Journey Up The Amazon

A couple of weeks ago we were invited over to Orvel and Paula's house for a cookout and a sleepover down by their neat little creek. Well, actually, the KIDS were invited...Tim and I were simply required to drive them there. But we all walked down to the creek which turned out to be just amazing. Somehow, we found ourselves climbing down a very steep bank to go INTO the amazing creek. It must have been the mists rising from the murky depths as we all know I would have better sense than to climb/slide/fall down a steep bank of mud with the ending goal being water, of all things. To be sure, I held tight to my camera so there would never, ever be a photographic memory of my personage manipulating that bank. After we were in the creek it was like we were in the middle of the jungle! Minus the malaria carrying insects and searing heat. It was completely shaded and cool and so fun! We walked down quite a ways until the water got deeper than I thought water should be, then turned around and went the other way.

We saw some really fantastic huge trees growing along the bank, with their roots completely exposed! The boys and our heroic guide climbed up on those roots and let themselves be photographed for all time.

It was just wonderful and we would have stayed there much longer but it was getting dark and who knows what crawls in the deep, still waters after the sun sets?

Plus, it was time for the campfire!! Paula is a pyro, as you well know, so she
can LIGHT A CAMPFIRE. We had hotdogs and marshmallows and potato salad and lots of pop. What a feast for a crew of returning Amazon Explorers. After the campfire died down, the not invited ones left and the invited ones played games and talked until bedtime. It was a great evening! I'm so glad we got to go!