Cruisers Do Love A Potluck
27 April 2012 | Eastern Holandes Cays / Swimming Pool, Kuna Yala, Panama
Susan / mostly cloudy, showers, 86 degrees F
This morning on the Panama Connection Net one of the cruisers here in the Swimming Pool mentioned they were working with the Kuna on BBQ Island to gain approval for a potluck on Saturday (tomorrow) evening. In years past, Monday was potluck day on BBQ Island; it's an institution, or rather was, up until this year when a Kuna family moved to this formerly unoccupied island and starting charging people to visit the island for any and all reasons. The Swimming Pool quickly became a deserted anchorage, especially with the weather we've had this season. That Kuna family has left, replaced by three middle (meaning more than 40) aged men who are accommodating if they are invited to fill their bowls with the food we all bring. At the time of this morning's announcement there were six occupied boats in the shallow Swimming Pool anchorage. By noon there are fourteen in the anchorage, four anchored in deeper water, and more on the horizon heading this way. The anchor dance is at times scary, at times hilarious, as the light winds clocking around changes everyone's relative position.
Word travels in the Kuna community that boats are arriving in droves; we're visited by a veggie boat with very little good to sell, several Kuna fisherman trying to sell lobster even though the season is closed to allow for future lobster catches, and of course Kuna women selling leg wraps and molas. The local Kuna elder is kept busy paddling his ulu to gather his $10 monthly fee to visit the anchorage. By nightfall the anchorage is full with 30 boats in the area.
One of the special things about this anchorage is the many snorkeling spots, many on reef walls, all with interesting and beautiful reef creatures. Jerry & I join a group going to the area called the waterfall in the late afternoon. It's a challenging snorkel yet worth the effort. The waterfall is the sea rushing over a long tall section of the outer reef. As the water rushes over it, it looks just like a waterfall, and as it hits you, all you see is bubbles as you fight to stay in place between the reefs. Quite the rush. On the way there and back, we wind between reef sections, see lots of fish and reef dwelling creatures. Most of the group sees a reef shark; a sight I'm glad to have missed.