punta valiente hike
July 06, 2007 Filed in: Trip Reports
We made a trip to Punta Valiente, which is located in
the Nogbe Bugle Indian Reservation, with clients Joel
and Lauren. We first visited the small (fifty
inhabitants) Nogbe village named Punta Valiente. In the
village we visited the school, where the children were
happy to have there photos taken and we then traded a
couple of bags of ice for some bread fruit and
plantains. The villagers were very grateful for the
ice. We then contracted one of the elder villagers,
Constantino, to guide us to the top of a two hundred
meter hill behind the village. The trail we walked
passes through the villages food crops. As we walked
Constantino pointed out all of the vegetation that they
planted. Such things as otoi, dashine, yucca,
plantains(several varieties), cocoa, bananas(several
varieties), bread fruit, coconuts and a variety of
other tropical fruits. At the peak of the hill we were
shown the ruins of an abandoned U.S. Military
radio/lookout tower. The tower was installed during
WW2. Also at the peak our guide cut down some young
coconuts and obliged us to try the water inside to
quench our thirst. This water is referred to as agua de
pipa. It is very refreshing and we all enjoyed taking a
moment to look out at the ocean and see the village
from this vantage point. This excursion took about two
hours and afterwards we got back in the boat and headed
for another even smaller Indian village called
Ensenada. Here we stopped to eat our lunch and make the
short hike across this portion of the peninsula to a
beach. We ate our lunch on the covered porch of the
local grocery store and visited with the locals about
current events in the province. The walk over to the
beach was about fifteen minutes, and well worth it. The
sun came out for us and we enjoyed swimming in the surf
for more than an hour before we returned to the boat
for the forty minute return trip to Tranquilo Bay.