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| Waving our guests goodbye, Jaime and I excitedly prepare to launch before sunset comes! |
Standing knee deep in the warm water of the bay and waving our guests goodbye, Jaime and I turn to each other with a big high five! Let’s do this!! After a confusing few days about whether or not we were really going to be granted permission for our adventure, we were still in the dark about it. We hadn’t seen el heffe around since yesterday, and as we busied ourselves packing our gear and getting the boats set up, a few of the younger rangers would pass us by and say things like
“En kayuko? Pero....es peligroso [dangerous]!”
“Wow, I’ve always wanted to do that trip!”
and finally as we set sail into the sunset, “Buen viaje!”
Looks like we’re free birds, no payment, no permission, no rules, no problema! All the kerfuffle for nada! Typical.
“En kayuko? Pero....es peligroso [dangerous]!”
“Wow, I’ve always wanted to do that trip!”
and finally as we set sail into the sunset, “Buen viaje!”
Looks like we’re free birds, no payment, no permission, no rules, no problema! All the kerfuffle for nada! Typical.
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| Almost ready, just gotta fix the hair! ;) |
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| On our way as the sun sets on our excited lil' selves! |
We pull into our first camp a short paddle away, 2 bays over on Machete Beach. Thankfully it’s high tide ‘cuz holy toledo these boats are heavy!! I’ve only ever paddled these 48lb. skin-on-frame kayaks empty and now with all our food for 2 weeks (about 20lbs in each boat), personal sleeping gear and clothing, the tent, cooking gear (stove, cast aluminum dutch oven, dishware, food storage bowls, assorted knives), six 3-litre water bladders, snorkel gear, camera equipment, communication devices...my guess is they weigh at least 160lbs. each. Clearly it’s not just the paddling that’s going to make me stronger.
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| Pulling into Machete Beach, our first camp |
As we set up camp, Jaime’s offering tips at every turn:
“Keep the tent bag with the fly right beside the tent for emergencies (i.e rain)”
“Make sure to shake off everything you hang in the trees in the morning, so you don’t have any surprises”
“Instead of removing each dry bag of personal gear, just carry the whole TRAK bag up to camp, you’ll need it all anyway and it’ll save you trips”
“Make sure to turn the camera off! I don’t have any chargers for our batteries”
“Always look where to situate the tent and the boats, coconuts will drop unexpectedly”
“Keep the tent bag with the fly right beside the tent for emergencies (i.e rain)”
“Make sure to shake off everything you hang in the trees in the morning, so you don’t have any surprises”
“Instead of removing each dry bag of personal gear, just carry the whole TRAK bag up to camp, you’ll need it all anyway and it’ll save you trips”
“Make sure to turn the camera off! I don’t have any chargers for our batteries”
“Always look where to situate the tent and the boats, coconuts will drop unexpectedly”
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| Monkeys are lookin' down on me from the trees ;) |
We toast our dinner of pasta, canned tuna and tomato sauce with the boxed wine we brought - I lean back with a big sigh, ahhhhhhh....we’re on our time now! Let the adventure begin!
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Photos and edits courtesy of Jaime Sharp and Allie Carroll
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