Today we walked down to the town of Grand-Source (pronounced gron-soos) and to “calico beach”. It is not a beach, but a lush valley filled with massive banyon trees, the ones with roots cascading down over cliffs, bananas, ferns and everything else. The trees blot out the sun high above, a welcome thing, and nets of spanish moss hang down from their branches. Calico creek streams through this wonderful eden, through pools and over waterfalls (it feels more like hawaii than haiti). We followed a tiny path to the edge of a small cliff, at the base of with was turquoise pool into which the creek fell. We scrambled down the side of the cliff (I’d rate it about 5.3/4) to the edge of the pool. Where we are, at the top of a mountain, the sea and the beaches are clearly visible, only a few miles away. You can easily sea the reefs and the sand, but hey are inaccessible. To get there you would have to drive for more than an hour and it would cost a lot of money. After eyeing the ocean for these few weeks to actually get in any sort of body of water is wonderful. You could climb up the rocks and underneath the water fall, then jump out into the water. It is not big, maybe 8 meters across and 7 feet deep. Few people go there anymore, although everyone knows about it, after a boy died there several years ago. He apparently climbed one of the overhanging trees and jumped into the pool, a fall of at least 50 feet into water 6 feet deep. It was magically refreshing and beautiful there and I cant wait to go back. 

I am growing very tired of rice and beans (which make up at least 50% of my diet) and spaghetti with ketchup (which I have 6 days a weeks for breakfast). I also would like a shower, bathing here is done with a pail of water and a small tin with little privacy. Also things don't heal here, they only get worse. I cut the back of my knee my first day in Haiti, it is still unhealed. Although much better than it was a week ago, it is about as bad as the original cut, it is swollen and an angry red, and inches horribly. It is no doubt infected, but it is just there, nagging and annoying. 3 meals a day would also be nice. On the plus side we were able to borrow some new mosquito nets, so my nights are many times better, and the number of mosquito bites I have has precipitously dropped. Thats the news from my side of the world, 9 days until my return which I have started to very much look forward to. See you all soon, keep on readin'.