There was a staff trip to Manobao (about 45 min outside Jarabacoa) for a camping weekend. This meant about 20 staff loaded up gear for a 2 day trip; not much needed seeing how it was only 1 night, but clothes, food for every meal, and entertainment was on the packing list. Our expedition leader, Tim, pulled it altogether and come last Friday, we were on our way to start our hike up to our campsite. While we were told it would be about a 30 min hike, it definitely took us "non-marathon" hikers about an hour to get up the hill. It wasn't too vigorous, but definitely challenging parts. As we go to the campsite, we set up tents, had lunch, fellowshipped and rested. We spent the day either hiking to waterfalls or reading or napping. All of which are things I now love to do (I know some of you are surprised to hear that I am becoming a reader, but I am now on my 3rd book!!). That night we made tuna pasta for dinner and gathered around a campfire for songs and laughter. This was probably the time that mean the most to me as I remember mainly Dad and I making our own food and sitting together around campfires along the Buffalo River. As most of you know Dad took me on 3 or 4 father/daughter canoe trips and pretty much taught me alot of what I know now on those trips. He has now been gone for 2 1/2 years and it's crazy to have times like this of rememberance and not burst into tears. It was a good memory and more of me being thankful for what I learned from him and Rick (my brother) in those years.
Moral of the story, camping is wonderful and there is just something about you and nature and hearing nothing but crickets, insects and the wind come together in this beautiful medley that in any other place would sound completely and utterly annoying. Nuff said. Time for pictures...
This was where we cooked our food for our meals. It basically consists of a sink (with mountain water from a spring, so we could drink it naturally from the spout...this is exciting b/c we can't do this in the city), long wooden shelf to act like a countertop and some pots and pans. It serves its purpose well:)
This was our campsite, it's not an excellent picture, but you get the jist that it's a flat long piece of land where we could pitch our tents.
This was the view from our campsite. Leah has gotten me obsessed with clouds and taking pictures of them; you have to admit those are some good clouds in the background:)
Lastly, our campsite is on the grounds of Spirit Mountain, which is Krista and Chad's coffee farm. This is the coffee farm that was created to supply Dominican Joe's (coffee shop in Austin) with coffee from a direct source. In case you don't know what I am talking about, you should read the blog about coffee,eh?