Rara Avis

Hi Everyone!

Things are great here in Fern Gully. Last weekend we went to this very rustic hippie retreat up in the mountains- Rara Avis. Rara Avis means rare bird- and this was true there were no birds. This place has no electricity in the "lodge" and was very, very basic as far as ammenities go but so pristine and beautiful.

The journey there begins with a 3 hour tractor ride through these wonderful logging and farming trails. As you can see it was pretty muddy and gnarly.

Of course the most random things happen to us. So we are on this tractor bouncing around to the point of hilarity and what happens? Two butterflys land on Almira's hand and hang out there for about 5 minute. I think I am married to Snow White.

Here is a photo to prove it. I am pretty sure that I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't been there.

Once the tractor ride was finished we then had to hike the rest of the way in- an hour or so. Everyone there is required to where these snazzy rubber boots, for the snakes, mud, and such. We actually ended up buying our own because hey they look cool and everyone wears them. When we went to buy the boots the guy at the hardware store tried to get us to buy the nicer model by saying that "these boots would not be just for you but an heirloom to be passed down to your son and his son (translated from Spanish)" Man do people take their rubber boots seriously- so we of course got the nicer ones. I feel that it was a wise investment, but I will have to wait to see if our grandkids are still wearing them to see if the sales guy was right.

Rara Avis is so cool becuase it is really a scientific research station. The guy who started it was the basis for the movie Medicine Man. The really funny thing is that we actually live here. It is still so weird to us that it is not weird that this is where we are now.



On our hike to Rara Avis' center, ie where the food is, we learned about the walking palm. This little guy to the left. These things have been tracked to move up to two meters a month. They move their crazy branches and roots to find the sun and water and in the process actually move. Very Lord of the Rings I know.




Once we got there, finally, we saw the main reason we came this far, the fabled 4 tiered waterfall! This is the coolest place that I have ever been to. Period. I think that Almira would agree. The water was so clean and pure. We loved it!



This is us in front of the bottom tier of the waterfall. We had quite the slippery hike to get there. But thanks to our auto timer on our camera we were both able to get in the shot. Even these pictures cannot fully express how beautiful this place is. One of our favorite trips to be sure.



And this of course is the random photo of the week. Doesnt this look like something out of a Dr. Seuss book? This was outside our window at Rara Avis.

This place is unreal. We love you all! Drop us a line sometime.