Last Friday we rented a jeep for a day with our new friend Ben. Sally packed us a picknick (I told you she was like an aunt taking care of us!) and we went to swim in what they call blue holes. It’s a little lake formed in the middle of a river where the water is fresh and oh so blue. There was even a rope to jump in the water from. You needed to climb up some funny tree (see pic) with arm force because the steps were far apart, and then let go and swing like tarzan into the blue hole. Cool….
We then drove up the coast to a small village where people live from their garden and fishing, if they feel like it. The place is so mellow even the cows take a stroll on the beach and go dip their feet in the ocean. We walked across to a small island and over it to the other side where we swam in the ocean and watched some very beautiful blue corals with Ben’s mask.

Driving back at the end of the day was a bit freaky. Since there are no street lights here, you rely solely on the car’s head;ights to drive. Theoretically this is no problem, except there are always people walking on the side of the road, or more exactly on the road, so you need to constantly watch very carefully not to hit someone. The trip’s official driver Marcel did wonderfully, as usual: no casualties to report!

After this fun outing we stayed in the next day. We’re living life easy here with Sally and Ben, cooking meals together and spending hours talking in the kitchen every day. However….towards the end of the day on Sunday my back started to ache. I got my personnal massage therapist to try and sort that out,but by the next morning it was not any better, I couldn’t move my head and was stiff like an old baguette left out on the counter. Turning 40, I tell you….and climbing up to tarzan ropes…. After 3 days in bed or sitting up straight, some muscle rub (you know the one that smells like toothpaste?) and a couple chinese plasters, I am happy to say that I can move again! No more twing with every small movement, I can even sleep properly! So much so that we could even go diving on the reef today. We saw a huuuuge lobster. His head was around 15cm wide. HUGE!

At lunch time we sat on the beach and ate sandwiches and fresh peanuts (fresh, can you imagine!) and fruit, and at one point Ben asked the dive guides where one can see coconut crabs (yes, crabs that eat coconuts!). The guide asks for Marcel’s lighter and disappaers into the bush with his knife saying: I’ll be back in 15 minutes. Fifteen minutes later indeed he comes back, still in his wetsuit, with a blue coconut crab tied up in a liane! Oh, and while he was gone his colleague opened a coconut for us on a tree branch, easy peasy.

Marcel, Ben and I were joking the other day, that if you left a European with a Victorinox in the forest for a week you’d come back and he’d be half dead. But if you left a ni-Van in the jungle with his machete you’d come back 5 days later and he’d have a whole resort built.

Probably not too far from the truth….

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Tomorrow we’re going on an adventure: 2 days out in the jungle on a trek and village visit. He he….