We slept in for a while in the morning. we had no plans until the afternoon so we tried to relax a bit more. Once we were up we made some coffee and then went over and had some breakfast on the beach. It was getting hot fast. We waited a while but the guys were still asleep, so Yulia and I walked to the main street to shop a little. Most of the shops were just opening up, and we pretty much wanted some touristic stuff. We found a few fun things at the shops, I was happy to actually find some nice hot weather shirts that I could use back home, and we eventually bumped into Sasha and Petru as they were up and came to get some iced coffee at one of the shops here. We walked back to the Bungalow and the guys relaxed on the porch while I went to talk to a tour guy over by the Food trucks. We were thinking to do a small tour the next day – but were having a hard time finding something that wasn’t all day. They had a kayaking tour from our beach out to the island in the bay, so we considered that. I grabbed some empanadas on the way back an we had lunch on the deck before our main tour arrived.
We were doing an Estuary tour today. The river was close to our resort, so the shuttle came and it was only 15 minutes to get there. We had to wade out to the boat and our driver was also our guide. He jumped in and we took off up the river. When you get a tour guide you either get a sarcastic guy who doesn’t know much but is making a lot of jokes, or you get someone who knows their stuff and enjoys the tour. We had the latter. Our guide gave us a breakdown of the ecology of the Mangrove trees, how they grow on the shore, and how they can filter brackish water to drink, killing off some of their own leaves as a sacrifice to the salt. It was honestly amazing.
He brought us along shore as we went further upstream to see where the herons were fishing, and how crabs lived in the roots of the trees. He turned the boat into one of the channels, and we were taking a real life jungle cruise with a canopy of trees above us. We rounded a corner and the guide stopped the boat and let us drift close to a crocodile in the water. It was just floating there, so we got close and could take some great photos without disturbing it. We backed away, and went further up river. Further along the guide beached the boat on the bank and we got out for a walk. there were holes all over from the crabs. they all ducked away when they saw us coming. We walked for a while until we saw a family of howler monkeys in the trees above us. they were migrating to feed for the evening, and we caught them just in time. As we watched them run away another tour group walked up behind us and perfectly missed the whole thing. We walked back to the boat while they tried to catch the monkeys.
We went further up river into some real heart of darkness looking trees, and saw a group of racoons hunting the crabs. As soon as they saw us they tried to get close since they know humans have food. We kept moving and saw another crocodile hiding in the mud. A racoon saw us and walked up close to the croc – then saw it at the last minute and ran away. Smart move. We hit the end of the passable river and turned around. As we headed back it started to rain a little. Then a bit more. Then a full monsoon hit and water was streaming off the top of the boat. *Thats* the backside of water. We cruised back and passed the boat of the folks on shore who were still looking for monkeys. That’s going to be a muddy walk. We came out of the small channel into the main and kept cruising back down river. We saw more Herons, and Kingfisher, some fish jumping, and finally pulled back to the anchorage for the boat.
We were pretty wet at this point but this was absolutely the best tour we took. Our guide anchored the boat and drove us back to the resort. We dried off a little but walked down the beach to another covered beach restaurant to have dinner in the rain. We were joined by a stray dog so Yulia bought her some chicken and she ate with us. It’s nice to have a dinner guest sometimes.
Cognitive Dissonance 