Landing at the Sand Cliff Beach

The point that the guides had chosen looked extremely unpromising. There was only a narrow, approximately 15 feet wide, beach that butted up against a vertical sand cliff about six to seven feet high. At the top of the cliff, very thick jungle undergrowth came right to its edge. As it turned out the beach area was cluttered with debris and it was severely infested with mosquitoes.

We helped the guides pull in the aluminum skiffs and beach them alongside the Nitro’s. Then, all three of the guides picked up their machetes and scampered up the sand cliff, telling us to wait there until they returned, and, then, disappeared into the jungle.

We waited, having a brisk time battling the mosquitoes. In a short while we could hear hacking sounds from inside the jungle. In another short while the three guides reappeared, laden down with loose bundles of trimmed, straight tree limbs, each about 8 feet in length, and several coiled lengths of vines. They, then, immediately set to work to fabricate an 8 ft. long ladder. One hacking evenly spaced notches into two of the 8 ft. poles, another to cut shorter lengths for the ladder cross-steps, and the third guide started stripping down and trimming the vines. They quickly assembled the cross-steps to the notches in the poles using the trimmed vines for lashings.