Pick any Place on the Planet, Pick a Shore

On Friday night a group of other volunteers and their host brother/ naturalist guide and his friend all went camping on the other side of the island on a beach called Puerto Chino.  By the time we got there it was dark which made the 20 minute rocky walk to the beach a bit tougher but when we arrived and saw the nice chunk of deserted beach lit up by the full moon it was all worth it.  The park rules state that drinking, smoking and fires are all prohibited by the rules of the park.  Clearly this would be a different camping trip than any I had been on before.

And indeed it was.  Instead of slightly intoxicated revelry it turned into a long version of grade school recess with Tunnel Tag (or Stuck in the Mud as the Brits called it), Frisbee and a game called Bulldog.  Bulldog consists of starting out with all but one of the competitors on one end of the beach and one in the middle, the bulldog.  When the bulldog says all the players run towards the other end of the beach.  If the bulldog tags you then you become a bulldog and so on until there are no players left.  I think I played this game under some other name but I cant recall it.  It was an absolute blast.  I was pretty good at the game which was nice, especially since I was the oldest male, 24, in a group of mostly 18 and 19 year olds.  My advanced age was thoroughly highlighted the next day when I rolled (read: limped) out of bed from my afternoon nap.

My advanced age was thoroughly highlighted the next day when I rolled (read: limped) out of bed from my afternoon nap.

I probably got about an hour of sleep, all in 10 minute stretches, in between which I would wake up briefly join the conversation, or say something incoherent perhaps and then try to go back to sleep.  The bugs were so bad that one member of our group had 140 the next day.  Also having been covered in sweat and then trying to sleep wasn’t exactly comfy.  But these were minor problems, that all seemed pointless once the sun started rising on the pacific and a bright beautiful sky illuminated weary, yet excited faces.