The next morning the camp began to stir before dawn and the arduous task of loading the mules began. By nine o’clock everyone had breakfasted and the mules were under way. It had taken a good three hours to get the loads properly placed on the balky animals. Larra could only hope that as the days progressed the muleskinners would improve their speed.

The expedition followed the Mayan causeway. It led through a narrow valley that was thick with rainforest vegetation. They made very slow progress. Much of the trail was choked with vegetation that had to be hacked out of the way by the Mayan villagers that Larra had hired when she had picked up the mules. The Guatemalan villagers had had a free ride up until now, but now they really earned their money, working in teams to slash a path for the mules.

The first day the expedition made only three miles. The next it made only two, and the third just four. However, as they worked their way up the valley the vegetation began to thin. The rise in elevation led to rockier ground where the vegetation was not as thick.

Larra hoped that her hunch about the causeway would pay off. She had not been able to decipher enough of the glyphs on the stele to be really sure that she was on the right track, but someone had cut the track originally, and that someone did not seem to be about anymore. Slowly but surely the party wound itself deeper and deeper into the mountains. On the Monday of the second week of the mule-trek the there could be heard a distant rumbling.

"That sounds like falling water," speculated Amy.

"I think you are right," answered Larra. We have crossed quite a few streams already so I guess it was only a matter if time."

An hour later the expedition came upon a spectacular sight. To their left a high waterfall plunged down a sheer cliff above them and splashed at their feet. There it formed a deep plunge pool before it overflowed and dropped into a deep chasm. Far below Larra could make out the glint of water. They were completely blocked. To their left was the sheer cliff and its spectacular waterfall; directly ahead and to their right was the yawning canyon. They could go no farther.

Amy and Katie stood beside Larra, looking into the canyon. "This looks like the end of the line," said Katie. "There is no way we can get the mules past here."

Larra was puzzled. She was still standing on the Mayan causeway. It didn’t make any sense to her to build such a road to the edge of a cliff without some sort of rationale.

"There is something strange here," she said. Suddenly she turned to Katie and Amy. "You know, after all those days of marching through the damned rainforest, I feel like a swim."

Larra shouted to the Indian villagers. "Set up camp back down the trail. We’re staying here tonight."

She then ducked behind a large boulder and stripped off her clothes, revealing her magnificently muscled body. Within a few seconds she had jumped into the plunge pool and was swimming across it towards the bottom of the cataract. She turned over on her back and waved to the other two women. "Come on in, the water is fantastic!"

"Katie was into the water within a couple of minutes. Amy was a little slower. "What if one of the Indians peeked at them?" she thought.

Amy was also a little self-conscious about her body. She simply could not match Larra or Katie in physical development. The fact that most other women would have died to have a body like hers was lost on the gorgeous redhead when she was in the presence of Katie and Larra.

Katie was into the water now, floating on her back, her magnificent breasts jutting out of the water as she backstroked her way toward Larra. Larra by now had almost reached the base of the waterfall. Suddenly Larra pointed her shapely derriere into the air and dove out of sight. Amy shucked the rest of her clothes and tentatively stuck her foot into the cool water. "What was Larra up to?"

"Where did she go?" shouted Katie, as she neared the spot where Larra had disappeared.

"I don’t know," shouted back Amy, wading up to her waist into the pool. Making up her mind, Amy surged into the water and began to breaststroke towards where Larra had been. The water felt deliciously cool after the ordeal of the rainforest hike. This was paradise, but she was almost in a panic about Larra.

Suddenly Larra re-emerged almost at the spot she had disappeared. She had only been gone for a minute, but it had seemed like an hour to Katie and Amy. Larra was grinning from ear to ear. "I found the trail," she said, "It is on the other side of the waterfall. We camp here tonight, and tomorrow we go exploring. Yippee!" She let out a long joyful scream.

By this time a number of the Indian villagers had assembled at the edge of the pool. "They stood there, taking in the remarkable sight of three naked nymphs swimming jubilantly in a forest pool."