We wandered into the town proper and there were a bunch of zemi drivers just milling around, so we found five and climbed on back. For 500 CFA (a dollar), we had the most amazing zemi ride through an actual African forest- seriously, it was some of the most stunningly beautiful scenery I have ever seen in my life. I've seen beautiful nature before, but this was something else. The entire time I was just thinking, how great is a God who can create such majesty? It was incredible. Completely and utterly breathtaking. Knowing that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I took out my camera and took a bunch of pictures (safe, I know. I'm pretty sure that my zemi driver didn't realize I was taking pictures.. he was probably so confused as to why I kept waving this black box in the air. Stop that, you silly yellow person).
After about half an hour, we made it to the "entrance" of Akloa Falls.
The entrance to the falls is basically a small village that's located closest to the falls-- perhaps, sensing the tourist contraption the waterfalls could possibly be, the village called dibs first?
We paid fee to the local villagers, who then gave us two guides to take us on the hike up to where the waterfalls are located. The hike itself wasn't too long- perhaps less than 45 minutes one way- but we were hiking through some serious African jungle. The paths were so narrow that eventually, they didn't even seem like paths anymore. We waded through streams and our feet squish-squashed in our hiking shoes-- and then I was really embarrassed, as we kept slipping around with our "proper" hiking shoes when these African guides were hopping from rock-to-rock with just their flip flops on. We hiked past cacao and coffee bean plantations; we saw a smattering of corn planted here and there; bananas; one of our guides randomly found an avocado. From where, I don't know, but he seemed really happy to have found it. He tucked it away on a secret tree branch and picked up his avocado again on the way down. For some reason I found that really funny. Secret avocado? Who doesn't find that funny?
We were sweating like crazy; you can't really tell in the photos, but most of the hike was extremely vertical. So there we are, huffing and puffing away (and me thinking that I seriously need to get in better shape because I sound like I'm wheezing up a hairball), when we can start smelling the waterfall. Yes, I'm not being insane here; you can totally smell a waterfall. Soon we can hear the water rushing down from somewhere... and then all of a sudden, we come across a clearing and are all simultaneously hit with this huge blast of cool mist. We were so ecstatic when we first saw the waterfall-- it seriously instills in you an incredible sense of awe-- and we all just stood there for a second to catch where we were at that moment. Waterfall... in Africa. AFRICA. Words cannot even begin to describe.
And then, of course, we jumped in, and had the time of our lives.
Totally worth everything it took to get there.The ride back was almost as crazy as the ride up. We took the same road back down from the mountain... and lo and behold, the truck that had fallen off the side of the mountain was still there! We had to sit and wait for 2 hours by the side of the road until they succeeded in pulling that sucker up. (And thank the Lord at 2 hours, because God knows how long it could've taken; apparently that thing had been there for the last 2 weeks.) While we were waiting, we saw some taxis drive up, and Andrea says dryly: "I thought taxis couldn't get up this mountain."
But now... I'm tired of typing. My brain is fried. Like an egg. Egg. And uploading pictures is a LOT of work; I'm working with African internet here, give me a break! So sadly, you'll never know how the ride down went. Here's a tiny violin for you. You can play it for yourself. I'm going to go splash off in an African waterfall in the meantime.
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