Gisele
and
Marlene's Vacation
October
30 - It was with great pleasure that Gisele and Marlene (G
& M) came to visit us in Punta Uva. They stayed for a week
at VIVA (just down the road from us) and mostly relaxed, went
to the beach, relaxed, did some hiking and more relaxing!!
We
set them up at VIVA, a beautiful space on the beach with a few
rental houses. The gardens are beautifully designed with an abundance
of exotic fruit trees, bromeliads, heliconias and palms. Their
hosts, Dave and Jeanie, are from Wisconsin and have been living
in Punta Uva for 10 years now. Dave personally designed and built
the three rental houses currently on the property. The houses
are built of beautiful tropical hardwoods and immaculately maintained.
Every morning, G & M were treated to fresh fruit picked from
the trees on the property by the gardener.
Gisele
was particularly and pleasantly surprised by the lack of bugs
here. Very few bites!
We
spent several afternoons together and often celebrated the end
of the day with the traditional Cuba Libra (rum and coke).
Case
of the crabs!
One
rainy evening, we all went out to town and had dinner at an Italian
restaurant. On the way back, Marlene accidentally ran over a crab
attempting to cross the street. He had put up his claws in a final
attempt to fight the massive block of metal and rubber about to
crush him and although this may be hard to believe, the crab won
- well sort of! Yes the crab was severely and totally destroyed,
but he managed to puncture the rear tire of the car with his claw
- which snapped off and created a huge air leak (the claw is hollow).
The pictures on the right are of us, all giving a helping hand
to change the tire - which in itself could be a story all by itself!
To make a long story short, it was NOT easy!
The
Punta Mona Expedition
On
Saturday, Manuel organized a trip to Punta Mona. Punta Mona is
a small island just off the coast deep in the Gandaco Wildlife
Reserve. Punta Mona means Monkey Point. It is called Monkey Point
because many years ago there were monkeys on it when it was discovered.
The
Gandoca Wildlife Reserve park entrance is just down the road ~(5
miles) from us. Our finca is actually in the geographical beginning
of the reserve. There are no roads, no electricity and barely
any signs of man. We had not yet had the opportunity to hike into
the park and did not realize that we had SO MANY MORE beautiful
beaches!!! Besides the amazing beaches, there is an abundance
of wildlife.
The
hike took about 4 hours traversing through thick jungle, sloshing
through thick and slippery mud and taking rest stops on a number
of these beaches. We saw quite a bit of wildlife including including
poison arrow frogs, monkeys, sloths, birds, snakes, leaf-cutter
ants, snails, crabs, fish, tropical trees, pure jungle and much
more. The snake observation was a bit scary - as it was Marlene
who saw it and had no room to run - she was on the ledge of a
tall coral cliff over the ocean and the snake not more than 2-3
feet away on a branch. Turns out it was not poisonous and our
guide moved it with his machete.
Besides
Gisele and Marlene, we also had a guide - Rafael, his girlfriend,
Luis - his brother - who is digging our well, Christian - Emmanuelle's
father, and Maya - who was carried by her father all the way down,
but managed to hike quite a bit on the way back!
Most
of the beaches are separated by rocky (coral) headpoints. In one
place, the ocean had carved out a huge cave from the coral (pic
of Manuel hanging from vine in a sea cave).
There are the famous and very much sought after NONI trees in
abundance, with ripe fruit all over the beach. Each time that
reached a beach from the jungle, we took a rest to relax and admire
the natural beauty before us!
We
had lunch at Punta Mona, with Panama just a few more kilometers
down the beach. Our guides, Rafael and Luis, caught fresh fish
and cooked them for us in banana leafs - right there on the beach.
They cracked open a number of coconuts and pipas with with we
either drank the juice or ate the pulp.
The
weather was dark and ominous when we began the hike - with a black
horizon, but it quickly changed to a spectacular deep blue sky
day!
At
the end, we were all very tired, but very happy about the accomplishment
of the hike and the wonderful day we all spent together. We will
strongly encourage and gladly accompany anyone that comes to visit
us in the future to hike to Punta Mona!
We thank Gisele and Marlene for coming to visit
and look forward to their next one - this time at Finca Pinto
- or whatever it will be called (although probably NOT Finca
Pinto!!).
________________________________________________
Gisele has been my mortgage broker in Miami for
years. Should anyone be looking for one, I strongly recommend
her!!!
Gisele Blum - Unlimited Mortgage Services, Inc
tel: 305-461-2161
| Archived
Writings: |
| October
4, 2002 |
Building
plans are in
Snake in the yard
OUI OUI Update
Welcome Christain
New Wheels
Manuel in Miami |
| September
21, 2002 |
The
trucks are rolling in
OUI OUI Update
Where's the water? |
| September
14, 2002 |
Bridge
is finished |
| September
7, 2002 |
Jeep
birthday
A
new Arrival
A
day on the waters
|
| September
4, 2002 |
The
NONI plant |
| September
1, 2002 |
August
in a Flash |
| August
10, 2002 |
Tornadoes and Earthquakes |
| July
11, 2002 |
The
Road Begins....and ends |
| July
9, 2002 |
The
Container |
| July
1, 2002 |
We
Made It |
| June
1, 2002 |
We're
Moving! |
|
