Our boat headed out at 10 am for a 90 minute adventure with two other families on board. We stopped at a spot where another boat (full of japanese tourists) was anchored for the same activity. The water was beautifully clear and about 15-20 feet deep. The reef was full of pretty fish, blue, yellow orange and a school of Zebra fish swam right up to us. I stuck with Stpehanie while Lyle and Chris went off on their own. After a bit I was starting to feel a bit queasy. I never do well in boats on the ocean, and I guess even floating on the waves is enough to set me off.
So I swam with Stephanie toward the boat. She asked the guide "How much longer" She and I both heard 5 minutes so I figured I would be okay on the boat for 5 minutes before we headed back to shore. Unfortunately we both misheard him and we had 25 minutes on the boat. Needless to say by the time we got back to shore I was thoroughly green and needed to lay down before even thinking about doing anything wlse.
After a 30 minute nap I was feeling well enough for a granola bar and we headed off for Hiji Falls.
We foung the entrance to the falls without a problem (we are learning to read Japanese maps pretty well), paid our entrance fee and we were off. We read all the signs about no swimming and we had seen the ads on Armed Forces Network warning of the nasty things you can catch by swimming in fresh water on Okinawa. We had also heard it was quite a trek to the Falls, but was "well worth it" according to our naighbor.
Turns out it was 1310 meters each way but we didn't know it was mostly stairs. It took us about 30 minutes to get to the falls. All four of us were completely drenched and exhausted, but we had to hike back. So we took a short break for pictures then headed back. Out of curiousity I counted the stairs on the trip back. From falls to car it is One Thousand, One Hundred and Eleven stairs. That is almost a stair riser per meter. It was nice to see, but if we ever go back, it will NOT be in August!
I fought with Slide.com all day to get this video loaded for your enjoyment:
On the way back to the resort we stopped for (what else) Ice Cream at the Family Mart. I am sure the customers there had a comment or two about the nasty americans that stopped in that day.
We got to our room, showered, ate dinner and were in bed again before 10!
Day three will be posted tomorrow (Slide.com willing)
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