Wli Falls

We woke up at around 8 to eat breakfast and begin our journey through the jungle to see Vli Falls. In order to get to the water falls, we had to hike though forested areas, climb up mountains and trek for hours. The first part of the hike was on flat lands(this lasted for a mile or two). This part was cool because we saw hundreds of butterflies flying and dancing around, many with extravagent, vivid colors. We saw saw two of them mating, which was really strange and violent.

Then the much harder part began. At times it felt as if we were walking directly verticle. At some places, the foot pathes were barely 2 feet wide, so it was as if we were walking through bushes and around trees. The bracnhes would smack us if the faces, the vines would tangle our arms and legs; we also walked through mosquito nests, which was absolutely gross.

Despite the fact that the walk waas ardious, it was well worth it. The variety of trees, leaves and plants we saw were incredible, and the views were unbelievable. I actually felt like I was in a movie; it was so surreal to be in such a beautiful, exotic jungle.
For the majority of the climb, I walked along side Alexandra and Lauren. I talked to Alexandra about her year she studied in UVA, her current studies, and her trips to various countries as weel as other topics. She is very smart, and nice, but is also histerical, and crazy (in a good way). Lauren told me about a charity event she did called the Mongal Rally. She said she drove from London to Mongolia, through Europe and Central Asia. It is honestly one of the coolest things ever!

We finally got to the upper falls, and it was amazing. The water was so powerful and clear. It was cool because we were the only people there, so we had the water to ourselves. We went swimming under the falls, but the water was so strong that it stung our backs and pushed us away. I stayed in the water for a while, just letting it fall on my body. It was so relaxing and awesome, at the same time.

On our way back we learned that the mountain we were climbing was part of Togo, which is cool to know.

The hike back was extremely hard because we were all tired, but we walked quickly. At the local village I asked a man to carve me 3 black stars for me. He said I should come back and pick them up tomorrow. (I chose a black star because that is on the center of the Ghanaian flag.)

When we got back, I played a game called Mao with Georgina, Alexandra, Laura and Dan. It was really fun to play, but very hard to explain. (When I get back I really want to play it- it's a lot of fun!!)
It was also cool to hang out with these people. They are really nice. Georgina crushed us all at the game, but since I was new, I wasn't too upset.

Later we played spoons, cheats, and some Danish game, which was like spoons with teams. I one all the games of spoons and the Danish game (my partner was Alexandra).

It is also important to mention, that Alexandra said that if I was an animal, I would be a black lab. Other people back at home had said I am a pony, so this disproves that statement.

I stayed up for a long time in the room talking with Andy for a while, but mainly Dan. Andy is nice, but I think he is actually crazy. Dan is really cool. He is from England and on a gap year as well. We talked about school, history and science for a while (he asked about the Civil War, and we were trying to name the Periodic table), and then he told me his histerical stories about him and his twin brother back at home. They reminded me kind of "The Hangover".