Island Life

I didn’t think island life could be so busy… My usual schedule is work breakfast (7 – 9:30), do room checks and get the am panga (9:30 – 10:30) then do check ins (10:30 – 12), lunch, afternoon free-time, pm panga and more check-ins, help serve dinner, clean up, relax, bed. While it can be a bit tiring, it’s great walking into town twice a day to welcome new travelers off the panga, which for some is a traumatic experience. They’re always happy to see friendly faces.
Yesterday was my first day off since I’ve started working. What an amazing day. Slept in, ate lunch at the lodge and then went adventuring with Charlotte, our massage therapist. As we walked up the beach, we bumped into one of the locals – Dariel, who they proceeded to give us a tour. We saw most of the eastern and northern beaches. The north beaches, where Ensuenos, Dereck’s and Farm, Peace, Love rest are the most beautiful and secluded areas I’ve seen thus far. Covered in this silly, poofy yet prickly grass, it’s like you’re walking on a cloud… They grow into little bubbles (?) that you can sink into. Pictured below is Charlotte sitting in one of the bubble mounds. Along the way, we came across this little girl playing with three one month old adorable puppies, so we sat down and chilled with her, appreciating the ocean view, crazy grass, puppies, company, sun… Very tranquillo.

After moving on, Dariel surprised us by climbing up a tree, like it was no big deal to fetch some coconuts. He borrowed his friends machete (everyone on the island has one and kids learn to use them at a very young age) to cut off the tops of them so we could drink the milk. Imagine, a long walk on the beach, time with puppies, then sitting on a piece of drift wood with our feet in the ocean drinking coconut juice. Ridiculous.

Around this time it was getting to be a little late so we cut through the jungle to the lighthouse – the tower on the island that looks up and over the trees. We stopped here for a little while, then went down through the village to Aguila’s, a little pool/dance hall on the beach, to watch the sun set. I’m living a postcard.

I have very few complaints about it here. My feet have been giving me a lot of problems – blisters, swelling and shin splits, so walking hurts. Not that I’m going to let that stop me. Today I went snorkeling. I saw so many fish… it was so neat having them look at me and question what in the hell is that awkward thing splashing around in the water??? I’ll be doing my diving certification with-in the next month. It’s super busy right now so I need to wait till it slows down a bit… but I’ll be doing my first out in the big ocean snorkeling trip hopefully on Friday!

Do I miss Philadelphia? Not so much… of course, I miss all of my wonderful Philadelphian friends, but cold Philadelphia? Naa…