28 April 2009
The days on the islands have gone by quickly. We stayed 4 days on Isla Tigre doing nothing but lazing in the hammocks, reading, swimming a little, and sleeping a lot. A coconut boat docked on the 2nd day and we arranged to travel with them to Puerto Obaldia – the border with Colombia. It would be about 18 days to get there, the captain informed us; they would stop at many of the small islands to pick up coconuts and sell merchandize, stopping in some places for up to 4 days. Great, we thought! So on the agreed upon morning we went to the Isla Tigre docks to board. How exciting!
The boat, named El Arfi, is a 22 meter wooden ship with capacity to carry up to 150,000 coconuts and still have room for the 8 man crew as well as any passengers. There are 4 very small rooms: 2 upstairs on the deck and 2 inside downstairs. Each has 2 small bunk beds for the men and we sleep on the open deck upstairs. The rest of the boat includes a small bathroom with the toilet flushing out to the water, a small kitchen for the cook, a generator for the freezer and water pump that cools the engine (in it's own room), the captain's cabin, the “living room” (= the lower deck) where the crew have hammocks strung up and watch dvd's or play board games in the evenings – or as it has turned out much of the days, too. So it is very comfortable, we strapped our bikes to the railing downstairs so as not to be in the way and we set off.
How great! Blue skies, we were on a boat with a nice crew, it couldn't be better. The seas were calm as we headed out to the first island to stop at about 30 minutes away. There a few canoes full of coconuts began to appear and the coconuts were counted and tossed into the boat, and then into the hatch for storage. We stayed until after lunch and then headed to the next stop, a trip of about 2 hours. We saw a big manta ray jumping out of the water, it reminded us of our kayak trip in Baja Mexico. Then things got rough. The boat started tipping and tilting and
moving and rocking at incredible angles so we had to run down from the top deck to the downstairs and sit down or risk being thrown overboard. Run down is maybe the wrong choice of words – we had to stumble down the steep stairs carefully. The rocking was getting ever worse while the crew kept saying how the seas were calm, this is nothing compared to January and February! Then we thought laying in the hammock would be good, maybe it would hang down straight as the boat rocked and rolled. Uh, no, this was not a good idea. Ugh. I (Kat) continued to get more and more pale and sweaty – as the crew seemed to enjoy telling me – until finally I had to throw up. I ended up laying flat on my back on the ground and after what seemed to be a very long 2 hours the boat finally docked. Phew! Swen was surprised at having gotten a bit of a weird stomach as well on this stretch, as he hasn't ever gotten sick on boats so far.
So we were now at Isla Playon Chico, another small island crammed full of people, we walked through in about 10 minutes. It did have a bakery, however, and also a “theater” that showed movies every Friday and Saturday nights. It was connected to mainland by a long bridge and several smaller, unpopulated islands were all around. We stayed here about 3 days, lazing around, reading a lot as the coconuts kept on coming in. Several other smaller boats docked to pick up coconuts as well or sell merchandize such as clothing, gasoline, bulk packages of cookies, tins of sardines, bags of rice, sugar or lentils, even bags of concrete and construction materials. These smaller boats were so crammed full of crew, coconuts, sometimes some passengers, and other stuff, that it seemed impossible they were afloat. One was headed towards the border and would arrive in 6 days, according to the captain, but we decided not to jump on with them and suffer those 6 days in cramped heaps. Compared to them, we were on a cruise ship!
The captain let us take out the life boat one day and row to a near-by island. We rowed for about half an hour and arrived at the closest-by beautiful, palm covered, deserted islet. Boat anchored, we jumped into the turquoise sea. The snorkeling around it was great, we saw some small fish, lots of coral, and enormous star fish – about 15 inches across! – bright yellow, orange and red, they were the biggest we had ever seen. When we decided to move to another side of the island Swen paddled the boat and I swam ahead to look for a rock to anchor it to. A few minutes into the search I swam back frantically to the boat – I saw a shark!! Climbing into the boat with Swen's help and getting fiberglass burns on my belly because of it, I described to Swen what I saw: a dark gray shark about 5 feet long swimming about 10 feet away from me, then it must have seen me and swam away quickly. Swen assured me that it was most likely some harmless reef shark that wouldn't attack, but we both still had a little bit of a creepy, scary feeling as we snorkeled around for another half hour or so before we decided to head back. It would have been really great to have the underwater camera we borrowed in Honduras!
The 2 days we were told we would stay at Playon Chico turned into nearly 4, then finally we rode about 30 minutes to our next stop – Isla San Ignacio de Tupile, another crowded island with even more coconuts. We have finished reading a few books and have taken a lot of long naps – it hasn't been very comfortable sleeping at night on the deck with the strong breeze, so we moved into the cramped captain's cabin in the night, then back to the deck around 6 and up by 7 for breakfast. We are still searching for the best sleeping spot on board, a spot with some wind shelter...
The cooking at first was new and interesting, and you could call it good, but after a few days we are starting to get sick of the greasy, oily food and lack of fruits and veggies. Walking on the island in the afternoon – this one about 4 house-widths wide and about 60 houses long, population 1,100 according to their posted 2009 census – we unfortunately couldn't find any fruits or veggies to buy, not even a single tomato or onion. We eat fried plantains with boiled potatoes or fried corn meal cakes and drink hot “panela” which is basically cane-sugar water for breakfast; we have rice with potato soup with a chunk of meat in it (or chicken feet that Kat scoots over to Swen's plate) and drink cold panela water for lunch; then dinner is rice with potato broth and another chunk of meat. A few times the cook made coconut rice, which was really good. The Kuna have restricted the harvesting of king crabs, octopus, conch, and some other seafoods during the breeding season between April and June, but twice now we have had some of these very tasty but illegal dishes. Apparently not all Kuna respect their own council's rules – maybe because the income through these pricey seafoods is too good to give hunting up – and so some of the crew were offered and bought in secret some huge king crabs and an even bigger octopus. The cook – to our relief – didn't cook them, it was the sailor who bought them who cooked them up as he liked and shared some with us. Hard to deny, as king crab is sold back home at 50 dollars a piece, something we might never afford, and octopus is really just very yummy. So we tried a little of these special treats, knowing that the animal wouldn't come back to life. We still feel uncomfortable about it, but they were already dead and in the pot when we discovered what was going on....
1 May 2009
We need to get off the boat. The food is getting harder to swallow and it is getting harder to do nothing all day long! We are anxious to get back on the bikes! Hopefully we will be on the border in about 2 days – we will have to switch to a faster boat because this one keeps delaying and delaying it's return to Colombia! By now after living and sleeping on the water for a week now we have gotten our “sea-legs” so we have no more sea-sickness or problems with waves and feel more or less comfortable with the movement, but now when we stop somewhere we walk around like drunks running into eachother and wobbling around! I wonder how it will be to ride the bikes again! Swen has been studying lots of Spanish and Kat has finally gotten into a routine of studying German. We read lots but are running out of books! But it is never tiring to look at the islands and sea or take a swim – we saw our first Carribean dolphin jumping high into the air and the crew bought a small shark from a passing fisherman so we have fresh shark meat to eat for the next few days. Luckily we have somehow found the source of mangos and limes that we couldn't find for so long and have bought enough for a few days.
The days on the islands have gone by quickly. We stayed 4 days on Isla Tigre doing nothing but lazing in the hammocks, reading, swimming a little, and sleeping a lot. A coconut boat docked on the 2nd day and we arranged to travel with them to Puerto Obaldia – the border with Colombia. It would be about 18 days to get there, the captain informed us; they would stop at many of the small islands to pick up coconuts and sell merchandize, stopping in some places for up to 4 days. Great, we thought! So on the agreed upon morning we went to the Isla Tigre docks to board. How exciting!
The boat, named El Arfi, is a 22 meter wooden ship with capacity to carry up to 150,000 coconuts and still have room for the 8 man crew as well as any passengers. There are 4 very small rooms: 2 upstairs on the deck and 2 inside downstairs. Each has 2 small bunk beds for the men and we sleep on the open deck upstairs. The rest of the boat includes a small bathroom with the toilet flushing out to the water, a small kitchen for the cook, a generator for the freezer and water pump that cools the engine (in it's own room), the captain's cabin, the “living room” (= the lower deck) where the crew have hammocks strung up and watch dvd's or play board games in the evenings – or as it has turned out much of the days, too. So it is very comfortable, we strapped our bikes to the railing downstairs so as not to be in the way and we set off.
How great! Blue skies, we were on a boat with a nice crew, it couldn't be better. The seas were calm as we headed out to the first island to stop at about 30 minutes away. There a few canoes full of coconuts began to appear and the coconuts were counted and tossed into the boat, and then into the hatch for storage. We stayed until after lunch and then headed to the next stop, a trip of about 2 hours. We saw a big manta ray jumping out of the water, it reminded us of our kayak trip in Baja Mexico. Then things got rough. The boat started tipping and tilting and
moving and rocking at incredible angles so we had to run down from the top deck to the downstairs and sit down or risk being thrown overboard. Run down is maybe the wrong choice of words – we had to stumble down the steep stairs carefully. The rocking was getting ever worse while the crew kept saying how the seas were calm, this is nothing compared to January and February! Then we thought laying in the hammock would be good, maybe it would hang down straight as the boat rocked and rolled. Uh, no, this was not a good idea. Ugh. I (Kat) continued to get more and more pale and sweaty – as the crew seemed to enjoy telling me – until finally I had to throw up. I ended up laying flat on my back on the ground and after what seemed to be a very long 2 hours the boat finally docked. Phew! Swen was surprised at having gotten a bit of a weird stomach as well on this stretch, as he hasn't ever gotten sick on boats so far.So we were now at Isla Playon Chico, another small island crammed full of people, we walked through in about 10 minutes. It did have a bakery, however, and also a “theater” that showed movies every Friday and Saturday nights. It was connected to mainland by a long bridge and several smaller, unpopulated islands were all around. We stayed here about 3 days, lazing around, reading a lot as the coconuts kept on coming in. Several other smaller boats docked to pick up coconuts as well or sell merchandize such as clothing, gasoline, bulk packages of cookies, tins of sardines, bags of rice, sugar or lentils, even bags of concrete and construction materials. These smaller boats were so crammed full of crew, coconuts, sometimes some passengers, and other stuff, that it seemed impossible they were afloat. One was headed towards the border and would arrive in 6 days, according to the captain, but we decided not to jump on with them and suffer those 6 days in cramped heaps. Compared to them, we were on a cruise ship!
The captain let us take out the life boat one day and row to a near-by island. We rowed for about half an hour and arrived at the closest-by beautiful, palm covered, deserted islet. Boat anchored, we jumped into the turquoise sea. The snorkeling around it was great, we saw some small fish, lots of coral, and enormous star fish – about 15 inches across! – bright yellow, orange and red, they were the biggest we had ever seen. When we decided to move to another side of the island Swen paddled the boat and I swam ahead to look for a rock to anchor it to. A few minutes into the search I swam back frantically to the boat – I saw a shark!! Climbing into the boat with Swen's help and getting fiberglass burns on my belly because of it, I described to Swen what I saw: a dark gray shark about 5 feet long swimming about 10 feet away from me, then it must have seen me and swam away quickly. Swen assured me that it was most likely some harmless reef shark that wouldn't attack, but we both still had a little bit of a creepy, scary feeling as we snorkeled around for another half hour or so before we decided to head back. It would have been really great to have the underwater camera we borrowed in Honduras!
The 2 days we were told we would stay at Playon Chico turned into nearly 4, then finally we rode about 30 minutes to our next stop – Isla San Ignacio de Tupile, another crowded island with even more coconuts. We have finished reading a few books and have taken a lot of long naps – it hasn't been very comfortable sleeping at night on the deck with the strong breeze, so we moved into the cramped captain's cabin in the night, then back to the deck around 6 and up by 7 for breakfast. We are still searching for the best sleeping spot on board, a spot with some wind shelter... The cooking at first was new and interesting, and you could call it good, but after a few days we are starting to get sick of the greasy, oily food and lack of fruits and veggies. Walking on the island in the afternoon – this one about 4 house-widths wide and about 60 houses long, population 1,100 according to their posted 2009 census – we unfortunately couldn't find any fruits or veggies to buy, not even a single tomato or onion. We eat fried plantains with boiled potatoes or fried corn meal cakes and drink hot “panela” which is basically cane-sugar water for breakfast; we have rice with potato soup with a chunk of meat in it (or chicken feet that Kat scoots over to Swen's plate) and drink cold panela water for lunch; then dinner is rice with potato broth and another chunk of meat. A few times the cook made coconut rice, which was really good. The Kuna have restricted the harvesting of king crabs, octopus, conch, and some other seafoods during the breeding season between April and June, but twice now we have had some of these very tasty but illegal dishes. Apparently not all Kuna respect their own council's rules – maybe because the income through these pricey seafoods is too good to give hunting up – and so some of the crew were offered and bought in secret some huge king crabs and an even bigger octopus. The cook – to our relief – didn't cook them, it was the sailor who bought them who cooked them up as he liked and shared some with us. Hard to deny, as king crab is sold back home at 50 dollars a piece, something we might never afford, and octopus is really just very yummy. So we tried a little of these special treats, knowing that the animal wouldn't come back to life. We still feel uncomfortable about it, but they were already dead and in the pot when we discovered what was going on....
1 May 2009
We need to get off the boat. The food is getting harder to swallow and it is getting harder to do nothing all day long! We are anxious to get back on the bikes! Hopefully we will be on the border in about 2 days – we will have to switch to a faster boat because this one keeps delaying and delaying it's return to Colombia! By now after living and sleeping on the water for a week now we have gotten our “sea-legs” so we have no more sea-sickness or problems with waves and feel more or less comfortable with the movement, but now when we stop somewhere we walk around like drunks running into eachother and wobbling around! I wonder how it will be to ride the bikes again! Swen has been studying lots of Spanish and Kat has finally gotten into a routine of studying German. We read lots but are running out of books! But it is never tiring to look at the islands and sea or take a swim – we saw our first Carribean dolphin jumping high into the air and the crew bought a small shark from a passing fisherman so we have fresh shark meat to eat for the next few days. Luckily we have somehow found the source of mangos and limes that we couldn't find for so long and have bought enough for a few days.
1 comment:
zum 13. mai
lieber swen, herzlichen glückwunsch und alles gute zum geburtstag!!!
k
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