We got an extra hour of sleep last night, and per usual, we are up early for a beautiful sail-in, and in the gym first thing. 

Then to the scrum in the Lido buffet – ugh, bananas are looking ugly -but still edible at least.  A quick snack and we are getting ready to meet our cruise critic tour folks  at the casino elevators.  Today is our first Cruise Critic tour – with Linda and Cathy, whom we’ve yet to meet.  But Linda has been leaving us messages to ensure we know where and when to meet – very organized!  We meet she and Cathy as arranged, and Jane, our other partner in crime today – and proceed to the gangway, where there is a slight delay before disembarking.  We are the only ones on the tour who don’t have Taiwanese dollars – we’re ATM people – what can we say?  So we get the “look” when we say we’ll need an ATM on land.  We have time, so we ask guest relations if they have Taiwanese Dollars, but no, unfortunately not. They do tell us there is a money exchange in the terminal, but no ATM.  Oh well, if we must, we’ll do that…but…

Finally being released, we head out into the terminal – only to find a long line at the money exchange, so we forego that, hoping that Jimmy, our tour guide, will be able to deliver us to an ATM.  Outside, we only have a few minutes to wait until Jimmy appears with sign in hand.  He is a sweet man, who ushers us into his van, ensures he knows when we need to be back onboard, and then drives out onto the streets of the county of Hualien and off to the Taroko National park for our day of hiking and touring.

On the way, Jimmy tells us all about the Aboriginal origins in Taiwan – in very accented in English which is sometimes hard to decipher, but he is so earnest in his descriptions and history lessons that he keeps us rapt listening and trying to decipher what he is saying!  We stop at 7-11 for the ATM, then he stops at a famous Mochi store to buy us an assortment of mochi – lemon, peanut, red bean, sesame – you name it, he’s bought it in these little balls of sweet goodness!  Ed and I eat one in the van – very messy – so we sav the other 2 for later.  The peanut is excellent, the one I had, not so good, but we have no idea what it was.  Jimmy told us what all the color wrappers meant, but we can’t remember this one – and Jimmy is off on another subject – bringing him back to something else is not the best tactic.

On we drive, listening to the history of the Taroko tribes and looking at different trees and fruit fields and other things that Jimmy points out along the side of the road.  We get to the Taroko park, in the rain, with all the buses and crowds, and Jimmy decides to rearrange our itinerary – instead of starting with the Shakadang trail, which is at the beginning of the park (where all the buses are no disgorging all their passengers – in the rain!) – Jimmy takes us up to the Swallow Grotto, where there are more covered areas for us to walk and view the Gorge and the grotto. Way to go Jimmy!

We get to the grotto where Jimmy drops us off and tells us he will park and walk back to us.  Ok – we’re game.  He gives us umbrellas – mine is a gorgeous pink and blue butterfly motif – which I consider stealing and taking back home with me!  But, no. I must not.  At any rate, it is a fabulous prop that I love taking pictures with. Onto the grotto!  Ok. It’s raining, but still. The scenery is amazing.  The river, the marble and granite sheer cliffs rising up above the river.  The suspension bridges spanning the gorge.  Absolutely gorgeous.

We walk along the ravine, gazing down at the turquoise blue river, snapping pictures everywhere.  Jimmy comes to meet us and we begin the walk back to the van. He couldn’t park in the normal place on the bridge, but had to park 700 meters further.  That’s ok.  We can manage that. Everyone walks ahead, but Cathy and I stop to take some pictures…

….and drama begins. We continue along the road, but can’t see any of our crew. We get to a restaurant with waffles (oh yea, let’s stop for waffles!) but we can’t find anyone.  There is a restroom there, so maybe they stopped? But the waiter at the waffle place doesn’t know – and no one is waiting upstairs looking for us, so we keep on walking, thinking maybe they went on.  We get to the bridge – and still no one. Ok, maybe we should go back?  But we know the van is 700 meters further? Ed texts asking where we are.  We tell him on the bridge.  Turns out they did indeed stop for the bathrooms – but no one waited upstairs to tell us – so……The Cathy’s teamed up and got separated – or the Cathy’s headed in the direction they should have and everyone else got lost. You decide!!  We’re a team now!

Finally reunited with the group, we successfully make it to the van and head off to our next stop, the Tunnel of Nine Turns.  Another fabulous walk – through a covered tunnel with views over the turquoise river and marble cliffs. The added bonus here – besides the fact that we are under cover and out of the rain – are the falling rocks! OMG! We can hear them echoing down the gorge when they fall, but we can also see them – they come tumbling down and make the most awful racket – so loud and brutal sounding!  We never are lucky enough to get a video – but the memory is so vivid!  Rocks bouncing of the sheer rock cliffs, ferns falling with them, then the plunk noise as they hit the river bed.  So scary, but yet majestic. Super cool!

Along the tunnels, there are a number of different posters explaining the development – and destruction – of these tunnels and roads.  A bunch of different typhoons completely destroyed the roads and the bridges here – the pictures are amazing – and incredible to think that these huge concrete structures were destroyed by nature. Creepy scary!

Our next stop is the Old bridge where you can also see the profile of an American Indian!  Totally amazing!  Jimmy turns into a photographer, taking copious pictures of us against the gorge and the old Indian.  Sweet!

Then we are off to lunch – a little early, but Jimmy is winging it now since we are trying to avoid the rain!  We have a traditional Aboriginal lunch of grilled pork, sausage and goat (yes, goat – and it was awesome!), plus a fern salad (exceedingly good -and I don’t like weeds!), sticky rice in bamboo (the best!), soup/broth that was rich and lovely as well as papaya and mochi for dessert.  All fabulous.  An excellent lunch looking out over the mountain cliffs.

Feast handled, we make our way to the Buolowan Suspension bridge which is an amazing structure – with great views over the gorge. Once again, Jimmy becomes photographer – as well as the other Cathy – and we get some great pix as well as views out over the gorge. 

The ladies are getting tired though, so they don’t want to climb up the stairs to a viewpoint – and while we’d love to do it, we are going with the group dynamics and head back to the museum on the property, next to the café where we ate. Jimmy explains all the different cultural aspects of the Taroko people – the tattoos – Foreheads for all children at 7 years of age – on chins for boys once they become hunters and on cheeks for women once they gain a skill such as weaving.  Kind of creepy – and especially icky/painful when we get to the tattoo utensil display with accompanying video.  Eek.  Ugh.

That done, we head off to what will become our last stop of the day – the Temple at the eternal springs. A beautiful temple situated above a waterfall that always runs. Just magical.  We can walk up to the temple – but that is definitely not happening with this group – they are pooped out. Jimmy suggests we walk to the end of the bridge to see the “broken” bridge – from the typhoon – and then take photos and come back. Oh, perfect, we’re in!  Off we go – and it is fabulous! There is a temple in a tunnel beside the bridge – the old road tunnel – with gorgeous golden Buddhas – as well as fabulous views back along the river under the red bridge, and above the bridge along the cliffs and mountains.  It is indeed gorgeous!  And well worth our 5 minute diversions!

The ladies don’t seem to mind, and Jimmy is happy that we’ve been able to see one of his favorite spots (he sent us a photo of this exact place on WhatsApp!).  Our last stop is the Changuang Temple and the little suspension bridge that spans the gorge.  While the ladies go to examine the temple, we hustle over to the bridge – where only 5 people can cross at a time  –  and enjoy an incredible experience walking across the swaying bridge, all alone, looking out over the incredible views down the gorge and river embankments.  Fantastic!

Back at the temple, we climb up the stairs to view the traditional temple with Buddhas and shrines – and the incense burning in the vessel in front of the temple.

By now, the ladies are done and want to go back to the ship – an hour earlier than planned.  We’re fine with that – it’s their tour after all, we just signed on – and we’ve had a fabulous day.  So no arguments here.  Jimmy is very apologetic – knowing we’re the active ones – but we assure him all is good – this has been a great day!  So we head off back to the port – with a quick stop for Jimmy to buy us fresh lemon juice.  We get one regular juice and one mango mixed – and happily slide it in our pack to keep for onboard.

Half an hour later, we are back at the pier, wandering through the little market in the port- but deciding to save our Taiwan dollars for tomorrow – then going through security where somehow, the bottle of mixed juice is lost – I swear the security folks took it.  It was weird.  I had it in the backpack, on the side bottle holder, and the pack took forever to come through the screening. Much longer than it should have.  I never even bothered to look, just took it and slung it on my back. Didn’t know it until we got back to the cabin.  The regular lemon juice was there – but not the mango mix. Hmmmmm….Only thing I can think is that it “fell out” when it came through security.  Bummer…but, nothing to do about it!

And then it is on to our normal routine.  Lounge for cappuccino and hot chocolate – and snacks of shrimp and cheese. Then Gym.  Then Lido bar.  Then Lido Asian buffet for Lumpia and Pork adobo and fried chicken Gyoza. Yum!  Then the early Cantare show – still excellent – we just love those guys. And back to the cabin for a movie and drinks.  A perfect day and evening!

Tomorrow – Taipei – but not city Taipei – more countryside and little villages.  Hoping for better weather – but prepared!