the long, muddy, trek to wizard beach

After the chocolate farm, we made a quick stop at the local Thai place to make reservations. This was indeed a quick stop -- about three minutes away -- and then we came down the mountain on an easy, paved path.

Then there was some napping in our sea cabin and some discussion about my Blank Stare Argument. Construction on the Old Bank docks was well underway, so the napping was cut short and we decided to embark on a hike to visit Wizard Beach.

We donned covered shoes and dosed ourselves with a generous spraying of Off! Deep Woods! bug repellent. We packed Nadiv's waterproof bag with sarongs and books. I removed my contact lenses in anticipation of swimming in the ocean. We set off!

And then we suffered through sixty minutes of mountain and muck and bugs and swamp. At the top of the mountain, we lost the trail and had to sludge through muddy jungle. It was steep and we picked up some hiking sticks to help us out. Both of us almost fell several times. At one point, we found a small stream that was heading down and so we followed it (getting wet) until it finally wound its way onto the beach. Emerging from the foliage, we leapt out onto the sand. We were both splattered with mud and wet up to our ankles, dragging heavy wooden sticks along the sand. A group of sunbathers looked upon our entrance in confusion. The official path lay some hundred meters up the beach.

Wizard Beach turned out to be rather disappointing. The surf was nasty and violent and after yesterday's riptide incident, we agreed that Nadiv was not going to be wave diving. He frolicked in waist-high water while I sat at the water's edge and covered my legs with wet sand. The current was extremely strong and even I could feel it pulling at my legs on its way in.

After an hour, it was time to dry off and head back. We needed to get to the top of the mountain before dark, and we weren't sure how fast going even the official path would be. It turned out to be just as muddy as ever, although wider and with many signposts courtesy of the chocolate farm leading the way. Our walking sticks were a godsend. We managed to nip in and out of the chocolate farm for some more truffles and arrived at our Thai restaurant right as dusk was falling.

Dinner was delicious. We sat on a porch dangling over the jungle. It was pristine. The only sounds were from patrons eating. The rainforest surrounded us and we could see lights glittering on the water far away. We ate slowly and lazily, savoring the peacefulness.

Let's look on the bright side of our jungle trek with some highlights:

• Seeing several red frogs on our hike
• The other two gentlemen on the beach watching while I changed into my bathing suit
• A supreme beach jumping picture
• Tasty dinner -- our second good meal of the day! (and second good meal of the trip!)
• Chocolate truffles for dessert

Coming back down over the concrete path was easy. We read on the deck hammocks for a bit and then snuggled and then went to sleep.