Island Trip

Locals on a donkey. Notice the parrot on the boy's shoulder.


Jungle.


Joerg joked this was the site of the last Bubonic Plague outbreak.


View of some of the many surrounding little islands and our water taxi.


The dugout possibly used for the arrival of the island's first inhabitants.


Drawing a line (or, um, a plan) in the sand.


Nice views.


More nice views.


I joined my team and a client to visit five island lots on Boca Brava on Sunday. We met at 6am for breakfast, and headed South to the Pacific. Going early means beating the rain, which is a good thing considering boats are needed to get to where we were going. Rob, Steve, Joerg, and I made it to the boat dock in Boca Chica after navigating through cattle and around bikes placed in the middle of the road as an attempt by locals to slow down the traffic...kind of silly if you ask me, but whatever. We met a pre-arranged boat taxi and headed to the property. I love this area because the islands are protected by an outer reef, so the swimming is year-round, minus times when tropical storms occur. The property was beautiful, selling for about $25 per square meter with two beach access points, one on each end of the lots. Each lot pencils out to about half of a million $US. Rob and I did the usual clowning around trying to scare each other with snake hisses. It really isn't a joke, snakes are around. Rubber boots help. We spent half of a day on the island and headed back to David to look at city property.

While on the island, Joerg found a "Hamburger Bean" and a "Purse Bean" right next to each other on the beach. I'd never heard of these, and after he gave them to me, the guys joked around about the legends surrounding the beans. I researched them a bit online when I returned home, and I am now really fascinated by these things. Some of them travel enormous distances in the ocean and are quite neat to look at when found on the shore. The oils inside of them are supposed to contain DMT and/or L-dopa which I won't mess with in my old age. Some types of sea-beans are supposed to be good luck and/or protection against evil spirits. Other legends have some sinister undertones, so I am trying to decide if I want to keep these beans in my room. Good thing I don't really believe in superstitions, so, hopefully they will have no power :)