I wake up in the dimness of my cabin and listen to the crash of the ocean outside. My watch tells me its 8am, but it feels like I slept till 12. I must be getting used to the lack of electricity, there’s really no reason to stay up when you can’t see anything. Walking out into the little porch I feel a welcome breeze after the stagnant air inside the cabin. I look out on what is easily the most beautiful view I’ve ever woken up to. After about 10 meters of jungle the ground drops away to the beach below, and off in the distance is Isla Burica – vast and untamed.


The view is so nice, in fact, I decide to climb into the ideally placed hammock on the porch and enjoy it some more. After wiggling around for a minute I finally achieve the optimal position and sigh deeply as I put my hands behind my head, ready to do some serious relaxing. BAM! Something huge is attached to my face, right over my left eye. It’s heavy and hard, yet unpleasantly sticky at the same time – I can feel some of its legs caught in my hair. In a single fluid move that could only be described as incredibly manly; I leap out of the hammock, tear whatever it is off of my face, and let out a childish shriek that wakes Matt up. I stand on the jungle floor and try to calm myself. With adrenaline enhanced vision I see the ground seething; and I realize it’s covered with thousands of hermit crabs. What the hell did I get myself into? I’m deep deep in the jungle, hours away from anything resembling life as I know it. Bugs grow BIG here, and they apparently don’t like me. Once I assure Matt that I am not in fact dead we make our way into the jungle to the kitchen, where our host cooks us pancakes. I feel better.