Christmas Crayfish, Crabs and New Year Kuna Tours
14 January 2013 | San Blas Islands
Ian
Hi all, Chaotic Harmony is still at the San Blas islands just to the east of Colon at the northern entrance of the Panama Canal. We have been enjoying our time here and have met some very nice people; some of whom will be crossing the Pacific with us this year including the crews of "Synergy" and "Sapphire". The photo above is of Tizer the HoP in his favorite fishing position.
Christmas came and went for us at Coco Bandero Cays. Santa came on Christmas Eve to one of the small islands where the kids had built a small thatched hut to allow him to leave some early presents while the adults joined in the excitement. Christmas Day started at the usual time of 0500. The booty was small this year as it was a long way for Santa to come but we eventually sat down to a great crab and crayfish lunch washed down with cold wine and beer. Our friends from SINAN, EJ, Shana, GiGi and Jason joined us and it was a day of fun with kneeboarding, swimming and kayaking after lunch with all the kids fleet who had assembled at the cay.
We have had a good look around this part of the world and it is quite beautiful but would have been a lot better some years ago. Several of the cruising boats have been here for years and the fish get smaller and the rubbish collects. We have a vege and beer boat calling to us most days so essential supplies never seem to run out but the flour situation will become critical in a week or so.
We have met up with John and Cindy from "Cynergy" and really enjoy their company. Both John and I are similar and even Jo and Cindy treat us both the same way so we commisserate well. They will cross the Pacific with us this year. Keely has made friends with Hanna on "Blue Kai" and so we try and meet up with them as often as we can. We met up with Kirk on "SALSA" who we first ran into at Cocos (Keeling) Islands and again in Hout bay in South Africa so it has been fun discussing the things that have happened over the last year.
2013 came for us on "CYNERGY" and surprisingly we all made it to midnight. It did take a few days to recover the lost sleep as we all hit the sack around 8pm exhausted after a day on the islands.
The next day we sailed to Salardup Island to meet Lisa the transvestite and Master Mola Maker for our trip up the Rio Azucar to see the jungle and waterfalls. The Kuna people are female oriented so if there are no daughters the first son is evidently raised as a girl so there are a few around here. Lisa took us for a small boat ride to the river, up it for a kilometer and then a massive 4km trek up the mountains. The trail is easy to follow but very steep and very slippery in places. Keely made it all the way with a little chocolate for encouragement. We are all very proud of this. We eventually made the waterfall and had a great time. It was fresh water to swim in which was a novelty and had small deep pools you could dive or jump into from between 3 to 6m up. Really cool stuff for the teens in the group. The trip back was down river for 3km and required us to swim, walk, stumble and tube down several smaller cascades. It was smiles all round but on one tube ride I lost my sunnies while Keely rode my back down the tube. The last section was overland and once again Keely made it although it was a bit tiring for her and all of us then back through the cemetery and the waiting canoe for the sea trip back to Chaotic Harmony.
We are currently at Nargana Island which is a small Kuna town waiting for the supply boat to get some eggs and flour and a few other treats if possible. They have internet access so we are able to get this through to the web. Today we dingied up the Rio something or other (Diablo) to see if we could find and monkeys or tapirs as it is wild country and rarely visited. We found diddly squat wildlife but lots of graves.
Plans are now to wait for our friends from "ONEWORLD" to arrive for a small holiday here then we leave San Blas for Colon and Shelter Bay Marina where we will haul out on 4th February for a bottom job and a few minor repairs before traversing the canal and heading out into the wide blue Pacific Ocean. Currently we are hoping to be in Sydney by the end of 2013.
Tizer the HoP has discovered the sugarscoops are an excellent fishing platform and now fills the cockpit with weeds and is quite proud of himself.
To our family and friends and those wonderful folk we have met so far on our travels we hope you all had a lovely Christmas and a good start to the New Year.
be good.