Our Fun and Frugal Family Trip Today

Pic heavy post ahead!

In my country, today was a national holiday, which meant that everyone was off of school and I was off of work. To make it even better, the government decided that inter city public transportation would all be free. Originally I planned on just taking it easy, maybe doing a bit of housework today, but in the end, decided to take the kids on a trip to a beautiful desert oasis a few hour drive from where we live. 

We had a bit of a snafu with getting there; a few buses refused to stop since they were too full, so we went to the central bus station, so we could be the first on the bus, but that was ridiculously packed as well, and incredibly long lines there, as everyone was taking advantage of the free buses the way we did.

Eventually we managed to get to our destination.

It was gorgeous weather. 

Entrance was under 25 dollars for the whole family, and that, combined with the fact that transportation there was free made for a very frugal trip.

We went on a hike along a series of waterfalls...

Which led to pools...

And streams...

So our day was basically...

Going from waterfall to waterfall...

Chilling in pools...

Going down rock slides...

Letting water from the falls pound down on our heads...

Getting awesome massages from the falls...

Seeing some wildlife...

Then hiking over to the next waterfall...

 

And doing it all again...

With a nice amount of time chilling...

And playing in the water...

I have so many awesome pictures, it's so hard to determine my favorite...

 

I did have trouble when I asked my kids to pose for a group photo...

 

These two pics were literally my "best results".

I figured, why not show the non cooperative, "real life" pictures as well.

All in all a great day.

We had a bit of a snafu with the buses coming home, but fortunately we made it back safely home, without needing to order a ridiculously expensive cab.

The kids were a bit disappointed, because originally this was going to be a two part trip, first this nature reserve and then another different one a short bus ride away, but because of the late start because of the bus issues, we didn't manage to do both in the same day...

However, we had a really wonderful day, and I couldn't have asked for a better day off.

And now to bed, because I'm exhausted!