Triumphal Entries (part 2)

Continuing with the triumphal entries theme, My 38^th birthday (March 28^th) has been a metaphor for this entire Panama experience.  There is adventure around every corner. There’s waterfalls, mountain climbing, hot springs, exotic bird watching (even Toucan Sam lives here!!), plus jungle canopy tours, just to name a few.  But by far, the best part is the opportunity to move into such a cool culture and connect with amazing people who have a completely different worldview as us.  Who knew that the adventure of following Jesus would have our family moving to Panama, diving into the local community here and me jumping off a cliff into a remote waterfall?  

For some reason, the younger I get, the more physical harm I feel needs to be inflicted on my body, especially on my birthday.  Well, just getting to the remote waterfall was an adventure.  Only four-wheeled vehicles can get there.  After the asphalt road ends, It’s about an hour ride straight into the mountains.  When I say road ends, I mean it.  There are five stream crossings, and many of the hills you drive more closely resemble landslides than thoroughfares.  I'm talking actual boulders in the road.  Chuck was driving, and the trip got interesting very quickly when his brakes went out going down a hill.  Fortunately, his parking break and transmission were there to grind us to a halt until the brakes cooled off for the rest of the journey.  Yes, we voluntarily got back in the car and yes, I was white-knuckling the door handle. The amazing irony is that this remote area is considered by the locals to be more of the ‘suburbs’ of El Valle.  One mother of three regularly leaves her home at 5am and carries her infant child for over three hours to get to church by 8am. That chick is serious.

After a hike down we arrived at the falls.  There is no one around for miles.  Crystal clear water pounding down from one pool to another until it reaches the fifth and final waterfall and connected pool.  This is absolute paradise.  It is a slot canyon with vertical ascents on either side.  Conveniently, a multi-story rock bursts vertically out of the ground right above the fifth deep pool.  There I had my crisis of faith: cliff jumping.

See, it is not natural to voluntarily exit the integrity of a perfectly stable landmass with enough airtime for you to realize you are still falling …and you don’t want to be.  Come to think of it, in that utterly helpless moment just dangling out there in space you realize that you didn’t properly check the depth of the water you are falling into.  Sure, everybody says it’s fine. NO, IT IS NOT FINE! There’s also the all-important time it takes to scream like a 12 year old girl at a One Direction concert. This is clearly a defining moment.  One of those triumphal entries that you can look back on during a future trial in life and say to yourself in 2^nd person, “Davis, you jumped off a freaking cliff in Panama, you can do THIS!”