It was the usual day. Wake up, shower, breakfast of
something Spanish (not really sure I remember what it was). Today we were going
to visit the Laguna De Apoyo (a huge lagoon nearby that is about 3.7 miles across). We
arrived in front of the school at around 8:50 AM as we were leaving at 9 AM.
The same tour guide that showed us the islands brought a bus for us to go to
the lagoona. The trip there as only about 15 minutes long and was quite pretty
as we eventually started down the road into the crater where the lagoon is
located. This showed the water stretching out in the massive crater and the
green trees everywhere. In some ways this crater reminded me of Crater Lake
except much more massive and without the center island. Another thing about
this crater is that there is really only one road leading down to the houses
along the way and sketchy foot paths besides that (more on this later). The
carter is rimmed with trees and the water is so clear that you can see down at
least 30 feet (even though the lagoon itself is probably 200 meters deep in
places (Nessie del Sur was probably watching us swim)).
We
arrived at our destination (called Monkey Hut) which is a resort on the lagoon
where people can rent rooms, get drinks, enjoy the beach, paddle kayaks around
etc. It cost $6 to have unlimited access to the boats and resort for the day.
We also received a black card where we could get drinks from the bar and then
pay at the end of the day (now I know what Lonely Island is talking about in
their song “Jack Sparrow”). The resort was built on the hill of the crater with
a generous piece of beach to play around on. There are chairs to take in the
sun and a dock to jump off into the water. This dock is probably 15 foot above
the water at the end nearest the water. The water level seemed to be a bit low
when we were there. After waiting for sunscreen to soak in a bit, we headed in
the water. The water was absolutely beautiful (with crisp clear water that was
about 60 or so degrees (so warm and refreshing)). I checked out the area beyond
the dock before I went and jumped off, but it was so much fun. After that we
basically swam for quite a long time. There were two floating platforms in the
water not too far from the shore and we basically ended up chilling and hanging
on them for quite some time. We also paddled around the shore area a bit with
the plastic sit-on-top kayaks that were about as hydrodynamic as a floating
rectangle of wood. Naw, they weren’t too bad. Anyways we then ordered lunch. I
had a chicken sandwich on a bun with French fries that was actually quite good.
Earlier on in the morning several other members of the group and I have wanted
to paddle across the lagoon and see the other side (keep in mind this is about
3.7 miles on way), but we wanted to have lunch first.
The Lagoon from Catarina (look at Day 11 for more info). Pretty dang big right?
After lunch we suited
up with sunscreen and bought some water. One of the other members of the group
named Matt (from UNC) had decided that he would go with me on this epic quest
(which is what it turned into). So Matt, Mark and Kendal started on our trip.
We paddle for about 20 minutes and then Mark and Kendal decided to head back
for Monkey Hut. Matt and I decided to continue to see if we could reach a
slightly closer shoreline. We paddled for another 20 minutes and then decided
to head back. This was our mistake: we turned too much on the way back (instead
of just turning around 180 degrees we over-rotated and ended up heading to
shore to the right of Monkey Hut). Consequently, by the time we started getting
closer to the shore, we were vastly off course. We had left at 3:30 PM for the
kayaking and I had started my stopwatch then to keep a record of how long the
trip was. Matt and I kept thinking the resort had to be within paddling
distance and consequently we kept paddling and paddling and paddling. For a
sense of direction, if one were standing on the shore of the resort looking
into the lagoon, then we started heading clockwise around the lagoon just past
Monkey Hut. We thought that we had ended up to counterclockwise of the resort
and just kept paddling for almost an hour. We then realized that we had made a
grave mistake as the yellow bank (that we were paddling toward) that that
initially had been on our right, was now directly in front of us. We then
decided that we were thoroughly lost and decided to ask for help to get to
Monkey Hut. We saw a white house in the distance and decided to head for that.
We arrived at the white house to find the place was deserted and padlocked. The
weird part was that the one room in the building had a bed and furniture in it,
but no extra furnishings (not one piece of anything besides furniture). It was
very strange. I paddled out into the lagoon to see if there were any houses
near this so we could go there and ask for help. Sadly, there were not any
clockwise of our present location (as we were really in the boondocks). We then
decided to head back counterclockwise around the lagoon to find someone at
their house to see if they could give us directions or use a phone or drive a
boat back. The first place we stopped at was this family looking after this
rich person’s house (and living in this small house adjacent to it). The woman
there was hesitant to approach us as is quite reasonable, but she offered to call
numbers we gave her. Unfortunately, neither of us could remember any numbers
that were usable (as I didn’t have my phone). The woman also told us that we
could walk a sketchy foot path to the road where the bus had already left, so
we decided to keep paddling. We stopped at another house that was empty (no
people) and was under construction, so we continued counterclockwise on the
shore. Keep in mind that each house was like 5 minutes plus since the last
place, so by this time we had been paddling for quite some time. The next place
we stopped at had this nice couple who came down as were joking that we weren’t
lost (even though we clearly were) and told us to go to yet another house with
a boat. After paddling yet another 5 minutes, we arrive there and spoke to the
guy who owned a Mitsubishi land cruiser-esque vehicle. We asked if he could
take us to Monkey Hut and he said in English that we were going to put the
kayaks in a trailer and go. We ended up strapping the kayaks in the car and
squeezing in 4 people (the guy, his son (late 30s early 40s) who helped pack up
the boats and the two of us). These kayaks were huge tubs of plastic about 8 to
10 foot long and 2 or 3 foot across. We then traveled on this bumpy back road
along the shore for 10 minutes before we returned to Monkey Hut. We returned almost
3 hours and 20 minutes after we set out (remember I had started my stopwatch? Eerie
right? O.o). The staff at the Monkey Hut too the kayaks back and Mark and
Kendall were waiting for us. Luckily they were still there as they had planned
on leaving pretty soon (the rest of the group had left at like 4 ish). I heard
one of the staff members say that we ended up almost on the other side of the
lake because of how far we had gone. The guy that drove us to Monkey Hut
refused to accept any money for helping us out. We then rode back to Granada in
a taxi and even though it cost $15, Matt and I were quite happy to be on dry
land and safe again. The rest of the night was much less exciting. Later
Charlotte told Matt and I about how her homestay mother freaked out when she
heard that we were lost on the lake because apparently there is a legend of female
ghosts on the lake that lead guys to do stupid things out there. Who knows
maybe the Sirens del Sur were calling O.o
No comments:
Post a Comment