We flew from Bogota to Cartegana on Aviancia, Colombia’s
national airline. Air Canada and West Jet could learn a thing or two about
effective people moving from these folks. Check in was swift and problem free
even though we ‘no hablo espanol”. Instead of boarding from an elevated walkway
after you pass through the gates you find yourselves stuffed onto a bus, the
bus did get us to the airplane and we all mobbed aboard. Yes, we all had
assigned seats, but you just can’t keep people from rushing the doors I guess.
The flight was smooth, the landing the same. Once we collected our baggage and
– excellent innovation – had it checked against our baggage tags we were out
into the carribean heat. There waiting for us was our driver ready to take us
to our next destination.
We managed to find
enough Spanish to communicate that we were starving for lunch and he dropped us
off at a very nice restaurant. After a reviving seafood meal we were back in
the car for what turned out to be a three and a half hour drive into the boon
docks of the coast. Despite it being the back of beyond the roads were well
travelled and very well policed. Chris counted no less than 7 military or
police check stops. Each time with a jaunty honk our driver breezed through.
There were also 4 toll booths, although I suspect the money didn’t go to keeping
up the road as a number of times we grounded out in the late model Chevy sedan
supplied for the journey. Just when Chris thought we were gonners and the very
respectable man driving the car was actually some sort of odd kidnapper, we
“arrived” in San Onofre. Talk about rural. Our ride to the eco lodge did not
turn out to be the nice new Ford 4 door 4x4 but a rather venerable Toyota with
a rather small cab. I was just grateful that I’m short. I can’t imagine trying
to squeeze a tall person in…All in all, it would be much better to arrive here
by boat or float plane.
The Eco lodge is everything that the propaganda for Caribbean
holidays advertises but doesn’t deliver. This place delivers on all those white
sand, private beach, hammock dreams. Our first night we had the whole place to
ourselves. I walked down the beach to
get a cup of coffee and when I returned, mine were still the only foot prints
on the beach. The folks running this
place are really wonderful, friendly and sweet. We hobble along on a few
Spanish words and phrases and exchange vocabulary with them daily, mostly about
the very tasty food. Margarita and her
sister Viviane seem to run the place with other folks cooking, cleaning and
heaving luggage about. They do a great job.
The food is good. Home cooked with love. Our daily snack has
been a freshly made ice cream or gelato, different each day. All day long there
is fresh hot coffee, fresh coconut and lumps of sugar cane for those nibbly
moments. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are hot and lovingly prepared.
Specialities have been the bbq fish and plantain cakes; the desserts and
interesting salads. With each meal is fresh juice made with local fruits. My
favourite has been the mango pineapple, although the guanabana was also pretty
awesome.
So far the only minor sour note are the bugs. Yes, I hear
you, it is an eco lodge. We did come expecting bugs, but expecting and meeting
are two different things. The massive spider on the beach was a real shocker
because I’d been blithely walking around barefoot. No longer. That damn spider made herself invisible under
a leaf – check the photo if you don’t believe me. The massive black insectoid
scurrying around our room as we closed the blinds took a long time to die after
massive blows from Christopher’s dress shoe – delivered by Sarah I may add. In
every relationship one person has to be the designated bug killer – in ours
that is Sarah. The sole of the shoe had
a nasty wet smearing of bug guts that I suspect are permanent now. We should
have had a clue about the bugs when the welcoming safety briefing included a
massive jar with a collection of foot long centipedes. We were told they aren’t
around this time of year, but they do like wet clothing, so don’t leave any in
your room. Then there was the reassuring pantomime about how to check your
shoes for dangerous denizens – what ever you do, don’t reach inside! But don’t
let the insects put you off. This place is as lovely as they get. The water is
warm like a bath tub, the fish are small, beautiful and non-threatening and I
even saw a small turtle swimming around in the weeds at our beach.
We took a short guided jaunt on a kayak through the
mangroves into a lagoon this afternoon. The water in the mangrove lagoon is so
warm that phytoplankton bloom there. At night you can see your every paddle
stroke glowing with them. We plan to
spend entire days laying in a hammock on the beach reading novels and cooling
off occasionally in the ocean.
The resident parrot, who despite living here for 12 years is
nameless, has an entertaining
relationship with the pair of dogs who also live here. The parrot lives to
steal food. At lunch he managed to make away with a dumpling but the dog leapt
into the air, startling the parrot to the ground, whereupon the dog ate the dumpling.
The dog would probably have eaten the parrot too, but one of the staff called
her off. The male dog arrived late on
the scene and was set to guard the parrot. All very entertaining to us.
Oh! Before I forget, among the bugs are the most beautiful
butterflies, all colours, all sizes. I swear I even saw a blue morpho this
afternoon. And at night there are fire flies. I’ve never seen a fire fly before
– they really are special. And the stars! Wow. They are almost as amazing as
the stars over Texas which is really saying something.
Chris had to remind me about last night’s episode when he
thought there was a bat in our room. There are many bats around eating bugs and
we think a few of them miss calculate and smash into the screens of our room.
We think that because of the screaming and bashing noises they made a few times
in the night. This gives you context for the scream that erupted from the
bathroom when Chris had to answer the call of nature. He woke me up to deal
with a massive bug. Well, it wasn’t a bug, it was a frog and it lives in the
toilet tank because this is the dry season.
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