In the jungle!

Yep, what have i been up to, today!. I did an Utilan Jungle, hike trekking, which took about eight hours.

Woke up at 6 o’clock this morning, picked up Diego ( my dive buddy) and we went to George, utilan guy we’ve gotten to know. He knows that jungle sight of the island, inside out, and offered to hike with us. So the plan was to do that today, on our day “off ” from diving, wich i think, if i may add, was pretty strange.. Not diving for a whole day!!.. I missed it. Anyways, this is how we decide to spend our off day

Yes, this is me, climbing through a muddy swamp.. this was NOT an easy task 🙂

But i think we were very lucky we had George to guide us through this. We did get a little lost, but we had a compass with us so it was all good..

Ironically, all i could think about, these two times we got lost, was ” and i wrote in my last freakin blog entry, that i was going on this hike, and if i would’nt return, people would know why” !.. kinda funny in an ironic way, if something would have happened, which it did’nt, luckily. 😉

The best example to show you guys how much mudd and swamp we really are talking about, is this picture here i took of George and Diego when we were well on our way, through our trekking.

Crazy huh!, but fun.

So this took us about two and a half hour, until we reached this beautiful beach, i cant describe how happy i was to see that beach.. I mean, i knew we were going for a hike that would take hours, yes, and through this jungle, but Utila is’nt big, and i’ve done this three day jungle trekking in Thailand, but this.. It was hard, but fun 🙂 a good challange. but of course, as George had predicted, i had taken a “royal” fall in the mud, so i fell in the swamp, up to my waist.. it was not a pretty sight and it did NOT feel nice.. Yakk!  Of course, it’s always good to be able to make people laugh, and i did that, right there at that moment, trying to pull myself up from that stupid swamp, the guys could’nt stop laughing.

So hopping into the clear water, rinsing of mudd and bugs. was heavenly.

I did’nt see anything creepy though, during that hike there, some crabs, big ants, mosquitoes. otherwise, bug free

So we chooped down  some coconuts, and drank from them.. You’ve got to love the Caribbean 😉

So after swimming, resting, we started hiking the beach , Diego has a thing for Pelicans, so as soon as he saw them.. well, this is his reaction

Running, screaming, ” Pelicans, Pelicans” Which is of course scaring them away 😉 but it’s a pure joy to see how little it needs for him to feel happy.

And a picture of this  gal 😉

As we were walking through a swamp, Diego stumbled upon a huge Stingray, it gave us a little scare, you dont want to accidentaly step on them, their sting hurts.

So guess what’s going through my mind here while im walking this swamp.. 😉

Im thinking Stingrays and snakes.  A little paranoid.. 😉

After hiking that beach and constant nagging from Diego’s behalf, we decided to prolong our 4 hour hiking up to 3 to four more hours to explore the other side of the Island.

I was promised, there would be NO more muddy swamp paths, fighting trees, cutting our path through the jungle kinda trekk.. No, this would be completely different. Sunshine and lollipops and rainbows all the way…  not quite, but i was promised, wide, almost tree free paths, not muddy and Oh, a little river we had to cross. About waist hight, nothing serious, easy.. and for a moment it looked like that to.

What can i say, i was lied to!.. 🙂

The hike was’nt that bad, but the little river.. well, pictures say more then words

Beautiful sight.

But this was NOT a walk  up to waist water.. No, this was a walk up to neck for awhile, then swimming and then walking again, in a current, so we went from that end there on the picture to where im standing taking this photo, the hard thing about this all was that we had backpacks and my camera.. So what i did was i wrapped it into my T-shirt which i had wrapped around my head , it worked and i got alot of help from George to. i kinda hung on his shoulder some of the way while he walked us through the river, he freaked me out a little bit  when he started talking about snakes.. Plus it was kinda complex swimming with hands full of stuff.

But  as soon as we reached land again, it was amazing. We were walking on lava kinda coral stones. looked like corral underwater, only not as colorful, and grey stones. it was beautiful

All in all a great trip, excellent and adventurous .

Afterwards, of course George tells me that in these muddy swamps and where we had been hiking, you can find alot of life, Snakes, Aligators and so on..  Aligators for crying out loud!..I told him that there was a reason for why i had’nt asked about stuff like that, i Like being ” kept in the dark ” about facts like that 😉

I’ll throw in a picture of the ” Survivors “..

What a trip, and what a gang 🙂 i had so much fun.

Other then that, i will be starting my Dive Master education tomorrow, which im really looking forward to. So i’ll disappear into dreamland now and say to you, Buenas noches peepz