Wild Ride up the Valentina River with Fred

Fred has an old friend, Hector who runs an Eco Tourist Inn/Lodge about 10 miles up the Valentina River.  To get to it we hired a flat bottom boat and ‘buzzed’ up the river.  What a ride! And guess who was waiting for us - the kids of course!  Fred had pre-arranged for all of us to spend 2 nights in a group lodge - built up on stilts - due to the occasional flooding of the river.  His friend is renovating his boat dock, so the kids will be "hired" out to do odds and ends for him to pay for our stay.  

I am going to help out Hector's wife Betsy in the kitchen, she is canning up the last of the season's vegetables - this will be a new experience for me - since the only canning experience I've had is when Julia and I pickled all those red onions last year.

Heavy rain fell that night but we were all snug and cozy and dry!

The next morning we ventured out for a tour of the area.  The kids found the remains of a stone structure, while Fred and I followed a path that led up to the top of a small hill - what a view!

Later we met up with the kids at the ruins; Fred thought that the ruins were from a mill that had been in the area when he was a kid.  I didn’t want to question his memory but if there had been a mill at this site I thought more remains would be there.  To me the ruins looked much older.  I bet there was an interesting story yet to be told.