Mom did TONS of research beforehand to determine all of the GPS coordinates that would allow us to navigate the topsy turvy, unmarked roads. It got a little hairy at times but for the most part her plan worked like gang busters.
We saw a lot of beauty and a lot of weird.
The mountains were amazing. At one point we were in a cloud, pulled off to a look out point and as we were snacking and figuring out our next move the cloud moved past and revealed an amazing view of the mountains, valley and the ocean beyond. We easily found a waterfall rumored to be hidden. The sound of the water and the forest wild life, it was so quiet otherwise it was spiritual and peaceful. We attempted to go to the highest point on the island but the road wasn't passable, we still managed to see the golden sun setting against the mountains covered in tropical foliage and it was stunning.
As for the weird stuff. There were seemingly feral chickens everywhere, we had to have seen more than 50. There were also dogs everywhere, most did not seem feral, the thing is they will sleep anywhere, including on the road, when you put a dog on a road I assume it's been hit or is dead so as we passed at least 30 of them, most of them made my heart jump. At one point we passed a group of teenagers, surrounded by cars on bricks, blasting local music gathered around a small horse, at first I thought it was random to see a 'crew' bathing a horse together - until we realized they were actually shaving it.... We encountered a cow in the road, in the middle of the rainforest. There was a pick up truck bed somehow inserted into a mountain side and now being used as a shelf. We passed a teddy bear mounted on a stick for no apparent reason, until we later passed through an area with bottles, cans and stuffed animals tied in the vines along side the road which lead to a shrine of sorts. On several occasions we saw horses in weird locations (like next to a guard rail off the equivalent of I-4). We stopped at a scenic point that was built in the mid 90's apparently to be a tourist attraction, now it's completely run down, eery, creepy and felt like a set of Walking Dead. Oh and all day long, every corner we turned, we saw many many houses and driveways seemingly propped up by 2x4s over certain death. Needless to say, it was a bizarre day.
We did manage to find our way back to a city and our Howard Johnson which thankfully has hot water. We had a quick dinner at an unexciting 'authentic' cafe down the street and now we're ready to crash so we're well rested for tomorrow's coastal more tropical adventure. I'm especially looking forward to tomorrow night...
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