Today was our second day in La Vainila, We woke up bright and early to start the day with a morning ritual. Each day we have 5 groups Kitchen Clean, Agua, Bus clean and organize, and morning ritual. We cycle through these groups with 7 different 3-people teams. Every day one team is in charge of doing the dishes and serving people, another one is in charge of seeking out tap water and keeping our filter full, another in charge of the daily cleaning of the bus, and the last team is responsible for creating an activity for the group to do before we start our day. Today Summer lead us in a theatrical/imagination warm-up. Breakfast was served a few minutes later and we blessed the food and Venicio asked us all the question of the day, which was: “ What do you want today to look like?” Then the serving team came over and scooped us all equal portions of rice and beans (Casamiento), roasted plantains, papaya, pineapple, and a roasted tomato-butternut squash chili sauce. Thank you Vinicio and Hannah!
After breakfast we decided to get to work. The dirt trail next to our camp led to the mangroves, beautiful trees with complex root systems that flooded during the rainy season every year. The community that we were working with La RED had two jobs for us to accomplish. There was a small creek that flowed through the forest across the trail that needed a bridge built across it; and the trail itself needed to be delineated better as it often became hard to tell which way to walk as the mangroves are spaced out and many areas looked like they could be foot paths. The path we were working on led to a beautiful lagoon with two large canoes that one could paddle out to a completely deserted beach. The lagoon was filled with crocodiles and at night one could shine a light across the water and see hundred of reptilian eyes gleaming back at you. We split off into two groups, one to go off onto the trail and hack down the dead, termite infested wood to outline the foot path with; the other group gathered around the creek to brainstorm on how to finish the bridge.
I joined Weldboy, Scott, Austin, Morgan, Todd and our new member Shooter with the bridge. Ryan, Treasure, Allison and I had met Shooter the day before at a hostel in Puerto Escondido. He’s an avid climber and had just finished climbing a mountain with a large group in memory of a good friend who perished on that very mountain ten years ago. We brought him back to the mangroves of La Vainila and we proposed to the group that he stay and work with us over the next few days. The group responded positively and we welcomed our new member and he was very grateful to be included. He proved his worth at La Vainila, jumping straight into the creek and getting down and dirty. Ernesto, the manager of the eco-tourism project helped cut down perfectly straight pieces of wood to go with the pieces that Weldboy and Austin had cut down the day before. Shooter and Weldboy envisioned the bridge right away and we set off trimming pieces and setting them in place eventually nailing them down and tying them together with wire. Shooter jumped into the muddy mosquito infested swamp with no problems and we started to hack pieces of wood into the proper lengths with a machete, swatting mosquito’s as we did. The rest of the crew could be heard hacking dead wood off in the distance to outline the trail.
After sweating and working the morning and afternoon away Ernesto, our guide, came to Allison, Ryan, Shooter and I and asked if we wanted to see the beach as we had missed out the day before in our separate excursion to Puerto Escondido to surf perfect cylindrical barrels and so I could rip my foot apart on the fiberglass of my board and have the lifeguards fix it by pouring what looked like antifreeze over my ripped pad. Shooter, Allison, Ryan and I trekked down the newly outlined trail to the lagoon, grabbed a hold of a few huge, giant oars and started paddling our way through the stagnant waters, eventually reaching another dock where we left the boats and hiked to another lagoon with another set of canoes. We repeated our journey and pulled the boats up onto a private beach with nothing in sight for miles except a small palapa made for shade. With a hoot we shucked off our shoes and ran into the ocean to get tossed around in the shoulder high waves breaking close to shore. After forty-five minutes we grabbed our stuff and made the return journey to the mangroves. Upon our return Shooter realized he lost one of his shoes in the journey so we made a return paddle to find nothing.
We headed back to the camp for a delicious lunch and began to pack our stuff and say farewell to the families who had been spending their time with us. Beautiful people, we had done a show for them the night before and the laughter surrounding their neighborhood was infectious. We passed around a hat to each other and collected 750 peso’s to give to them and we donated a few baseballs, gloves, and markers for the children to play with. Then we were off after a sad farewell to La Ventanialla or, the window. We met our hosts on the beach and went for a paddle through the lagoon and the mangroves looking for crocodiles and turtles. Then we jumped out onto an island in the lagoon where they housed animals that had been mistreated by humans and given a home. Diego, our guide, was tremendously knowledgeable and spouted off facts as we moseyed on back through the river. Then we took the bus to a little town where we all separated and purchased different dinners. Eight tiny tacos for me please! When we got back Diego was taking people for a three hour moonlit walk on the beach to search for turtle eggs so a few of us journeyed up the beach in search of eggs. We didn’t find any but we did find a 30 foot plane crashed up onto the beach. Crazy! Then it was time to pull my sleeping bag out and sleep under the shooting stars. I’ve seen so many this trip I am running out of wishes!
Love and Peace,
Anthony Desmond Breen.
