3$ paradise

On Friday, I heard a group was going to camp at a beach. I was not really feeling it, but last minute I said that I would go. 

On Saturday, the group of us set out. We walked to the bus stop and hopped on a bus for 70 cents.  We rode the bus to the end of its course, through the big cities, swinging around curvy roads overlooking the ocean.  We finally arrived at the last bus stop and walked to the National Park. 

Originally we thought camping was free, but it turned out you need a guide to go with you. There was two beaches to travel to. We were going to go to monkey beach, but a landslide happened and the trail was washed away. So, the only way to the beach was by boat. So we settled with the other option, Turtle Beach! As we were leaving I bought some Chinese Coca-cola and the lady working gave me free samosas.

We hiked for about two hours through the jungle, up a rough trail!  Our guide showed us many plants growing and we ate some and smelled others. One of my squad mates (Taylor) shoes split in half and she had to hike in them with tape.  After we hiked the two hours through the beautiful jungle we arrived at a secluded beach; beautiful white sand, with the jungles hills surrounding the cove.  In the middle of the beach was a little pier.   

I quickly set up my tent because it looked like it was going to rain and then I walked down to the beach. On my way to the beach, monkeys were everywhere. I went up to one and then it just attacked me!  The thing just jumped on me and hit/bit my toe. Then he walked away. ( I got the whole thing on video too).  Anyways the rest of the time I kept a stick with me to swing at the monkeys. It was like something out of a movie… fighting off wild monkeys in the jungle. 

At the beach we all gathered in awe of the wonderful creation God had created. The waters were infested with jelly fish. The signs said not to swim but a few of us did anyway.  We got away with it at first, even though we saw jellyfish we still had not been stung, then one stung my team mate Izac. Izac was so calm and was like “hey guys I just got stung by a jellyfish, this is awesome!” . 

Then we walked to the other side of the cove that we had all to ourselves and their was a turtle rescue place. It turned out they were going to randomly be releasing some into the ocean that night.  We watched the sunset and a huge storm came approaching… thunder and strong wind filled the area. I asked god to just turn it the other way for a little and sure enough the storm halted. Claire and I touched the head of a jellyfish and did not get stung!  We got to see baby sea turtles “crawl” and swim into the ocean. We named some and had them race. One had lots of trouble walking, he kept flipping on his back, but he eventually made it to the ocean! 

I headed back to the beach and hung out in the sand.  We went back to the camp site for a bit and that night I went out on the pier. James was fishing and caught one right once I got there. I looked into the water and all the fish were glowing in the dark! The Plankton in the water glowed whenever it was stirred, so we could see all the small fish and some big ones. I saw one that had to be five feet long.  Under neath the dock was covered with glow in the dark fish. Soon the whole squad had made their way out on the pier and once again we were all in awe.  

Our guide came and got a few of us. He showed us glow in the dark mushrooms in the woods and some fireflies. A couple boys got a wok and made a fire and cooked. I headed back out to the beach during the night with a few others. We started walking on the beach and our footprints were glowing. It was like someone poured glitter along the beach, but it was just the plankton. We all ran around on the beach kicking sand and rinsing our feet in water watching all the sand glow. 

 A few of us sat on the beach and talked, but around 11, Jesse and I went for an adventure. We headed down to the end of the beach and came across a lake that was empty of water because of low tide. We walked out to the middle of this “lake” and as we walked we sank knee deep in the muddy sand. We got really dirty, but we had a great time. On our way back we came across this bridge. As we shined our headlamps into the jungle, monkey eyes appeared.  We started across the bridge and there was monkey sticks for us. We headed across and came to this big staircase into the woods that led to nothing. But I felt like I was in a movie about to be attacked by monkeys. So we just headed back, rinsed of the sand in ocean and I went to sleep. 

As I went to sleep the rain finally came down. God had held the rain for me the entire day! The next day I went to the beach and a lot of people did not want to hike back so they were getting a boat. I joined the people on the boat. It cost 2$ extra, but it was so fun. We saw the hills and the monkeys sitting on rocks as we road the boat around the island.  We finally got back and I got to see some floating docks and houses!  We rode the bus public bus back. A weekend can’t get much better, but then we learned that there was a Chili’s on the island. So the boys went to Chili’s and they had refillable COCA-COLA with CHIPS AND SALSA!!!

An adventure day for 3$ involving trekking through the jungle, camping, a private beach, releasing sea turtles, getting attacked by a wild monkey, seeing glow in the dark fish, swimming in the Indian Ocean, light up sand, glow in dark mushrooms, dried out lakes, storms halting, good conversations, free samosas, taking a public bus, riding a boat to a long dock with floating houses, and touching a jelly fish!