All in a days work
So where was I....
10-24> The death Lagoon. So after falling asleep to the sound of waves crashing in the distance we wake up in time to still get a hot cup of coffee before we embark on our journey into the lagoon. Just south of La Grandoca is a very large lagoon and the local chaps agree that it is one of the best places to catch a glimpse at some WILD LIFE. We set out on this trip. The man from the cabin helps us get to the sea and we begin to paddle south. Hayley is telling me about a cute story called Paddle to the Sea and we are doing quite well on our voyage, its tiring.. but good. Once we arrive at the lagoon, it is completely calm. Seems like a good place to relax, there are several local people around, enjoying their Sunday, fishing, swimming, but mostly fishing. There are even some fishermen at the other side of the Lagoon
We start by cruising by the side of the lagoon, some cool mangroves, maybe we can even see an iguana or two, but we find that the kayak is becoming more and more difficult to control. It seems like every slight movement makes the kayak rock out of control. This is not good, and we had just discussed that we did not want to swim in these waters, not at all. There are unseen parasites and I don't even want to mention crocs and caymans... But we jinxed ourselves, because shortly after that we flipped the things. FUCK! PANIC! don't touch the ground, flip the kayak, get in the kayak, to much water in the kayak, wheres the paddles, fuck. I don't like to use profanities so much but there was really no other words for this. As one of the paddles starts to float away, we are able to get in and settle the kayak and maneuver ourselves over to pick it up. Thank god I put my camera in a plastic baggy.
So our kayak is filled with water, now making it even more difficult to control, but we manage to turn around... destination, BEACH! solid ground! NOT being in the kayak. But now even more then before the kayak is not in our control. Every single movement makes it rock like crazy. Our bodies feel so tense because we are trying not to move and each movement of the kayak makes us try to counteract. Not an easy task in a sinking kayak. Also I'm sure you can imagine the blame game going on, "what are you doing! Don't move like that! Stop doing that! AHHH!" (to name a few) And what do you know we FLIP AGAIN! shit! We are in rough shape now, so we hollar for the fisherman. I really thought that they were just going to watch a couple of dumb gringas stuggle with a sinking Kayak, but they turned out to be Chemistry Students from the National University of Heredia. And wouldnt you know... right before we climbed into their boat... WE FLIPPED AGAIN!
Thank god they were there, seriously, things could have been really bad. We talk to our new heroes, and it was pretty funny, one guy had a colleague at UW-Milwaukee, another studied in North Dakota and was a Viking fan! Small world. They return us to the beach safe and sound. We thank them profusely and begin to drain the kayak. Yes drain the kayak. It turns out it was no ones fault but the kayak. It had a hole in it. We couldn't have really known. We were domed from the beginning.
Oh and my camera, the bag was faulty too.. camera was wet, but I had faith. Perhaps just putting in a bag of rice would save it... perhaps...
So we return to the cabin.... inform mister Panama that kayak #1 has a hole, pack up and head for Bribri! Word on the street is that there are some pretty kick ass waterfalls! In the camino we run into our old pals Kenneth, Roberto and Juany (jajuany..., the truth is, I don't realy know what his name is), but we all decide to head to the falls at Bribri.
We zip though Bribris brief town centre and the unpaved trail begins. We stop along the way because we saw a Guanabana tree and an orange tree. We stock up and head on our way, Hanzel, the Korean-Japanese car is really doing his thing. Then we get to the first river to cross. Roberto has a little fast and furious honda, so the guys all jump in Hanzel and we blast through the river and start heading up the mountains. We are looking for an unmarked entrance into the jungle for a path that leads to the waterfall. Sounds easy, doesn't it.
Long story short we go way to far up the hill, but there is a young man with a machete that instruct us to turn around and go back past the second river in the road and blah blah blah, some rando directions. I guess he was just some young man that wanted to get away and was going hunting in the jungle. Anyway we follow his directions and Hanzel descends the boulder infested camino. We decided to give Hanzel a break, park him and head out on our feet. Up the mountain we go...
We really don't know where we are going but we go up and down and around, until the trail comes to a stop with a fence in the road, but a river intersecting so we think we might be close. We follow the river down about 25m and get nothing, Kenneth goes up the river a little bit leaving Hayley, Roberto, Yujuany and I waiting down near the fence. Kenneth hasn't been gone but 2mins when we start to hear a sound... I ask Yujuany what it could be, dogs or monkeys... plus the occasional grito from Kenneth. These guys scream all the time was I just kinda figure maybe Kenneth was pumped about finding the falls.... boy was I wrong.
We are pretty sure this time the noise is dogs barking, and Kenneth is definitely yelling... We take the liberty and open the gate and head up the road some more. Still all we here is Kenneth yelling. Now he is saying things "Cerdo Asesino! Ayudame! jajaja" "Assassin PIG! HELP!, haha" His laughter makes me think is just a joke. But then we see him, it's like he is stuck on the trail. He has a stick in his hands and he is swingly it infront of him. He yells that the pig will not let him past! We are all dying of laughter. I didn't really know what to think until I saw the PIG! It was HUGE and it was going right for him. They scaring thing is, pig eat anything, and this guy was gigantic!
So it turns out Kenneth entered some private property, and they had dogs, pigs, chickens, horse, and none of these things wanted Kenneth running around. The whole event was causing quite the commotion. Another young mountain man with a machete appeared out of nowhere to his what he were up to.. we explain the situation and he says he'll take us to the falls no problem. Meanwhile Kenneth is getting an entire farm mad at him. By this point he got chased by the pig up and around and he comes out on the trail above us, running. We all start to run back to the gate as well because there is a huge ALBINO HORSE (you know, all white, creepy red eyes) chasing him! We all get through the gate in time to close it behind us and not let the horse out..... OOOOOSH that was a close one. Que Risa! I haven't laughed so hard in a long time.
So we finally make it to the waterfalls! Amazing. The first ones prolly 50ft high, and standing under it is like standing under a fire hose on full blast, this baby is powerful. After our fill of that we head to the falls above were with is a nice place to jump off a fall about 10ft high and take in the jungle.
We decide to leave before it gets to late, once the sunsets at 6pm, thats about it for the light... so we head to Cahuita. Cool little town on the Caribe coast. We set up shop at Cocos bar, request the Packer Viking game to be projected on the big screen, order some ceviche and platacones and watch the game to the jams of a live local reggae band.. pura vida, I don't think things could get any better then this. What a way to end the day. And what a day it was..
10-24> The death Lagoon. So after falling asleep to the sound of waves crashing in the distance we wake up in time to still get a hot cup of coffee before we embark on our journey into the lagoon. Just south of La Grandoca is a very large lagoon and the local chaps agree that it is one of the best places to catch a glimpse at some WILD LIFE. We set out on this trip. The man from the cabin helps us get to the sea and we begin to paddle south. Hayley is telling me about a cute story called Paddle to the Sea and we are doing quite well on our voyage, its tiring.. but good. Once we arrive at the lagoon, it is completely calm. Seems like a good place to relax, there are several local people around, enjoying their Sunday, fishing, swimming, but mostly fishing. There are even some fishermen at the other side of the Lagoon
We start by cruising by the side of the lagoon, some cool mangroves, maybe we can even see an iguana or two, but we find that the kayak is becoming more and more difficult to control. It seems like every slight movement makes the kayak rock out of control. This is not good, and we had just discussed that we did not want to swim in these waters, not at all. There are unseen parasites and I don't even want to mention crocs and caymans... But we jinxed ourselves, because shortly after that we flipped the things. FUCK! PANIC! don't touch the ground, flip the kayak, get in the kayak, to much water in the kayak, wheres the paddles, fuck. I don't like to use profanities so much but there was really no other words for this. As one of the paddles starts to float away, we are able to get in and settle the kayak and maneuver ourselves over to pick it up. Thank god I put my camera in a plastic baggy.
So our kayak is filled with water, now making it even more difficult to control, but we manage to turn around... destination, BEACH! solid ground! NOT being in the kayak. But now even more then before the kayak is not in our control. Every single movement makes it rock like crazy. Our bodies feel so tense because we are trying not to move and each movement of the kayak makes us try to counteract. Not an easy task in a sinking kayak. Also I'm sure you can imagine the blame game going on, "what are you doing! Don't move like that! Stop doing that! AHHH!" (to name a few) And what do you know we FLIP AGAIN! shit! We are in rough shape now, so we hollar for the fisherman. I really thought that they were just going to watch a couple of dumb gringas stuggle with a sinking Kayak, but they turned out to be Chemistry Students from the National University of Heredia. And wouldnt you know... right before we climbed into their boat... WE FLIPPED AGAIN!
Thank god they were there, seriously, things could have been really bad. We talk to our new heroes, and it was pretty funny, one guy had a colleague at UW-Milwaukee, another studied in North Dakota and was a Viking fan! Small world. They return us to the beach safe and sound. We thank them profusely and begin to drain the kayak. Yes drain the kayak. It turns out it was no ones fault but the kayak. It had a hole in it. We couldn't have really known. We were domed from the beginning.
Oh and my camera, the bag was faulty too.. camera was wet, but I had faith. Perhaps just putting in a bag of rice would save it... perhaps...
So we return to the cabin.... inform mister Panama that kayak #1 has a hole, pack up and head for Bribri! Word on the street is that there are some pretty kick ass waterfalls! In the camino we run into our old pals Kenneth, Roberto and Juany (jajuany..., the truth is, I don't realy know what his name is), but we all decide to head to the falls at Bribri.
We zip though Bribris brief town centre and the unpaved trail begins. We stop along the way because we saw a Guanabana tree and an orange tree. We stock up and head on our way, Hanzel, the Korean-Japanese car is really doing his thing. Then we get to the first river to cross. Roberto has a little fast and furious honda, so the guys all jump in Hanzel and we blast through the river and start heading up the mountains. We are looking for an unmarked entrance into the jungle for a path that leads to the waterfall. Sounds easy, doesn't it.
Long story short we go way to far up the hill, but there is a young man with a machete that instruct us to turn around and go back past the second river in the road and blah blah blah, some rando directions. I guess he was just some young man that wanted to get away and was going hunting in the jungle. Anyway we follow his directions and Hanzel descends the boulder infested camino. We decided to give Hanzel a break, park him and head out on our feet. Up the mountain we go...
We really don't know where we are going but we go up and down and around, until the trail comes to a stop with a fence in the road, but a river intersecting so we think we might be close. We follow the river down about 25m and get nothing, Kenneth goes up the river a little bit leaving Hayley, Roberto, Yujuany and I waiting down near the fence. Kenneth hasn't been gone but 2mins when we start to hear a sound... I ask Yujuany what it could be, dogs or monkeys... plus the occasional grito from Kenneth. These guys scream all the time was I just kinda figure maybe Kenneth was pumped about finding the falls.... boy was I wrong.
We are pretty sure this time the noise is dogs barking, and Kenneth is definitely yelling... We take the liberty and open the gate and head up the road some more. Still all we here is Kenneth yelling. Now he is saying things "Cerdo Asesino! Ayudame! jajaja" "Assassin PIG! HELP!, haha" His laughter makes me think is just a joke. But then we see him, it's like he is stuck on the trail. He has a stick in his hands and he is swingly it infront of him. He yells that the pig will not let him past! We are all dying of laughter. I didn't really know what to think until I saw the PIG! It was HUGE and it was going right for him. They scaring thing is, pig eat anything, and this guy was gigantic!
So it turns out Kenneth entered some private property, and they had dogs, pigs, chickens, horse, and none of these things wanted Kenneth running around. The whole event was causing quite the commotion. Another young mountain man with a machete appeared out of nowhere to his what he were up to.. we explain the situation and he says he'll take us to the falls no problem. Meanwhile Kenneth is getting an entire farm mad at him. By this point he got chased by the pig up and around and he comes out on the trail above us, running. We all start to run back to the gate as well because there is a huge ALBINO HORSE (you know, all white, creepy red eyes) chasing him! We all get through the gate in time to close it behind us and not let the horse out..... OOOOOSH that was a close one. Que Risa! I haven't laughed so hard in a long time.
So we finally make it to the waterfalls! Amazing. The first ones prolly 50ft high, and standing under it is like standing under a fire hose on full blast, this baby is powerful. After our fill of that we head to the falls above were with is a nice place to jump off a fall about 10ft high and take in the jungle.
We decide to leave before it gets to late, once the sunsets at 6pm, thats about it for the light... so we head to Cahuita. Cool little town on the Caribe coast. We set up shop at Cocos bar, request the Packer Viking game to be projected on the big screen, order some ceviche and platacones and watch the game to the jams of a live local reggae band.. pura vida, I don't think things could get any better then this. What a way to end the day. And what a day it was..
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