Lazy Rivers, Flamingos and Shrimping

Flooded road to our hostel

Onwards we go! Here's a wee run-down of the week that was in our world... 

After our beautiful but exhausting 4 days on our Lost City trek, we were very much looking forward to kicking up our feet for a while and hanging loose on the beach, and so eastward we went along the coast to the beach community of Palomino. We stayed at the Coco Sankala Hostel, which was a 10min walk down the road from the beach, a comfy (cheap) place to stay with good breakfast and many hammocks to choose from. We ran into some of our trek-mates from the trail which was great, and braved a crazy downpour with a Colombian friend, an bubbly Aussie, and two cheerful Belgians for a pizza dinner to reminisce about our hike, the guides, and the mud. The pizza and beer were worth braving the rain, which left Palominos roads under water for much of the rest of our stay there.

Where the Palomino River meets the sea

Sunday we thought two hours of tubing down the Palomino River would be a perfect way to start the day, and were picked up by a team of motorcycle drivers at the hostel who handed us life jackets and black rubber inner tubes for a float downriver. We jumped on the bikes, down the muddy flooded rocky roads to- our dismay, another hiking trail! Any other day we wouldn't have blinked an eye, but today hiking was the one thing we did NOT want to do. Brian slipped in his flipflops in the mud and almost popped his tube on a barbed wire fence, which prompted our guide to trade him for his Crocs!   Our short hike was worth it, and we were able to have a short swim and float downriver for a glorious 2 hours, and even caught a glimpse of a toucan flying overhead, along with many egrets and other shorebirds. Thankfully no caimans! 

We met a friendly fellow from Reno named Dave who joined us for lunch and a drink on the beach at the end of our float, and had a lazy afternoon and next day at the beach. Beware of the waves though! Mostly I was more comfortable walking 20 min back down the beach where you could swim in the river, despite being much colder than the ocean, was less scary with no waves that are going to bash you into pieces and give you a sore back (*cough*Bri*).

Tuesday we skipped down and caught a bus further east to Camarones, which means shrimp in Spanish. Guess what they do there? Yep, that's it- fish for shrimp.  It was the Flamingos that brought us there though, and so we got off the bus and grabbed another motorbike down the road past the estuary to stay at El Remanso del Santuario, which was across from the bird sanctuary and also conveniently right on the beach :)  

The shoreline at Camarones

This was a quiet place to say the least! Not at all a well-frequented town for tourists, and we were joined only by a few German girls that first night, and a pair of die-hard Danish birders the next. Arriving late-afternoon in the hot hot heat, the ocean, with much calmer waters looked oh so inviting! Too bad for us we found out hard way that the late afternoon is not the time to swim, as the jellies float closer to shore. Bri was the first to feel what we thought was a crab pinch on his toe, only this one stung. I felt a few next, and by the time we ran out of the water we had some stingy blisters on our stomachs, feet and legs. Augh! Not the worst jellyfish stings I've felt, but jeeze, so much for our lovely ocean swim! 

Despite the staff trying to talk us into the private room, we opted for hammocks under one of the shelters on the beach, and had two very peaceful sleeps under our bug-nets. We loaded up on bug spray for the tiny sand flies, and played cards through the evenings, with the resident dogs keeping us company. 
Wednesday morning we woke early to the sound of the dogs barking as the fishermen made their way to shore and loaded their nets into their tiny wooden dug-out canoes and paddled out to make their catch for the day.  

Mast in hand, First Mate Correia heads for the ship! 

Ship mates :) 

Since I'd read that the flamingos were in town from Oct to Dec, I thought we'd have arrived at the perfect time to go out for a tour and see them doing their thing. We hopped a little boat with a home-made tarp sail with our guide and his two young sons who were a hoot, and made our way onto the shallow waters. We spent almost two hours on the water, and although we did see some flamingos.... maybe 9... we learned that it's not until mid-December that they really arrive in full force. You know, around the 1000 mark. So, the birds were nice, and it was a peaceful sunny morning, but for you flamingo-lovers out there be sure to do your research! 

Bringing in the shrimp

At least we were able to get in our early swim (jellyfish free!), lots of reading, and walks down the beach.  It was plain to see there's not much opportunity here for the locals besides fishing, and it was a group effort as men came down to walk the beach pulling in the nets to shore, with only a small plastic bag of shrimp to show for their efforts. For the guides the birds bring in some business, and we saw some sheep and goat herders making their way down the shore as well. 



We tried to clean up what garbage we could carry off the beach, but it would take a team to move the fishing debris, plastic bottles, and even refrigerators that we saw as we walked. In such a short time here we've fallen in love with so many sad and starving stray dogs, and pulled a massive tick off of one we saw here. If I could become a vet in a next life this is the place to come to do your part for these guys, spay and neuter clinics are so badly needed.



With all of this said, we've got much to learn and see and do, but we must break from the sun and head inland to the mountains for some shade. We do believe our hiking boots are ready to go!