After a day to look around the old city our 2 day, one night, tour of some of the mountains and local Indian villages of Acequias, San Pablo and El Morro. Our first stop off was at a popular parasailing launching point, 1.500m above the valley below where we even helped one of the "flyers" to get airborne. It was dark by the time we reached our newly renovated but deserted Posada at night. Why should such a nice place be deserted?

Apparently the whole village was given a face lift and the 15 or so room Posada, with beautiful dinning room and wood fire kitchen, renovated to accommodate tourists but it is not featured in the popular guides like Lonely Planet so no one visits. Dinner was put on by a local Indian family in their house a block of so from the Posada. Traditional tasty local food, corn meal patties with a sort of egg omelette, accompanied by Tamarind fruit juice and fresh melon.

The night was cold, jumper and jeans weather and the morning saw us covered, on and off, by cloud. The scenery, spectacular, reminding us of our time in the mountains of Panama.

The day was spent partly walking mountain trails but mostly F wheel driving. Tiny Indian villages connected by just one road that was for the most part a two wheel track. In one of the valleys the small stream at the bottom had an option for diversion to a little water mill. The mill was housed in a little building, the paddle wheel on its vertical shaft all made of wood, something out of centuries ago, clearly visible below the floor. Apparently the paddle wheel shaft connected to a small mill to grind corn into corn flour.

Unfortunately it was all locked up so we could not see the mill itself. All this time we had been in relatively arid mountains with only short bush and cactus trees. Sylvain had promised we would also see rain forest but we were quite unprepared for the change. If I had not seen it for myself I would not believe it. As we drove down the road there was a sudden change, within the space of 20m, yes twenty metres, from arid cactus land to full lush rain forest with trees growing over the top of the road so that for much of the time you could not see the sky. It was absolutely amazing. According to Sylvain, the rain stopped just on the lee side of the mountain, the clouds having drooped all their moisture ascending the mountains on the windward side. Whatever the case the change was dramatic. Now, later in the afternoon we continued up and down mountain side with the scariest shear drops and hair pin bends, all without any safety rails, imaginable. Some bends so sharp that Sylvain had to turn, back up and turn again to get around. A short stop in the village of El Morro for a beer and a chat to the store owner, a friend of Sylvain’s.