JUNGLE FEVER

We left the beautiful beaches of Playa Potrero and frankly, we didn’t know where we would land…

We knew from the AirBnb listing that it was 6 hours away from where we were and that a jungle vibe, as well as a hostess named Chandra, would be welcoming us. Once again, we were not prepared for the beauty awaiting us. Well, for that and spiders the size of my hand…

As you can see above, the house is located in the Valley of the Horses because 2 unicorns white horses live here, Athena and Bianca, who magically appear in the morning and roam this land as if it wasn’t already owned by narco-traffickers.

On a dirt road seemingly unused for some time, we were scared of what we might find, a shack? A tent? Not quite, what we found was this…

I thought for sure we were in the French Plantation scene from Apocalypse Now Redux, our arrival felt like a dream sequence. When we went around and parked the car, we were greeted by these views…

After inspecting the place we are calling home all week, we went for a whirl on the property…

A beautiful little waterfall greeted us as we walked by, brooks babbling and the sweetest smell emanating from the trees around. Amenities, as Chandra put it. Indeed.

But that night, as the critters came out, we knew this week wouldn’t be as idyllic as it looked upon arrival… See, we are, for better or worse, city slickers and the natural world just freaked us the fuck out our first night here. With a tribe of gigantic beetles, grasshoppers the size of Kosher Dills and spiders as large of my hand making their way into the lounge area, we started to feel the way we endeavored to feel when we decided to leave the ease of our Italian bode: uncomfortable. Actually, not just uncomfortable, terrified is more like it.

We each took a kid in our beds that night and I’m not entirely sure who was protecting who… We are very slowly getting used to living with our brethren, resisting the urge to move to a hotel, and trying to remember that this is their home, first and foremost.