This was the first day that I skipped swimming in the almost two weeks we have been here. I treated Hannes to a kayak tour. Originally we were going to go today, but that got changed. There were 4 other swimmers who booked for Friday so we changed our reservation so we could all go together. Alfredo, our tour guide came to then hotel to pick us up. There were 3 ladies from France already in the bus. Once we got to our destination, we were joined by another couple from Paris.
But we have to back up a bit as half the adventure is getting there. We leave in the van and proceed down the highway to the national park. Traffic here is insane and people just do whatever they want. You have to expect the unexpected. For example, cars merge from both sides of the highway and they do not hesitate to merge in front of you, even if you are doing 120k in a 90k zone. They just get on their horns more. There are no shoulders, nor does there appear to be many lines to divide lanes. If someone in front of you is too slow, you just pass, even if someone is coming right at you from the other direction...someone will move over at the last possible second. I asked how many lanes are there anyway? Not sure what the answer was!!! As we are driving along our route, you see a lot of the poorer sections of town. Then just down the road would be a brand new housing development that looks really nice. Many homes have these giant blue buckets on the roof for collecting rainwater. There are also many billboards advertising for various things such as Tony Romas, Target, I-Store, Subway and KFC to name but a few.
The scariest part of the trip was when we passed from one "state" to another. We were waived over by the police. Alfredo had to pull out his paperwork and it was thoroughly examined. They were not completely satisfied so they made him get out of the van and come over to talk further. He does this route every day with a busload of tourists so you really have to wonder. Lucky for us, we were cleared and allowed to carry on.
To get into the national park, we had to leave the highway and go down a dirt road, full of potholes. Alfredo called this the bus safari. It was crazy fun!!! Along the route he pointed out birds, plants, trees and gave us lots of history. It was very interesting.
I should mention that this was a super hot sunny day. We were advised to wear long sleeves, cover the backs of our necks and have a towel or something to put on your legs as it is so hot in the lagoon. I will hold off going into great detail about the actual kayak part of the trip because a) I am really really tired and b) we are waiting for the CD with pictures and movies of the trip. They did not recommend bringing your camera into the lagoon as the salt water concentration is very high and a camera would be ruined if it fell into the water or was constantly splashed from the paddles. Some took the chance, I did not. Anyway, Alfredo and his wife Jeannine took photos and made videos of the group as we tracked through the lagoon in our kayaks. The CD is supposed to be here sometime tomorrow...cannot wait to see it.
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