Reef eco system

We took the opportunity to travel away from the eco lodge with some teachers who were scouting out locations for ‘schools without walls’. I know we have a similar program in Whitehorse, but I was surprised that such exist here in Colombia. We travelled by motor boat to see some of the most beautiful reefs that I’ve ever seen. It was like snorkeling in a very well cared for aquarium. We saw all the fish that appeared in Finding Nemo and more. I wish I could tell you their names and the names of the types of coral we saw, suffice to say it was amazing. Unfortunately, we were on the quick highlights version of the tour so we were only on the reef about a half an hour. From there we went into a mangrove lined inlet. There we saw the fish in their earliest, youngest stages. The lesson is if you don’t preserve the mangroves, you can’t have the reef fish. Students are being taught to respect the entire eco system and to see the linkages between the large and the small. It was very surprising to snorkel in the mangroves and see how the roots trapped soil and provided anchorage fro not just oysters, but also barnacles, sea anemones and untold schools of minuscule fish like confetti.

Guacamaya Attack!

The resident parrot took a dislike to the gardener and attacked him this morning as he was going about his business. Who knows why birds to what they do sometimes.

Hammock Effect

One of our fellow guests was Paulo, a biologist from Medellin who works in the herbarium at the University of , well, we’ll go with Medellin as I didn’t catch the name of the institution. He has learned both French and English and was told by his instructors to seek out Canadians to speak to because he could practise both. In point of fact, his French instructors told him if he could understand the french spoken by a Quebecois he could understand any French anywhere. We had to disappoint him on the French front, but were happy to oblige with our English. He hopes to attend graduate school in the USA and we encouraged him to consider the University of Alaska in Fairbanks for its programming and generosity of grants. I was saddened to hear how both the US and Canadian embassies treat applicants for student visas – not well. One of our conversations petered out we decided because of the hammock effect. The hammock causes such a degree of laziness and sloth it becomes difficult to even carry on a conversation. 

To the Bat Cave Robin!

I should not be surprised but the bugs also come with bats, lots and lots of bats.  They look a lot like the little brown bats we have in the Yukon. I know that there are at least two distinct types here, the fruit bats and the bug bats. The bug bats seem to be the ones that hand out with us in the buildings. The fruit bats have their own specialized home in a massive tree just at the front of the property that also serves as a cellular antenna. When you can’t get reception, stand under the big tree and it seems to come in loud and clear. Our first days here the bats were fairly quiet during the days, occassonally a few would come out and hang out on the walls, likely because of the excessive heat in the rafters where they prefer to sleep. In the last few days the bats have become much more active in the day times. This has coincided with a change in the weather. No longer are the seas glassy calm, and the wind subtle. The winds have picked up and with them the seas, the bats and the bugs.

If I was a Pirate Queen

I’ve always had a bit of a yen to be a pirate queen. Ever since I first saw the label on Anne Bonnie Rum I’ve wanted to be that woman with the big smile, sword, pantaloons and shiny earing. This would be my lair, although I think I’d include rum with my lair. I’ve told the resident parrot that he’d be welcome on my adventures and I think he really liked the idea. He certainly seems to like my yellow dress, whenever I wear it he always makes a point of greeting me.  We took a video of his antics and hope you find him as charming as we did.

What day is it again?

Chris succeeded in extending our stay here in the eco lodge, and really I have no idea what day it is. The calm just settles in on you.  The inspiration for this post is phytoplankton. One of the excursions offered by the lodge is to go to a sheltered lagoon on a moonless night to experience the glow of phytoplankton.  As a child in Nova Scotia I experienced the glow under a moonless sky maybe twice. It was nothing compared to this. I wish that we’d been able to take a photograph, words are just not enough. If you have seen the movie Avatar, there is a special effect that looks very much like the glow that surrounds your fings, your paddle and outlines every fish and frog that zips along through the water. It is like having your own personal silent pyrotechnics.

Cartagena to Sanguare Riserva Naturale

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.