Rainforest, Cave, Waterfall!

Jakub occasionally watches an episode of Dora the Explorer, which we have on a Nick Jr. DVD.  He loves Dora and he loves the big adventure she goes on in this episode, with boots and Diego, through a rainforest, past a cave, and to a large waterfall to save a baby jaguar.  He loves helping her decide on the map where to go and acting out the parts along with the characters.  Well, this weekend we took him on a big adventure of our own, with some of our friends and our interns, which was similar to the episode in his mind.  I hadn't thought of this before Jake mentioned it to me, but on Saturday morning I told him we would be doing some new things together during the day and that we were going on a big adventure.  I told him we would first go to a castle, and then a cave.  He immediately repeated the words castle and cave and then said "and waterfall!"  I immediately knew what he was thinking of thought it very clever of him.  I told him I was sorry, though, that there wouldn't be any waterfall.  Well, at the area around the cave entrance was an outdoor park of sorts with a nice fountain area.  Jake immediately screamed waterfall while running towards it.  I guess he did get everything he wanted in the end. :)  It was an awesome day together and very special to explore these things with him for the first time.  He did so well walking and hiking alongside us all day- we were gone from 9am-4pm.  He didn't slow down until the very end of the walk back to the car.  Of course he took a short nap on the 30 min drive home.  What a trooper!  I can't wait to do something like this with him again soon. 


I don't have any of my own pictures from this day, but I've got some from their websites and soon I'll have some from a friend who went with us.  For now, here are the few I could find of these locations we visited.  They are blurry from copying and enlarging, but at least you get a general idea for now.  Enjoy!


Jakub climbed to the top of this tower with us and loved the lookout over the cities below.

















View of the entire castle area we explored.



 
 Inside the cave area.  They had well-made and well-lit paths for walking through.  It was beautiful inside and quite large in some areas.  When they turned all of the lights out we were able to experience true darkness- I wish I could sleep there at night. :)


  First discovered in 1580, but not thoroughly explored until the early 1900's.