Advertisement
Published: November 19th 2009
Edit Blog Post
For some reason, a new depth of thought came to Gus when he passed a cigarette to each of the three men who stood in the wooden boat which floated softly against the side of the sailboat he was in.
Even though he had witnessed the struggle of native people, particularly those in Bolivia and Peru, these fishermen somehow struck a deeper chord.
Gus didn´t know what problems they faced, as individuals, or as a group. Surely, he thought, they aren´t concerned with their next holiday destination, or next big promotion at work, or how fast their internet connection is, or how sexy they look on Saturday night, but Gus drew to a conclusion of slight irony as the Captain of his boat handed over US$20 to the fishermen for four luscious live crayfish. Sure, they need money, it´s the way the world works, but seeing the world of a Kuna tribesman with eight fish, thirteen crayfish, a medium sized turtle, and a spear in his boat while he stood and spoke and smoked an American cigarette and held the green and white American note in his hand, just looked....wrong.
The Kuna tribespeople live in paradise. What they wakeup and fall asleep to cannot be described as anything else than the perfect typical postcard view; it´s what millions wish to visit, and some even dream to some day own. Picturesque island paradise. Crystal clear waters, wetting down amazing reefs of coral, fish, stingrays, and sharks, leading to soft sanded, crab-laden playgrounds of islands, some twenty metres long, dotted with coconut trees and stuffed with extensive flora.
Gus wonders what tourism has done to their lives. Whether it has helped, or if the native people would be better off and or happier without it. The Kuna people would´ve survived just fine without the curiosity of the Explorer or the ambition of the Discover or the market and money of the Western Tourist. Nature provides what the natives need, but...it´s just the way it is; discovery and expansion is inevitable; growth is progressing; progress is change.
But then again, noone said it is progress.
Panama
Awesome! We were finally on the road...well on the sea anyway. The motor on our sailboat Frederika was fixed, we had made it out of the Cartegena harbour, the main sail was hoisted, the
The team
Harley, Garth, Jayne, Al jib was trimmed, land was no longer visible and we were in Panamanian waters.
Frederika was Dutch, the Captain was a Colombian named German (pronounced Herman), and the crew were three Aussies (Harley, Jayne and myself), and one Irishman, Alan; a true mix and recipe for success.
We took the driving (um, I mean sailing) in shifts of one or two hours though the day and night. Navigating a boat by the stars was a new concept to us all, and we all learned many other new things.
One day, while I was "at the helm", a cormorant was flying around our boat looking for a place to roost for the night. This one must have been really tired, because on his third attempt to land on the
edge of the sail (which I decided would have been impossible when I later saw his large webbed feet), he slid all the way down the sail, wings flapping, and landed directly in front of me about 30 centimetres away, in between the compass and steering wheel (pretty much in my lap). He was in as much shock as me, Harley and the Captain, he just sat there, flapping his
wings, I grabbed him by his long neck, looked at him for a few seconds, then chucked him overboard. This must have given him enough adrenaline to get some power and fly off. It was pretty funny.
We had the pleasure of seeing distant whales, then later some playful dolphins jumped around and did that whole "leading" the boat thing. It was amazing for that
just to happen, absolutely unexpected, and totally appreciated. Certain experiences cannot be explained by words or photos, just memories.
The days at sea were spent sailing the boat, preparing food for the crew, reading, playing cards, being dragged along behind the boat by rope (great fun!) or simply laying on deck catching sun.
After four nights at sea, in which time my camera decided to shit itself, we arrived at the beautiful San Blas Islands, an archipelago of 365 islands and home to the Kuna Indians who were driven off Panama during the Spanish invasion so then they fled in their boats to the San Blas Islands. To describe these islands and the surrounding oceans as paradise would only be slighty be doing it justice. (I understand using the word "paradise" can be
subjective, but I mean it in the standard-bored-with-the-everyday-environment-gotta-go-on-a-holiday-thank-god-it´s-friday-Katrina-Rowntree-explanation kind of way).
The pelicans doing their big dive-bomb fish attack looks superb, and the snorkelling was amazing. Floating above wonderul shapes of coral which gave refuge and protection to many types of colourful fish of all shapes and sizes could also be described as "just a dip in the Caribbean", but swimming through a school of feeder fish that was as large as I could see was something else. They hardly seemed to move, they would just envelope themselves around me...maybe I didn´t look alike a scary enough fish! And Jayne even had a sting-ray circling down below her for a good five minutes!
Finally paradise had to be left, so we said our good-byes and thank-yous to our Captain, and jumped on a wooden speedboat to take us toward the mainland, through the jungle rivers and drop us in the middle of nowhere, where thank god, there was a Landcruiser waiting to drive us three hours to Panama City. The ride was great fun, and I thought the driver, who was maybe a little pissed off that we bargained US$10 off his price, was an actual rally driver...or
maybe he was trying to give us a scare?!!
Panama City was nothing to write home about, except for perhaps the Canal, which has been being built and improved since 1880, in which time, a total of 27,500 workmen are estimated to have died. Okay yes its a remarkable piece of human engineering and yes an astonishing amount of earth was moved to build it, but it really didn´t do much for me, even after seeing a massive cargo ship pass through it.
After saying goodbye for now to Irish Al, we moved quickly onto David, an ugly town which was home to the nice relaxed purple hostel we stayed at. Nothing too fantastic to report here. We had under four weeks left before returning home, and wanted to get to cheap and reportedely beautiful Guatemala soon, but there were four Central American countries still to cross before arriving there...so, off we set.....
(PS - check out the photos...there is a few on here thanks to Harleys, Jaynes, and Alans awesome photo skills!!)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.082s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0251s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb