We waded through several hundred feet of reef to reach the island, jutting out of the sapphire sea beneath a glistening sun.  We climbed, pushing past prickly brush and free scaling a decent amount of rocks until we reached the top, where one wrong step would mean sure death... and yet it seemed that we had ascended into a kingdom out of this world.  On one side was the island with its jungles and its roads and its lakes; on the other was a never-ending expanse of ocean.