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Published: December 15th 2008
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Me & another new friend...
that was before the famed monkey attack... now I am not so certain I would hug one! Hello all,
Ometepe was exactly what we were looking for! We came in on a crashing, sickening ferry, but it was well worth it. We arrived late at night and hired a collective with some travelers we had seen earlier in Granada and a few other places.. we all decided on a nice little hostel with camping and hot food - though admittedly we were so travel-worn from the ferry we actually took a nice room with a shower for the night, and rested up for our days of exploring to come.
The first day we decided to hike over to a neighbouring town after a desperate attempt to stock up on food. We filled our bags with pasta and cookies and were off. A few kilometers down the road, we met the entrance to the park, and started the steep ascent to a nice flat point where we could pitch our tents and hammocks and even utilize the fresh water that was being flooded into a reserve at that point for the locals to bottle water (read, the most refreshing outdoor shower ever!).
We spent the next day exploring the falls and hiking up and back to
our old hostel, we pitched our tents and opted for a swimming adventure, heading out to ¨Monkey Island¨- about a 20 minute swim from the shore to an uninhabited island... or so we thought. It turns out Monkey Island came about its name honestly and perhaps our adventuresome spirits could use some taming... We got to the island, and seeing no monkeys, and another island in the distance, I suggested that maybe we were at another island and it was not monkey island at all - I climbed onto the island and Andy and John followed. Just as I was reaching the peak of the little hill in front of me, I heard splashes and screams behind me, I started back, and immediately froze at the scene. And and John were both back in the water with 4-5 Monkeys surrounding them, hanging off the far reaches of the branches and trying to bite and claw them. I, being the first and furthest explorer, remained undetected by the monkeys, now territorially distracted by the boys. However, I still faced the conundrum of getting to the water... I started for the water, slowly, but surely, and almost immediately sparked the attention of
local transport at it's best...
need I say more?! We ran off after sliding down the hill & almost rolling!!! the monkeys, who began actively chasing me. I ran down the hill and was forced to whip around and face them when I reached the rock near the water. Entry to the water was slippery and consisted of many shallow rocks on hazardous footing, as well as the necessity to turn my back to the attacking monkeys, who were now growing angrier and charging my feet. I felt the hard sharp bite of one male attacker, and immediately screamed and kicked him, he went flying back and recovering from a roll, repositioned himself towards me and began charging. Fearing this attack would break my skin, especially with my aggressive reaction, leaving me open to high risk of disease or even rabies and immediately requiring a hospital trip (which would be a difficult arduous task being on this remote island) I screamed again and dove as shallowly as possible into the rocky shore. I hit with a clunk and pain seared through my body. My entire right side had landed on rocks, and all my contact points were open and bleeding - not an ideal state for bull-shark water... I went into survival mode and me, Andy, and John swam as
All dressed up...
for a night of cocktails! quickly as possible back to shore, shocking our friend Carmen, who had stayed behind to pack up camp.
Having not quite had enough adventure (can´t really justify that statement, but somehow it was true at the time...) We hired a boat to take us to a deserted island for the night and to pick us up the next day. We had a wonderful image of camping on the island, exploring it and swimming during the day and being real-life explorers. Our plans were slightly hindered however, as I was stung by a scorpion on the beach just before leaving and started loosing feeling in my foot accompanied bythrobbing pain. Not to mention that was coupled with the fact that I could not wear any waist strap or bra due to the remaining open wounds from my earlier incident... oh, and the bruising, was just beginning....
We then discovered that the lake was so high, that there was ridiculously limited (ie barely room for our two tents) space to camp, and not a lot of good firewood. We also found thousands of biting insects attacking the fresh bodies on the island, and all the island so overgrown that we
John on the boat...
on our way to anoter deserted island... this time we almost didnt make it back... but not on account of animals... on account of a broken boat motor! could barely wade through the top. We gave up on our exploring due to the lack of a machete (for which we had been ridiculed and laughed at by the locals who dropped us on the island) and started collecting whatever we could potentially burn (mostly termite infested, damp wood... and got to work). In the end, the experience was actually somewhat fun, but we certainly did struggle with the fire and cooking the only things we had managed to purchase inland - pasta and potatoes...mmmm, mmm!
The following day, we happily packed up our bags and waited patiently for the boat to return. After half an hour of staring out into the empty lake and fretting. We began forming a plan... we were going to have to swim back to shore - an estimated hour or so swim and an hour or two to locate a town for help. We did not have enough food and water to last. Andy and I started preparing swim bags... we would need money and sandals for the other side. We brushed up on our rescue words and set a 4pm deadline - if there was no sight or sound of a
boat by then, we would set off, arriving on land just before sunset for the hour or two hike back to a known town... luckily about ten minutes to four, a tiny speed boat came ripping up to the island with an apologetic fisherman who informed us that the motor of our scheduled boat had broken when they set out to get us and the guy who owned itand to find him, residing on a different part of the island to come and get us two at a time (the capacity of his boat only allowed two at a time....) at that point, our anger at being scammed had dissipated and we were overjoyed not to have to embark on our rescue mission...
By this time, we decided that Costa Rica, a much more tourist oriented country would be an ideal follow up and much needed break from a bit too much adventure - after all, my body was in serious need of some recovery time!!!
Trish xx
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