FROM THE CANAL TO THE LAGOON

     Even before we began to clear and plant at False Bluff we decided to have a canal dug from Smokey Lane Lagoon all the way up to a landing place close to the Caribbean.  

     We had made our first trips out to False Bluff by way of the Caribbean...and some of the trips were not pleasant.  Thus, hiring a crew to hand dig a half mile canal through a mangrove swamp was a no brainer.

     Now we come and go with ease and safety.  Many others do the same because we have opened the canal to the public from sunrise to sunset.  People use the canal who had spend decades, hauling stuff from town and slogging through the swamp on foot rather than risking a boat trip loaded with supplies.  

     And some now take family members out - very young or very old family members who had never made the trip before because renting a boat and making the trip via the Caribbean was too expensive, or because carrying supplies through the swamp was just too much.

     At the end of a visit, be the visit hours or days long, travelers move by boat through a leafy tunnel and out into the sunny lagoon.

 TRASH.  LOTS AND LOTS OF TRASH

     Pumice isn't the only thing that washes up on our beach, by far.  Almost nobody lives along our section of Nicaragua's Caribbean coast and so thrash has floated in for decades...most of it overboard from some passing boat since the closest land-side civilization to us is 40 miles away.

     Cleaning up the beach was something that started as soon as we began clearing.  Keeping it clean continues on an almost daily basis as more stuff comes in on every tide.  Initially a huge amount of all kinds of trash ended up in big deep holes...and was burned.  The holes aren't so big any more.

     Keeping our section of beach clean is an ongoing effort but the difference is noticeable as one walks along our place to uncleaned properties either north of south of us.  We have not committed to picking up trash along a 26 mile section of beach.

     The pictures below shows trash at False Bluff at its worst.  This trash is long gone.