The Mangrove Forest/Zipline

     Our tour guide for the Mangrove Forest tour and the later 800 meter long zipline was Gilbert. He took us on a 10 minute walk the other direction. There were more people and huts and dogs along the way. We arrive in a small village whose main attraction was the Mangrove Boat tour. We take a few pictures and climb into the boat. Gilbert stayed behind at the village. The guide's name in the boat was Tina, and the boat man was Romeo. She explained how mangrove was a popular building and furniture wood because of it's red color and the fact that it was hardwood. She also explained how it was called "pocket" in the native tongue because the ocean flows into it and it is hardly touched by predator species. Fish use it as a nursery because it is so safe. 

     Instead of growing thicker trunks like most other trees, mangroves grow multiple trunks. The mangrove roots act as filters for the water and so although the water may look brown and dirty, it is actually quite clean. She said that the mosquitos that are in the forest don't have either malaria or dengue because the river flows with the tide and so the mosquito's can't effectively lay eggs to breed. The trees fall naturally because of termite like worms that bore through the wood. It turns out that these worms are also a local delicacy. Being a man of the world, I obviously wanted to try a few. Tina said that the worms taste like oysters with a woody aftertaste. I got excited and Tina told Romeo to get a few fallen logs full of worms. He took about 10 minutes and came back with two decent sized mangrove logs. We took them back to the village and he hacked one open with a hatchet. The thing was full of worms. And they weren't small. The big ones were about a foot long. They were white and translucent. I assume that all of their organs were in the head, because the only thing in the body was the digestive tract. 

    Tina showed me how to clean one out, you remove the head, tear open the body and rinse out the intestines. It wasn't half bad. It did taste like oysters, but it was very mild. I didn't get the woody aftertaste, but maybe because this was because I took out the intestines. I ate a few. Rebecca is not an adventurous eater and so she refused to have some. I thought that Dad would join me, but he chickened out as well. He said that anytime in the near future that I had to use the bathroom, or I didn't feel well, it was because of the worms.

     After that, we crossed a river to a completely empty beach next to a forest with a "No Trespassing" sign. There was a sign that said Zipline next to a stone path through the jungle. The path was about a kilometer long hike up steep stairs, over a precarious bridge, up a mountain, and down to the zipline place. We got all harnessed up and decided that Dad would go first so he could help Rebecca with the fact that she just took the first zipline in her whole entire life. I went last so I could encourage her to go and not chicken out. She actually had no choice because there was no other way off the mountain.

     Although the zipline was 800 meters long, it was a minute and a half, which is a little under 9 m/s. I didn't really notice the zipline part because the trip was breathtaking. The view was fantastic. On your left was the beach and the forest, on your right was the ocean and mountains in the background. The water was a beautiful blue. It was awesome. We walked along the beach back to the river that we crossed, and this time there was a bamboo ferry that we took across.

    It was a very productive Saturday.