Day 6: Ecohab

The sunlight woke us up pretty early this morning and I was pleasantly surprised at how well I slept in the hammock. It wasn’t my best night sleep, but I felt pretty rested. Since it gets dark here by 6:30 and the restaurant closes at 9:00 everyone went to bed early and it was surprisingly quiet at night despite having about 30 tents and 30 hammocks filled with young backpackers. We had some cliff bars for breakfast and set off on a hike to El Pueblito, which is an archaeological site about 2 miles up the mountain. The hike itself was pretty cool and it was very different from what we are used to in CO since it was jungle terrain. I saw a really big snake and there were tons of these little frogs that looked like dart frogs you would see in a zoo exhibit. We learned that about 2000 people lived in El Pueblito from 450-1650. It was crazy to think of what life in the jungle would have been like at that time.  When we started the hike it was still cloudy and there was a nice breeze, but the way down was very hot and sticky. By the time we got back to the beach, we could hardly wait to get into the ocean.  We found some coconuts on our hike and Jeff cracked them open with a rock so we could drink the coconut water out of them, which was fun.

We spent a few hours on the beach and then we set off for our trek to the Ecohabs. The hike was a little more intense than we expected, mostly because our bags were so heavy and not the most comfortable backpacks. It was also extremely hot and humid. Jeff kept trying to wheel his bag on the flat parts of the trail, which looked pretty ridiculous.  Just picture Jeff wheeling a suitcase through the jungle. The people we passed on the trail looked at him like he was crazy. After 2 hours of hiking through the jungle, we finally made it to our ecohab!  We showed up to this amazing resort dirty and dripping in sweat. When we arrived they gave us welcome drinks, which was what they called lemonade de coco (some sort of frozen coconut and lemonade drink).  It was seriously the best thing we’ve ever tasted, partly because we were so hot and thirsty.  The resort is amazing! Our ecohab was the highest one up on the hill and it we were so tired from the day that it felt like a trek just to get up there.  It was well worth the day of trekking though because it was amazing! It was a 2 floor circular hut. The bottom floor was totally open with a nice bathroom and two white hammocks to relax in. The top floor was our bedroom and of the windows open so we had a 360view of the ocean and jungle. After a cold shower we ended our day with a nice dinner at the resort restaurant and then pretty much passed out because we were so tired!