El Pilar

Last Saturday, we saw nature at it's finest.  We went to El Pilar, a finca outside Antigua (I think a finca is a farm type thing... but I'll confirm that as I learn more) and took a gorgeous hike up this mountain.  This place was a little paradise.  Not only did it have a swimming pool (guess who's going to go back there!!!), but it also has bird watching, a fancy hotel, an industrial park, and gorgeous houses and picnic tables on top.  Walking through, Juli said, "how could someone not believe there is a God when they see this?"  It was that gorgeous.

Pictures can't do nature justice, but I'll try!

Even if you don't like spiders, you have to be impressed by their creation

The landslides had taken out some of the stairs (there were a lot of stairs...) so it sometimes took some creativity to get up the trail

Some men were fixing them... look at the pretty new stairs!

Unfortunately, the stairs led to nowhere so we had to scurry up a muddy hill until the friendly old man came and offered us a ladder.  He was really, really nice!

The coolest root system EVER.  It didn't even fit in my lens!

And then, at the base of the roots, there's a cool cross.

Did I mention that there was a water tank along the trail that had a plaque thanking God for their water?  That doesn't happen too much in the US...

And then... at the top, there was the coolest hippie van... with an amazing hippie inside.  He was very nice and had a great view from his house

 

 

The view!

I want to live down this road...

What a gorgeous country!