down by the bay

So in one picture, THIS is why we've never hiked the path from the campus to the bay.

There. Is. No. Path.

Poor Caleb.  First full day in Haiti, and we bit off WAY more adventure than we could chew :)

The girls, of course, prepared their outfits for 24 hours and had a blast of a day, and were asking tonight to please go again.

It looked SO promising...green flat pastures and the sparkling blue bay at the base of the mountain...

Our wall, heading out...

But very quickly, green pastures turned into green marshlands, full of farmers, cows, and huge stretches of mud that smelled curiously more like other things.

We wisely brought a machete with us, and often had to clear a path.

But once we got to these areas, we were literally up to our knees in sucky mud.  After losing our shoes and having to dig for them several times, most of us ended up going barefoot.  It's amazing no one stepped on something awful today :)

But it WAS gorgeous.  And the company was stellar, as always.

And we met some lovely people.

This is us, looking at the bay, trying to figure out HOW in the world we were going to get there, because at this point, there is NO going back.

Finally, we made it to a pier, with more lovely and mostly naked people.  But it was NOT sparkling blue or anything like that :)

It was mostly just muddy.

Still lovely.  But muddy.  And no beach.

And millions of tiny crabs.

So, from the end of the pier, we could spy a boat yard not far away, so we headed there...

Also lovely.  Also no beach.  Also REALLY muddy.

While the girls were disappointed about not getting to use their swimsuits (there was NO way I was letting them get further than their ankles in that stuff), they had a really good time.

We hiked home on the main road instead, and got back three hours later.  

For years, we've talked about doing it.

And we did.

After showing beautiful pictures, I always like to remind you that if you come see us, we will take you.

But.  You're on your own on this one :)