungle! The hike up is only about 10-15 minutes but pretty muddy the whole way. Papa asked Desh if he would help him so he wouldn’t slip in the mud. Desh took his job very seriously and didn’t let go of Papa’s hand the whole way. I overheard him many times saying “Now Papa this is a good place for your right foot” or “ Papa watch out for that mud puddle. That’s where Beck lost his shoe last time.”  Such a cute tour guide for Papa!

One we got there we found a whole bunch of people at the main swimming hole and rope swing. Last time we were here we had the place almost to ourselves.  But it was totally fine and we had plenty of time to rope swing and cliff jump as much as we wanted! Beck and Desh even got in on the rope swing action and had a couple turns themselves. They were so proud. 

After a while we hiked the rest of the way up to the water slides. There’s a lower slide that has a great swimming hole with it and then an upper slide that I don’t think many people actually know about. Either that or they’re not crazy enough to go on it like we did. Whatever the reason, we got to the top slide and not another person was there which was awesome. As we were hiking up and around, Papa took one look at where we were headed and asked, “Is that what we’re sliding down?!” It does look a bit narrow on the rocky slide and it drops into a swirling vortex of terror, but other than that it’s totally fine!  Josh showed him how it was done and after he watched a few of the kids also go down, he figured it was fine. So off he went too! I will admit this…these are some of the life moments that my momma heart has a hard time. The pool at the end of this drop is swirly and deep and it catches you into a little cave that is sometimes hard to get out of. It’s not dangerous because you can stand in the cave, but I do have a hard time getting out of it myself if I don’t swim really hard right through the middle of the falls. Anyway, as I sat up there watching my kids slide down and drop under the water I had to just take a minute and remind myself that doing hard things is good for them. And watching them do hard things is good for me! We all learn what we’re made of when we’re in moments that are a little scary or a little hard. I keep learning daily from each of my kids that they’re made of some pretty tough stuff. They get nervous but that doesn’t stop them from trying things. Any of them. Including 5 and 6 year old Beck and Desh, who jumped off cliffs and slid into the swirling vortex of terror just like their older siblings. Tough stuff. And at the end of it, Josh was there grabbing on to each of their hands if they needed an extra pull out of the cave. Just like they all knew he would be :) They are all quite amazing. I took my turn into the vortex and I’ll tell you this, it’s so fun! And Josh had to help me more than anyone so that tells you something there. My kids are all tougher than I am!

We spent a good amount of time at the lower slide where the slide is super easy and calm and the swimming hole is so fun! There’s a really tall cliff that everyone likes to jump off and even Liev got up there this time and had a turn! As a few of us were down in the pool watching the jumpers, all of a sudden Desh started screaming as he was being swept away down the river and over a small little lip of rocks. I literally glanced away for one second and off he went! I was able to swim after him and grab his life jacket before he tumbled over some other rocks. More than anything I think it scared him (and me) for just a few seconds. All was well and we swam and jumped and played in the cool water and didn’t want to leave! 

There was one other scary moment as Rhen and a couple others were scaling the wall to get to the top of the tall cliff. She was about halfway up and her foot slipped, she banged her knee on the wall and it knocked her off balance. I looked up just as she was falling off the wall into the rocks below her. She landed on her back and I was worried that she was hurt bad. It turns out that she landed mostly on her tailbone and not her back which is really painful for her but so much better than what it could have been. I’m so grateful that she was able to get up and walk away from that without a serious injury.  She’ll be sore for a little while but I’m so glad she’s ok!

A couple of scares today but it did not stop us from having an amazing time today! We got home and had lots of stories to tell and moments to remember. 

Tonight we had the sister missionaries over for dinner and a lesson and we have grown to love those two! Sister Lisonbee and Sister Scoffield are the sisters here and they are sweet and hard working and we’re so grateful to have had some time with them. 

After dinner the girls took a night for ourselves and walked around the kiosks in Luquillo and stopped for a frozen drink at one of the restaurants. It was fun to be out and the girls are crazy and cute and never a dull moment with them around! We have loved having mom and dad here with us this week and we’re going to miss them when they go. For now, we’re enjoying every minute we can :)