We're in love.

Yesterday we went on our first off-shore adventure to the island of Barú.

We met with Plietty, our local ally, on the corner of the Hospital de Bocagrande in Cartagena, where she was haggling with the boatmen for a good discount. They usually charge tourists around $200, but they took us for $60--plus they agreed to be our guides.

LEAVING CARTAGENA.

Reinaldo, our captain, told us he would take us to his hometown, a fishing village called Ararca.

Crossing the Cartagena bay took us the better part of a hour. As we approached Barú we entered a mangrove swamp. The boatmen weaved the motorboat through a narrow canal that someone at some point had carved out of the tangled mangrove roots.

At this point we cursed ourselves for not being better photographers. Being there was just so amazing! Our pictures don't properly translate it.

NAVIGATING THE CANAL: Bring out the paddles--canal be too shallow for use of motor.

We emerged from the canal after 30 minutes of gentle paddling and were greeted by a vast field of mud.

A vast field of mud that we hiked across to arrive in Ararca.

Ararca is a colorful little village, home to 1200 islanders.

A village. A village. Have you ever been to an actual village? 1000 people? Well, we'd never been to a place like this.

In Ararca, fresh water is bought by the gallon. The houses are made of mangrove rods and cow dung. Children bathe with buckets off the side of the road. Villagers get around by canoe or motorbike. Or they don't get around. A lucky few have outhouses. Outhouses that don't flush. If parents want their kids to finish high school they have to send them to the next town. The streets are littered with waste and the occasional pig.

But the people are amazing!

In Ararca, everyone is family. Everyone beams at you and says good morning and introduces you to their neighbors. They all know each other's stories and they take care of each other's children.

Our captain, Reinaldo, found his cousin, Erkis. Erkis told us he moved to Ararca some 20-plus years ago from the neighboring island of Bocachica after falling in love with his wife Narlys, an Ararca native.

They told us their daughter would serve as our guide.

Janiam is a genial and fresh-faced 17-year-old. Her eyes sparkle with optimism. Two years ago she won a local beauty pageant. Her mother has the pictures framed on the living-room wall. Everywhere we went in the village, Jamiam knew the children by name. She'd flash her smile at them and they would squirm with glee.

Janiam finished high school last year. Her teachers told her mother she had a sharp mind and could get an education. She'd like to study English and become a school teacher. But the ride to Cartagena can take hours and costs $5 dollars a day, besides what she'd have to pay for tuition. For now she's helping her mother keep house.

Plietty, our good friend from Cartagena, told Janiam that her family was smart, because they managed all the major business in the Ararca. Her grandmother, whose paraplegic son sits alone in a chair all day, owns the water business. She sells it out of a tank to the villagers at a 15 cents the gallon. Jamiam's grandfather manages a large, lonely estate near the village where they have cows and mango trees.

By 1 o'clock, it'd started raining heavily in Ararca. Villagers retreated back into their houses to try and patch up leaks.

In Ararca, teenagers sometimes leave home at a shockingly young age to live with their boyfriends, oftentimes on the street. We could only imagine what this sort of weather meant to them.

One study found that giving girls a new $6 school uniform every 18 months significantly reduced dropout rates and pregnancy rates. Just imagine how simple solutions like this one could change things in Ararca!

As we walked back across the mud field, Erkis and Narlys insisted on escorting us to our boat. Everything about their demeanor gave away a sincerity that was startling.

We climbed back onto that boat with mud on our sneakers and lumps in our throats.

It really does feel like we landed in that place by some divine shuffle. We're so grateful to have met these beautiful people, and we're THRILLED by the possibilities for development that exist in Ararca.

We hope you join us!

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