Exploring

I had a jones for some adventure this past Sabbath so while the girls took NAPS, I drove up to the bansi cliffs parking lot with machete and water bottle in hand to where I had seen a trail head off into the tall grass/ jungle. I was certain that great adventure awaited. Probably have to kill a tiger or fight quicksand or something. Anyway, I walk this trail for about 15 minutes, whacking at passing butterflies and various flora and fauna, and soon began to hear strange sounds from somewhere in the thick foliage. Being unable to identify them, I pressed on. Soon, the tril broke into a clearing, and there was a boat. A big boat in fact. There in the middle of the jungle. Of course I clamored up into it and sadly, found nothing of much intrest except a large garden spider. Beyond the boat, there was a big building. A long building. So of course I walked up to go exploring it. However, as I turned into the front door, i see ahead of me a long corridor running the length of the building. Filling the hallway was the bulky profile of a bull. Somewhat surprised and concerned at the prospect of angering a large bull in the middle of the jungle alone, I uttered some choice expletives and hastened along down the path. After a few hundred yards, the trail finally broke to what I was looking for all along- the ocean. But it wasn't really the way I was expecting it. It looked like the surface of the moon or something. It was a place where the lava had flowed right down to the water when the island was formed and there was no coral reef to stop the waves, so they were large and violent. I walked out along the water for a ways which was very slow goiing because the lava rock was so jagged and sharp. A little ways from the trail there were two Japanese gun placements, leftovers from WWII. The guns were rusted away, but the concrete and coral rock structures were mostly intact. Very cool. As I walked farther in that desolate place, I saw some fishing poles. A little past that, I suddenly saw a small asian man waving hello and saying something in Korean. I made my way over to where he was, and suddenly he disappeared from view. A little further and I saw where he had gone- him and two friends (Kim, Lin, and ...Juan haha) were having a picnic of the octopus they had just caught and beer. They offered me some octopus and said "SASHIMI!" and now I very much regret not trying it because it would have made this post that much more interesting. I sat with them a while and chatted, turns out one of them lives in my 'village' (San Antonio). Eventually I headed home, and as it turns out my concern over the bull was ungrounded because as I passed the house a man was shooing them out and back down the path.

Lesson learned from the day? If I ever meet a couple of Korean guys in the middle of nowhere and they offer me something to eat, I think I'll say yes.