Part 17 "Monterrico"

Michelle writes:

I went to the beach last week on my two days off from school and volunteering.  Monterrico is a three-hour shuttle bus ride from Antigua for $10. I shared a room at a hostel ($5 per person) with Sofie, a 22-year-old gal from Sweden who I met on the bus. Sofie has been traveling alone through South America for five months. She'll be here one more month, then go back to Sweden for school this fall.

Monterrico is on the Pacific coast; it has black sand beaches and is very hot from the late morning until evening. We had to sleep with mosquito nets, as the mosquitos were active at night.

 Sofie and I went to the turtle reserve to release a baby turtle that evening, and we toured the museum and tourist center in the waning light. There were no lights in the museum, so it was hard to see anything in the twilight.  

Our guide spoke only Spanish. I did know enough words to get the gist of his story. We saw black turtles, iguanas and caiman in their pens.

  

The next morning we took the 5:30 am tour of the lagoon.

Mangrove trees line the banks. 

As we were boarding our wooden canoe we saw a ferry-like canoe with two cars on it. There was another with a chicken bus loaded with people. 

We watched fishermen pull in their nets, some loaded with fish and others with shrimp. We also saw four-eyed fish. They skim along the surface of the lagoon and then jump like grasshoppers when scared. They have two eyes above and two below. Fascinating!

We saw many birds, as well as the three volcanoes near Antigua to the north. A spectacular morning! 

Life at the beach was calm and quiet compared to the city; it was a very nice change. We napped in the hammocks and swam in the pool, which was very clean.

I had fish fillet one day and caldo de marisco, a bowl of shellfish, the next. Fresh and delicious! I ate over a dozen shrimp, heads and all, a small crab, and a 6-inch fish, minus the head and tail, thankfully!