The Ocean Queen

After breakfast we set off on our hike to the East side of the Island to visit the Garifuna people who live on the Island! I was so excited to see where they live and immerse myself into their culture for the day! I was so excited because today was the day that they do a festival for National Ocean Day! On the way there we hiked to the very very top of the Island to the old lighthouse which is 149 meters above sea level! It was probably one of the hardest hikes I've ever done. My legs were shaking and I don't think I have ever sweat so much in my life. 

Hiking in the Jungle

149m above sea level!

Then we began hiking down the other side of the Island toward the village and we decided to sled down on big palms leaves. It was super fun until I scraped my whole right side of my leg. I was bleeding a good amount but luckily we had water to clean it up and bandaids! This is what we sled down on! It was fun but a little scary cause it was so steep and there were so many trees around! 

Mine broke :(

We finally made it to the village and it was crazy to see how different life was here! We made it just in time for the festival! We bought some necklaces from a lady there and we got some shirts for the ocean day festival. The little girls were walking around in beautiful sea creature costumes! After the festival we got to take a picture with all the little kids! Here is us taking a picture with them and the ocean queen! 

I brought lots of little bracelets with me to pass out to the kids. It was so sweet because they got so excited when I let them pick one and then they would run away and bring over 3 or 4 more kids to pick one. It was very heartwarming to see their face light up and ask me my name! One little boy in particular got so happy when I told him my name because his name was Jayden too! He ran around telling all his friends we had the same name! I ran out of the bracelets so quickly and I felt bad that not all of them got one. But luckily I also brought some copies of my dad's fishing book and a pack of coloring books and crayons too! I just wanted to bring a little something because I know how difficult it is to get stuff on this island. It is so far away from the main land with stores. 

selfie!

After the festival we were served lunch which was yellowtail, rice, beans, and plantains! It was so delicious. I was also extremely happy to finally drink a bottle of coke after a week of no soda!

YUMMY

We began our hike back to the resort and my heart was so full after this day. It was an amazing experience I will never forget! On the way back we hikes around the perimeter of the island so we could walk the beach. It was so sad to see all of the trash that has been washed up from the main land. There was thousands of plastic water bottles, flip flops, and I even saw some hair product bottles. It was everywhere and it made me sad to see that no one has done anything about it.  After a long hike back we jumped in the water and then ended the day with some hamburgers for dinner! Today was a 10/10!