Vamos a la playa! (let's go to the beach)

Alright, almost caught up on blog posts!

This is just a quick one about the beach trip school organized three weekends ago. We went to Tilapita, which is on the Pacific coast about 3 or 4 hours from Xela. It was a long day but a fun one. The climate on the coast is much closer to what people think of when they hear the term "equatorial" - hot and humid. Really hot. We got off the bus and were immediately sweating buckets. The town we were in was Tilapa, and we had to take a plancha (little skiff boat) across the mangrove estuary to the actual beach, which is called Tilapita. 

The palm-thatched roofs of the comedors on Tilapita - where we were headed

 We took a nice little detour into the mangroves a ways, there's a water path that follows along the coastline north towards Mexico - our guides told us you could follow it for hours and still not come out the other side.

We had over 30 students on this trip, so we took two boats. You can see how full they were

Mangrove roots. Always cool to look at. They help filter the water that passes through the estuary, provide protection to the shoreline from erosion during storms, and provide a nursery environment for many estuarine and marine animals when they're young. They also house crocodiles.

A wide bend in the mangrove estuary.

I've been in mangrove swamps before, but these were the first I'd hung out in where we were warned to keep an eye out for crocodiles, so that was a new experience. We didn't see any, which isn't surprising, and on the whole I probably shouldn't have been as disappointed as I was. We did see lots of pelicans and other birds. There are many little fishing communities in and around the mangroves and the planchas and boats are one of the main forms of transportation, kind of like buses in the rest of the country.

Local kid fishing from his plancha

Another shot of one of our planchas out on the water

Once we wrapped up our mini mangrove tour, we headed for the beach. There were a bunch of comedors (restaurant/tienda shops) with large covered areas of tables and hammocks. We set up base in one of these that also had two swimming pools, which was kind of an interesting thing to have at a beach, although perfect for my taste. I didn't have to go far from my shade, water, food, or beer. I alternated taking dips in the pool with a bottle of beer and, later, fresh coconut juice. Y'know, straight from the coconut. 

Mmmm coconut juice!

The rip-tides and undercurrents at this point along the Pacific coast are not to be trifled with. We were warned several times about the dangerous strength of the current and admonished to use the buddy system, stay within reach of the lifeguards, and not go in past our knees. Folks reported that the water was warm and that they weren't kidding about the current - it was brutal. Later we found out that the locals considered it a really mild current day, and we all decided we didn't want to experience a bad current day.

The food was worth the entire trip. Fresh fried shrimp, fried fish, and seafood soup (complete with whole fish - you can fight over who gets to eat the eyeballs), were all on the menu. I also snagged a bite of someone's ceviche, which was easily the best I've ever had. Delicious!