17 May 2025
Written by Henry Meyer
Hey, quick note. There is a blog in English, and one in Spanish. This is the English one. Si quieres leer el blog en español, selecciona la versión con el título en español.
Today was the last full day with our host families in Aibonito. Tomorrow we will have a goodbye party after the service at the Mennonite church in Aibonito, but for now we will stay with our families one more night.
The day started with each student with their family doing activities together. One group of students went to a zipline, and others decided to stay at home to rest. I had other ideas. Since the first days in Aibonito, I wanted to go to a rock, balanced precariously above a road leaving Aibonito. We drove on the road below the stone during a few trips to other towns, and every time I looked at it with a desire to climb up before the end of the trip. Fortunately, my host father likes to climb mountains.
The view of the balancing rock from above and far away.
We went by car to the road immediately below the stone and we started to go up the mountain. I thought that it was going to be easy, I thought that there would be a path or something similar, but it wasn’t like that at all. We climbed over slippery rocks and grabbed the trunks of trees to lift ourselves up. Everything was wet and there was a lot of mud caused by the rain earlier in the night and morning.
After passing a small cave and going up a little further, finally we saw the Puerto Rican flag painted on the side of the rock. We did it! And the view was worth the dangerous climb. We could even see the rain falling over a distant peak.
In the afternoon, the group decided to meet up at a community member’s house because it had a pool and space to cook hamburgers and hot dogs. We spent the afternoon together, playing card games, dancing, swimming and jumping into the pool, and to end a beautiful day – enjoying an incredible view of the mountains and the sunset. We are very grateful for the opportunity to spend these days with the families in Aibonito and everything that they have done for us students. Thank you! We are going to miss everyone!
