The walk to the beach is a long and interesting one. There is a feeling of being in an old african american town, a tropical New Orleans or Alabama. I stare at the big houses shrouded in exotic vegetation creeping up the peeling walls. Skimpy children run past me giggling, playing with sticks and stones.
The path I follow leads past a beautiful cemetary with a voodoo feel. The large gravestones grab my attention, I pass a sarcophagus and calvary cross to sit upon an altar and stare at the grey moss covered tributes to the once living and now departed. The sun descends upon the graveyard and trickles through a great and surely wisened old tree to form clearly visible streams of warm, ambient light. I smile and pay my respects then continue on my way down the dirt path soon siding by an enormous mountain of rubbish, the towns waste being gleefully poked and prodded at by families of settled vultures looking for the best scraps of the day..
The path leads to a large hanging bridge over a gorgeous inlet to fnally reach the Caribbean coast.. and the most disgusting beach I have ever seen.
Reminiscent of a post-apocalyptic landscape the beach is strewn with miles and miles of rubbish, plastic bags, toothbrushes, bottles, shoes. I am scared to even walk on the sand for fear of getting stabbed by a rogue needle. I hope that as I walk along the beach the rubbish will lessen but if anything it increases to become a blanket cover of the little beach that there is. The rubbish is endless and the smell is foul.. I head onwards and go into the shoreside jungle to get lost for a few hours..
I am looking for the seven 'Altares', waterfalls famed for their beauty amongst travelling circles but find myself wandering in a thick tropical jungle, thick moistened aire rises from the ground, rustling and strange noises within the dark can be heard. The further I go the eerier the scenery gets.. Its not long until I realize I am hopelessly lost, I scoff at the cliche but its getting dark, I turn back.. Finding my way after a troubling hour of fear and desperation.
I will find the waterfalls tomorrow..