Yesterday my friend Jimmy came to visit me and we decided to go on a canoe trip. We talked this other guy Chino into going with us and headed to a fishing village that is pretty close by called Puerto Ebano. Puerto Ebano is located up an estuary of the Pacific Ocean that is a couple hours in a canoe from Bahia de Caraquez. It is known for its mangroves, birds, and fishing. There we were greeted by Jimmy´s aunt who said that she would gladly let us borrow her 25 foot canoe for a day of fishing, crabbing, shrimping and general tourism.
So we headed out the 3 of us in the canoe. I have practically no experience with canoe fishing the closest thing I have done is a couple of times I have been white water rafting down the Ocoee in Tennessee. Jimmy had been a couple of times out with his family and is in pretty good shape. Then there was Chino who is a farmer by trade and had gone out fishing many times as a child but had not been in many years.
Let me tell you about my two friends. First there is Jimmy who lives a couple hours away in San Isidro and who I had met through another Peace Corps volunteer. He has a slight resemblance in the face to Tom Cruise at least in the face and is in his early 20´s. He in many ways is not your typical Ecuadorian I found around here; he is not obsessed with gambling, volleyball, soccer, pool, whorehouses and moonshine liquor. Instead he is into things like hiking, traveling, camping, etc. Usually the people that are into those sorts of things around here are foreigners. Which kind of makes him a social outcast in his village; he also seems in a way tormented for some reason and finds himself escaping his village whenever he can.
Chino is 27 years old and is a local farmer from my community. He is ex Ecuadorian military but now makes his living planting mostly corn and cotton. In his day he was an elite athlete and you can kind of tell except for a potbelly he has grown over the years. He is the best friend I have made since I have been here. He is married with 4 kids and him as his family has taken me almost as one of their own, to the point where I eat dinner with them almost every day.
First we set out to Bird Island appropriately named for the extensive amount and variety of birds on the mangrove island. It is actually quite amazing to see so many exotic birds at once. There are literally thousands of them in the trees. There is this really strange looking one called a Fragata. The male has a sort of red pouch in its throat and when it’s courting a female it makes it inflate to ten times its size and it’s in the shape of a heart. Kind of reminds me of how a bull frog’s throat blows up when it’s croaking. Another thing about being below so many birds is you constantly being bombarded with shit. It’s almost like they were on a mission to hit us. I could just imagine what they were saying¨ Roger we have spotted the target, permission to engage the enemy, we are in position, fire, direct hit direct hit, over¨
We then took the canoe through a tiny stream that cuts right through the thickest part of the mangroves. It was kind of like entering through another world a passage of a land forgotten by time. Crazy birds were swooping down upon me as we penetrated deeper into the swamp. After about 15 minutes through this passageway we could not proceed any further because the mangroves had become too thick to pass through. We dismounted the canoe and went into the mangroves to look for crabs.
A mangrove by its nature is a very inhospitable place for a human being to be. It is a world where everything around you is in a state of decay. The floor is not solid but made of a thick black mud. When you step forward you immediately sink down to about your knee. What would normally take you 30 seconds to walk would take a couple of minutes of slugging through the mud. You get tired pretty fast even though you have only walked a short distance. Instead of walking through the mud you can try climbing through the mangroves which in a way is easier but more dangerous. The mangroves are extremely thick to pass through. It sort of reminded me of a heist movie where they are trying to break into a museum and they have the laser security system and in order to pass through you have to put your body into the strangest positions to avoid the lasers. The other hard part is that the mangroves are not as solid as they appear. There are a lot of branches that look sturdy but are decaying. I stepped on a couple of these only to have them break as I came crashing painfully down to floor. My body is pretty bruised up and scratched up from it. It is also not a place for a claustrophobic to be. I would hate to get lost in a mangrove; it would be a very scary thought.
Jimmy then proceeded to show me how to catch crabs. You basically have to find these large holes in the mud put your hand in reach inside and pull them out without getting bit by their large pinchers. The thing is that they like to hide in deep. So most of the time you not only have to put your hand in but you have to put your arm all the way in all the way to your shoulder while the side of your face is touching the mud. It is a very strange position to be in. What makes it more uncomfortable is that you are not on clear ground but there are mangroves all around you poking at your ribs while your arm is up to its shoulder in mud. He gave me the chance to try and I was pretty fucking nervous about sticking my hand into this giant hole where a huge menacing crab was waiting with its big claw ready to attack my shaking fingers. I took a deep breath and tried not to think about anything and put my hand in. I reached around for a while till I finally felt something that I thought was a crab. I kept feeling around and grabbed it and pulled it out. Ha-ha I had grabbed my first crab, victory! I lifted up to show Chino and Jimmy. We then started having this very random conversation about how one of our other friends constantly tries to hit on girls but sabotages his efforts very quickly by saying the dumbest things and over complementing them, a big no no. We were talking when all of a sudden I scream so hard I think the next town over heard me. The fucking crab had bit my finger really hard. So hard in fact that it had split my fingernail in two. They were laughing so hard, after the pain had passed I started laughing really hard as well. If he had bitten me while he was in the hole it would not have been too bad because at least I would have been expecting it but the sucker got me when I least expected it. We then headed out of there and went to go check out another crabbing spot.
When we got to the other spot we do the same routine as before and start walking almost crawling through thigh deep mud. But this time it was worst there were a shitload of mosquitoes and worst than the mosquitoes were the arenillas. Arenillas are what I would compare in the states to the noseeums, tiny tiny mosquitoes that you can barely see but sting very hard and there are thousands of them. Chino told me that in order prevent bites I should cover every inch of my body with mud. So I did this and I’m sure would have been an interesting site to anybody that passed by and saw me. I looked like some sort of swamp creature from the black lagoon. This was still no relief from the biting. When I breathed in through my mouth I breathed in about a dozen of them. All I was wearing were a short pair of running shorts and they were attacking every part of my uncovered body. It was horrible. The pain was excruciating, all I could think about were all of the bites I was receiving. The bites were not super painful it’s only a small prick; it’s the shear amount that bothered me the most. All I wanted to do was get out of there. So I started running back to the ocean the only problem was that in between me and relief from the ocean was the mangroves and mud. So I started running as fast as I could, screaming and cursing on my way. However even though I was going as fast as I could, running through the swamp mud meant I was going in slow motion. I finally was able to run to the ocean and escape the torment. Jimmy and Chino followed right behind me.
We then went out to the Isla Corazon the next mangrove island which is set up as a tourist attraction. We embarked on the island and went walking through a raised wooden walkway through the heart of the mangroves. It was very chill. When we were back at the beginning we saw a boat approaching the island. Chino then says we got to get out of here because the island is private or something and we could get in trouble for being there. So we jump back in to the canoe as the motorboat is heading towards us. We had this joke about them being pirates and if they caught up to us they were going take all our money. Since we were broke and had nothing to offer them then they would surely behead us and throw our bodies into the ocean. So we started paddling as hard as we could in order to get away but we were no match for the powerful 150 HP engine they carried. Still I paddled harder and harder as if my life depended on it. We were doomed they were catching up to us fast. I said my prayers. I said my prayers again. Then they passed us and I saw the pirates. They were a bunch of tourist carrying fancy cameras with bratty children on board. They waived at us, took some pictures, smiled and passed by. We had yet another day to travel the mighty seas. Arrrrrrghhhh mate.
We spent the rest of the day fishing for shrimp with a transmayo.
I’m not sure what the word is in English but it’s this net you throw in to the water that has a piece of rope that you tie to your hand. It’s pretty cool but takes some getting used to. It’s pretty heavy and big. The highlight was watching Jimmy throw it. He would fall straight on his ass every time he tried to throw it. He did this about 5 times every time was funnier than the last. We could not laugh any harder. My belly hurt from laughing so hard. After Chino successfully caught us some shrimp we made some fresh ceviche. Here is the recipe.
· Get a cupful of peeled shrimp. Squeeze limes onto the cup till the cup is full. Sprinkle some salt. Wait about 15 minutes. Walla shrimp ceviche. Could not be easier or tastier.
This was by far the freshest seafood I had ever eaten.
The last highlight of the trip was paddling back to the town which we had started. Let me explain about the tides of the area. There is a huge difference between the low and high tide here. Unfortunately we had returned on the low tide when we got about half a mile from the fishing village. The tide had gone down so low that it was impossible for the canoe to pass through. We had to get out of the canoe and walk through the sludge of the bottom of the swamp water while pulling the canoe on a rope. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. When I tried to walk through I would sink down to my knees at some places up to my waist. It was so funny because we were so close yet so far. That was the longest half mile of my life. I looked like a total mess when I got to town.
Un buen dia
