May 29th

Today we went to Liyu Lake. I remember going there once as a missionary to knock on doors in the area and I remember that it was really beautiful. We caught a bus there in the morning. On the way to the bus we got some more steamed buns for breakfast and some egg tortilla wraps that I sometimes make at home. The bus ride took about 45 minutes, but it was a really pretty drive through the mountains and farming fields.

The first thing that we did when we got there was rent some dragon shaped paddle boats. We decided that we would go around the entire lake in them. Those boats were super slow – so slow that people were walking faster than we were going even when we were moving the pedals as quick as we could. We spent a couple hours in them and it was fun to see the different parts of the lake. The whole time though the children just wanted to jump in to the water to cool off, but all of the locals told us that the water was not clean enough for swimming.

After we finished with the boats we decided to walk around the lake. It was a really nice walk. At the far side of the lake it went right through the jungle. This meant the walk was a little more humid, but it was also in the shade. We saw a ton of butterflies and a lizard. We also saw signs for snakes and monkeys, but we didn’t actually see any of them. About half way through there was a well with a hand pump for water. I had the children stick their heads in to cool off while I pumped it. A man who was sitting there saw us and he said that the water was good to drink if we wanted to. He even took a big drink himself to demonstrate. So I let the children start to drink it as well. Then he started to tell me how much he likes the water and how he goes swimming in the lake every afternoon. I started to get suspicious of whether the water was drinkable given that everyone else told us not to swim in the lake. Just then the water started to turn brown and so I quickly had the children stop. I guess we will see today or tomorrow if we should have been drinking that water or not. In the early afternoon we caught the bus back to Hualien.

We found a park and played for an hour or so while we waited for a restaurant that we wanted to try to open up. Then we walked the two miles to that restaurant only to find out that it is closed on Tuesdays. So we made our way back to our favorite dumpling place. We also got some bubble smoothie drinks and some custard pastry desert things. It was all really delicious.

At the lake on the dragon boats.








We saw a team that was really practicing for the dragon boat races that are held in a couple of weeks. The team all had individual boats that they went around the lake in 5 or so times. Then they all got in their practice boat together and practiced starts and things like that.


Ethan getting a little too close to a giant spider.








These lizards really blend in to the jungle. I am surprised that Rebecca spotted it.


This was a cool house right by the lake.


The bus ride back to Hualien.





On our way back from walking to the closed restaurant we saw this McDonalds. It had play equipment and a spa. We were tempted to stop.