Day 5

Humans are born to live days like this! We explored caves and mines and swam the sparkling blue lagoon at the base of Havasu Falls. We then learned to swim behind and jump through the rushing waterfall (on advice from some lunatic from UCSD!). In the afternoon, we were invited by the local natives to join them in their sweat lodge for prayers, songs, and story telling!

	A group of us at the mouth of Yan's Cave.
	A group of us inside Yan's Cave.
	Are those quartz, other valuable minerals, or just rock dusts all around us?
	Some of the guides chilling with us in Yan's Cave.
	Either this picture was taken upside down, or Yan and Grace were just a bit disoriented.
	Callie with a wild horse!
	Hiking up to a mine[*see footnote].
	Yan inside the mine. Note the guy in the back with his hands up? We were walking in pitch darkness. The photos were all taken blind - I am surprised they turned out focused and framed!
	A tunnel deep inside the mine.
	Quartz, quartz...
	and more quartz.
	Yan and Allen resting at Havasu Falls.
	Allen helping out with a bucket of water (for coals in the hut) at the Sweat Lodge.
	Aren't they so much the wiser after the Sweat Lodge experience?
	Grace posing in a view that shows both the inner and outer canyon.
	This is a collage of panoramic pictures Grace took of Havasu Falls as we headed back to camp.

Most of us thought this was going to be a rehash of Day 3 - a day of recuperation spent wallowing around another blue, idyllic lagoon swimming and sunbathing (which isn't too bad, come to think of it). It turned out to be much, much more... For me, the day started easily enough with a group of us exploring and hanging out around a "cave" Yan discovered. Some of us later went on to explore a nearby mine with a group of students from UCSD.

The idyllic day would have continued on except...upon returning to the waterfall, Emily and Whitney convinced and taught us how to jump through the waterfall! (supposedly some nut from UCSD first had the idea) This is what we did: first you swim hard against the current; then you wait to get sucked in behind the waterfall; the water soon becomes choppy and foamy and the air becomes so misty that you can barely breathe but you keep on swimming; next you edge gingerly along the wall behind the waterfall and find a spot to climb onto a ledge nestled behind the waterfall (all the while still trying to breathe through the mist); on the ledge, you scream and yell and whoop to your heart's content because you are so excited; then you jump and dive through the waterfall - back out into the real world! We did this several times...

We next attended a "special" talk to which a longtimer who has been coming to Havasu every year for over 10 years had earlier invited us. We thought we were going to a touristy presentation given by the local natives. But instead of a "ranger's talk," the locals invited us to join them in the "Sweat Lodge" where they shared some of their prayers, songs, stories, and histories with us! It was quite an experience. We ended the day with a visit to the village where most of us had Indian fried bread before we headed back to camp.

*PS One last thing. At the Sweat Lodge, we learned from the natives that they considered all mines on their land to be cursed. The natives never profitted from any of the mines; they had, in fact, been forced to accept the mining operations in exchange for the rights to retain their lands. It's sobering to see the weight of history catches up to us even here...