Friday 4/27/2007
This morning we pulled anchor pretty early to head to Placencia village. We had a beautiful sail south, flying the spinnaker almost the entire six hour run! Along the way we managed to snag a 24 kilo. square grouper, but after talking it over we decided to release it back into the wild for someone else to catch!... Placencia is the most adorable town. The main passage through the village is a mile long sidewalk with large conch shells used as filler in the concrete. Mayan women and girls sit in the shade along the sidewalk with blankets displaying hand made bracelets, necklaces, baskets and painted masks. Bright green iguanas zip past and disappear into the blanketed green fields, much too fast for me to catch a photo. Overall this village has the nicest locals we have encoutered. So warm and friendly... For dinner Jeremy made us all enchiladas (Thanx to the Batemans for the yummy New Mexican red chile powder- a little taste of home!).Saturday 4/28/2007
Jeremy and I woke up early and went to The Purple Space Monkey Cafe for breakfast of local fry jacks (like unsweetened funnel cake) and butt bacon... mmmm! Then we walked around the dirt paths and the long flower-lined sidewalk before stopping at a tiny little cafe called "The Shak" for a smoothie made with irish moss (a lacy clear seaweed), milk and nutmeg. Very different and verrry tasty! In the afternoon we pulled the boat into the fuel dock to fill up on fuel and water. I asked the local guy who was filling the tanks if he saw a lot of the green iguanas around the island. "Oh yeah mon." he said. "You should come by for iguana season in March. Den you see da big daddy ones- some are 5ft. long!". "Really?" I said excitedly. "Well, where do all of the big ones go after March?" He looked at me really funny then and said "What you tink Iguana Season mean?... It taste just like chicken!" I had to work to keep my jaw from dropping. I saw the signs around town saying "Protect the Iguanas" and I just thought that they were protected everywhere. Silly tourist girl! Anyway, after the enlightening conversation on the dock we prepared to shove off and though they were nice enough, the dock guys were a little lacking in their boaring skills. They threw off all of our lines before we were ready and with the way the wind was blowing we drifted right into the overhanging roof, snapping off two of our wind generator blades (Only our main source of power!). Angry (With ourselves as much as anyone) and a bit flustered, we motored back and dropped anchor. It will take some research to find a place close by who sells this model wind generator- or a large shipping bill to get it from the states. Oh well, valuable lesson learned- don't let anyone touch our lines unless we absolutely need them to! Really, it could have been a lot worse. Once we cooled down a bit, Jeremy got the bright idea of cutting the other blade down to the same size as the ones that broke. This will work for a while, just not at maximum efficiency. Better than nothing, right?
Saturday 4/28/2007 Part Two :
So we meet Travis and Joanne for happy hour at the Barefoot Beach Bar, attempting to lose our woes inside tall glasses of friuty rum (Actually mine had 9 kinds of rum in it!!- I was a little depressed.). By the time we left happy hour in search for some dinner, we were feeling much better about the whole situation. We had not taken a dozen sandy steps when we looked up and realized that the horizon was covored in billowing black smoke. Some people were running towards us, away from the blackened sky. We quickly hustled our way to the cause- overcome with curiosity as usual. A home was completely engulfed in flames. Lots of people were standing aroung gawking, not quite sure what to do. Others were hauling buckets of water, which instantly evaporated into useless steam, from a hose one hundred feet away. Minutes later a bucket brigade started, which was slightly more heplful. Travis and Jeremy both jumped into the line, but realized very soon that there were more people than buckets, and definately more buckets than water. Looking around it seemed that the entire community; black, white, locals and tourists alike; had come together to help put out the fire. It was a good thing too because this village was on it's own. No fire department to speak of. Few hoses. It did not take long for Jeremy to see an opportunity to help out. He told the older woman who was standing outside of her neighboring home filling buckets with a single length of hose to be hauled off to the site that it would take ten minutes for him to run to the dock and dinghy out to the boat to grab our own 100 ft. of hose. "Well, I don't think that this fire will be put out in ten minutes" she replied as flames and smoke burst out through the roof of the home just behind us- and the wind did not appear to be lightening any. Without another word Jeremy dropped his shoes and sprinted the mile back to the dock. Moments later he returned, hauling the hose to the front door of the building. I was with the woman (Artie) filling buckets and could hear Jeremy several times yelling above the crowd- most of the time his voice coming from INSIDE the burning building! I know that he is very level headed, but it made me cringe when i could hear the roof crashing to the ground. Omar's, the restaurant directly next door and down wind from the burning house, was in much danger- as was the little mayan gift shop next to that. If one of these buildings caught fire, the entire neighbohood might be lost, as they were wooden unlike the burning cinderblock home. Everyone worked together feverishly. Finally, About three hours from the time we arrived, there was much cheering as only a few bright embers glowed in and around the house. We did it! Jeremy emerged from the crowd soaking wet, full of sand and ash and starving! We went straight to Amigo's just off of the sidewalk. The waitress took one look at Jeremy and said, rather unapologetically, "You look just like a wet chicken!". We all cracked up. In a matter of minutes Jeremy had gone from the hero to "a wet chicken". She continued to give him a hard time all throughout our dinner, much to all of our- Jeremy included- entertainment. As we walked away Jeremy said that that was his favorite waitress in Central America. She never even knew why he was all wet... Looking back on the evening, it was quite an experience to see everyone come together like that. Jeremy said that as he was entering the burning house, a guy from the crowd yelled out to offer Jeremy his shoes. It is a good thing to periodically have your faith in the overall goodness of humanity restored.
Sunday 4/29/2007
Back to the Purple Space Monkey for breakfast. Soo good! The rest of the afternoon is spent tinkering around on the boat while Travis and Joanne do some more extensive exploring of the peninsular. We walk by the charred house on our way to get some post cards and hear Omar's voice yelling out from inside his restaurant. "Hey mon, thank you so much for your help wit da fire last night." It feels good to help good people out. We have dinner at Yoli's - Yummy barbeque under a thatched roof with a lovely view of our boats out on the water! The green parrot on a branch just above my head is a nice dinner companion, especially when he began chewing on Travis's hat!
Monday 4/30/2007
Eggs and fryjacks at Omar's for breakfast. They still don't have the water running, but the building is cleaned up for the most part. For lunch we go to "Brenda's Carribean Cookin' on da Beach". She has a whole table set up on the beach with a few scattered chairs under a large palm tree. Perfect. Stewed chicken and fish with fresh squeezed limeade and homemade coconut macaroons for desert! She is a little crazy in the best kind of way. She laughs aloud and reveals the quote of the day :"Thank you god for making me poor and happy!". It is not until well after lunch that a local kindly warns about the extra ingredient in Brenda's macaroons. We all look at each other and laugh- perhaps just a bit too heartily!
