Our adventure for the day yesterday was hiking in Taroko National Park.  Taroko is a highland nature preserve, and the scenery is gorgeous.  We would have spent the entire day there, but due to dangerous falling rock conditions in parts of the park, we only went on Shakadang trail in the morning. The hiking was not too difficult at all because there was a good path the entire way.  We walked for about forty minutes to get to a spot along the river that was accessible so that we could go wading.  It was so beautiful and the water was pleasantly cool.  The adventurous people climbed around on some of the large rocks, and two girls even went swimming.  I would have liked exploring more, but I haven't walked barefoot enough this summer, so it was not very comfortable to walk on the rocky bottom.  I found the perfect rock to relax on with my legs in the water though.  It was such an enjoyable morning.  We stayed in this place for quite a long time before we had to head back to the bus.

It is really hard to tell from the pictures, but these were huge rocks.  They far exceeded the title of boulder, and would more appropriately be called small mountains.

Lizard number one

From left to right: Me, Corinne, Stephanie, Carolina, Flora, Rebecca

Lizard number two...I was the first to spot this one :)

This is the gorgeous place where we stopped to wade in the river

I was just so amazed by how blue the water looked.  It almost looked like it had been dyed, but that was its actual color.  So pretty!

Rock slides also made our original route from Taroko to Meifeng Farm very dangerous, so we adjusted the schedule by going back to NTU after lunch and staying there for the night.  Corinne, Stephanie and I were really starting to miss American food, especially beef, so back on campus we went to a restaurant called Second Floor Cafe for dinner.  While the cuisine was definitely "American" (air quotes necessary) it was still a good change from eating Chinese food for every meal for the past two weeks.  I had a smoked beef sandwich with French fries.  It had a boiled egg on it, so I could definitely still tell I was in Asia, but it still tasted really good.

I saved some of the French fries for breakfast this morning and warmed them up in the toaster oven in the dorm. It was delicious.  Today we drove down the western side of Taiwan to get to Meifeng Farm in the central mountains.  It was so cool to see all of the greenhouses and farms along the way.  I recognized bananas, cabbage, rice, and I think tea.  There were some others that I wasn't sure what they were.  Actually, we started to see rice fields and some other crops yesterday too, but I didn't mention it earlier. Up in the mountains at Meifeng it is much cooler than in Taipei.  It was probably in the low seventies when we got here late this afternoon.  It is such a pleasant change to be in a cooler and more rural atmosphere!  I am excited to see more of the farm and such over the next three days, but I'm not excited about having to be on the bus at 5am tomorrow morning!  Oh well, at least we will be looking at some more crop plant related things.  :)  I'm looking forward to finding out more about some of the different plants they grow here.