Intrepid adventurer Mike

It’s hard to know where to start when talking about our experiences today. We sweated, we hiked, we sweated, we ate, we sweated, we kayaked, we sweated, we drank, we ate, we laughed and shared, and we realized that we just had a most amazing day.

Let’s go back a day. After each day’s adventure, the choices for the next day of activities is presented and you are asked what you would like to sign up for. The choices for today, Monday, were broken into the two halves of the day. The morning had the choice of a shorter hike into the rain forest region that would be at a slower pace with the potential to see some good examples of rain forest birds on a flat, even trail and would likely have fewer mosquitoes. Another choice was the longer hike up higher into the more primary rain forest that would involve a faster pace, more rugged terrain, possible heavy mud, probably more mosquitoes, and possibly more fauna. For the afternoon, the choices were a shorter kayak trip into the mangroves at a slower pace, a skiff tour into the mangroves, or a longer kayak trip into the mangroves that would be at a faster pace.

There were some real pluses and minuses to each choice as we considered the options. First, it’s so humid that any physical activity feels more difficult. Second, Tami had some persistent knee wonkiness as usual, and additionally there was the question of how many mosquitoes we wanted to deal with. But here we were at the beginning of the adventure and we just decided to go for it. We chose Long and Long. Of course, when choosing the kayak option, Mike at first thought it was a choice between using a long kayak or a short kayak. Tami soon corrected his thinking.

Monday dawned, we had a great breakfast that featured a local dish with seasoned rice and black beans among other items, and then we scurried down to our cabin to don our bug repellent shirts (thanks to REI and Ex Officio) and long pants, slather up with DEET and sunscreen, ensure we had two water bottles each and electrolyte tablets, and make it to the fantail in time to get our PFD’s, move our ‘Ashore’ markers to show that we were off the ship, and use the ‘Viking’ grip to get into the skiff. Uncruise does a great job of setting up a simple routine for each disembarkation to ensure it’s safe and easy, and they know where everyone is at all times.

Once again we boarded the skiffs and headed to shore, this time landing on a black sand beach. As we headed towards the start of the trail into the jungle at Punta Pitano we started seeing hordes of little crabs scuttling across the beach away from us. They were bright orange and had big eyes on the ends of stalks and looked like cartoon versions of a crab. They were very fast and were running from the surf to the top of the beach where they would disappear into little holes in the beach. At one point a huge gang of them started running directly towards us, which was a little disconcerting, but we must have soon come within range of those huge eyeballs because someone sighted us and the whole crew diverted away.

Got the crabs!

Off we went up the trail into the rain forest. It was humid and oh so hot when we were in the sun, but once we got under the tree canopy it was noticeably cooler. Still humid and not actually cool, but certainly more comfortable. The path climbed up onto the ridge along some very steep sections, but mostly it was more gradual rolling terrain. Every 10-15 minutes our guide, Erika, would stop to show us something (and give us a chance to catch our breath and drink a little water). Tami was happy that her knee was behaving itself.

Our guide Erika

Big tree – basically hollow to hold water, sounds like a drum when pounded

At one point Erika stopped and poked her finger into a termite nest in a tree and let a number of them crawl onto her hand. (Tami was thinking eww!) She said they can be a good source of nourishment if you find yourself lost in the rain forest, and offered us tastes. Tami found they were crunchy and tasted a bit nutty and a bit woody, but as one person noted, there was also a strong tasted of DEET (as we were all slathered with the stuff).

Flowers and butterflies

Not sure what these were

Random flower

Papayas

Just at the point that Mike was starting to think “when do we turn around?”, Erika announced that it was time to head back (YAY!). Back at the beach we all had our fill of fresh coconut water out of coconuts they were opening as we arrived (very refreshing after the hike), then jumped in the skiffs to return to the ship for lunch. We were both feeling a bit worn out, but happy that we made the choice we did, and lunch revived us well.

Preparing coconut water

After lunch it was time to head back out for the kayaking. We had debated whether we were up to another expedition, but decided to go for it. That was the right choice as this turned out to be the best thing we had done on the trip so far.

They had already taken the kayaks to a beach at the mouth of a river leading back into the mangrove swamps, and just skiffed us over to them so we would not have to paddle across the open water from the ship and could spend our time in the mangroves.

Erika was our guide again (yay!) and she set a leisurely pace paddling up river, stopping to point out birds, trees, etc. When we would come to openings in the mangroves, she would lead us paddling back in under the overhanging trees to explore. These explorations were particularly cool, both literally and figuratively as it got us out of the sun and in amongst the mangroves. We saw more little crabs of a different type climbing around on the roots of the mangroves and as we sat under the canopy of trees in our kayaks it was so quiet that we could hear all sorts of unfamiliar birds in the distance making those tropical bird sounds as well as the distant rumble of thunder. It was truly magical.

Kayaking in the mangroves – picture provided by Uncruise

Sure enough, once again just again as Mike was starting to flag and wonder “when do we turn around?”, Erika announced that it was time to head back (YAY!). As we were paddling back down river, the birds were becoming more active as dusk approached. We saw flocks of Ibis flying over the river, and the pelicans were dive bombing for fish all around us.

It was a most memorable experience and we have no pictures to share except the one from Uncruise because we opted to not bring a camera so we could just enjoy the visit. Fun for us, less so for readers!

Back at the beach we loaded up in the skiffs for a return to the ship for dinner and and early bed.