Moco Moco Falls

So when we weren’t in the ministry or at the assembly we were looking for things to do in Lethem, and on Friday we all got to go on a trip to the Moco Moco Falls!

So we met up at the Kingdom hall around noon and piled into the bus headed for Moco Moco. It was about a half hour drive toward the base of the Pakaraima Mts and on the way we saw the meeting place for the group in Moco Moco. We call it a “group” because its not an official congregation yet, but they still have 20-30 in attendance at all the meetings. You can see a picture of the group in our previous post about the SAD.

As we continued our drive the jungle got a little more dense and the road more narrow until we stopped at an old abandoned pump station right at the base of the mountain. This would be as far as the bus could bring us so we prepared to hike in the rest of the way.

We had played around with the idea of a few mile hike up to a more remote part of the mountain, but when we saw the ridiculously steep stairs to reach it, we decided we’d had enough walking for the week. Not to mention the trail is far from maintained and said to be slightly treacherous. Plus a brother had recently gotten lost in this area and a whole search crew was sent out for him. Apparently an article was even printed about it in the newspaper. Ironicaly this same brother was on our trip as the "Tour Guide"... We had fun teasing him the entire time.


- - Stairs to top of the Mt. Maybe next time - -

- - Mike and Kesta, Kesta is the one who got Lost on the Mt. ....He was supposed to be our guide =(  - -

- - Our "Tour Guide" - -

So we hiked down the “easy trail” which was quite easy actually. Just FYI, most of the areas down and around Lethem seem to have been part of a highly Volcanic area a long time ago. There are Lava Flows and Lava Rock all over the place, especially in the mountains. I’d call it a geologist dream. On our last preaching trip, I did happen to meet one that flew in from Oregon to do some work. Of course he wasn’t interested in our message.

- - Old Lava Flow - -

After about a twenty-minute hike up this Lava flow we came to the first swimming area which was quite nice. The water was even deep enough to jump off a high rock into it. So we got some videos of us all jumping into the water. There was also a really cool Jacuzzi like area between these two huge boulders. The only way to get to it though was to swim against the current through a small channel about the width of a person. So it ended up being a test of our swimming skills, a test which I’m proud to say I passed! There was also an area that tested out climbing skills even. You see, to get on top of the rock, you would have to either swim through the narrow channel or climb up the opposite side. But to climb it you had to wedge your body between to boulders and shimmy up a little bit at a time. One sister did it in record time, only a minute!

 - - The Narrow Channel - -

We ventured up the river a little bit exploring the area. At one point I was jumping across some rocks and just as I was about to reach the last one I see this huge spider on the rock where I’m headed. So of course I lost my footing and fell in, thankfully I was already wet. When I fell though Michelle screamed and so Tom came running to help and he fell in too!

- - Camouflage Spider! - -

Eventually we figured we’d gone far enough and went back down the river. Some went on land; others decided to ride the river down!