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Published: August 14th 2007
JOE WAS COMING TOMORROW TO MEET WITH OYSTERS AT A FART PARTY
What I meant to say was I’M COMING WITH MY GIRLFRIEND AND MEETING THE OTHERS AT THE FESTIVAL
Ahh language!…If one is, as I am, verging on the bereft when it comes to speaking espanol…even on the computer I can’t find the bizzo that should go over the ‘n’…then conversations on the telephone are nigh on impossible!…however, as some testament to endurance over competence I did manage, this morning, to get us into a marina….fortunately, as we approached this enormously expansive waterway with multi-marinas, our guy was waiting at the dock and sign language sufficed to settle us in….but, in general I am still grappling with the lingo…actually getting by pretty well…it’s all relative!….for general conversation I can hold my own but then, when the situation becomes more critical, it’s a battle…and on the phone is even worse!…..and often the locals exacerbate by talking way too fast!….once again I’m dreaming in espanol but once again I only understand some of it!,,,ahh…luckily we have spanglish…often gets you by!!…..and how many packages do you have to open, strugglingly, spillingly, before you understand “open other end”!!
In this episode…cautionary
evolutionary tales, leaving Margarita, the running of the sardines, diving the wreck in Cubagua, catching Mahi Mahi, the WHALE!!, dolphin action, paradise gained (and lost), night sailing to Puerto la Cruz and so much more!!!
On Evolution….
Since we cut back on bananas and started to walk upright something seems to have gone a bit awry in the evolutionary cycle…..I believe C Darwin was on the money, and the Galapagos Islands are living proof but somethings just don’t add up…or do they?
Teeth, for example….how come after all these years we have such an inefficient system?….you’d think by now we’d have a semicircle of bone, seamless, superglued, waterproof sealed silicone gums etc etc….but no….we’ve got this bunch of flaky, shaky, dissolvable, eroded set of high maintenance unreliable meat traps…….
…however, maybe the evolution of the extremely expensive dental/orthodontal brotherhood is the REAL evolutionary path..hmmm. but while we’re on teeth…I’ve been getting the snapping jaw sydrome again..do you know it??…just every now and again…usually when I’m dropping off to sleep…suddenly my jaws open and snap shut…fcuking painful if a bit of tongue or inside-mouthskin gets caught…no rhyme or reason but for the few days following each outbreak I lie
The Wreck
Isla Cubaguaawake trying to keep everything out of the line of fire so to speak…is it just me?…please someone..just to keep my sanity…make it up if needs be..tell me you get this too….
Still on teeth…I saw in Grenada a dentist..I think it was a dentists....the sign said something like Dental, and then either Genital or Gentile….I figured Gentle was the word they were looking for but then I started to wonder…multi skilling, religious influence…aahhh…was a time I needed drugs to go on like this….
But I was also pondering the deficiencies of our aural system the other day…I’d been swimming, and later, sitting at the table, I needed to get those last drops out of my ears….you know…after the hopping on one foot and all that..there’s still a bit dribbling out?…anyway…I saw a napkin from the night before, twisted it up and started working around my ear….the others leapt for the 1st aid kit seeing me hemorrhaging from the ear…but it was only the residual bolognaise sauce I hadn’t seen on the napkin….but it did get me thinking that our ears, and a number of other bits and pieces really have been left out of the evolution race.
ON The Wreck
ISLA CUBAGUA Thoughts of bodily functions are centred around gutty wutts this morning as Ben has had the tom tits for 3 days, I just gave him the Giardia bombs this morning and now David has had a few squirts…aahhh…don’t touch nothing…..have to develop that Jewish obsessive fastidiousness with respect to food handling, and paranoic stomach cancer seizures, the slightest palpitation becomes pancreatic cancer, blisters, boils, bulging, supturating sacs, intestinal blowouts, gas, wind and fire …aarrgghh…. Now thinking about what I’m eating…..and I have the extra responsibity as I’m the cook on board!!.but it got me thinking about the bad design in our digestive system…or maybe…. why do we eat such toxic crap that our bowels end up full of poison?….well, around here it’s more likely to be poisson…haw haw haw! But you get the drift…..we eat, convert it into poison and crap it out…something NQR here….and the old anal/oral death route ….and don’t get me started on bloody peanuts..jesus wept…how come we’re evolving into a bunch of peanut-allergic wimpos..is this really progress?..how can a peanut allergy ….aarrgghh…basta!!..enough!!
Ah, but another boringly beautiful day in downtown Porlamar…OMG am I repeating my own twisted imagery?…I get up about 6am most mornings…no-one
else around, first light…the sun rises behind the mountains or the buildings so it stays cool until 8 or 9…..maybe 25 degrees or so…..the sea is glassy with a gentle swell to rock the boat and maintain the shlepping and slopping…the occasional fishing boat swings past and the wake puts us into rock and roll mode…the distant whine of outboards starts about 4am..the fishermen going out for the day…those lovely long rising prows on their sleek boats, twin outboards hurtling them thru the water…..they come back usually in the early afternoon..dunno how many fish they get but there’s always lots of fresh fish around…I got some tuna at the market and cooked it last night but I don’t think it was tuna…tasted more like swordfish…looked like tuna and it looked like a tuna she hacked up for me at the market..there you go…I did have my favourite fried whole red snapper for lunch the other day…I got a rent-a-wreck for 2 days and drove the boys around the island…stopped at one of the endlessly fabulous paradisical beaches and ate at the local beachside diner…fresh fried snapper, salad and fraahs…now Im getting a wee bit peckish….I’ve got an enormous avocado that
should be just ready, tomatoes are lovely, cucumber, capsicum and some unbelievable serrano and proscuito…this is a duty free island so the big food places have extensive-to-the-extreme ranges of imported tucker!!
Anyway….back to this morning..like most mornings…I get the computer out back…the reception is good in the morning…by 9 or so its v slow…when all the euros wake up and start skyping the family….but first thing it is just magical..maybe 25 degrees, slightest breeze, lulling roll and pitch, pink and purple and golden thunderheads off in the distance…the big mountain, like in Grenada, snags passing clouds…sometimes like snares of wool on barbed wire fences, other times whole clouds get caught, slide around, wrapping themselves around the peaks…at the top of the mountain a bunch of a couple of dozen antennae sometimes poke thru, sometimes obscured…they stick out like a teenagers first pubescent whiskers….
And around me mobs of fish..mostly tiddlers coming to check out the banana peel I’ve chucked in…they flip out of the water…looks like they’re playing but I’m sure there’s a more sinister reason for them to leaping out like this…hmmm should I throw in the handline?…did I tell you about the catfish that took my
line one of the first nights here?..it ate the whole thing down so far I had to do a major operation, ended up totally dissecting the poor little fcuker…in hindsight I should have cut the line!
Anyway…back to this morning…it was great!…now it’s over!!
So, what’s it all like here on Isla de Margarita?….sorta classic Venezuela but also especially different…Isla has always been an independent place and has it’s own features…jesus wept! What a load of crap!….it’s a place of contrasts, from the shmicko, highrise hotels and the more conservative condos for the also-rans, shopping malls, all the trappings of the rich and famous…right alongside acres of garbage…they’re making an effort to clean the place up but the amount of garbage is staggering…along the road, around the coast, on the streets, beaches…everywhere!! evidence of the whole chuck-it-and-don’t-care attitude…only inside the bastions of luxury where dozens of lackeys run around picking up every loose leaf and blade of grass….and along with the occupied highrises there are lots of ruined, deserted and half-finished highrises…it seems a lot of ownership disputes are held up in the courts so many edifices will sit, half done, for years and years….and near the marina
here theres a 20 floor hotel building that is just deserted!…there’s a guard at the bottom…for what I wonder…and nothing else happens…..and it looks like it’s been this way for quite a few years…you can see the curtains on the windows are totally rags, it all just has that look of decrepitude…like it would now take soo much work to renovate it..probably impractical…and it stands out…it’s the tallest building around the whole bay!!……the contrast of rich and poor is always evident…and many many people here are living on the bones of their arses…hence the need to lock down everything that can move before it’s liberated…especially in the marina world where yachts equal lots of money…bit tough for broke deckhands tho’!…and prices are erratic…all the duty-free stuff like booze, fine foods, smokes are cheapo in the extreme but then at the market, basic fruit and veges are quite exo…and a bottle of Gatorade is the same price as a 6 pack of beer…like about 4 bucks!!…but drugs are also cheap…I went searching to replace the Giardia bombs that saved Ben…prescription and v exy in Oz…here I get 3 packets of 4 for $5…and gas of course…I filled up the hire car
and it was 2000 Bolivar…like $1 …fantastic!…..and the traffic…what a wonderfully chaotic parade!…there are several sets of traffic lights and by and large drivers obey them…at all the other intersections you approach cautiously and with small stuttering lurches you play out the game of bluff with other drivers…as soon as you sense the advantage you go for it!!….the lane markings don’t represent or control anything!!…...it quite usual to drive in the inside lane and then just veer across or make an outside pass to turn right!…I found it pretty straightforward driving around for 2 days and was getting the hang of the traffic …probably doesn’t say much for my driving technique!
And now another morning…Ben is back in shape after the bombes!
I was awoken this morning by a mozzie…1st one I’ve heard for ages….and it’s a long way for the little sucker to get here…maybe 3 or 4 hundred meters off shore…must be hungry!…and just when I hadn’t been thinking about malaria, dengue, yeller fever for at least a week or so…
On noises again…this morning there’s an erratic clack…clack…like those executive toys with the row of hanging silver balls …clack…clack…then nothing for 5 minutes…clack…clack…I’ve got no
ideal island
los testigos idea…and the other one…infrequently but often a wave will coincide with the swell to whack some part of the hull like a giant, slamming it with a sledge hammer….it’s the most violent loud whack you can imagine…..the first few times I was imagining some other boat had slammed into us…..I couldn’t believe we hadn’t rent one of the hulls totally off…you must be wondering how we sleep at all?…..My sleep pattern seems to run on an hourly cycle..I drop off into a coma-deep sleep then come to…roll over…stretch the smile muscles and bang, off again…it’s fantastic….wake up, have a listen, feel the movement of the boat, sometimes pop my head up thru the hatch for a quick bo peep…back down…sometimes I can convince myself its almost chilly and wrap the sheet around my legs….and it does get cooler at night and I have to close down the hatch a bit if the wind is too strong…..and then around 5.30 - 6.00 I’ll wake to the crack of dawn….take the computer out back and internet, take some dawn photos…have a banana, watch the little fishies…it’s the best time of day…early birds catching worms no doubt or is that just another myth?
Another day gone…big shop yesterday to get provisioned up for ..how long?…six months maybe?..no..5 days…to get from here to Puerto la Cruz where we’ll be holed up for 6 weeks or so…but a big shop anyway….like planning for a expedition to the bloody south pole…hire a taxi for a few hours..about $12 an hour so the best way to go….out to Sigo the massive supermarket plus every other store…then to the Rabbit Market, my favourite, where all the locals go..one side food, the other clothes and stuff…fantastic place…everything is pretty much free-range/organic…then back to the boat, I fried up some chicken, breaded…..appropriate, as we’d been discussing KFC earlier…this was much better!…Then another day……but this morning…
I was awakened at 5.30am…first light, glassy sea, gentle swell….a subtle but frenzied splashing, pattering sound…like leaves brushing in the wind…I popped my eyeball out the hatch and saw the sea boiling all around the boat….it was the ‘running of the sardines’…I’d heard about it but never thought I would get to see it…one of the true natural marvels of the marine world…..a lot less dramatic and certainly safer than the bulls in Pamploma but nonetheless spectacular….around at the point of the bay…every
50 years or so something causes a massive spurt in sardine numbers and on the peak tide after the full moon they surge into the bay…small children dive in and swim along with the fish….the local fishermen cast their nets…huge friers are set up over open fires on the beach and the entire village join in the celebrations with boxes of beer…huge chunks of ice chipped down…pass the salt! ..mmm
Anyway, now we’re gearing up to leave…I’ve gotta get uptown for some $ out of the ATM and hit the pharmacia for some replacement drugs after Ben’s outbreak….then pick up his washing and we may be off…it is sooo fcuking calm tho’…looks like we’ll be driving all the way…bummer..but it’s only 3 or 4 hours and it will give the freezer and the beer fridge a good boost….supposed to be good diving on some of the islands we’ll be passing on the way to PLC and should be cool…we’ll be there Sunday so no more for a while…
Chau amigos…hey, don’t be shy about saying Hi…and thanx to those of you who have already…god, I don’t have to go down that old path do I???
Aaiiyyeee……
Oh
well, missed the big op in Porlamar…could have stayed uptown and internetted as it turned out coz Ben’s laundry didn’t come in til midday!…anyway, a bit of wind picked up and we sailed out towards some island…big squall came up on our course so we sidestepped to another island…first sunset over the sea and now we’re off to another island for a dive or so…..this is petering out badly….
So, next day we sailed to Isla Cubagua where there’s a wreck!!…still has the sharp end out of the water, it’s a former car ferry that ran aground, burned for a week as all the cars petrol tanks exploded….a great dive as it’s been there for 30 years and there’s mobs of barnacles, fish etc ..and all rusted and corroded and spooky…it was a bit murky and altho’ they say you can swim in and see the cars it was all a bit dark and ominous and I’ve seen a few too many underwater horror movies that the endless possibilities for disaster kept me on the outside…even then, you can easily just swim along without realising that overhead, the overhanging side of the ferry is now totally over you and
any ascent will bring skull into contact with roughage, barnacles and all sorts of bitey-biteys, stone fish, poisonous coral, moray eels….well, you get the picture…actually it was really cool…loved it!! Photos coming.
Next day we left early for the 60 mile haul to Isla Tortuga (Turtle) the wind was up about 10-12 knots and right up our back…we hoisted the mainsail and smoothed out of the little bay…it is just soo wonderful undersail…no noise but the swish and slap of the waves…we were with the current as well so lines of biggish waves would bear down on us then, just when it looks like we’ll be totally swamped, they just slide right under us…giving us a nice little surf along the way…then the line twanged and the ratchet howled…I was frying bacon and eggs for brekky, leapt out of the galley and reeled in a nice little Mahi Mahi or Dolphin fish…a beautiful green and yellow colour and a distinctive prominent forehead…as I swung it aboard it flipped off the hook and flapped and flipped itself down the steps…momentarily I thought of spikes and spines, then leapt after it pinning it to the step and latching on to it
just before it made it back to the water…I wasn’t going to let this sucker get away!….we have it down pat now……as soon as the reel howls, Michael brings us around or kills the motors if we have them on, it’s a long hard reeling in…I swing the fish onboard into a large plastic bucket, grab the fish and squirt a shot of rum straight down the gills…stunned mullet….then have a shot myself before cutting the head, gutting and filleting …then wash everything down, fresh fish in fridge…during the day we caught 2 more mahi mahis, one whopper…got a couple of 2 kg fillets…then a little tuna..so we had tuna/mahi mahi sashimi then fried fish, special spuds and coleslaw..fabulous…
However, back in the early arvo, I’d just cleaned up after a fish when off to the side, only 20 feet away, suddenly this massive WHALE spears up out of the water, turns its belly to us and smashes back to the water…..it had to be 10 metres long…the size of a bloody bus…..faaarrrkkkk…I’ve seen a few whales but nothing like this..extraordinary..and obviously showing itself to us…we ran up front but only saw the trail where, with the merest flip
of it’s tail, it shot under our bows and sped off….. it raced off ahead of us…I was shaking, I could barely hold the camera…one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences..truly astounding….afterwards we were talking about it…it was so sudden and so brief that if the others hadn’t seen it as well I could have believed it an hallucination…
A few hours later we were joined by a pod of DOLPHINS..what more could there be today?..we hung out over the front, lying on the trampolines..about 6 or 8 just romping along beneath us…twisting and jostling with each other, up for air then down again..the water was so clear we could see them diving way down then swooping up and out..a little tacker, no bigger than a dog was shadowing his mother..every little sway and twist she made he was there..it was really more than following, it was more a telepathic relationship…absolute perfect timing…and when he came out for air he actually GOT air..he would be entirely out of the water….we watched them for nearly an hour until they got bored with us and went off….
So, finally we made it into a sheltered bay at Tortuga Isla…..this is some sort
of paradise…a low lying, dry, deserted island, just sand clumped over a rocky corally reef, in the bay where we moored, a mile or so of halfmoon pure white sand along the beach…shimmering in the noonday sun, a couple of semi temporary fisher huts, altho’, as the height of incongruity, one had a satellite dish precariously hanging off one of the poles!!….small scrubby bushes and water soo crystal clear and blue over thhe white sandy bottom…just perfection….there were a dozen or so cruiser yachts in the bay and we pulled up and anchored……
Friday morning in our sheltered little deserted bay and the boats started coming in!!…tents went up on the beach…jesus wept it’s the annual Isla Tortuga sports fishing competition…during the day about 400 motor launches from your medium sized gin palaces to racy speed boats..some v serious fishing outfits…rods and antennae spiking out all over……most of them from Puerto la Cruz and definitely the rich set!!….quite a different vibe from the regular people we’d been hanging with in Margarita…..a dozen small aircraft and even a couple of shmicko choppers…we took the ding in and walked the beach…looked to me like the rich cosmetic surgeons in their expensive
boats surrounded by the fruits of their labours…talk about silicone valley it was a regular Tupperware party!!…just extraordinary…..
Saturday the serious fisher people, well, I could say fishermen because they were all men!!…started heading out in their massive, rod bristling battleships to conquer the sea….meanwhile, back in the bay…kids hooned around in dings, the girls primped and pushed out their chests and bums, the non-fishermen played beach volleyball, soccer and pervarama…much drinking of cerveza…but we were running out!!..aarrgghh!!…we decided to head off for Puerto la Cruz but then a monster storm came thru’…25 knots of wind, pissing down rain….we dragged the anchor but luckily no-one behind us…shit and derision for the motor launches who had all tied up stern-to-shore and that’s where the weather was coming from!!..
So we finally bailed about 10pm, everything had cleared up and it was a beautiful night….just a bummer there was no wind so we had to drive…some fabulous dolphin action tho’…the luminescent plankton effect..you could see the glow of the dolphins approaching the boat….just like those old war movies and the torpedoes….then slide right under us…or pop up alongside,……the gasping snort as they breathed…all quite spooky and so very different from
Hijo de Puta?
From El Flaco, Mi Amigo our daytime encounter….and then they were off…..a small, sparrow-sized bird latched onto one of the lines dangling from the end of the boom…it dug in its little claws and beak and clung on for dear life…poor little fcuker was totally beat…and the line was shaking and snapping…the most worst place he could have landed…and nothing we could do!!….and we were now a long way from land…he hung on all night and finally flew off, hopefully close enough to land!!
So now in the marina at PLC and tomorrow a 4am start to get up to Canaima and the Angel Falls…re-run for me but will always be a special place!…
So, basta for now…chau..besos…
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