tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71222826454070387092023-11-16T08:41:13.859-08:00HeartbeatJoin two crazy newlyweds on an adventure of a lifetime as they sail around the world. The wrong way.Neekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00210526110456467594noreply@blogger.comBlogger124125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122282645407038709.post-82586159448727383512016-10-25T03:06:00.001-07:002016-10-25T03:06:41.890-07:00Honduras, Roatan (Pizza nights) 2016-03-23<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>Over the last few months in between fixing the boat and playing with monkeys, we have been making pizza. Lots and lots of pizzza. More pizza than you can imagine. <br/>
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It all started on Garth’s birthday in January. I asked him what he wanted, and the answer was pizza. Pizza and margaritas. That didn’t seem like too much of an ask, so I decided to throw a little party in the Tiki Palapa. We didn’t tell people we were having pizza, in case they all rocked up expecting a big meal. But I stocked up on all the ingredients, Pete gave us permission to use the Palapa as well as his big grill (we just had to replace his gas) and Debbie brought along a birthday cake. She even supplied a blender for the margaritas! It was a great night. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160323/b01.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160323/b02.jpg'/><br/>
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Garth spent all afternoon making pizza dough and then we took everything up to the Palapa for our pizza party. I chopped up all the ingredients and he went about casually rolling out the dough and sprinkling toppings on them. They were rectangular pizzas, made to fit on the top shelf of the grill. With the lid closed and the temperature cranked, it worked just like a pizza oven. They were done so quickly! The crust was crispy and the cheese was all gooey. I chopped up each pizza with a borrowed pizza cutter and passed it around. There was enough for us all to have a piece from each one, and they were all different flavours. There weren’t mass amounts of people around and it turned into a really fun, relaxed night. We even made friends with a few of the hotel guests who stopped by and joined in the celebrations.<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160323/a17.jpg'/><br/>
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And that was that. Except our friend Fred was planning on leaving Roatan for a while, and he asked us if we could do it again. Just once more before he left. Please more pizza!?<br/>
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So we hesistantly decided to try it once more. Except we couldn’t afford to pay for all the ingredients again… so this time I figured we had to charge people if they wanted to join in. We both loved the whole concept of it… all you can eat, each pizza is different. If you don’t like what’s on one, you just wait five minutes for the next one to be passed around. On Garth’s birthday we were all stuffed by the end, completely unable to eat another bite. We both had a piece of each one as it came out, and the whole thing was a lot of fun.<br/>
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But now people were paying for the food, we were both nervous. What if it wasn’t good enough? What if people didn’t get enough to eat? What if they didn’t come out fast enough? Neither of us has ever run a business before, although I’ve worked in the hospitality industry long enough to know what needs to be worried about. And there was a lot of worry. We were only really charging people because we wanted to eat pizza but couldn’t afford to feed anybody except ourselves… so we decided on an amount that converts to about $3usd if you brought along a pizza topping to contribute, and $5 if you didn’t. We figured that way it would cover the cheese, sauce, pepperoni and any other things I bought… and the extra toppings would be provided. And in case lots of people decided to just pay more and not bring anything, I came equipped with a huge bag of tins from our cupboards (olives, capers, sundried tomatoes… we really do have a lot of food onboard!). I had to invest in a pizza cutter, and without a rolling pin we just used a cold wine bottle out of the fridge to roll out the dough (it was the only rosè and had been there for a while – we removed the label, washed the bottle and it became our designated rolling pin each week. When I was packing up our apartment in Wellington our good friend Rebecca helped us downsize… she chucked out my rolling pin and declared that all we ever need is wine. This has since become standard practice!)<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160323/a13.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Garth rolling out the pizza dough with a wine bottle.</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160323/a14.jpg'/><br/>
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So it was a good plan. We were having pizza again! Except it quickly turned into a madhouse. Lots of people turned up, I panicked when I felt like people weren’t getting enough to eat, and there was a lot of stress. I think the difference was the first time we did it, Garth and I were both eating a piece from each pizza along with everybody else. There were leftovers from each one, so some people had two pieces before a new one came out. The pizzas came out at the right time so that we were never hungry and it was all very relaxed. This time I was cutting the pieces smaller and smaller so that there were enough to go around… we weren’t getting any at all. So we were starving. And I assumed everybody else was starving as well. How could they possibly be full from such tiny pieces!? Then we ran out of pizza dough. We had made twice as much as the time before, but there were lots more people. I had to run back to the boat and we ended up making the last few pizzas with dry pre-mix pizza dough packets. But everybody seemed to be full and happy. It quickly became evident that this wasn’t just a casual dinner – it was an event. You couldn’t just rock up for half an hour, eat and go home – it spread out over a few hours. Then the clean up at the end took about 40 minutes… the whole Palapa was covered in flour, there were food scraps everywhere, and there were a lot of dishes. We started the dough at around 1pm and finished the night at 10pm.<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160323/a06.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>The end of the night… not much food left!</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160323/a23.jpg'/><br/>
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We were exhausted, and we had made about $20usd profit. We were pleased, considering we hadn’t been trying to make any money. But it was a lot of work. We were not going to do it again for $20. Pete had originally agreed to let us take over the Tiki Palapa if we split the profits with him, but after about 10 minutes of watching us run around like crazy people, he decided all he wanted from us was his gas refilled after we used it. Which we were super grateful for!<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160323/a19.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Sunset from the palapa</i></centre><br/>
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There was a lot of positive feedback after that night - people wanted pizza again. So we raised the price to something close to $5usd if you brought a pizza topping, and $7usd if you didn’t. Everybody told us we could legitimately charge more for the amount of work we were putting in (plus it was all you can eat, and there isn’t anywhere else around here to get food from – the closest place is way more than we could afford). But as cheap cruisers, we would go out for a $7 meal. $10 each was too much.<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160323/a11.jpg'/><br/>
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The next week we were a bit more prepared. People knew the system a bit more as well – the week before a lot of them who hadn’t gone to Garth’s birthday were a bit confused until they rocked up and saw how it worked. We got a routine going. Marty and Liz brought home cooked sauce, which kicked the pizzas up another notch (I would normally make my own, but the pizza dough was already enough work as it was). Garth figured out how to fit two pizzas onto the grill at a time, and we started getting into the swing of things. We ran out of dough AGAIN… but I raced back to the boat, grabbed flour, salt and yeast, and mixed up some flatbread that rose in half an hour. Nobody even noticed the difference. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160323/a08.jpg'/><br/>
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We started making a decent profit! And it was a lot of fun. So week after week we continued. It’s been a big part of our week – after a while we started going through about $50USD of cheese a week. We were using 20lb of flour each time (that’s a big bag!) and Garth was making so much dough that we had to start perparing everything by around midday. Garth would mix up the dough and leave it to rise for a few hours. After a while our boat was just filled with pizza dough. Every bowl, pot or pan that could hold dough was balanced pecariously around the boat with cling wrap over the top. Because it’s so hot, they would rise very fast and we couldn’t slow them down by putting them all in our tiny fridge… so we spent a lot of time punching down dough so it wouldn’t explode. Eventually Pete just let us make the dough at the Palapa and fill his drinks fridge with all of our pizza stuff.<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160323/a03.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Pizza dough so stubborn that even glad wrap cannot contain it!</i></centre><br/>
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Everybody got really into it, and each week more and more people turned up. At the supermarket, people would excitedly tell me that they’d picked their topping for the week. And people started bringing really fun things, which Garth loved. He got really into creating different flavours with the different toppings. Two of the weirdest things we had were beetroot and dried figs (which our friend Anju had dried herself!). They were also the two toppings that people kept talking about and asking for more of! Everything that could be put on a pizza was, and we were having a great time. Once we got the dough amounts right, I even got garth into the habit of making me an extra pizza at the end so I could take it home for breakfast the next day (Garth and Pete usually took what was left of the last two pizzas before that – people were always still peckish at the end but not enough to eat more than a slice or two). We had garlic bread going at the beginning of the night as well, and people figured out not to rock up all at once. The people who were there from the start were full by about halfway through, so even though the place would be packed not everybody was eating at the same time which made it much less stressful. Pete was really good at keeping an eye on everybody and letting us know who had been waiting for a while and who had just rocked up and needed food immediately. We definitely couldn’t have done it without him!<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160323/a33.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Aussie Pete and our friend Shelley</i></centre><br/>
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Debbie and Steve left for Rio Dulce for a month, but when they came back Debbie was super helpful as well. They returned when the pizza nights were getting really busy and she helped pass the pizzas around while Garth and I were running around like crazy. We were getting around 40 people a night, which is a lot of mouths to feed and a lot of pizzas to make! <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160323/a05.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Debbie helping us hand out pizzas while it was quiet enough for me to take pics!</i></centre><br/>
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We even did a few individual pizzas once we got organised and had a routine going. One couple brought their own cheese every week so they could still have pizza without the dairy, and we had a few other legitimate food requirements that we could work around. We generally made one meat and then one vege, so we had a good variety for everybody. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160323/a07.jpg'/><br/>
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They were so good that one week as I walked home with my breakfast pizza I came across a group of drunk Americans who had been out on the town. My pizza looked so delicious they convinced me to sell it to them for $20, which I did reluctantly (although I regretted it the next morning when there was no breakfast pizza!)<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160323/a27.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>No time for breakfast anyway when there's monkeys around!</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160323/a36.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Apparently Garth’s hair is delicious...</i></centre><br/>
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My favourite night was a few weeks ago, when it was absolutely pouring with rain. Like torrential rain. We thought about cancelling pizza night, because the Palapa is pretty leaky and not really indoors (its just a shack with open walls). But the rain let up for a while and we decided to do it anyway. Then the rain started again. We managed to get the pizza toppings in a safe place away from the rain, but the BBQ was a few metres away from the Palapa. Not under cover. We couldn’t move it, so thanks to a generous soul who loaned us their giant umbrella, we transported pizzas between the Palapa and the BBQ very carefully with me holding the umbrella and Garth carrying the pizza. The BBQ had steam pouring off it all night as the rain came down on top of the lid. <br/>
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We didn’t think many people would show up. We were wrong. People started flying towards the shore on their dinghies, like mice escaping a burning building. Most of the boats here are at anchor, but they all came in through the rain wearing full wet weather gear. I think every single cruiser at Fantasy Island came along that night (except our friend Ellen… she tried to come, but the path from her boat had been flooded and she couldn’t get to us!). Everybody was crowded under the leaky roof, laughing and drinking and having a great time amidst this crazy, torrential rain. It was really bizarre and really lovely. They really like our pizza!<br/>
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As much fun as it’s been, we’ve had to put an end to all this pizza madness. We’ve got to get moving soon, and we still have things to do to the boat before we go. So no more pizza. On our last night everybody was especially amazing. Almost everybody paid us extra, and somebody even brought 2lb of huge prawns to put on the pizzas (they were SO GOOD!). So it was a really nice end to what has been a pretty fun adventure. I think it’s safe to say that if we wanted to, we could start up a little pizza shop somewhere. I think it was more fun just making whatever we wanted though, rather than having people put in orders. Plus it was great having a different flavour for every slice! We made enough money to pay for our boat to be at the dock, which is a big deal for us. So thank you to everybody at Fantasy Island who helped us out by eating our pizzas, offering a hand or just for being fabulous! I was expecting I’d be sick of pizzas by now, but I could totally go for just one more…<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160323/a26.jpg'/><br/>
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Xxx Monique<br/>
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Click here for <a target='__BLANK' href='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160323/index.html'>LOTS more pictures!</a></div>Svheartbeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15992606035707210558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122282645407038709.post-35283785154290009682016-10-06T11:46:00.001-07:002016-10-06T11:46:29.561-07:00Honduras, Roatan (Tattoos) 2016-03-22<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>I no longer have milky white virgin skin. <br/>
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It was my 30th birthday the other day, and as the date was approaching fast it suddenly dawned on me that I was about to lose my 20's. And I definitely haven't done as many crazy things as I would have liked to do. Sure, I moved to another country on a whim, instantly fell in love and got married to a crazy ginger. Then I took all the money that I'd been saving for my entire adult life and essentially threw it into the ocean by buying a sailboat with little to no experience with, or previous desire to sail. Then I abandoned my new home and sailed off into the unknown, along a ridiculously crazy route that almost nobody else is stupid enough to take. But for some reason it all seems kind of normal now. I wanted to enter my 30's with the same level of craziness that I've managed to uphold during my 20's. There are no nearby planes to jump out of and nothing else accessible that I haven't already done (I greet each day by hugging a monkey. And is swimming with sharks supposed to just be for special occasions? Because those guys are just my friendly neighbours that come round to hang out occasionally). So I decided to get inked. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160322/a45.jpg'/><br/>
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I always figured I would mark this adventure with a tattoo of some kind. With such a short attention span, nothing has ever struck me as being amazing enough for me to want to have it etched permanently on my body. But this has been a trip of a lifetime and it's one thing that I'll certainly never change my mind about in a hurry. I might not end up a sailor forever, but I have no regrets about sailing off into the sunset. Or straight into the waves, in our case. I've never gotten to the stage of sitting down and thinking about tattoo designs though, so I figured my 30th birthday was as good a time as any.<br/>
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After doing some research into the local tattoo parlour (Foxy’s Ink), I decided that this was going to happen. Roatan is a tropical paradise in the Caribbean, so instead of ending up with one or two dodgy tattoo artists plucked from a very small pool, really good artists come over here for a working holiday. There’s only one reputable tattoo parlour here and their current guest artist from overseas (Rene) is good at artsy pretty tattoos, so I was in luck. (I should mention that the resident artists are very good as well. Foxy, the owner, has just started out. But she's learning from a revolving door of amazing people and has her own unique style).<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160322/a41.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Tropical paradise!</i></centre><br/>
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I thought a lot about what I wanted, and after a lot of scouring through images, scribbling down ideas and talking with Rene, we were a go. I had hoped to get it over and done with before I turned 30, but my appointment ended up being on my birthday itself. Not a fun birthday. But I was excited nonetheless.<br/>
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I wanted a boat, which is probably obvious. After travelling over 20,000 nautical miles, mostly upwind, I think I deserve to have a permanent boat on me. Luckily we have one series of photos that our friends Liesbet and Mark took of our boat sailing next to theirs in French Polynesia. We were floating along on calm seas in hardly any wind, so we don't look that impressive. But they are the only photos we have of us sailing – normally there's nobody around to watch us heel over! So Rene took one of Liesbet’s photos and turned it into a silhouette. I was not going to have a random boat tattooed on me forever. It was going to be our Heartbeat. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160322/a03.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160322/a04.jpg'/><br/>
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The basic design I wanted was swirling waves curling over my foot and up my ankle, with our boat in amongst them. Hopefully with a koru kind of design, because New Zealand and my Kiwi husband have definitely set my life on a completely different path. Because of the ridiculous sailing route that we took and the fact that we didn't die, I was hoping my tattoo boat could be sailing upwind as a reminder of how many shitty days we have endured in crappy conditions. But I eventually decided to butt out and just let Rene just do his thing, because the design he came up with was kind of awesome. I've had too many bad haircuts from trying to tell the hairdresser what I wanted instead of just letting them do something sensible. I've definitely learned my lesson. Luckily hair grows back...<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160322/a06.jpg'/><br/>
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Rene made a perfect swirl on my ankle bone, which left us sailing downwind. But he added a heap of swirly waves all around us to make up for this change. There is no doubt that the boat on my ankle is sailing through some crazy waves. Because this is my first tattoo, I was nervous as hell that he wasn't really drawing much onto my foot before the needle came out. He traced on the boat, the words I wanted ("Let's go on an adventure!"), and the perfect circle for my ankle. He added a few outlines of waves but the rest he was going to freehand. I'd seen a lot of his other works so I knew he was talented, but I was still scared!<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160322/a07.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Ready to go</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160322/a08.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>So may blues!</i></centre><br/>
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I shouldn't have been. He produced a pile of different coloured blue ink and got to work. It was really sore at first, then after the first hour it became excruciating. I'm not sure who's stupid idea it was to get my first tattoo on the bone of my foot and ankle, but here we were. I had thought long and hard about it, and had come to the conclusion that I would rather sit through a bit of extra pain than spend the rest of my life with a tattoo in a place other than where I wanted it. I quickly wished I had wanted it somewhere else! After an hour or two I was screaming into the pillow, trying so hard to stay still. My foot kept twitching when he was doing the words, because it kept hitting all the nerves in my foot. I was terrified I was going to involuntarily move and wreck it. Garth was amazing, holding my foot down to stop it moving and just generally being lovely. I'm not sure which part hurt the most because after a while it just became a big blur of pain. But I'm probably going to go with that pretty swirl on my ankle bone. That was never going to be a stroll through the park. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160322/a10.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160322/a11.jpg'/><br/>
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As he moved up my ankle and onto the sails, the pain reduced significantly and it was more like getting laser hair removal. After talking to a lot of tattooed people this is what I had been expecting the whole thing to feel like - very painful but not too bad. I've had lots of laser and for a while I managed to distract myself the same way that I do when I'm having hair removed - by playing games on my phone. But once he'd finished that little section of my ankle where it wasn't just all bone, he went straight back down and continued torturing my foot. Foxy, the owner of the shop, was really sweet and lovely. She cranked the music so I could scream into the bed to my heart's content. Everybody kept trying to distract me, but all I cared about was keeping still.<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160322/a12.jpg'/><br/>
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So after a few hours of torture, I had an explosion of colour on my ankle. Which had swollen up to twice it's size. Rene told me not to walk on it for at least three days, which I tried really hard to do and then failed miserably. How do I not walk when I live a boat? I can't exactly hop from one room to another! It took five days for the swelling to start going down and over a week before the first bit of skin started peeling. I couldn't wear shoes or walk to the showers. The marina bathrooms are down a dirt path, and I was supposed to wash my foot every day without walking or getting dust on it. After care on a boat is really, really hard.<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160322/a16.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>The next day</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160322/a18.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160322/a22.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Still puffed up a few days later</i></centre><br/>
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I ended up wearing a sock whenever I could, and half hopping half limping between the facilities and our boat. The hotel lobby (wifi!) and the tiki palapa are even further away than the bathrooms. So I ended up losing a bit of colour exactly where Rene said I would if I didn't keep my foot up. Damn. Luckily we'll be back in civilisation again soon so I can get a touch up like a normal person. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160322/a40.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>A week and a half later</i></centre><br/>
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While I was at it, I got a wedding ring tattooed onto my finger. I'm so sick of not having my wedding ring. It's super dangerous wearing a ring on the boat, even when the boat's not moving. I've seen so many pictures and heard so many stories of people getting gloved by their rings, even just getting in and out of the boat on the dock. So the ring always stays off and the newlywed inside me is sad. Now I have it forever!<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160322/a15.jpg'/><br/>
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Interestingly it didn't hurt at all when Rene was tattooing my finger. Like at all. I could have had a nap. I guess my fingers have more skin on them than my foot!<br/>
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After a whole day of anticipation and a whole afternoon of pain, the rest of my birthday was lovely. Everybody came out to celebrate with me. Our friend Ellen made me her special ribs which she finished off on the BBQ (one of the best things I've ever eaten), Debbie produced cake and cocktails and after driving me into the tattoo parlour that morning, Fred came all the way back out to Fantasy Island bearing champagne. There were a few thoughtful presents small enough to fit on the boat and I just generally felt really loved. I'm going to miss these people so much when we go!<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160322/a13.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160322/a14.jpg'/><br/>
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After spending all afternoon watching me scream and squirm, the next week Garth decided he wanted in on the excitement. He has always wanted a tattoo of a monkey, but has never been able to figure out exactly what it is that he wants. After chatting with Foxy, he decided he may as well get on the bandwagon if she could figure out how to get the image of what he wanted out of his head and onto paper. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160322/a54.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Foxy’s original design, which she was nice enough to let us have</i></centre><br/>
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She came up with a very cool design to start with, which was amazing. But it wasn't what Garth had been picturing for all these years. It turns out that he just wanted a simple outline of a monkey climbing up his back. To make it more special, the monkey he settled on is a Capuchin, just like his little friends here on Fantasy Island.<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160322/a27.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Foxy doing her thing</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160322/a32.jpg'/><br/>
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In an attempt to annoy me, Garth decided to get a tattoo that didn't take long and hardly hurt at all. Damn him. Fred was amazing enough to give us another lift into town and then then he even stuck around to take us back. It was late when we got home, so we went out to dinner. That's where I discovered one of my new favourite things - a Corona tipped upside down into a margarita. It starts off as all margarita and ends up as mostly Corona. Awesome.<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160322/a31.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160322/a36.jpg'/><br/>
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Garh couldn't wait to show Cheeky the new tattoo and he was pretty interested in it at first, but then he went back to searching Garth's pockets for almonds and eating all of his hair. Typical.<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160322/a34.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>What’s all this then?</i></centre><br/>
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Edit: My tattoo a few months later<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160322/a52.jpg'/><br/>
<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160322/a53.jpg'/><br/>
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X xx Monique<br/>
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Click here for <a target='__BLANK' href='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160322/index.html'>LOTS more pictures!</a></div>Svheartbeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15992606035707210558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122282645407038709.post-3022804449319321542016-09-30T03:45:00.001-07:002016-09-30T03:45:01.611-07:00Honduras, Roatan (Repairs) 2016-03-09<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>Fixing. Fixing, fixing, fixing. <br/>
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That’s all we ever seem to do. Luckily this time we’ve had a lot of help. So instead of spending all of our time rigging up weird ways to fix things because we don’t have access to what we need, everybody around us has just been overwhelming us with generosity. I can’t even name all the people who have helped us out in some small way, because I think I would just be listing everybody here. Whether it’s somebody shouting us a beer after we rock up to the Tiki Palapa covered in fiberglass and dust, or all of the numerous things that people have loaned us to help get the job done faster. Our friends Liz and Marty have put in ridiculous amounts of time helping us out, from spending a whole afternoon slaving away on the sewing maching to throwing copious tools and parts at us that we’ve needed to finish various jobs. The boat has certainly not been neglected in the last while, but we’re taking advantage of the shops and ability to order things online to replace all of our temporary fixes with real ones. Plus the marina here is really cheap, so we’re just doing everything at once while we’re attached to land.<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160309/a42.jpg'/><br/>
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We took out all the windows and replaced the seals, which is a job we’ve been wanting to do for a while. We replaced one side a while ago when water started getting in, but we hadn’t done the other one yet. The seals were the same age, so we had to get onto that before it went as well. <br/>
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We also decided to give in and redo the deck, which has been a challenge. We did it in New Zealand when we first bought the boat, sanding it all off and repainting. When we sanded it back we discovered that the deck had been covered in teak at some stage. That teak had been attached with rivets, and instead of removing it properly the previous owners had just sawed the rivets off. The right thing to do was to drill out all the rivets and fill the holes with epoxy or something equally as waterproof, to keep it watertight. They didn’t do that. They filled a few of them properly, but not all of them. The first time we stripped it back in New Zealand, we went over the whole deck with a fine-toothed comb and fixed all the rivet spots we could find. Then we painted it over, good as new. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160309/a07.jpg'/><br/>
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Unfortunately, over the last year a few rust spots have been popping up here and there, which means that water is getting in through some of the neglected rivets. Not good. So this time we weren’t taking any chances – we drilled out every single rivet on the entire deck and filled it in, whether it had been done before or not. We were going to do them all ourselves this time, to make sure it was done right. With the deck sanded and the rivets drilled, you could see exactly where the teak had been attached. There were lines running across the whole deck. So we dried it out, made sure the balsa core was all good and there wasn’t any water in any of it, then we filled all the holes in. It’s so watertight now it’s not even funny (knock on wood!). However, it’s taken us a lot longer than we originally thought. It seems crazy undertaking such a big job so close to the end of our trip, but we wanted to make sure our baby stays in good condition after we’ve said goodbye to her.<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160309/a08.jpg'/><br/>
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We’re bad at fine touches, so we tried really hard to do the painting properly. I covered all the windows and anything that couldn’t be taped with plastic bags. Liz and Marty, amazing as always, spent a whole day helping us finish sanding off the deck before we started and then they helped us mark up the edges. I can’t even begin to express how much time they saved us. The deck was beautiful, all ready for the paint. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160309/a02.jpg'/><br/>
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But we awoke the next morning to the sound of little monkey feet running all over the deck, ripping off every bit of plastic they could find. There were new toys to play with! It took us several days to finish the painting, and every day they came onboard and tried to rip off all the plastic bags. I’m not sure why I bothered fixing them. They were so excited that we were outside all day that they kept coming by to visit, and I had to keep chasing them away… despite my best efforts we still ended up with a few trails of white monkey footprints that disappeared into the trees!<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160309/a10.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160309/a43.jpg'/><br/>
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We used Kiwi Grip for the deck last time, which is a type of paint that you apply with a textured roller. It drys with a bumpy texture, which leaves a non-skid surface on the deck. It’s fabulous. Unfortunately, it’s very hard to find outside of New Zealand. Most people make a complicated mix of sand and paint to produce the desired effect, which can be quite harsh on bare feet and much harder to remove later. To do this after sanding the deck we would have had to reapply the layer of gelcoat we took off and then put the sand and paint mixture on over the top of that (The gelcoat is a very hard type of plastic paint, which protects the fibreglass from UV). Instead of going to all the trouble of painting it with two different things, we decided to just paint on a layer of gelcoat using the textured roller left over from the Kiwi Grip. It worked perfectly. Our deck is now solid and very non-skid. Plus, if we want to re-do a section, we don’t have to sand the edges back properly to remove all paint first – we can just apply more gel coat over both the remaining gel coat as well as the fibreglass.<br/>
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With heaps of gelcoat floating around, we’ve taken the opportunity to fix up up and paint the dinghy. More fibreglass, lots of sanding and some tweaking of the rudder and tiller. Garth came up with a good way to attach the rudder and he tweaked the parts to make it move more smoothly. A few coats of gelcoat and our dinghy finally sails! <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160309/a19.jpg'/><br/>
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The other person who’s been helping us out a lot is Fred. He’s the sweetest thing, and his boat is right in front of ours on the dock. He has a house in Roatan as well as a car, which he’s been very generous with in regards to giving us lifts and just generally helping out. His house is pretty much my dream house. It’s all wooden and quite small in terms of normal houses, but the exact size I’d like my house to be. There’s a small lounge, a generous kitchen and two bedrooms, one of which is a loft with an amazing view of the ocean. He also has a huge verandah which wraps around three sides of the building, and a small workshop downstairs with everything you’d ever need to build stuff. Oh, and it’s perched up in the mountains in amongst the trees and is completely off-grid. I love it so much. <br/>
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<centre><i>Looking up from the lounge room. Kitchen on the left, awesome loft up high</i></centre><br/>
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He invited a heap of us over for a dinner party last month, which was a lot of fun. It was really nice to get off Fantasy Island and see more of Roatan, and the company of all our new friends made it even nicer. <br/>
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We’ve been completely blown away by how nice everybody is here. I know I’ve said that a whole heap of times, but it’s true. I’m not sure whether we’ve just been lucky to meet so many amazing people, or if it’s because we’re in a populated place where we can hang out and drink with everybody (which we haven’t really done before). Either way, Fantasy Island is kind of magical.<br/>
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<centre><i>The view from the Tiki Palapa</i></centre><br/>
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A really amazing family came through here a while ago on a big catamaran (Tanda Malaika) filled to the brim with kids. They were all teenagers (not really kids at all) and every single one of them was a lot of fun. They were in the Palapa every night dancing along with Pete, and the kids (affectionately labeled ‘the creatures’ by their mum) all visited our boat while we were at anchor to have a go on our trapeze. So we’ve had a lot of fun hanging out with them. (They've been doing a lot of interesting humanitarian work lately and they're a great bunch, go check out <a target='_BLANK' href='https://adventuresofatribe.wordpress.com'>their blog!</a>)<br/>
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<centre><i>Emma hanging out on the trapeze</i></centre><br/>
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The parents (Belinda and Danny) are equally as awesome, and Danny brought out his drone so we could play with it. He got some amazing shots of the anchorage which made me really, really want one! It would be amazing to launch it while we’re sailing, and I bet they get some pretty epic footage out there. Belinda is a dive instructor and she volunteered to take us out for an introductory dive near the Tiki Palapa. It’s mostly sand out there but it’s shallow and the perfect spot for an intro dive. It was really sweet of her and Danny to take us out and let us use their gear! We don’t have room for dive equipment on the boat and don’t have the money to hire it, so this whole time we’ve been telling ourselves that we’re not missing out on anything. We’ve seen so many amazing reefs with our snorkels and they’ve all been pretty shallow – we can usually get down to the bottom with our dive belts on. These last few years have been filled with amazing underwater adventures. So we were happy without the dive gear. But after we went out with Belinda and Danny, I realised that we had in fact been missing out on a whole lot! The fish act really differently around you when you’re diving as opposed to when you’re snorkelling. They normally dart around and swim past you, sometimes hiding and sometimes swimming away. We’re always surrounded by fish and it’s always amazing. But scuba diving allowed us to just hang out near the ocean floor and the fish just sat there staring at us. They hardly moved at all. I guess because we weren’t really moving much either. It was definitely a whole different world, where everything was a lot calmer and more serene. I thought diving would be really different but because we were in shallow water it felt the same as snorkelling anyway. We just didn’t have to go up for air.<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160309/a04.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>A dodgy photo of the drone camera screen. You can see how pretty both the anchorage and Fantasy island are! (As well as the reflection of my phone…)</i></centre><br/>
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Roatan (and the other islands near here) is the 2nd cheapest place in the world to get PADI certified, so after that amazing experience we were really tempted to do a dive course. But unfortunately we just don’t have the money or the time. It’s cheap to visit and you get unlimited dives as a resort guest, so maybe we’ll be back in a few years mingling with all the tourists in the hotel!<br/>
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Our quick dive experience was one of the few fun things we’ve done lately. So after spending so much time slaving away on the boat, our friend Anju dragged us away with Liz and Marty to be tourists for a day. Anju is really lovely. A lot of the hotel guests are Canadian, because they do cheap package deals to Roatan from Canada. So Anju (she’s French-Canadian) works for an airline at the hotel as a tour coordinator. She doesn't really work for the hotel but she stays in one of the rooms there, so she’s more like us than the rest of the hotel workers – living here temporarily and just doing her thing each day. She often hangs out with us at the Tiki Palapa and it’s nice to see a friendly face floating around the place.<br/>
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<centre><i>Looking down at a village on the way to Punta Gorda</i></centre><br/>
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There’s a place called Punta Gorda not too far from Fantasy Island, and on Sunday afternoons all the locals gather there to sing and dance. It’s not really a tourist attraction but it’s a fun thing to do if you’re in the area. So Anju drove us all out there and the afternoon quickly turned into a party when she emerged from the shop across the road with local spirits and little cups. It seemed to be the thing to do, as all the locals were involving themselves in the local drinks as well, so I’m glad she was with us to lead the way! It was a bit drizzly so they had moved the dancing under cover, which quickly packed out. It was indeed mostly locals, with a line of guys drumming away in the middle. There were also some guys blowing on conch shells in the corner in time to the beat. Everybody took turns dancing in the middle, including very young girls who were trying to copy their parents. The dance was really hard and involved moving your weight onto your toes and shaking your hips from side to side as you kind of jump quickly from one foot to another. It was like a combination of polynesian dancing with hips swaying everywhere, and twerking. Either way there were a lot of bums bouncing from left to right! <br/>
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<centre><i>Anju pouring out the drinks</i></centre><br/>
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Everybody had a go, including the older ladies (who had way more energy than they should have!). After it got dark and a lot of shots were had, Liz convinced a young girl to show her how to do the dance. She then dragged us onto the dancefloor and the locals cheered their heads off for us. It was exhausting! I tried to exit about halfway through but our instructor said I couldn’t – it was up to the guys on the drums. We had to dance for as long as they wanted us to. I had noticed them getting faster and faster for some girls, amid the cheers and laughter of the crowd. The dancing always matched the music, and it wasn’t until we were in amongst it that I realized the drums were indeed in charge. They stopped when they thought your dance had come to an end. The beat was constantly changing for the mood of the crowd, and it was a lot of fun to both watch and be apart of. I really love it here!<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160309/a37.jpg'/><br/>
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Xxx Monique<br/>
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Click here for <a target='_BLANK' href='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160309/index.html'>LOTS more pictures!</a></div>Svheartbeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15992606035707210558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122282645407038709.post-37094583158434091802016-09-20T01:03:00.001-07:002016-10-04T05:25:24.737-07:00Honduras, Roatan (Sloths) 2016-02-22 <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
Best. Day. Ever. Our friends John and Lisa from S/V Morningstar took the lovely Shelley and I on an excursion to cuddle some sloths. I freaking love sloths. There were lots of them in Panama, and it was really exciting when we went out in the evening to find a random sloth hanging off a tree or creeping along a power line. But they usually only come down from the trees at night, so the only pictures I have are of blurry grey shapes lurking in the darkness. Occasionally they would hide in the electrical box near the La Playita anchorage during the day, because it was much cooler in there. But for the most part we didn't really get to play with them. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160222/a27.jpg" /><br />
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It just so happens that there’s a little zoo thing near the anchorage here in Roatan. I don't do zoos. I don't like seeing animals in cages, and I don't support places that cage up animals. But I decided to give in just this once so that we could see the sloths. I don't think they’re native to Honduras, but the climate here is exactly the same as in the neighbouring countries where they're abundunt, such as Panama and Costa Rica. <br />
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I was hoping it would be more like a sanctuary than a zoo, but there were still animals in cages. We were the only ones there and it wasn’t a big place (we’d certainly never heard of it). The friendly owners were probably just looking after the animals in their backyard to start with and they figured they may as well charge tourists to see them. There were a few smaller animals in big cages (three racoons and a few of the native watusas that you see everywhere near the marina). There was also a spider monkey in a cage and another one on a long leash, which I hated. But he was on a leash so he could live in a little tree house and still hang out in the trees without running off. I didn't like it, but he seemed pretty happy playing up in the branches. Spider monkeys can be pretty aggressive if they want to be, so I doubt they would last very long running around with the people on the island. The one in the cage was very possessive of the guy showing us around - Mr monkey reached out and grabbed our guides hand, wrapping fingers around his arm and pulling him closer. The guy said that because they play with them every day and are close with them, the spider monkeys don't like anybody else taking away their attention.<br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160222/a01.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>John with a spider monkey. They were very different to the <a href="http://svheartbeat.blogspot.ie/2016/01/panama-linton-spider-monkeys-05102015.html" target="_BLANK">spider monkeys we saw in Panama</a></i></centre><br />
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There were also capuchin monkeys. Lots of them. They were in two huge cages, with a few running wild around the place. I was trying to figure out why they didn't let more monkeys out to play, when the guys working there found us a sloth.<br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160222/a02.jpg" /><br />
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The sloths were just hanging out in the trees, but there was one close to the ground with a little baby clinging to her stomach. It was pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen in my life. The baby was sooo little and sooo cute! The pair were munching on leaves together and being adorable, when a capuchin monkey came along and peeled one of her hands off the branch. Then it peeled another hand off. They move so slowly and the monkeys are so quick, it was very easy for them to just drop the sloths off the branches. When the guys yelled at it, the monkey tried to pick up the baby. It was being an absolute terror. The guys said that the monkeys loved causing trouble and that they’re always trying to drop the sloths into the water. This one in particular needed to be watched all day because of the little baby. So that's why most of the capuchins were locked up…<br />
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Our friendly guide went about finding us a sloth near the ground who wasn't trying to look after a tiny little baby. This was the one he came back with.<br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160222/a12.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>Shelley with our new friend</i></centre><br />
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Sloths are just ridiculous! He was so chilled out and relaxed. When the guy picked him up, he pretended his arms were branches so the sloth just gripped onto his hands and was slowly moved onto us. They look so silly hanging in the air! You could tell these guys cared about the animals, which made me feel better about the whole cages situation - they showed us where to put our hands so the little guy would be supported properly, and our slothy friend was handled like a delicate baby. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160222/a24.jpg" /><centre><i>John with the sloth</i></centre><br />
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He seemed perfectly content to just cling onto us. He looked around every once and a while, and we we were told he was slowly trying to decide which tree he was going climb up onto once we were done. This seemed like a decision that he wasnt going to make easily… there was a lot of pondering going on in his little head. I could just picture him sitting back in an armchair slowly sipping a cup of tea and thinking about his options for the entire afternoon. He made no signs of wanting to move any time soon, and just sat there quietly. <br />
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I nearly died when it was my turn. It was like cuddling a koala bear that doesn't stink, isn't going to go to the toilet on you and has no interest in scratching your eyes out. He wrapped his arms around my neck, holding onto my back with his claws. The claws were very long but not at all sharp. I was tempted to just walk off with my cuddly little friend, and I don't think he would have minded. But I think we would have had some concerned caretakers chasing after us! <br />
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After we were done cuddling him, John placed him back onto a tree with the help of our young leader. He looked around and very slowly made his way back up into the branches, trying to find the perfect spot to hang from. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160222/a29.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>Inspecting the branch</i></centre><br />
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We went to check on the baby again before we left, and I nearly died when I saw the other caretaker playing with it. Sloths only produce milk for two weeks and they only carry their babies for a few months. After that they're on their own. This one was still very small, but it was starting to look around as it gets ready to explore on its own. <br />
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I'm not sure sure if the monkeys were messing with it or if it was being returned from an exploratory mission, but the guy had it sitting on his chest. It looked so tiny next to a full grown person! It was just this little furry ball clinging to his shirt. I got the impression that they didn't handle it very often and I've never seen two boys fuss over something so carefully before. They agreed to let me hold the baby when I nearly exploded from excitement and cuteness, but I'm not sure they were very confident about it. I was given very specific instructions on how to hold it. The little thing fit right in my hand! I held my hand out to support it and it latched onto me, wrapping both legs around the bottom of my hand. It gripped on tight!<br />
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<centre><i>You can just see his tiny little claws clinging onto the bottom of my right hand</i></centre><br />
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The boys weren't happy with that, so they detached it from me and then placed it on my shirt, where it could grip with tiny little claws. I nearly passed out from the cuteness overload.<br />
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I didn't get to play for long, because they wanted the bubba back on mum’s tummy. It's still very young and and I don't think they've really let anybody else handle it before. It wanted to go exploring along the branch, but eventually it snuggled into her fur and wrapped itself around her as much as it could. So. Cute. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160222/a49.jpg" /><br />
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We got to visit with some birds before we left, which was actually pretty cool. They had Macaws and some green parrots, both of which are native to Honduras. I think he Macaw is actually the national bird. I had no idea how big they were! We got to go in the enclosure and feed them, which was exactly like feeding a normal parrot...If the parrot was the size of a small dog and had the ability to bite off your hand along with the birdseed. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160222/a53.jpg" /><br />
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Xxx Monique<br />
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Click here for <a href="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160222/index.html" target="_BLANK">LOTS more pictures!</a><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160222/a55.jpg" /></div>
Svheartbeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15992606035707210558noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122282645407038709.post-28033270973436288882016-09-12T12:27:00.001-07:002016-10-04T05:28:01.374-07:00Honduras, Roatan (Monkeys) 2016-02-20<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>Monkeys. That's what our whole lives revolve around now. Three cheeky, adorable little monkeys. <br/>
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This little family of capuchins lives on the same island that the marina is on here in Roatan. They're the cutest things ever and Garth is in heaven. Their typical day involves visiting their favourite mangrove trees for breakfast, running around the island near their favourite mangrove trees, fishing for crabs,then making a total nuisence of themselves in the resort lobby. Sometimes they bug the animals in the chicken coop, and occasionally they visit the Tiki Palapa. Then they go to sleep. <br/>
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Unfortunately, the people at anchor aren't allowed in the hotel lobby. So on two occasions Debbie and Steve have kept them entertained near the Palapa long enough for us to dinghy to shore and play with them. But that's it. Garth has been so frustrated knowing that we’re sharing an island with monkeys and we can't play with them. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160220/a45.jpg'/><br/>
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But then we brought our boat in and tied up to the dock. Something we never do, but it was necessary in order to get some work done on our deck. We have to take all the sails down, and there isn’t really room to move around them while we’re at anchor! Plus we need both power and power tools to get the job done. So to the dock we went. <br/>
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<centre><i>Garth has quickly become a ladder </i> </centre><br/>
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And we happened to get the spot right in front of the monkey’s favourite trees. <br/>
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For the last month or so, every morning has been the same. We’re woken by a cute little squeaking noise above our heads, and we open our eyes to see little monkey heads looking down at us. We have tried not to encourage them to get on the boat, but they're so damned cute… We usually just carry them off, or yell at them if they're trying to get inside or destroy things. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160220/a43.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160220/a56.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Early morning view from the dock </i> </centre><br/>
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At first they wanted to play with everything. They would run round the cockpit, picking random things up and playing with them. Everybody calls the baby ‘Cheeky’ (He’s two years old and very much a terror). Then there’s his mum and possibly his grandmother (for a long time we thought she was his dad… she’s quite shy and hesitant to get too close. But after befriending her, closer inspection revealed that she is indeed a female). Cheeky must be teething. He doesn't have his big pointy teeth yet, and he puts everything he can find In his mouth and gnaws on it. Then he gets bored and drops it wherever he happens to be. Which is usually on a roof or over the water. So once he picks picks something up and wanders off with it, you had better hope that it's either waterproof or not valuable. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160220/a16.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>"Dad” has all his teeth! </i> </centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160220/a51.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Is Garth’s foot food? </i> </centre><br/>
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They are one of the main tourist attractions here. Imagine getting off the plane in a foreign country, going straight to your hotel and into the lobby, and the first thing you see are tiny monkeys running around and jumping on all the tables and chairs. Cheeky loves people, and either jumps or climbs onto everybody looking for both new friends to play with and fun things to chew on. The hotel guests love it! They whip out their phones and take pictures of the adorable little critters. And then Cheeky snatches their phones, runs outside onto the roof or up a tree and chews on it until he gets bored. If they're lucky, he eventually gives it up. Maybe when he's a safe distance from the ground. Maybe not. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160220/a12.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Cheeky </i> </centre><br/>
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He knows that pockets and handbags have many exciting things inside them. So while you're coo-ing over the monkey sitting on your shoulder, he reaches down and steals your wallet. People have lost lots of things to their theiving nature, including expensive medications, dive cameras, phones, a rollex, and even a sat phone from inside somebody’s boat. Debbie put a hummingbird feeder up a while ago, and the monkeys swiftly dismantled it and stashed it somewhere. So they're pretty destructive! <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160220/a27.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>He always thinks there might be things hidden down my top </i> </centre><br/>
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But they're also adorable. We’ve been having a great time playing with them, getting up early every day as soon as the little monkey chatter starts up. Our friend Shelley walks her dog past our boat every morning and she swears they just sit in the trees staring at our boat, waiting for us to get up. They must eventually get impatient and then come over to wake us up! <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160220/a48.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>I think he's still asleep... </i> </centre><br/>
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At first they were having a great time picking things up and running off with them (although nothing of value!) Water bottles, Tupperware containers... anything in the cockpit that Cheeky can grab and run off with, he does. But after a while they stopped trying to rip our boat apart, and it was as if they just came to see us. In the beginning they would peer in at us through the hatch with their tails wrapped around the side of the boat as if it were a safety net. They didn't want to get too close in case it was dangerous. <br/>
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Now Cheeky jumps up and down above our hatch, sticking his hands in trying to touch us. As soon as one of us sits up, he jumps on our heads. Then we have to get dressed with a monkey for a hat, trying to keep our heads outside the boat so he doesn’t think that it’s okay to come inside! <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160220/a36.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Trying to get dressed </i> </centre><br/>
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Garth usually goes out via the companionway. As soon as Garth disappears from sight, Cheeky runs to the cockpit to wait for him. If Garth takes too long, the silly monkey comes back to the bow and peers in trying to find his giant friend. One day Garth was taking too long and the companionway was all shut up. I closed the bow as I climbed out (to make sure they couldn't get in!) and sat on the dock with some nuts ready to give Cheeky his treat. But Garth was still inside. Uninterested in treats, Cheeky ran back to the bow to see where he was, and started tugging up on the hatch trying to get it to open. He's smart enough to know which way to turn the handles, but not strong enough to actually do it. He just wanted to play with his buddy. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160220/a42.jpg'/><br/>
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Some mornings he sticks his hands in through our hatch while we’re asleep, trying desperately to touch us. One day when Garth stuck his arm out to hold hands with Cheeky, the poor monkey started tugging on Garths arm in an attempt to get him to come out and play. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160220/a52.jpg'/><br/>
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So Garth has made some new friends.<br/>
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It's totally his own fault. These two rough house on the dock, wrestling and tumbling around together. Cheeky grooms him, pulling on his hair and occasionally trying to eat it. Cheeky often hangs upside down by his tail from the branches by our boat and Garth stands underneath him… they play fight in mid air, hairy arms flailing everywhere. They jump up and down together like idiots, and I think Garth could play with this little monkey all day long if I let him. <br/>
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Usually they just visit in the morning. We feed them a few nuts or some fruit and they eventually get bored and go back to chasing crabs or mangrove nuts. Sometimes they snap the smaller branches and eat all the bugs that crawl out, and when there's seaweed in the water they fish it out and pick off whatever is crawling around in amongst the salty mess. When there's ants on the boat, I call Cheeky over and he immediately snatches them up one by one. They are definitely well fed!<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160220/a01.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Mangrove nuts (probably not their actual name) </i> </centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160220/a14.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Once he's worn himself out, Cheeky is all Zen </i> </centre><br/>
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Garth has taken to sometimes sharing his breakfast with the monkeys instead of just handing out a few nuts. He’ll take an apple or banana outside with him and bite off some for himself, then hand a piece over to Cheeky. He peels off the skin of the banana and they gather around it like a couple of mischevious troublemakers. The silly bugger hates getting his hands sticky, so he sits there and eats it with no hands, just leaning forward whenever he wants a bite. With his hands held behind his back and he reminds me of one of those weighted drinking bird toys (the ones that repeatedly go up and down forever). If Garth doens’t pay enough attention, Cheeky will bob down and take a nibble straight from the banana. I hear him protesting from inside the boat, but I’m sure he’s secretly pleased with his naughty friend.<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160220/a03.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Sharing an apple </i> </centre><br/>
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There’s not much fresh water on the island – it has to be trucked in from somewhere else. It hasn’t rained much for a while, which is why I think they like visiting our side of the island. It takes a long time for the sun to get above the trees and we’re in the shadows for most of the day (which is not helping our batteries or solar panels). But it’s good for the monkeys. In the morning there’s quite a bit of moisture on the leaves in the trees, which I’m sure is why they come by. But hat doesn’t seem to ever be enough for Cheeky. With no shower onboard, I try to fill up our solar camping shower from shore whenever I can. But when I forget or couldn’t be bothered, we use a 1.25L soda bottle with holes drilled in the lid as our shower. Even with our small tanks, 1L a day for showering isn’t that big of a deal. So the shower bottle lives in the cockpit… You probably see where I’m going with this. We usually bring them a cup of water in the morning, but one day I just grabbed the bottle. Cheeky quickly figured out that the bottle always has water in it, and that all he has to do is tip it up and it comes straight out. I keep finding him sitting in a tree or on the dock with my stolen bottle, drinking out of it like a baby. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160220/a34.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160220/a44.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160220/a11.jpg'/><br/>
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There’s a boat just up the dock from us that has been left here for a few months, while the owners are overseas. Cheeky thinks it’s a playground. The dodger sags in the middle and the bimini is attached with bungy cord, so after he terrorizes us in the morning he heads straight to this boat and starts jumping up and down on the bimini like it’s a trampoline. Water collects in the middle of the dodger, so after he wears himself out jumping up and down he climbs down and drinks whatever he can find. Then he tries to jump up and down on the dodger but it doesn’t bounce, so he climbs back up onto the bimini so he can jump around some more. He’s exactly like a small child (or Garth… who often stands around bouncing up and down on the dock in time with Cheeky).<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160220/a04.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Taking a break from bouncing to scoop up some water </i> </centre><br/>
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Another one of Cheeky’s favourite toys Is Freds little charcoal BBQ. The little munchkin thinks that Fred has put it there just for him. He even filled it with expensive charcoal with a smokey flavour (imported from the USA) so Cheeky would have little black balls to play with every morning. Freds boat is right in front of ours and he has a house on Roatan, so he doesn't often stay on board. Usually we hear the clang as Cheeky throws back the metal lid, which gives me just enough time to chase him away before he destroys everything. So I usually catch him as he's perched on the back of Freds boat, tasting the charcoal and then smashing it on the rails as he tries to break open the strange nuts. But sometimes we must not be awake early enough and Cheeky finds other things to entertain himself with until he decides to get us up. So occasionally we wake up to the sight of a little black monkey face peering down at us, a trail of charcoaly destruction between the two boats. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160220/a25.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160220/a26.jpg'/><br/>
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The monkeys have recently started coming back to visit later on in the day, well after their breakfast time. They have figured out that we are a constant source of entertainment. This has been problematic while we are fixing things, mostly because we have been leaving things on the dock that they’re not used to seeing. New things. Interesting things. Things small enough for them to play with. Unfortunately, they have developed a taste for alcohol after spending years hanging around the hotel lobby. The packages for the resort here are all inclusive, so people don’t pay much attention to their drinks. They can have as many as they want. So whilst the hotel staff try to pick up forgotten drinks, the monkeys are used to finding plastic cups and beer cans lying around. And they definitely know what to do with them. We accidentally left an empty beer can in the dinghy a while ago, which has become a good monkey alarm. Every time Cheeky goes past he sees the beer can and goes straight for it. He knows it was empty last time, but he’s always hopeful. He goes to drink out of it, finds it empty, and then drops it back into the dinghy. The rattling of the can being dropped always alerts us to their presence. It amazes me how smart they are… whenever they pick up a can they rotate it to get the hole to line up in the right place so they can drink out of it efficiently. If they just tipped it up they would still get the liquid, so they don’t really need to drink out of it like little people. But they still rotate it every time. They learn very quickly and they’re very smart. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160220/a53.jpg'/><br/>
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Unfortunately, we’re mixing lots of small batches of epoxy to do some repairs on the deck. And we mix our epoxy in plastic cups. We have huge bottles of hardner and resin wich get tipped into smaller portions in plastic shot cups. That way it’s a lot easier to suck the right amount up with syringes and mix them together in normal sized cups (because the plastic flexes, it’s very easy to peel off the hardened epoxy and reuse the cups again later). So while I’m mixing them together and Garth is running around using the mixture, the source cups with epoxy and resin in them are left unguarded on a tarp. Needless to say, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to shoo monkeys away both from the appetizing cups and the wet epoxy smeared on our deck.<br/>
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Whilst we play with them every day, they’ve been very good about staying out of the boat. A few boats on the dock have found both rats and boa constrictors onboard (the rats haven’t bothered anybody in a while after traps were laid out, but there’s not much you can do about the snakes… they normally just sun themselves on deck anyway). So to prevent any nasty surprises we close the hatches and put the boards in the companionway overnight. We often leave the companionway open during the day though, and Cheeky often sits on the top step looking down at us until we come out to play. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160220/a54.jpg'/><br/>
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But the other day I was sitting in the saloon and I heard cooing from the bow. It sounded a lot like baby talk. I asked Garth what he was doing, but he didn’t reply. As I got up I heard ‘Hi sweetie! Do you want a cuddle?’ And as I stuck my head round the corner to the sounds of ‘You’re such a sweetie!’ I was met with the sight of my naughty husband cuddled up in bed with a monkey. Cheeky seemed perfectly happy to just sit still and cuddle in the bed, and Garth was quite pleased with himself. I tried to remove the both of them, but Garth can be very persuasive. He’s very good at making me laugh, which usually causes me to abandon whatever discipline I was trying inflict upon him. He looked up at me with a big grin and wide eyes and said ‘Look how cute he is!’ Then Cheeky stuck his tongue out and gave Garth a big hug. My husband is a huge sucker for monkey cuddles, so it took me a very long time to get the two of them out of bed and out of the boat. Garth refuses to behave when Cheeky is around. They’re both as bad as each other. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160220/a59.jpg'/><br/>
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Xxx Monique<br/>
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Click here for <a target='__BLANK' href='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160220/index.html'>LOTS more pictures!</a></div>Svheartbeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15992606035707210558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122282645407038709.post-37877399200813241922016-08-27T06:40:00.001-07:002016-10-04T05:39:24.568-07:00Honduras, Roatan (Christmas and New Years) 2016-01-03<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>We’ve been here for a month, and I've failed to update anybody on our whereabouts. Whoops.<br/>
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It was pretty exciting when we arrived. As I was standing at the bow with the anchor in my hands about to drop it, somebody called us on the radio. We were really confused… how could we possibly know anybody here? It was Steve and Debbie on Delphinia! We went through the canal with them in Panama, and we were on our way to Rio Dulce to catch up with them. But they weren't in the Rio! They had just happened to turn on their chartplotter as we were coming in, and we showed up on their AIS. Yay! We were so happy to see them and their puppy, Libby. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160103/a22.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Steve and Libby at the supermarket. She just sits there happily and nobody seems to care about letting her into stores or on buses when she's all bundled up like this</i></centre><br/>
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We’ve never seen a boat twice before! Everybody talks about running into the same people over and over again. In fact, while we were on our test sail when we were buying the boat, the previous owner saw somebody at the dock in NZ who she hadn't seen since the Caribbean. She rafted up alongside, jumped onto the other boat and completely forgot about us, laughing and hugging everybody onboard. That's never happened to us before, because we’re going in the opposite direction to everybody else. But now we’re on a normal route, between Panama and the USA. So hopefully this is just the beginning of us running into old friends! <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160103/a10.jpg'/><br/>
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The anchorage and marina here are on an island called Fantasy Island, which is mostly mostly a resort. Awesome. It's connected to the rest of Roatan via a dodgy looking bridge, and the anchorage area is on the opposite side of the island to the hotel and resort section. They don't want scruffy anchor people mingling with their resort guests, so unless you pay for the dock you can't access their wifi, pool, beaches or shower facilities. So lame. But they have built a little cruisers area on the corner of the island closest to the anchorage, which is all you really need. There's a little Tiki Palapa that's been turned into a bar and run by the dockmaster, Aussie Pete. He's ridiculously fun, and one of the reasons we’re still here. Every night is a party. The beer is cheap, the music is loud and the company is good. He even has a dance pole up in the corner, and among his other bar toys are a limbo stick and a ring toss kind of game with a weight on a string. The whole place is just a lot of fun. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160103/a25.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Sunset from the Palapa</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160103/a29.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Limbo!</i></centre><br/>
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It's also completely overrun with animals. A lot of the island has been taken over by the resort, but the rest of it is all trees and forest. Chickens, roosters and peacocks roam the grounds like they own the place. Which i guess they kind of do. Huge ravens circle the rubbish pile around the back, feasting on rats and scraps. Iguanas, both giant and small, are always either underfoot or clinging to the trees above your head. Little lizards run around on their hind legs, almost hopping from place to place. Agoutis (which the locals call Watusas) run around absolutely everywhere, scampering up the dirt banks, chasing each other and just generally making a nuisance of themselves. There's hummingbirds hovering around all the flowers, which is really cool. And there's monkeys. Three capuchin monkeys occupy the island, which of course Garth is delighted with.<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160103/a44.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160103/a05.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>An agouti (we think!)</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160103/a12.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160103/a33.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Hummingbirds (Debbie put this feeder out, which the monkeys quickly destroyed).</i></centre><br/>
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There's a baby and two adults, and they're the cheekiest things ever. We can't really play with them much, because we’re not allowed in the hotel lobby where they like to hang out amongst the many tourists (who have many pockets to steal things from). But they occasionally come to the Tiki Palapa, and we absolutely love playing with them. The baby is called cheeky, and he’ll jump right on your shoulders and hug your neck. He's so precious. Debbie and Steve are on the dock in front of the Palapa, so they have been letting us know when the monkeys are visiting. They’ve even been nice enough to keep the crazy critters occupied while we jump on the dinghy and come to shore for some monkey time. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160103/a01.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160103/a03.jpg'/><br/>
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Aussie Pete is not their friend. They get into the Tiki Palapa (it IS just an open hut with a palm frond roof) and they steal everything. Cups, shot glasses, books, ashtrays… anything they can get their hands on. Unfortunately their most frustrating loot are the Deet spray cans. We need them because the mosquitos and noseeums are relentless here, mostly because of all the mangroves around the island. But they're also expensive. So they constantly steal the spray cans from the bar and Pete has to constantly buy more. Not a fun game for him. As a result of their thievery, they are not welcome in the Tiki Palapa, so we don't see them very often. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160103/a04.jpg'/><br/>
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We’ve really been enjoying ourselves at Fantasy island. A vege truck comes to the Palapa every Monday loaded up with fresh vegetables. They're cheap too! I usually struggle to carry them all and I spend about $20USD a week (my haul always includes two big pineapples, which are the most expensive things at $2 each). On Tuesday Pete organises for the supermarket to send a bus for us and we all pile on and get a free trip to replenish our stocks. It's not just down the road, so the alternative is a taxi. We hate paying for taxis, so it's really awesome having them pick us up! We’ve never been able to buy heavy things easily anywhere else on our whole trip - there's always a lot of careful consideration about what goes into the trolley vs what we can carry. Here we can get whatever we want, because the bus driver loads it in at the supermarket and unloads it right into the Tiki Palapa, which is where our dinghy is parked. The supermarket is super exciting as well - there's a lot of awesome American things, plus long lost lovers like baby spinach, feta cheese and flavoured hummus. Add that to all the fresh veges and we’re loving the food here! <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160103/a24.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>That one time there were too many people to fit both us and our groceries on the bus and they had to send a truck as well… Debbie didn't seem to mind!</i></centre><br/>
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Speaking of good food, the activity on Wednesday here is a BBQ. Pete has a huge grill, which he fires up on Wednesday evenings and everybody brings along something to chuck on it for dinner. We’ve been getting pork chops (they're the only thing that's affordable so with all the cheap veges here, BBQ night is the only time we get meat). We usually stick some garlic and butter on potatoes and wrap them up in foil, and they go on the grill as well. Add a big salad to the mix, and BBQ night is definitely our favourite night of the week! We’ve come a long way from sitting on the beach scraping jelly out of coconuts for dinner in French Polynesia. <br/>
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The town here is interesting, to say the least. It's really far away, so it's maybe a 40 minute bus ride. The Tika Bus is an adventure in itself - it's a 12 seat van, which is never ever full. But it's never full in that there is always room for more. I think on one trip into town with Debbie and Steve we had 21 people and a dog crammed in there somehow. There was definitely no space to move, let alone breathe. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160103/a27.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>The Tiki bus into town. It was impossible to take a picture that showed how crowded it was!</i></centre><br/>
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The middle of town is a combination of a bustling tourist hub and a nice village in a poorer country. There's cruise ships and tourist shops everywhere, but then you round a corner and there's dirt all over the street, with boxes of fruit being sold on the side of the road and the occasional stray dog wandering around between locals eating at crumbling fly - ridden food stalls. There's a shiny frozen yoghurt store next door to a little shop operating out of somebody's basement, which looks like the contents of a yard sale.<br/>
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Whatever it is, it's full of character. There aren't actually any ‘stores’ here. If you want a new shirt, you're out of luck. Everything is second hand. The clothes stores are either tiny shops on the side of the road with lots of random second hand things, or bigger department store versions of the same thing. Our favourite one is not far from Fantasy Island. It's absolutely massive and everything is pre-owned. I went to a huge Goodwill store in Hawaii which was really impressive (for any Americans reading this, visiting iconic places like Walmart and Goodwill is exciting for us!). This place is bigger and better. It's mostly clothes, but there's huge sections with things like shoes and homewares. You can buy a whole new wardrobe for $20, which is freaking awesome. We’ve been to a lot of countries with no second hand stores, and I wish more of the world was more like this, where nothing is thrown away. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160103/a37.jpg'/><br/>
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So we have everything we need here, and we’ve just been chilling out and enjoying life. We were planning on heading over to Rio Dulce just before or after Christmas, but then we found out that you can only get in once a month. I had no idea. The river isn’t very deep, so you have to go in at high tide during a full moon to clear the bottom. That means once you get through, you’re stuck there for a whole month. We thought this information was just coming from scared cruisers afraid of everything, because other people have told us that if we were to take their chartplotter tracks and follow them carefully we don’t need to wait for the Spring Tide. But they have less draft on their boats. We had friends who tried to go in following these mystical tracks, and they got stuck immediately. Then you have to pay for boats to come out and tie ropes to your mast, heeling the boat over enough so you can fit through the shallow water. Debbie and Steve had to do this and they ended up with the boat half full of water when their helper boats gunned the throttle. Not fun.<br/>
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We decided we didn’t want to get stuck there for a month. Or not this month at least… we weren’t ready to leave Roatan so soon! So we stayed for Christmas and New Years, both of which were a lot of fun. Aussie Pete organised Christmas breakfast at the Palapa, which was a bit of a Pot Luck and a bit of him cooking everybody bacon and sausages on the grill. Garth made up some pancakes and there were Buck Fizz’s being passed around (champagne and orange juice), so it was a really lovely way to spend Christmas. I’m not sure how the American’s do Christmas Breakfast, but sausages on the barbie definitely reminded me of home. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160103/a38.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Debbie and the Christmas pup</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160103/a39.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Debbie, Pete and Steve, along with an empty glass of buck fizz</i></centre><br/>
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We had a Pot Luck for dinner, and pretty much all the cruisers on the island rocked up for that. There were a lot of American influences in Panama, but even more so in Roatan. I’m not sure if it’s because Honduras is getting closer to the USA, or just because a lot of people here are American. Either way, its different. And one thing the American cruisers seem to love is Pot Luck. I don’t think I’ve ever even been to one before we got to Panama. In Australia and New Zealand we definitely have a lot of BBQ’s where everybody brings something, but it’s more like ‘we need more potato salad, can you bring some?’ rather than ‘everybody bring something random for us to eat.’<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160103/a41.jpg'/><br/>
<br/>
The Christmas dinner went really well though. Debbie roasted an amazing Turkey, Pete cooked up some really delicious beef (as well as the most amazing roast carrots I’ve ever had, which have now become part of our regular meal plan), and Garth managed to convince Steve and Debbie to let him borrow their oven and electric mixer. After last year’s failure, he was determined to make a good pavlova this year. They even have berries for sale here, which sealed the deal. Add a billion other delicious things to the table, and we ate like kings. <br/>
<br/>
<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160103/a40.jpg'/><br/>
<br/>
<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160103/a42.jpg'/><br/>
<br/>
New Year’s eve wasn’t quite as exciting as Christmas. Cruiser’s midnight came and went (10pm), and so did all the people. Hardly anybody stuck around to see in the new year! We had a lot of fun in the Palapa, and then we wandered along to the resort beach to watch their fireworks at midnight. Nothing eventful happened, but we had a good time and made it through another year on the water. It was a lot different to last year’s festivities on Huahine with Mark, Liesbet, Rachael and Patrick. We stockpiled happy hour cocktails early on and then we were the first to leave the local bar just after midnight, when everybody else was just getting started. This time there were no locals, so we were the last ones to bed. Cruisers do not stay up late.<br/>
<br/>
There’s one more thing I want to mention, mostly just because I have cool pictures. Among other things, there’s an Iguana farm next to the anchorage here. They let cruisers in for free (I think it’s aimed at the Cruise Ship people, who probably pay a lot). We dinghied over with our friends Rebecca and John and their daughter Zoey. There were iguanas absolutely everywhere. Like, everywhere. There were piles and piles of them underfoot. Most of them were huge and brightly coloured. I think they like the cruisers to visit because we’re encouraged to bring food scraps for them to eat, so I guess that’s less food the people running it have to scrounge up. I don’t normally support zoo-like places, but these iguanas are all over the island anyway… I guess they’ve just let them breed like crazy and started feeding them in the same place every day, because there were definitely no fences or cages for the lizards. They did have a big cage set up for the really little babies, but that was probably just so the tiny things didn't get trodden on or eaten.<br/>
<br/>
<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160103/a15.jpg'/><br/>
<br/>
<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160103/a18.jpg'/><br/>
<br/>
They had a spider monkey as well as a few cappuchin monkeys in a cage though, which made me sad thinking about our free-roaming friends back on Fantasy Island. But I do know that a few years ago Fantasy Island was overrun with cappuchin’s and they were absolute terrors. Three of them are managable, even though there’s still just enough of them to gang up on you and raid your bags and pockets. But there used to be a lot and they had to take most of them away because the boats and hotel guests were being terrorized. A group of them can do a lot of damage, and can get quite vicious. I don't think they’re native to the island (although I might be wrong… maybe they live on the mainland), so I guess they had to cage the extras. Which is sad, but probably better than having them destroy the local ecology. <br/>
<br/>
<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160103/a17.jpg'/><br/>
<br/>
I don’t like pictures of caged monkeys, but here’s some more of tiny dinosaurs. <br/>
<br/>
<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160103/a14.jpg'/><br/>
<br/>
<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160103/a20.jpg'/><br/>
<br/>
Xxx Monique<br/>
<br/>
Click here for <a target='__BLANK' href='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20160103/index.html'>LOTS more pictures!</a></div>Svheartbeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15992606035707210558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122282645407038709.post-60505606926674995552016-08-27T06:37:00.001-07:002016-10-04T05:41:23.630-07:00Panama to Roatan passage: 2015-11-27 to 2015-12-06<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>We made it to Roatan… but the passage here really sucked. Definitely not the worst one ever, but if it had continued in the same way for another week it would have been a close contender for that horrible award.<br/>
<br/>
<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151206/a05.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>The anchorage next to Fantasy Island in Roatan</i></centre><br/>
<br/>
We thought it would take us about a week and everybody we talked to said it would be 3 or 4 days, no problem. So when we left Panama my mindset went from preparation mode to being a bit blase’ about the whole thing… 3 or 4 days was nothing. <br/>
<br/>
It was not nothing. <br/>
<br/>
As we were leaving Colon, motoring out through the entrance with big rock walls on either side, the engine stopped again. In almost the same spot it stopped when we came back from the San Blas. The bits of silicone in our fuel tank attack yet again. Garth was adamant that he pumped them all out when we were at the marina, but some of them obviously decided to stick around. The rock walls were rapidly approaching and we were completely surrounded by huge cargo ships either going towards or waiting to go towards the canal. I don't think you're supposed to have your sails up anywhere near the entrance to Colon, but we nobody cared when we sailed in last time. So we popped the sails up once again and sailed away from Panama. The seas were rough, so Garth decided not to even bother fixing the engine. It could wait until things calmed down in a few days. So we didn't leave on a good note and should have taken it as a bad sign... leaving on a passage with no secondary means of propulsion is not a good idea. When everything goes to shit if you don't have a reliable engine, you're screwed. <br/>
<br/>
Things didn't all go to shit, luckily, but we didn't have a fun time. The wind was good for the first day and then it swung around earlier than it was supposed to. Which left us sailing straight upwind. We tacked back and forth for days, until the wind finally died down and we were left drifting on flat seas. That at least gave us time to fix the engine. But the wind eventually came back and it came back strong. We had about 30-35 knots for the rest of our trip, still on the nose. The last time we had strong, steady wind like that was In New Zealand. It felt just like home. Cold, wet, windswept home. It was actually sunny and windy at the same time for once and we would have been flying along if we had been downwind. But we were not. We had to tack every few hours to avoid reefs and islands, which doesn't sound like a big deal. But after a few days of constantly changing direction, we got really sick of it. I don't think we’ve ever had to tack so often in this boat. Like ever. <br/>
<br/>
The one bright spot on this shitty passage was these guys. <br/>
<br/>
<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151206/a01.jpg'/><br/>
<br/>
I was watching this boat off in the distance when it changed direction and headed towards us, just as we were passing through the border to Honduras. Completely overloaded with people, thoughts of pirates definitely crossed my mind. But as they pulled up alongside us it was obvious that they were just out having fun. With a bbq going and music pumping, every single person on board was screaming and waving, trying to talk to us in Spanish. When it became obvious that we couldn't say much in their language (“I want five pineapples please”), they all took off their shirts and started waving them over their heads like a group of rowdy Honduran strippers, before turning around and continuing on their way. Oh Central America, you crazy mofo.<br/>
<br/>
<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151206/a02.jpg'/><br/>
<br/>
So after we spent a few days beating into strong winds and avoiding hordes of excitable young men, the weather turned bad and the wind got even stronger. There was torrential rain for a day or two and the boat was balanced on a frightening angle. I'm so sick of weather. We finally arrived at Roatan after dark with maybe 35 knots of wind blowing the spray straight into our faces and down our jackets, just in case we weren't wet enough from the torrential rain. So after nine days into our four day passage, we tacked back and forth in front of Roatan all night. Like a pair of tired, cold drowned rats. In the morning the rain still hadn't let up and we couldn't see a thing, so we just kept pacing back and forth in front of the entrance like vultures waiting to attack. We weren't sure if our charts were accurate or if the channel would be well marked, so we just waited. And waited. I found a book on Central America that somebody had given us, which had hand drawn charts for Roatan. They were pretty close to our Navionics charts, which was reassuring. The book said that the water was clear and to just follow the edge of the reef in, and it pointed out two sand banks to look out for. It said they would would be very easy to see. Awesome. <br/>
<br/>
At around 11 am the rain finally stopped and was replaced with occasional drizzle, so we stopped pacing and headed in. I stood on the bow to watch for the reef, but the water was brown. Not just a bit murky, but a thick sludgy brown colour. We couldn't see a thing. A huge branch went past, and all we could see was the bit sticking out of the water. We weren't going to see any sandbanks or reefs in this water. <br/>
<br/>
As we rounded the corner, the first thing we saw was a little sailboat stuck on the reef. There were boats all around him trying to help, with two big launches trying to pull him off. The boat was almost on it's side, and the poor guy onboard looked exhausted as he hauled on ropes. We later found out that he'd been there all night while we were sailing back and forth in the rain. He'd tried to come in at night, got stuck on the reef and had been calling on channel 16. Nobody was monitoring it, because everybody chats on a different channel. So he had been there out in the wind and rain for a really long time while his boat got more and more beaten up, smashing down on the reef over and over again as each wave went past.<br/>
<br/>
I've never been so grateful for having to sit in the rain before… at least we were sailing and not getting smashed on a reef. It was enough to bring tears to my eyes for this poor solo sailor who had just wanted to get out of the rain. At least that was a lesson we didn't have to learn for ourselves… always wait until you can see where you’re going.<br/>
<br/>
Xxx Monique<br/>
<br/>
<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151206/a03.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Our anchorage a few days after the rain cleared up</i></centre><br/>
<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151206/a04.jpg'/></div>Svheartbeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15992606035707210558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122282645407038709.post-42114539011270799132016-07-31T04:43:00.001-07:002016-07-31T06:55:35.542-07:00Everything is broken<div dir="ltr">
We’re alive! And we’re in the azores. But I feel some explanation is needed regarding our disappearance from the online world. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
The short answer is salt. It hates us. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
Our laptop started dying about a year ago, which was sad. The salt air just gets into everything. We managed to keep it hanging on by a thread though… if only it would last until the Azores, we’d be able to buy a new one with 240v! (Central America and the USA are all on 120v, which we can't plug into our boat). We went to order one online from Europe, but the duty in Honduras was insane. So we waited. The lid on the laptop seized open, then the keyboard eventually broke and so did the mouse pad. So we were carting an open laptop around, along with a plug in keyboard and mouse. That set up could not make it to shore on the dinghy! </div>
<div dir="ltr">
Luckily I still had my tablet. That could go to shore, and connect to the WiFi while we were there. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
Then our camera broke. No camera, no pictures. Luckily we were in a place where we could receive packages, and my dad was amazing enough to swap his working camera for our broken one. There were not exactly any repair centres near us!</div>
<div dir="ltr">
Then as soon as I got a working camera, the charging port on my tablet broke. I found a place to fix it and was told it had been replaced.. but as soon as we left Roatan it broke again. They had just cleaned up the old one. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
So no tablet, which had all my blog posts and edited pictures on it. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
Then my phone screen broke as well.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
I tried to get them fixed… but I was met with quizzical expressions or just plain out laughter in Honduras, Cuba, Jamaica and finally Bermuda. One guy told me to just throw my phone away and buy a new one, because there was no way i could get it repsired. Then I found a place that could replace the tablet’s charging port in Bermuda (which is $5 online, if you have an address you send it to and the time to wait for it). But he wanted $250USD.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
So we waited. Finally, we arrived in the Azores and my tablet got fixed. I have a working camera, and my phone is holding on. Hooray!</div>
<div dir="ltr">
That's when the laptop decided to die for good. So without the laptop, everything else is useless. I can't get photos off the camera. I can't empty the sd card on my phone or put old photos into storage. And we can't access any media (no movies!).</div>
<div dir="ltr">
So that's why you haven't heard from us. We completely fail at keeping electronics safe at sea. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
Lessons to be learned:</div>
<div dir="ltr">
Invest in a kickass dry box for electronics, especially laptops. Dry bags don't cut it. And they're a pain to roll up so it's easy to just store the laptop properly later… but later on you're using it again. Dry box. They're expensive. Just shut your eyes and hand over the cash. Do it.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
Even if your camera is stored somewhere safe, it's not safe. Our DSLR camera now goes in a zip lock bag 100% of the time before it goes back in the camera bag. Just sticking the camera bag in a dry bag isn't good enough. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
And finally:<br />
Electronics and boats don't mix. I knew this already, but until you're on your 3rd laptop in 3 years even though you've been super careful, it's hard to fully grasp how destructive salt air is. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
Our new laptop is enroute to the Azores. Pictures and blog posts will be updated again soon. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
In the meantime, here's whatever pretty pictures I decide to grab off my phone before I hit upload. Unedited and from the Azores (because I managed to put older ones into storage before the laptop died).</div>
<div dir="ltr">
Peace out<br />
Xxx Monique</div>
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Svheartbeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15992606035707210558noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122282645407038709.post-36802304872431203272016-04-19T14:46:00.001-07:002016-07-31T07:01:53.120-07:00Panama, Rio Chagres (River exploration) 20151122<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
We just had the most amazing week chilling out in the Chagres river. I wasn't expecting much from our brief stopover there - it's just a river in the middle of the jungle. But it was stunningly beautiful and we were all alone, totally cut off from the world. No Internet, no cell reception, and no other boats or people. Plus we woke up to a different version of this every morning:<br />
<br />
<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151122/a30.jpg" /><br />
<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151122/a31.jpg" /><br />
<br />
We also woke up to the sound of countless jungle animals just going about their lives. There were howler monkeys, whose cries echoed through the trees like something out of a horror movie. There were fish splashing around in the water, brightly coloured birds greeting the new day, and tiny little sparrows lined up along our lifelines. My morning alarm was always these little guys chirping right above my head. There were also iguanas and crocodiles, but they both passed us by silently and without a fuss.<br />
<br />
<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151122/a32.jpg" /><br />
<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151122/a34.jpg" /><br />
<br />
After stopping at the entrance to see San Lorenzo, we went all the way to the end of the river and anchored near the dam that services the canal by blocking off the river. We went ashore to go exploring, in the hopes that we'd be able to walk all the way over to the dam. Unfortunately we couldn't figure it out and our trek came to an end when we reached a cliff overlooking the end of the lake and the dam wall. <br />
<br />
<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151122/a16.jpg" /><br />
<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151122/a20.jpg" /><br />
<br />
The walk wasn't that eventful, and hiking through the jungle left our clothes completely drenched in sweat, our legs completely covered in mud and most of our bodies spotted with bug bites. But we did manage to find some howler monkeys, which made it all worthwhile. We strayed from the tiny track to follow their cries, and found ourselves looking up at a group of them playing in the trees above us. Some were sleeping in an attempt to escape from the heat, but most were jumping around and playing. They were stuffing themselves with leaves from the huge tree in front of us, which had obviously been chosen as a playground because it was tastier than the others. <br />
<br />
<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151122/a14.jpg" /><br />
<br />
There were babies in amongst the troop, who jumped and climbed much more energetically than the older ones. They looked down at us curiously, but didn't seem to mind the intrusion. We sat there for close to an hour, just enjoying nature and our new friends. <br />
<br />
<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151122/a13.jpg" /><br />
<br />
After we moved on I focused most of my attention on trying to find sloths and toucans. No dice. We did find lots more ants though, and more ant tracks where the constant army of ants had worn tracks through the grass.<br />
<br />
<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151122/a17.jpg" /><br />
<center>
<i>Rows of ants carried pieces of these leaves back to their nest. The trails of bobbing green dots stretched out in every direction</i></center>
<br />
<br />
<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151122/a23.jpg" /><br />
<br />
We spent a few days after that just relaxing on the river, enjoying the solitude. We eventually needed some excitement though, and we took the dinghy on an adventure down some of the little side rivers. They were mostly narrow and cute, without much wildlife to play with. We went underneath a tree with an iguana on it and found some pretty birds, but that was it. All the interesting animals were hiding further in the jungle. <br />
<br />
<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151122/a27.jpg" /><br />
<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151122/a40.jpg" /><br />
<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151122/a25.jpg" /><br />
<br />
We had so much fun though, ducking under branches, narrowly avoiding spiderweb and getting stuck in amongst mangroves. Half the time it felt like we were just walking through the jungle with the amount of stray branches and leaves we had to avoid. One particularly large tree had fallen straight across the river - Garth left the engine going full ball and we both had to throw ourselves onto the floor of the dinghy in order for us to slip through the gap between it and the water. Both us and the dinghy got quite beaten up from our river adventures! When we got back to the boat, there was a huge mess to clean up from the dinghy. The whole floor was covered in leaves and dirt and while I was getting it all out I found ants, many spiders and one sneaky crab who was as big as my hand. It was one hell of a cleanup! <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151122/a38.jpg" /><br />
<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151122/a39.jpg" /><br />
<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151122/a35.jpg" /><br />
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On our last day there we were trying to decide what to do. There are actual paths we could follow that lead into the jungle, and in our cruising guide there's a picture of people playing in front of a waterfall. Unfortunately the book didn't say where it was. I was keen to go adventuring, but as we were discussing our plans for the day we noticed that the cries from the howler monkeys had gotten a lot closer. Garth whipped out the binoculars and sure enough, they were hanging off the trees on the waters edge. The dinghy was still down, so we rowed over to say hi. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151122/a42.jpg" /><br />
<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151122/a51.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>Zen monkey is super zen</i></centre><br />
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We ended up staying for an hour or two as the monkeys played above our heads. We both just lay down in the dinghy and watched them in the trees, jumping around and playing together. The were very curious about us. A few of them took to hiding in amongst the leaves, peering down at through the gaps. Then they would scamper back up the tree. It felt like we were unwittingly caught up in a bizarre game of hide and seek. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151122/a48.jpg" /><br />
<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151122/a49.jpg" /><br />
<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151122/a50.jpg" /><br />
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So that was the Rio Chagres. There wasn't anything touristy or interesting to see, but it’s a really special place and I'm so glad we went. There's nothing quite like waking up in the middle of a jungle. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151122/a05.jpg" /><br />
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<br />
Xxx Monique<br />
<br />
Click here for <a href="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151122/index.html" target="__BLANK">LOTS more pictures!</a></div>
Svheartbeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15992606035707210558noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122282645407038709.post-92191415869267583872016-04-17T16:09:00.001-07:002016-07-31T07:14:12.548-07:00Panama, Rio Chagres (Fort Lorenzo, Chagres river) 20151118<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
We finally made it to the Chagres river. After a week in Shelter bay and another few days anchored in Colon, constantly being knocked over from the wake of cargo ships, we have once again found paradise. The only anchorage for small boats near Colon and the only alternative to Shelter Bay Marina is out on the flats. So we dropped the hook for a few days to sort ourselves out. It was hell. The wake from boats going past was insane, and we would be woken in the middle of the night by things crashing onto the floor off the benches. We have had four obviously breakable things in the galley for the past few years - one ceramic coffee mug and 3 pyrex dishes. They have survived almost 17,000 nm of sailing, mostly upwind. One of them didn't survive Colon. The wake from the boats was so intense that one of my dishes managed to dislodge itself from inside our pot cupboard with so much force that it smashed on the floor (which is 2 inches below the cupboard). Plus the boats made SO much noise. They loved talking to each other! At all hours of the day, but more annoyingly at 5am, they would honk their booming ship horns at each other and then there would be another honk in reply. If they were feeling particularly chatty, this would go on for a while. So we are more than happy to be out of Colon.<br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151118/a03.jpg" /><br />
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This is our first river, and it's a bit bizarre how different it is. It might be just because we came from such a horrific anchorage, but it's really surreal being anchored in such flat, calm water. We found a few anchorages like this in the Perlas Islands in Panama, but the difference is that they were only calm when there was no wind. Here, our wind generator has been going all day. But we're in a river, so there's no waves or swell or nonsense. Just flat, calm water. I love it. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151118/a02.jpg" /><br />
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We woke up this morning to the sounds of the jungle. The real jungle. We are in the middle of the river, but not far from shore. So the howler monkeys were running around essentially just outside our front door. They make the most insane noises. Sometimes it sounds like a herd of cows dying, but it's hard to describe. Garth's input was that they could make up the soundtrack to a horror movie. They are loud, excessive and close by. It's surreal. <br />
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There are birds and animals absolutely everywere. I'm sure we can hear toucans, but I don't know what they sound like so i can't tell when they're chiming in with all the others. It was just wonderful waking up today to the sounds of monkeys and birds instead of being tossed out of bed to the background noise of things breaking and huge ships spelling out 'good morning' in morse code with their horns. <br />
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We went exploring today for the first time in a long time. It seems hard to believe because we've seen so many wonderful things over the last few months, but we have mostly stayed on the boat. I think we set foot on two islands while we were in the San Blas islands, and both times it was to burn our rubbish. So I was very excited to venture off into the jungle. We're all alone here, with no traffic going up the river and no cars coming down to the river. So it felt like old times to take the dinghy to shore and wander off on our own into an unknown area. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151118/a06.jpg" /><br />
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There's a fort at the entrance to the river, which was used in the 17th or 18th century to fight off pirates. I love exploring old ruins, and Panama seems to be rich in pirate history! It wasn't very far to walk, but it took us a bit longer than most because we were keeping a careful eye out for animals along the way. Monkeys, sloths and toucans are the wildlife of choice here. Unfortunately all we found was a squirrel, although he was adorable. We'd never seen one before either, so that was exciting. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151118/a21.jpg" /><br />
<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151118/a10.jpg" /><br />
<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151118/a14.jpg" /><br />
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We explored the ruins for ages, which was a lot of fun. Garth likes pointing out what each of the crumbling buildings would have been for when the fort was operational. He showed me the outline of where the drawbridge would have sat, which tower would have the best defence and where the ammo would have been stored. Who needs a tour guide when you have a Garth!<br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151118/a25.jpg" /><br />
<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151118/a09.jpg" /><br />
<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151118/a30.jpg" /><br />
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One of the interesting things about this fort was that they had lots and lots of cannons aimed behind them. They must have been very worried about being attacked by land as well as by sea. The fort at Portobello only had cannons aimed at the water, although it had walls everywhere to protect the people inside from attack. That fort had lots and lots of tiny windows, which were angled to be bigger inside. They allowed the people inside to see and shoot the people outside, but there was only a tiny hole for people to shoot through from the other side. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151118/a28.jpg" /><br />
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Fort Lorezo didn't have many of these walls, but it did have an awesome dry moat with a drawbridge, crumbling stairs to nowhere and lots of underground barracks you could walk through complete with echoing footsteps and slowly dripping water from above. There were even vultures circling above us, waiting to pounce on all the dead bodies. It was a pretty awesome place.<br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151118/a32.jpg" /><br />
<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151118/a12.jpg" /><br />
<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151118/a07.jpg" /><br />
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We had a picnic for the first time in a long time, which mostly consisted of fresh sourdough bread made from the starter gifted to us by Stefan in the San Blas islands. We layed our feast out on a crumbling wall overlooking our boat and hundreds of years of history, which was really lovely. We only saw three other people while we were there, a lovely couple and their guide. They showed us some amazing pictures of a sloth they had found down the road as she carried her baby across the road via some powerlines. I was dying to go on a sloth hunt after they told us it was amongst group of about 20 sloths, but it was getting late and we didn't want to walk 5km there and back to maybe find some sloths. So I will have to wait for another day.<br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151118/a44.jpg" /><br />
<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151118/a42.jpg" /><br />
<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151118/a47.jpg" /><br />
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We did find some amazing ants while we were at the fort. I first noticed them crossing a crumbling old path we were walking on, a trail of tiny dots carrying huge chunks of leaves back to their nest. And then we followed them. Ants were coming from everywhere, along trails that saw so much foot traffic from this ants nest that they had literally worn a path through the grass. In some places grass had grown over the top of their trail from each side and they continued along the path in a kind of tunnel. It was insane. We found a spot where a few of these paths met up and it was like the China of ant world. There was just a mass of bobing leaves as the ants merged into one big path and continued along their way, on some kind of super highway. It was fascinating. My dad would have been proud at the amount of time we spent being fascinated by ants today.<br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151118/a33.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>Giant black ants holding some kind of meeting</i></centre><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151118/a34.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>Crazy ants forging paths in the grass (I think they’re leaf cutter ants)</i></centre><br />
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We spent the whole walk home looking for sloths but we found none. Disappointed, as we were about to round the corner to return to our dinghy I saw something fast and springy run across the path ahead of us. I assumed it was another squirrel. Then we heard something in the bushes right next to us. I looked over to see a monkey detaching himself from the bushes he had just landed in, to scramble off into the scrub. We missed him! Garth was diasappointed. I tried to see where he had gone but he disappeared like a ninja. Then I happened to glance up at the tree above us, and two tiny monkeys stared back down. They were so small I thought they must be babies, but Garth informed me that howler monkeys were just small and that our friends were juvenielles. Cheeky children. They didnt' stay above us for long, eventually leaping through the air to land on another tree and then scrambling off into the jungle. <br />
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Enchanted by these adorable creatures, I looked around to see if I could find any more while Garth tried to take photos of the babies. We were surrounded! There were little dark balls hiding in the trees all around us. We watched them for ages, enjoying their antics. They were very different to the spider monkeys on Linton island. Those were bigger, with more personality. They used their tails as an extra arm, sometimes just hanging down with their arms in the air as if they were flying. The spider monkeys were friendly and very, very cheeky.<br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151118/a35.jpg" /><br />
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The howler monkeys were a lot more skittish. They had beautiful long, curly tails but they didn't use them as an extra limb. Instead of swinging from tree to tree in a flurry of feet and tails like the spider monkeys, these guys just launched themselves into the air and then grabbed onto whatever they landed on. They were like little, noisy grenades flying through the air and then exploding on their target. They were awesome. <br />
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After a while we gathered our things and moved on, but we found another monkey right next to the road a little further on. He was hiding behind a huge leaf, staying perfectly still. Garth noticed him, but eventually decided that there's no way that little black ball could be a monkey. It was just a branch. I watched him for a while longer and eventually decided that it was indeed another furry grenade. When he realised his cover had been blown, the poor guy scampered up the tree and backtracked to where his friends were. We decided to go back for one more look.<br />
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When we returned to the tree we had stopped beside at the beginning, I looked up to find yet another monkey right next to us. He was hiding behind a huge leaf. But he wasn't a very good hider, because he was eating his handful of camouflage. We sat down and watched him for ages as he devoured his handful of leaves. As the remains of his dinner got smaller and smaller, I noticed something underneath all the leaves. It was a tiny, tiny head twisting around and trying to take in it's surroundings. This monkey was no boy! She had a very tiny baby in tow, clinging to her stomach as she finished her dinner. I begged Garth to take some pictures, but he refused. He was too far away for me to reach over and grab the camera, and he was having too much fun to look through a lens.<br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151118/a36.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>You can just see the fuzzy outline of a tiny head on the left</i></centre><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151118/a37.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>Munching on leaves</i></centre><br />
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The mummy eventually climbed down, with a lot more care than the other monkeys were using. She jumped from one tree to another and ended up less than 1m away from me. The tiny baby was gripping tightly to her back, with two arms and two legs stretched out in different directions trying to grab as much fur as it could. The little head swivelled around to look at me as the mum jumped onto another tree and disappeared up into the canopy with the rest of her family. It was truly remarkable.<br />
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So day one and we're already really, really happy. Garth found enough monkeys to keep him satisfied for a while, I got to see a tiny, fluffy baby and we both had a great time exploring the ruins of Fort Lorenzo. Next stop, somewhere with more sloths.<br />
<br />
Xxx Monique<br />
<br />
Click here for <a href="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151118/index.html" target="__BLANK">LOTS more pictures!</a></div>
Svheartbeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15992606035707210558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122282645407038709.post-63469947819863687912016-03-18T20:10:00.001-07:002016-07-31T08:07:32.917-07:00Panama, San blas and Shelter Bay (West Holandes with Stefan) 2015-11-11<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
The San Blas is seriously a tropical paradise. No people, no towns, no civilisation. Just us, a zillion reefs and a few hundred tiny islands. We eventually ended back at our little sand cay again, in the East Holandes. We couldn't help ourselves! It's just so nice anchoring right next to our own private little island. The snorkeling was still exceptional, which wasn't surprising considering we were there just two weeks earlier. <br />
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<img src="https://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151027/a75.jpg" /><br />
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<img src="https://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151027/a73.jpg" /><br />
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<img src="https://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151027/a65.jpg" /><br />
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Then we made our way to the Central Holandes, which was tricky. The water was shallow, there was coral everywhere and there was no path on the charts. We just maneuvered our way slowly over the reefs until we found a nice shallow patch to drop the anchor in. Phew! We thought we had anchored near Stefan, but our neighbouring boat turned out to be somebody else. Whoops. <br />
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<img src="https://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151027/a80.jpg" /><br />
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<img src="https://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151111/b07.jpg" /><br />
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So the next day out we went again, moving very slowly in between coral heads. I was practically jumping up and down on the bow, gritting my teeth and panicking as I watched the reef go past right underneath our keel. It was close! But we made it out without hitting anything. Then when we got round the corner to Stefan’s actual anchorage, we had to do it all again. He was sitting in the West Holandes, next to Waisaladup (the island next to our hammock island, where we had a beach day with Becca and Dale). Except he was on the other side of it. On our charts, the whole thing was a reef. And it pretty much was. Stefan had to dinghy out to us, bringing a laptop with his tracks. I pretty much closed my eyes as he helped us in - a lot of the navigation had to be very precise in order to avoid the coral! At times we had just 30cm or so between us and the reef. But we made it in!<br />
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<img src="https://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151111/b02.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>Looking down from up the mast in Stefan’s anchorage</i></centre><br />
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And it was totally worth it. We sat there for about a week, no other boats in sight. I'm guessing nobody wanted to deal with the stress of getting into the anchorage! The snorkeling was wonderful and so was the company. We shared a few meals with Stefan and his lovely lady friend, and even had a bonfire on the beach together. It was very much a paradise. <br />
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<img src="https://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151111/b05.jpg" /><br />
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<img src="https://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151111/b06.jpg" /><br />
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<img src="https://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151111/b27.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>Bonfire on the beach!</i></centre><br />
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<img src="https://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151111/b30.jpg" /><br />
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Before we left I finally managed to find a multicoloured anklet like Liesbet’s. All the others had nice patterns on them - I think the Kunas only make the multicoloured ones out of random leftover beads. But we went to the Waisaladup and found some nice ladies with a huge selection of beads. I guess when they visit us on their Ulus they only bring a few! It took a long time for me to pick one, but I finally made a decision and a sweet girl tied it onto my dirty ankle. She wasn't dressed up (although the older ladies were) so I didn't want to annoy her by snapping the obligatory pic of the beads being tied on. She did a nice little bow at the end of the string, which I untied and replaced with a solid knot a few days later (once I was happy that it was the right size for my ankle). So now I’m semi - permenantly marked by the San Blas, just like all the other sailing women who we met In the South Pacific. <br />
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<img src="https://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151111/b09.jpg" /><br />
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<img src="https://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151111/b11.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>The beach off the village at Waisaladup</i></centre><br />
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<img src="https://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151111/b13.jpg" /><br />
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Before we left we also managed to score some sourdough starter from Stefan. I had actually been chatting to another couple online who were in the San blas - I checked out their blog and they had a post about an awesome German guy who showed them how to make sourdough bread. Their blog definitely sold me on the idea - it's minimal effort, you don't need to keep buying yeast, and it's no knead. Hooray! So Stefan was kind enough to give us some of his starter and I used the recipe posted on their blog so he didn't have to explain it twice. We’ve made it constantly since! It's not a normal sandwich bread, but it's the only bread I've ever made that doesn't go stale or moldy after a day or two - it’s still moist and fresh after nearly a week. It rarely lasts that long, but it's nice knowing I won't be waking up to moldy bread in the morning. Normal sourdough gets formed into a pretty loaf and goes all crusty on the outside. In our dodgy boat ovens (though my new one isn't that dodgy!), that doesn't really work. So instead of trying to fuss with forming loaves, Stefan’s recipe is all gloppy and you just pour it into bread tins. Awesome. <br />
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Now we’re back at Shelter Bay. It's so comfortable, and so expensive. Though the only reason we came back here was to pick up our very shiny new oven. It's beautiful! After cooking outside on a portable camping stove for over a month, I'm beyond relieved to finally have a working stove again. Aside from the very recent pain of the camping stove (good luck if it's raining!), our old one has been tormenting us for the whole time we’ve been onboard. Having to sit on the floor for two minutes holding down the button long enough for it to stay lit has been bearable when we’re in a calm anchorage (If I want to make grilled cheese sandwiches, they're almost done by the time the stove stays on by itself). But forget about it at sea, and really forget about it in bad weather. The stovetop isn't as bad as the oven, but it still doesn't light easily. Which isn't surprising considering the only thing holding it together was rust and wishful thinking. The old oven took half an hour to heat up, and it was so badly insulated that it warmed up the boat to the same temperature as well. I guess it figured that if it had to get all hot and bothered, it was going to take everybody else down with it. <br />
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<img src="https://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151111/b37.jpg" /><br />
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<img src="https://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151111/b38.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>It’s SO SHINY! (You can see my anklet here)</i></centre><br />
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<img src="https://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151111/b39.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>Out with the old</i></centre><br />
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<img src="https://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151111/b40.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>In with the new</i></centre><br />
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So cooking has been hard over the last three years. We figured out how to cook most things on the stove top, because the oven really wasn't worth the effort. You want lasagne for dinner? You're getting pasta with mince and cheese. Pizzas? Those suckers are getting cooked in a frying pan with a lid on top. Bread? Chuck the dough in a pot. <br />
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But the new oven cooks everything! The last one didn't get hotter than 180°C, but my shiny new friend goes much higher. It doesn't heat up the boat, it has a freaking button to light it (no more BBQ lighters or throwing matches at it!), and you can actually use it underway. So we’re both very excited. I've been using it as much as I possibly can - I tried to convince Garth to cook steak in the oven the other night, and he almost gave in. Almost. <br />
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I've successfully managed to talk about food for almost this entire post. Shocking. <br />
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Xxx Monique<br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 23.0493px; vertical-align: baseline;">Click here for <a href="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151111/index.html" target="_blank">LOTS more pictures!</a></span></div>
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Svheartbeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15992606035707210558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122282645407038709.post-40970079560545567472016-03-04T07:18:00.001-08:002016-07-31T08:18:18.417-07:00Panama, San blas, East Lemmons and West Holandes (With Stefan) 2015-10-27<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
We love the San Blas! We ended up staying two more weeks after Becca and Dale left, mostly just because it was impossible to tear ourselves away. We went back to the East Lemmons again, where we were hoping to meet up with a friend of Mark and Liesbet’s. We found him alright! Or rather, he found us. Rather than visit us in the dinghy like a normal person, Stefan waited for the wind to pick up and then launched his kite, tacking back and forth upwind until he got to our boat. With the kite still in the air he grabbed onto our dinghy and casually sat down for a chat, the wind constantly threatening to drag him away. This was a guy after Garth’s heart! <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151027/a54.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>Yasaladup</i></centre><br />
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We just chatted to Stefan as if it was normal to have somebody clinging to the side of our boat with a kite in the air. After a while he got sick of fighting the wind, so he let go and our new friend flew off back to his boat, kicking up huge waves in his wake. He knew how to go fast! <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151027/a53.jpg" /><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151027/a21.jpg" /><br />
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Before we moved closer to him, we decided to explore our unconventional anchorage. We were anchored in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by turquoise blues and nothingness.<br />
I had dropped the hook on top of a little sand bank, the only shallow bit in amongst lots of deep water. There was a tiny sand island* not too far away, so the next day we hopped into the dinghy and went over to explore it. I love tiny islands! You could run around the whole thing in less than a minute, and this one even had some greenery in the middle. And just like the last sand cay, the reef around this tiny island was absolutely gorgeous. Beautiful coral and fish awaited us just below the surface. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151027/a31.jpg" /><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151027/a23.jpg" /><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151027/a26.jpg" /><br />
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After I’d been around the whole island underwater, I came back to the start and discovered the biggest school of fish I'd ever seen. They were the tiny fish that the locals usually pick up as bait, but the whole water was filled with them. I just sat and watched them swim around me for ages. They made swirling patterns in the water, splitting off into different directions as one big group and then twirling back around to go a different way. It was mesmerising. I've played in big schools of fish lots of times, but this was different - instead of the fish swimming In the water, it looked like the water was second to the fish. There wasn't an inch of free space, which is why they were making such interesting patterns in the water - they had to move out of the way or squish closer together for the rest of the school to pass by. It was like one giant game of snake, twisting around trying not to run into itself. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151027/a03.jpg" /><br />
<br />
<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151027/a04.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>A trumpet fish sticks it’s head out as a Garth dives down</i></centre><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151027/a08.jpg" /><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151027/a14.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>So many fish!</i></centre><br />
<br />
After we were done playing with the fish, we re-anchored closer to Stefan and the island of Yasaladup. On our charts it was marked as ‘Stefanadup’, which we had totally forgotten about. Liesbet had written it in nearly a year ago because this is where Stefan usually hangs out, off the little island of Yasaladup in an area where the kite boarding is great. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151027/a34.jpg" /><br />
<br />
While we were there we actually managed to catch the vege boat. It goes to the same places every week on the same day, but we had been moving around so much we missed it the previous two times. Not this week! The boat was huge and it was filled to the brim with all the perishables we could ever want (including whole chickens in an esky full of ice, which we decided not to buy. There were plenty of fish and veges, which are much cheaper than chicken). We loaded up on as much food as we could, and the boat sat alongside us for ages as they sorted themselves out. They cut up some pineapples and handed me over two halves once they were ready, using the stalks as a handle like the locals do in Fiji. I was so happy to have pineapple again! They also had a huge bag of eggplants that were starting to go bad. I had bought some and asked to swap a few for nicer eggplants without rotten bits. They emptied the bag, chucking the really rotten ones over the side. Then the friendly vege guy asked if we wanted them. Hells yes! They were too iffy to sell, but the soft spots were removable. So I ended up with a huge bag of eggplants! I cut the rotten bits out, chopped the rest up, coated them in breadcrumbs and we had eggplant chips for dinner. Hooray for free food!<br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151027/a55.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>Vege boat</i></centre><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151027/a39.jpg" /><br />
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We actually managed to catch a fish trolling around the East Lemmons as well. It was a Big eyed Jack, and everything I found online said it wasn't great to eat. We were obviously going to eat it anyway, so Garth cooked it well with some lemon and butter and he made a fresh salsa to stick on top. Absolutely delicious. So the new lures I bought in Panama actually work!<br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151027/a81.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>Big-eyed Jack (we think)</i></centre><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151027/a82.jpg" /><br />
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<br />
Xxx Monique <br />
<br />
*The tiny sand island was mentioned in Bauhaus but I don't have the coordinates. It's half a mile SE of the main island in the Chichime group and our 3rd edition book said that the island had 2 palms on it - he may have changed it in the newer versions to reflect the lack of palm trees on it now.<br />
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Click here for <a href="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151027/index.html" target="__BLANK">LOTS more pictures!</a></div>
Svheartbeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15992606035707210558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122282645407038709.post-3619551803240563142016-02-28T09:19:00.001-08:002016-07-31T08:24:24.346-07:00Panama, San blas, Carti village 2015-10-21<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
We’re still in the San Blas. We don't really want to leave! Luckily Becca and Dale left some cash with us (there aren't exactly any ATM’s out here), which means we can stay a bit longer. We don't need money for much, but some places charge anchorage fees and we’ve run out of fresh veges so we would have had to head back to Shelter Bay if they hadn't helped us out. Thank goodness for amazing friends!<br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151021/a03.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>One of the Carti islands</i></centre><br />
<br />
We visited our first village today. Most of the islands out here just have palm trees and maybe a few shacks on them, so there’s not really much to see. But a few of the bigger islands have little towns built on them, like Carti and Porvenir. The islands are still tiny so they have to use every inch of ground above water. I've examined a few of the more populated islands as we’ve sailed past - the little houses are practically built on top of each other and there's no room to move. Often their structures teeter dangerously over the water, as if they started off on land and then got blown up like balloons so they just don't quite fit on the island anymore. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151021/a06.jpg" /><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151021/a08.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>Looking for the fuel dock</i></centre><br />
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So we went ashore to one of the Carti islands. It was hard to tell where to go - we were anchored next to two islands that were obviously well populated. Houses threatened to fall off the islands into the water as the buildings behind almost pushed them further and further away. Whether global warming has just swallowed up some of the island or more buildings were erected when there was no more room, I don't know. We’d been told you could tie up at the fuel dock but with no idea where that was we just headed to shore in the direction that we thought it should be. After talking to somebody in really bad Spanish, we eventually found a spot for the dinghy. To the right was a concrete jetty leading out to the fuel dock, and to the left was somebody's backyard. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151021/a15.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>Space to park the dinghy</i></centre><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151021/a16.jpg" /><br />
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We turned left and found some friendly people sitting around chatting. Their yard was decorated with crisscrossing rows of washing hanging up and it was fenced in with lines of roughly cut bamboo lashed together. There was nowhere else to go. I tried to tell them that we needed fruit and vegetables, though I have no idea if that’s actually what I said. Either way they understood that we wanted to go somewhere, and we were led through their small house and directed to a long walkway. With no real instructions, we figured we were just supposed to wander through. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151021/a12.jpg" /><br />
<br />
I very much felt like we were walking through people’s houses and over their property. Which I guess we were. I think the Kuna people are quite communal with things like property seeing as there’s so little of it, so I guess trespassing isn't really a thing. The houses were mostly made of bamboo and palm fronds, with a few tarps thrown in to keep out the rain. They were all very small, usually with a few hammocks strung around in the darkness. There were no lights and no windows, but the light from the open doorways (no doors) was usually enough to see by. Some of them had a table or chair, but for the most part there was very little furniture inside. Which makes sense considering what a mission it is just to get out to these islands and how little land there is here - lugging wood or furniture would be a huge mission. But hammocks fold up very small and are easy to make with a bit of rope. <br />
<br />
There was a maze of walkways in between them all. The walls were sometimes there to separate the path from somebody's tiny yard, sometimes they were just the walls of houses, and sometimes there was no wall at all as the path led through the door of a tiny shack and out the other side. It was bizarre. But we followed the maze, asking directions from a few people along the way.<br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151021/a13.jpg" /><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151021/a11.jpg" /><br />
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Eventually we found a kind of road. The ground was still compacted sand, just like in all the houses, but the space was much wider. There were a few actual buildings made from solid materials, and kids in school uniforms strolled past as they headed home for the day. A few of the buildings were little cafes of sorts, with very short menus out the front (‘Hungry? Rice. Fish. Beans. Here’). We even found a little store with a concrete floor that was selling dry goods, eggs, soap, beans and a few other things. Then we were directed further into the maze where we eventually found a lady in a house with a basket of limes and fresh bread. We filled up on her wares before being wandering further along towards the waterfront. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151021/a10.jpg" /><br />
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We walked past ladies sewing, and a pile of big barrels. They all had water in them, the emptier ones placed under a tarp on the roof to catch the water as it dripped down. Another tarp was tied to a few chairs, with a pool of water collecting in the middle. I knew fresh water was an issue in the San blas, but this really opened my eyes. None of the barrels were covered and as we were walking past a lady came over with a cup and dipped it into the water, drinking as she walked away. There wasn't enough water for all the people in the houses close by, and it was hardly hygienic. No wonder boats with water makers get put to use out here.<br />
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We eventually made it to the vegetable store. It was an open area next to the water, and not a little shack like I had been expecting. There were shelves stacked high with fruit and vegetables, and pineapples and bananas were strung from ropes which lined the perimeter. Everything we could have wanted was here! I was surprised, because I had nothing to compare these islands to other than the Perlas Islands on the other side of Panama. We found nothing fresh there aside from bananas, plantains and limes. But their little stores had things like soda, potato chips, rice and beans. The bigger towns even had (very expensive) wine, butter and plastic cheese. The “stores” in Carti seemed to have a much smaller variety of foods for sale so I was expecting a much smaller range of fresh food, if that’s even possible. But we hit the jackpot! I got excited and we filled our bags with fruit and veges. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151021/a14.jpg" /><br />
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I wanted to explore the town a little more, but it really felt like we were trespassing. So back through the maze we went. A young girl came running after us as we were walking towards the waterfront… We had passed her on the way in. I thought she was just being friendly, but she was trying to direct us back through a doorway we had passed. It led through her house and into her backyard where our boat was tied up. <br />
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So that was Carti. At least everybody was friendly! <br />
<br />
Xxx Monique<br />
<br />
Click here for <a href="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151021/index.html" target="__BLANK">more pictures!</a></div>
Svheartbeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15992606035707210558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122282645407038709.post-82450488155346850832016-02-24T07:27:00.001-08:002016-10-04T05:48:59.109-07:00Panama, San Blas, Carti (More Visitors) - 2015-10-19<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>After days of lazing around in a random spot between the mainland and Carti island, we finally motored the extra five minutes to the two islands that most people think of as Carti. We'd only been here for a few minutes when an older Kuna gentleman pulled up alongside us in his Ulu. Sweat pouring off him, he had nothing to sell and seemed to want nothing more than shade.<br/>
<br/>
We have a bamboo trunk on deck that we fished out of the water whilst snorkeling a while ago. It still has all the stumps on it where branches have been cut off, and looks quite out of place. It will eventually become the boom for our sailing dinghy. Our visitor kept pointing to it and talking very fast - the only words I managed to make out were 'not allowed.' He was talking about the Kuna people and coconuts, so perhaps he thought we had taken it from the shore. You're not allowed to interfere with the coconut trees here, as coconut farming is the main source of income for the Kuna people. Perhaps they use bamboo to reach up into the coconut trees. I explained that it was in the water when we found it, which seemed to satisfy him. Before long he was clambering aboard, and from his exasperated Spanish I wasn't sure if he wanted to be friends or if we were in trouble. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151011/a30.jpg'/><br/>
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It was the former. Once he was sitting in the shade with a cold beer and a fan pointed at him, his English improved greatly (we don't drink alcohol very often, so there's usually cold beer sitting in the bottom of the fridge but hardly ever cold water!) He was Germain's father, our drunken friend from yesterday. His son had told him to stop by when we arrived. So we all cowered under the shade together, dripping in sweat and praying for a breeze.<br/>
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He told us about Kuna Yala, which is what the locals call these islands. He glared at the tourist boats zipping back and forth, and we got the impression that he didn't approve of the tourist industry here at all. "The tourists bring money," he lamented. "The boys have beer and they have food. They don't need to work in the jungle anymore. There is nobody to work. I work and it is good. The tourists make things bad." Germain works for a backpacker hostel, giving tours daily. I'm sure this tough old man wished Germain would work with him in the jungle instead, but the tourism industry was making him much more money. I could see it was a tricky situation. Nobody would turn away money, but at the same time the Kuna people need their boys to farm and fish in order to support the villages.<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151019/a01.jpg'/><br/>
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Our new friend told us that he gets through 50 coconuts in a day, drying them so they are ready to sell. It's hard work. The Kuna people operate as a society and everybody pulls their weight. Everybody has a job to do each day and if they choose not to do it, they receive a small fine of a few dollars. So if boys like Germain are making money doing something else, they can just pay the fine and skip out on their assigned task. The land and the farms belong to everybody, even though each individual will look after their own section. The Kuna people need to continue farming to support themselves, but the tourism industry is slowly causing a shift between the hard working Kuna people and the ones taking advantage of the opportunity for more money by catering to tourists.<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151019/a02.jpg'/><br/>
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German's father splits his time between living in Panama city with his wife, and living out here with his people. They have a car and his wife will pick him up in 15 days time when he has finished working here. It's easy to see why he has so much contempt for the tourists and for his son. It is as if by operating tours he is taking the easy way out. This man lives apart from his wife and works hard in order to help out his community and do what needs to be done. Germain runs around on a tour boat, drinking beer and living it up. It's hard to pass judgement on him though, because I'm sure if I were in the same situation I would take the fast boat and fun tourists over slaving away in the jungle. Either way, the more money that comes into these villages, the more trouble it will bring. I think we will be more careful about buying things from now on, instead offering things for trade. While we were all talking, another Ulu came by with some octopus and tiny lobsters to sell. I told them that the lobsters were too small. They were still alive and hiding in the shade, and I suspect that these boys gathered them specifically to sell to us. The Kuna people are frightened about tourists overfishing their waters, so I hope that they wouldn't be silly enough to eat lobsters when they are so small. There are plenty of fish for the kunas, but the lobsters bring in the most money. With no other boats around, I hope that these babies will be put back into the water. But that’s probably just wishful thinking…<br/>
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If we didn't know know any better, by buying them off these boys we would be encouraging them to keep selling baby lobsters and they would quickly be fished out. The Kuna people would go hungry in the long run. So I think I agree with this tired old man, who paddled so far to us in the sun just to be friendly. There's no way that having so many tourists around could help these beautiful people preserve their traditional lifestyle. But at the same time I’m very grateful that they let us share this patch of paradise with them.<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151019/a03.jpg'/><br/>
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Xxx Monique</div>Svheartbeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15992606035707210558noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122282645407038709.post-12081082837262624692016-02-20T19:31:00.001-08:002016-10-04T05:50:15.827-07:00Panama, San Blas, Carti (Unexpected Visitors) 2015-10-18<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>This afternoon we got an unexpected surprise. <br/>
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Dale and Becca only just left yesterday, so we've just been sulking around the boat not doing much. We're nearly out of food and water though, so we know we have to head over to Carti village soon to refill the stores. The plan was to lie around all day and then pull up the anchor, but then a storm rolled past. Finally we had some decent rain! We started catching water and showering out on the deck. Our headsail is down at the moment, awaiting repairs. It makes an amazing water catcher. I gathered it up to form a giant bath and started washing my hair for the first time since we left Shelter Bay. The water was coming out brown…<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151018/a01.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Boats zipping past</i></centre><br/>
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We're parked in between the Carti islands and the Carti port attached to the mainland, so little water taxis have been zipping back and forth past us all day. One went past us as I was standing on deck in a bikini and underwear, lathering up in the rain. When they dropped off their passangers and came back past again, I was wringing out my hair on deck. They must have been wondering why there were crazy yacht people showering in the rain, anchored in the middle of nowhere. So they pulled up alongside and pretty soon we had three locals onboard with us - one slightly drunk adult and two younger guys. Germain was the name of the older guy, who would never forget what he was called because he had his name tattooed along his right arm. For when he had drunk too much, he said. He hopped onto our boat with more beer and rum than he could carry - the boys had to keep passing it to us. So we had a party in the rain, cowering under our shade cloth which was bowing down just over our heads from the weight of all the water it was collecting. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151018/a04.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Very blurry shot me me and Germain as he shows off his tattoo</i></centre><br/>
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The rain was warm and it wasn't windy, so we all had a great time sitting outside drinking rum straight from the bottle. Germain was a tour boat operator and he had many stories about drunken passengers throwing up everywhere and hitting on the laps of his crew, all attractive young kuna boys. The reason for all the alcohol was quickly made clear - they had spent the day entertaining 10 very loud, very drunk women and it seemed that a lot of them had passed out or thrown up. One of the perks seemed to be that they kept any alcohol left behind by their customers. There was a neverending supply!<br/>
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While I was chatting to Germain in the cockpit, the boys quickly got bored and went to explore the deck. They took one look around our plain little boat and decided to climb the mast. The older guy had been drinking too, and was sensible enough to want a harness. He wasn't visibly drunk, but I was expecting him to just zip up the steps like Garth normally does and I'm glad he didn't! He made it to the first spreader before getting scared and begged to down again. Then the younger boy went up higher, and the competition began. They went up one after another until the older guy didn't want to climb any higher and the younger one was victorious. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151018/a02.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>The older boy goes up</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151018/a03.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Let me down!</i></centre><br/>
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Eventually they got sick of the mast and started nagging Germain about going home to find some food. I put out nibbles for them, but because we were sitting outside in the rain they had to be gobbled down immediately to avoid getting soaked in water. The boys eventually won, and they dragged their boss back onto the brightly coloured tour boat to head home. They left us the rum and beers, but somehow sharing a bottle of rum in the rain immediately lost its charm without a cockpit full of happy locals. <br/>
<br/>
Xxx Monique<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151018/a05.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151018/a06.jpg'/></div>Svheartbeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15992606035707210558noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122282645407038709.post-25416551749281966812016-02-16T12:25:00.001-08:002016-02-18T08:13:02.452-08:00Panama, San Blas - East Lemmons (Dale and Becca) 2015-10-17<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
Dale and Becca are gone :( We got 10 days with them though, which was awesome. They left with a lot less than they came with as well… they were amazing enough to fill all their bags with stuff for us, leaving just their carry ons for clothes and snorkeling gear. It was like Christmas every day, as they stretched our gifts out over the duration of their stay. Licorice, candy and lots of other foods we haven't seen in a long time kept getting pulled out of bags. They even brought VEGEMITE!! Though the sneaky buggers swapped it into a marmite jar just to mess with me. Among other things we also scored a new drill, a working clock mechanism, dive torches and new luci lights (one of my favourite things on the whole boat! The old one went for a long swim in the dark and decided to go to sleep afterwards). So aside from being MAXIMUM excited about seeing them, it was really nice of them to cart all of our crap all the way from the UK. Getting things like a new drill is really, really important and really, really hard for us - our boat is on 240v power and everything here is 120v. Ie, useless to us.<br />
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We spent our last few days hanging out in the East Lemmon island group, where we continued to snorkel at least once a day. We even went swimming at night in the phospherescense, which I haven't done in a while. I've never swum at night with my snorkel mask on before - my whole world was just filled with sparkly lights and silvery trails as we moved through the water. It was really amazing. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151017/a47.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>Becca enjoying the water</i></centre><br />
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On our way over from the Holandes Cays we stopped at Dog Island for the afternoon. There’s a shallow wreck there next to a gorgeous island made up of not much more than palm trees and white sand. The wreck is one of the more touristy things to do in the San Blas, but we decided to swing by anyway. I'm so glad we did! <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151017/a21.jpg" /><br />
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We swam to shore from the boat and spent a long time exploring in amongst the rusty columns of metal jutting out from the sand. There were even sections that you could swim through, which Garth and Dale did. A lot. They went in one end and swam through the whole ship, popping back up through a hole in the bow. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151017/c01.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>Me swimming alongside the wreck (Taken by <a href="http://daleandbecca.kiwi.nz/">Becca</a>)</i></centre><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151017/c04.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>Holes to swim through (Taken by <a href="http://daleandbecca.kiwi.nz/">Becca</a>)</i></centre><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151017/a12.jpg" /><br />
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Aside from it being a giant playground, the colours underneath the water were incredible. There was lots of coral I'd never seen before, along with fluorescent orange and green algae-like stuff everywhere. Throw in a rainbow of different coloured Christmas tree worms and the snorkeling was incredible. It was colourful in a really different way to the reefs we saw in Fiji and in the Great Barrier Reef In Australia. Further west, It’s the multi-coloured hard coral that makes the world underneath the surface so magical. Here, It’s the soft organisms and plant life that are bright. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151017/a13.jpg" /><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151017/a17.jpg" /><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151017/a18.jpg" /><br />
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The reef on the wreck had a lot of different things growing on it than on all the other reefs we’ve seen as well. I'm not sure if it's just because it's in a different area or because it's formed on top of steel instead of the ocean floor, but we all loved it. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151017/a05.jpg" /><br />
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There were lots of tubes of coral growing up everywhere. I'm not sure if they were soft or hard coral because I (obviously) didn't poke them, but they were really interesting. There were cones growing along the side of the wreck as well, and a lot of them seemed to have the same kind of fish living in them. They must have been like nests, because the fish did not want us there at all. They would chase us with angry eyes, and in one of our gopro videos you can actually hear a thump and see the camera shake from where one attacked it! So they were clearly not interested in making friends. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151017/a03.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>He’s eyeing us up...</i></centre><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151017/c05.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>When angry fish attack! (Taken by <a href="http://daleandbecca.kiwi.nz/">Becca</a>)</i></centre><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151017/a14.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>Cone coral</i></centre><br />
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We had to clear out pretty quickly once we emerged from the water, because we were just in a day anchorage and yet another squall was coming past. Thanks to El Niño we’ve hardly had any rain during the whole time we’ve been in Panama, and most of the squalls just pass us by. But we still don't want to risk getting stuck in them! We ducked around the corner and anchored there for a few days, sandwiched in between a handful of beautiful islands. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151017/a33.jpg" /><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151017/a39.jpg" /><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151017/a42.jpg" /><br />
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The islands here are really interesting. They're all tiny and very narrow, with not much room to spare. Some have a shack or two made from palm fronds and tarps, and others have little communities with several houses built on top of each other and crammed into a tiny space. You see an occasional solar panel on those islands, but most just have little solar lanterns or no power at all.<br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151017/a41.jpg" /><br />
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We tried snorkeling, but there wasn't that much to see. We went out to the barrier reef which didn’t have great coral thanks to all the breaking waves. It was still interesting though, with lots of tunnels and caves everywhere. We disturbed a huge nurse shark when when we swam through one of the passageways, which freaked me out. Nurse sharks like sleeping on the bottom in dark places, and they are like dopey puppies. They’re naturally very curious and will come right up to you to see what's happening. A friend told us that he just pushes them away when he's spear-fishing, because otherwise they’ll steal his fish. But in a quiet dopey way rather than the flesh tearing, angry manner that you picture when you think of sharks eating. Unfortunately I didn't know all this at the time, so all I saw was a shark much bigger than me coming right up to my face to see what I was doing. I was displeased! Becca on the other hand followed the silly bugger for ages, getting as close as she possibly could. Eep!<br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151017/a26.jpg" /><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151017/a24.jpg" /><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151017/a35.jpg" /><br />
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Eventually Becca and Dale ran out of time. We reluctantly took our visitors back to Carti, where they jumped on a 4WD and headed back to Panama City. The boat was suddenly very empty with them gone, and this is one of the few times after we’ve had visitors leave that we weren't at least a bit grateful for the extra space and extra peace and quiet. We miss them already! <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151017/c09.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>Many drinks were had! (Taken by <a href="http://daleandbecca.kiwi.nz/">Becca</a>)</i></centre><br />
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Xxx Monique<br />
<br />
Click here for <a href="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151017/index.html" target="__BLANK">more pictures!</a></div>
Svheartbeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15992606035707210558noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122282645407038709.post-9816678119974730772016-02-05T17:09:00.001-08:002016-02-05T17:09:03.279-08:00Panama, San Blas - East Holandes Cays (with Becca and Dale) 2015-10-15<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>The last week has been super fun. Dale and Becca are still here, and we’ve been having a blast together. Our first sail wasn't all sunshine and lollipops though, and a big squall blew over us as we were trying to race it to our anchorage. The squall won. Garth started the engine in an attempt to get us there faster, but it promptly died. The little bits of silicone from the Las Perlas strike again (If you haven’t been following our <a href='http://www.svheartbeat.blogspot.com/2015/11/panama-las-perlas-islands-to-panama.html'>dramas</a>), we had to take the top off our fuel tank. When we resealed it and screwed all the screws in, tiny bits of silicone hung off the ends of each screw and eventually made it into our fuel tank. They're just big enough to block our fuel intake pipe, so the engine keeps cutting out at inappropriate times). <br/>
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Garth went downstairs to try and fix the engine, and the seas got rough as the wind picked up. We were not prepared for big weather sailing. We were prepared for a few hours of being slightly heeled over on a beam reach. There are reefs everywhere and it's hard to tell where - we’re using a combination of different charts because lots of the electronic ones are wrong. And there's no gps signal flashing up on the pages of our Bauhaus guide to Panama. It has perfect charts for everything but they're hard to figure out when the boat is overpowered, we’re heading very quickly towards little islands and our solar panels are getting blown around in strong winds. Luckily we had Dale to steer for us while I tried to hold onto the panels (they kept flipping up on the high side). We tacked back and forth for maybe an hour while we waited for the squall to pass and for Garth to fix the engine. We finally had everything under control, but it was the most dangerous situation we’ve been in for quite a while. Luckily we had some friendly dolphins jumping alongside us for a while to distract Becca from getting too seasick. So I guess our efforts to drain the fuel tank and filter it back in while we were in shelter Bay were for nothing …<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151015/a33.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>So happy to have our friends back!</i></centre> <br/>
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We anchored by a little island in the West Holandes island group for a day. More snorkelling, more relaxing. The boys found lots of tunnels to swim through and we all all had a great time. After being on the boat for over a week, we had lots of rubbish we had to get rid of so we had a beach day on the island to burn it all. Becca and Dale had brought a hammock with them, so we put up both our hammocks and relaxed on the beach. We bought our hammock for our honeymoon three years ago and this was the first time we actually got to use it. It was really lovely lying around in the shade all day - we'll have to do it more often! The boys entertained themselves by trying to climb the coconut trees (even though it was a bit pointless seeing as you're not allowed to take coconuts off any trees in the San blas).<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151015/a03.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Man make fire!</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151015/a21.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Becca tries to open a coconut she found on on the ground</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151015/a27.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151015/c09.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>I live here now (Taken by <a href='Http://daleandbecca.kiwi.nz'>Becca</a>) </i></centre><br/>
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So beach day was a success. Over the next few days we just anchored next to little islands and enjoyed life. We went to a spot commonly referred to as the ‘Hot Tub’ which is a small area in the East Holandes cays around the corner from the ‘Swimming Pool.' As we were coming in we were quickly losing light and couldn't see the bottom very well. The reefs are well marked on our charts (though you never know if one is going to pop up in front of you somewhere!), but the sand banks weren't. We knew there were shallow patches everywhere so it was my job to stand on the bow and keep watch as normal. Except I'm beginning to doubt if there's any point in me always standing out in the hot sun at all. Normally I panic when there's coral underneath, and Garth just ignores me and keeps going wherever he wants to go. This time it was rapidly getting shallower so I told him to stop… to his credit he did slow down, but we hit the bottom in time with me yelling ‘you're seriously not going to fit through here!’ So lesson learned - if there's somebody on the bow watching that we don't hit anything, you should probably listen to them! <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151015/a38.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151015/a41.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Beach fun</i></centre><br/>
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We managed to find a nice spot to anchor and went swimming near the outer reef the next day. The snorkeling was good but not amazing. We had a lot of fun playing around in the dinghy though, and found our first orange starfish. If you Google image search ‘starfish,’ it's pictures of these guys that will flood the first few pages of results. That's because we’re close to the USA now and it’s the orange ones that are in these waters. That's when it really hit home that we’ve crossed an entire ocean and are in a really new place. The starfish in the South Pacific are blue.<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151015/a08.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151015/a12.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151015/a18.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Bye Becca!</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151015/a15.jpg'/><br/>
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Dale found a conch when we were swimming. We’ve found lots of them before, but I remember Liesbet telling me in French Polynesia that it wasn't worth eating them unless you had a few. Getting them out of their shells is a mission. We only had one, but it was huge. Dale was adamant that he was going to prepare dinner for us, so he brought it back to the boat and set about getting it out of the shell. Conch are essentially giant snails with a huge claw. I wasn't sure about it all, but he smashed the flesh with a hammer until it was wafer thin, left it in lime juice for a few hours and then battered and fried the fritters. It was absolutely delicious! I thought it would be tough and snaily, but Dale’s conch was the best thing we’d eaten in awhile. He brought me a book called ‘An embarrassment of mangoes,’ which is a lovely story centered around food in the Carribean. It's filled with recipes, which is how we learned what to do with our giant snail sans Internet. I even made aioli to dip it in, which went back in the fridge. Lime juice and salt were the only extra flavours it needed.<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151015/a07.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Conch!</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151015/a28.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Extracting the conch</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151015/a29.jpg'/><br/>
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When we were done with that anchorage, we headed back out to where we’d gotten stuck on the San banks. A bit further along was a tiny sand island in the middle of nowhere, which we happily anchored next to. Our own little island! On the charts it’s marked as ‘Palm Island,’ but I'm guessing the palm tree got blown away. Somebody has brought a coconut over and placed it in between a barrier of driftwood, and it's slowly growing into a new tree. Hopefully one day it will fit it’s name again! <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151015/a34.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Loving our tiny, private island</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151015/a43.jpg'/><br/>
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It was really nice having our own island. Dale woke up early and paddled over to the beach, where he found a gazillion crabs going wild all over the sand. The view from our cockpit wasn't bad either, and we could have stayed for a lot longer if there weren't so many other things to see.<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151015/a40.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151015/a31.jpg'/><br/>
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Snorkeling around the sand cay was amazing. It was one of my favourite spots in the whole of the San Blas, and one of the only places we could swim out straight from the boat. In between us and the island it was mostly sand, but all around the other side there was a huge reef that stretched out forever. The coral was both beautiful and healthy, and we found huge soft fans everywhere as well as spiraling towers of bright orange coral dotted throughout the reef. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151015/a58.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151015/a49.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151015/c02.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Lots of coral (Taken by <a href='Http://daleandbecca.kiwi.nz'>Becca</a>)</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151015/c04.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Many fish (Taken by <a href='Http://daleandbecca.kiwi.nz'>Becca</a>)</i></centre><br/>
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There were so many fish! And so many of them were camouflaged. We kept finding huge lobsters hiding under rocks, and the trumpet fish were hiding vertically next to reedy soft coral because they blend in perfectly. I was staring down into some hard coral trying to chase one of my favourites (a bright blue fluorescent fish), when I noticed a tiny little spider looking thing hiding on one side of the coral. If the spiders have figured out how to chase me in the water as well as on land, we’re all doomed. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151015/a54.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Scary spider crab</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151015/a06.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Sneaky lobster</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151015/a57.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Trumpet fish</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151015/a37.jpg'/><br/>
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Xxx Monique<br/>
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Click here for <a target='__BLANK' href='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151015/index.html'>more pictures!</a></div>Svheartbeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15992606035707210558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122282645407038709.post-19936459676631976122016-01-27T19:33:00.001-08:002016-01-27T19:48:19.232-08:00Panama, San Blas (The Kuna people and Molas) - 2015-10-11<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
We've just had an amazing time in the San Blas with Becca and Dale. They came to visit us for almost two whole weeks! I don't even know what to say, because we didn't really do much. We snorkeled and ate and hung out and snorkeled. I think my feet only touched land twice during their whole stay. That definitely wasn't intentional, but it's just how it worked out - there was lots to see underwater! We picked them up from the mainland at Carti (quite a long way away from where we were supposed to pick them up from), where we immediately got into trouble. The people standing on the dock wouldn't let our visitors onto our dinghy without life jackets. Which was ridiculous. I haven't seen a single person wear or even carry a life jacket on a dinghy since we were in NZ. So I had to leave them on the dock and go back to dig out life jackets, totally destroying the clean boat I'd agonised over for their arrival. I guess it was never going to stay clean for very long anyway. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151011/a09.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>Gunboat island</i></centre><br />
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We didn't go far initially, just motoring over to a nearby island (Gunboat island) to drop the anchor for the night. We went snorkeling, which was inevitable considering almost every one of over 300 islands in the San Blas is near a reef of some kind. We actually went snorkelling every single day we were there, sometimes twice. So I have a lot of pictures of fish and coral. I won't go into detail about every single snorkeling excursion, so I'll just premise this by saying that the snorkeling in the San Blas was excellent. There was lots of soft coral, which was new for us, plus lots of other different coral and fish that we'd never seen before. Hooray for the Atlantic! I was blown away by all the different colours underneath the surface of of the water. Both Fiji and the Great Barrier Reef in Australia were really colourful, but they were also really different. So we had a great time exploring a whole new world below the surface. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151011/a21.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>Alien coral?</i></centre><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151011/a22.jpg" /><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151011/a23.jpg" /><br />
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I had been excited about buying a few Molas while we were in the San Blas, and we were not disappointed. A Mola is a traditional outfit worn by the local Kuna Indians (I think they prefer it to be spelled ‘Guna,’ but they are both pronounced the same). Molas are completely hand sewn, and are made up of multiple layers of fabric. Instead of making pictures by cutting out the shapes and layering them on top of each other (a technique commonly known as applique'), the Molas are made using reverse applique. Instead of building the pictures up, they start with a few layers of different coloured fabric and cut them away to reveal the colours underneath. They do applique more details onto the top of the Mola after It’s been cut away, which adds yet another dimension to the picture. Molas with two or three layers are a lot easier to make than the thicker ones (so they’re are also a lot cheaper!). These were the ones we mostly looked at. When there’s four or more layers involved everything gets a lot more complicated. It's easy to tell how much work has gone into each piece - aside from the amount of detail in them, the edges are left loose and you can easily count how many layers there are. <br />
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The traditional Molas are made up of two matching panels and they get wrapped around the waists of the Kuna (Guna) ladies, so their front and back are the same. Underneath the molas, the ladies wear beautiful clothes made up of very bright fabric and their arms and legs are adorned with huge beaded bracelets that are permanently attached. I think they used to be tied on quite tightly, but most of the younger women seem to have them loose so they don't cut into the skin. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151011/a37.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>A happy Kuna lady ties a beaded break let to my wrist. You can just see the top of her Mola underneath my arm (Taken by <a href="http://daleandbecca.kiwi.nz/">Becca</a>)</i></centre><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151011/a39.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>You can see all the pretty beads on her arms and legs here (Taken by <a href="http://daleandbecca.kiwi.nz/">Becca</a>)</i></centre><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151011/a03.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>A Kuna woman and her family visits us in their ulu</i></centre><br />
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The Kuna people are very interesting and very friendly. They live on the hundreds of islands that make up the San Blas, and until recently didn't even have access to solar power. I don't think any of the islands have electricity except for maybe the one or two places built up for tourists. The ‘resorts’ there have hammocks for beds though, so I'm not sure whether electricity would have been connected for the tourists or not. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151011/a02.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>A local Kuna man travelling in his ulu (dugout canoe)</i></centre><br />
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They used to nomadic and I guess that’s why they chose this type of artwork rather than sculptures or statues like most indigenous people. They adorn their bodies with the Molas and take them everywhere they go. Which we love, because they are bright and beautiful. Kuna ladies walking down the streets are literally brightly coloured works of art. It feels wrong to stare at them, but the clothes they wear are all very different and all very interesting. The more traditional molas are made up of patterns rather than pictures, but some still tell a story.<br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151011/a07.jpg" /><br />
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The local men fish and work on coconut farms to make a living. One of the things I love about these people is that they have a matrilineal society - the women are in charge of the financial side of things and families are defined by the mother rather than the father. Surnames and property are passed down from the mother’s family and a newly married couple will move into the woman's compound instead of the man’s. Whilst they still need men to help provide for the family, it's the women that carry on the family name and traditions. So instead of wanting baby boys like in most societies, it's the girls that are the most important for the family to continue. Because of this, If a Kuna woman gives birth to only boys then one (I think the third) will be raised as a girl to make sure the Mola making skills and Kuna traditions will be passed on. Whilst some just learn the Mola making skills and still identify as boys, the Kuna people end up with quite a few transvestites in their communities. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151011/a04.jpg" /><br />
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And so our first Mola visit was not from a woman, but from Venancio - a very well known Master Mola Maker. He came to us from several miles away, bringing many buckets filled with Molas. We knew the locals would come to us pedalling their wares, and I had planned on buying one every once and a while. But there are two names we knew to look for in order to find the best Molas - Venancio was the first and Lisa was the second. Most of the local women make and sell their molas to tourists, but those two came with many recommendations. Unfortunately we were presented with the best of the best on our very first day…<br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151011/a34.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>Venancio!(Taken by <a href="http://daleandbecca.kiwi.nz/">Becca</a>)</i></centre><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151011/a06.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>Venancio with some of his molas</i></centre><br />
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Venancio spoke very good English and as he displayed each Mola we all gathered around to look. We each made three piles… Yes, Maybe, and No. Becca and Dale gathered quite a collection and even though we tried to be ruthless, there were so many and they were all so beautiful. Each one had Venancio’s name stitched along the top, which is the mark of a quality Mola. They take so long to make, so nobody would bother spending extra time stitching on a name with tired fingers unless it meant something to have a Mola with their name on it. <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151011/a13.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>My first Mola, with Venancio’s name stitched proudly on top</i></centre><br />
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He must have shown us hundreds of Molas. Finally we went back through our piles, trying to narrow down our selections. Venancio held each one up for us, making encouraging noises while he danced them around in the air. He even told us stories about the pictures, and just generally made it very hard to say no to any of them. I ended up with a few very nice ones, and one in particular that was quite large and had a lot of detail in it. It featured a fish with a pirate hat, and Venancio explained that the happy pirate fish had been dinner for the bigger fish stitched around the outside of of the picture. I couldn't leave him behind and most of our Mola budget went towards acquiring my new pirate friend.<br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151011/a15.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>My pirate fish</i></centre><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151011/a16.jpg" /><br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151011/a17.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>It’s hard to believe these tiny stitches were done by hand</i></centre><br />
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So that was the beginning of our San Blas journey. Over the 10 days we had with Becca and Dale we saw lots more Molas, but none as beautiful as Venancio’s. He came by a few more times to say hi and to have a chat, and was just generally a really great guy. We eventually did meet Lisa (who is quite famous in the San Blas for being a very loud and rambunctious transvestite), and her Molas were lovely. But I didn't regret getting overexcited on our first day! Most of the women came onboard and spread all their things out for us to inspect when they visited. The Kuna ladies are very short, and they always had a laugh ready for when they attempted to climb onto our boat from their Ulus (dugout canoes). Some tried to use our swimming ladder, and some climbed up over the lifelines like we do. But they all needed a hand and nobody found it easy! <br />
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151011/a43.jpg" /><br />
<centre><i>A Kuna lady shows us her ‘tourist’ molas, which are nontraditional applique pictures, usually done by younger girls to start learning the art.(Taken by <a href="http://daleandbecca.kiwi.nz/">Becca</a>)</i></centre><br />
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Xxx Monique<br />
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Click here for <a href="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151011/index.html" target="_blank">more pictures</a>!</div>
Svheartbeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15992606035707210558noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122282645407038709.post-18512445066596592982016-01-05T20:24:00.001-08:002016-01-18T14:08:50.676-08:00Panama, Linton (Spider monkeys) - 05/10/2015<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We just had one of the most amazing experiences of our lives. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We're at Linton Island (Puerto Lindo) in Panama, and the reason we've stopped here is because the island has a family of wild spider monkeys on it. Garth loves monkeys more than anything in the world. I'm sure he was a monkey in a previous life. So after our brief stop at Portobelo, we hightailed it to monkey island.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-5692-bfc7-8d80-899015a2cd56" style="vertical-align: baseline;">As soon as we arrived we could see them playing in the trees not far from where we were anchored. They were adorable! We were tired so decided not to go to shore until the next morning, and instead just sat in the cockpit to watch how other people interacted with them. Mostly cruisers, they came in groups (albeit small groups) which I'm sure was overwhelming for the monkeys. The tour boats have a reputation for hyping the poor things up by yelling and jumping around and shaking their trees. We didn't see any of this, maybe because it was a weekend. There was a big stick on the beach that people used to poke their trees with though, I'm guessing so they'd come down to play. I also noticed that the smart tour boats had their people stay in the water. Ankle deep in the water they could observe the monkeys from less than 1m away, and the stars of the show didn't seem very enthusiastic about getting their feet wet. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/a63.jpg" /></span></span><br />
<centre><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">You can just see the tiny black monkey dots on the beach (behind the buoy in the water)</span></i></centre><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-5690-1517-54ff-5ca430bdda3e" style="vertical-align: baseline;">If the tour groups had a reputation, then these monkeys were full blown celebrities. So many people have told us to be careful of them. When people rile them up they get overexcited and bite. If you get too close, they bite. If they feel like biting, they bite. Our good friends on Fata Morgana warned us that one of their friends had been bitten down to the bone just from trying to feed them. They are extremely agile, and Gibbons are the only primates that can move faster. I guess that's how they manage to attack so many people - they can move so very quickly. So we had been sufficiently warned. I wanted to take gloves with us to shore, but Garth was confident we would be safe. </span></span></div>
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/a35.jpg" /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-5694-e472-9fa5-c42eb00baf0e" style="vertical-align: baseline;">So the next morning we took off to shore first thing, before anybody could get them over excited and before they ate their breakfast. I started tying the dinghy up but Garth was already on the beach before we came to a complete stop. Two monkeys came down to him right away and held their hands out for the apple slices he had taken with him. After they had introduced themselves and had a quick snack, they all just stood around like a group of friends chatting on the street. They looked very human-like standing upright next to Garth, like miniature people.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/a70.jpg" /></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/a02.jpg" /></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/a03.jpg" /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 43.3038px;">Because he loves monkeys and primates so much, Garth knows a lot about them. He didn't make eye contact right away, which probably didn't really make any difference to their behaviour because that precaution is pretty specific to gorillas. Besides, although these spider monkeys are living in the wild and aren't domesticated at all, they're used to humans. Garth was very quiet and let them get used to him the same way that you would for a dog - they touched him, became accustomed to his scent and established that he wasn't a threat. Then Garth quietly sat down on the remains of a dock by the water's edge. His two little friends followed and sat down beside him. The younger one was male, with a red tinge to his fur. Though friendly, he was slightly more skittish and sat away from Garth. The other one was female, with jet black hair. She eyed Garth up for a moment and then crawled onto the plank beside him, snuggling up next to him like a happy kitten or an affectionate child.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-5697-a4d0-2825-63acc6e6f37f" style="vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/a10.jpg" /></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/a12.jpg" /></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/a15.jpg" /></span></span><br />
<centre><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Just chilling</span></i></centre><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-5698-a868-810c-9591c20dce89" style="vertical-align: baseline;">I stayed in the water so as not to overwhelm them, taking photos from the dinghy. Everybody seemed quite content. Then another boat arrived. I suspect the "tour boats" are mostly water taxis, taking people from one of the islands to the mainland. That's what this one looked like. There were two people onboard along with their driver and an excitable puppy. I don't understand why you would take a puppy with you to meet wild monkeys, but there it was.</span></span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-56b3-cd1a-8bb5-93e9696a8daf" style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The monkeys momentarily ran off, so Garth and I sat quietly on the dinghy and waited for these new guests to leave. The dog kept barking and the poor things didn't know what to make of it. The lady jumped out of the boat and to my surprise she opened a huge bag of tortilla chips to feed to them. The female monkey was happy to eat them, though I'm sure she preferred our apple slices. She stood next to these people while the lady tried to pose for the camera, holding the chip frozen near the monkey's face. She was no novice in posing for pictures. Our little friend kept reaching for it, but the lady wanted to get her picture before the chip disappeared.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-569d-0321-a81f-8ee45cec382a" style="vertical-align: baseline;">Meanwhile, the sneaky male sidled towards the boat which was now just occupied by the driver and an open packet of chips. It was like something out of a cartoon. He crept towards it, overexaggerating each movement and looking around like a cartoon criminal. It was like watching somebody in a very bad acting class. Eventually he got close enough to snatch the bag and he made a run for the trees, his prize held high. So that was why Garth had warned me not to leave anything in the dinghy and not to take the camera off from around my neck under any circumstances. The little guy was so proud of himself! He gripped the bag with his tail and zipped up the tree, which was actually pretty comical in itself. When he was happy with the branch he had chosen, he switched the bag to his hands and hung from his tail which left four limbs free to stuff his face with. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/a16.jpg" /></span></span><br />
<centre><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sneaky, sneaky...</span></i></centre><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/a17.jpg" /></span></span><br />
<centre><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Quick like a bunny!</span></i></centre><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/a32.jpg" /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-569e-f807-70ae-40c517d1a6f7" style="vertical-align: baseline;">The man from the boat went over and started yelling at him, trying to get the bag back by poking it with a stick. Eventually chips rained down from the trees onto the ground and the annoyed monkey was left holding an almost-empty bag. He held it with both hands and stuck his entire face inside, looking for more salty snacks.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/a19.jpg" /></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/a25.jpg" /></span></span><br />
<centre><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Looking for crumbs</span></i></centre><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-56a0-144c-fa2c-5e62609eef30" style="vertical-align: baseline;">That was when another boat turned up with two guys on it. One of them was a local cruiser, the other an obvious tourist. Thinking the bag of tortilla chips was still full, the local guy tried to swap a bag of garbage for the bag of chips. I'm not sure whether he wanted to return the chips to the couple, or if he was just trying to stop them from eating nasty processed food (often monkeys will give up something they're playing with if you trade them for something else). Either way it ended in a game of tug of war. The monkeys weren't very happy. Garth quietly moved closer to them and sat against a tree trunk, watching but not interfering or saying a word. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/a34.jpg" /></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/a58.jpg" /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-56a3-97d3-a0cf-e9dc2ed0c54a" style="vertical-align: baseline;">The first boat took their dog and left their bag of chips scattered all over the ground. Then there were just four of us on the island. The two guys stayed for a while longer and the local cruiser actually had some interesting information for us. He told us that the female was usually very docile but that the male could snap and get angry for no reason. I expected him to be nicer to our little friends, but he didn't seem to have that much compassion for them. He encouraged his buddy to grab some tortilla chips from off the ground to feed to the female, who was (literally) just hanging around nearby.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/a24.jpg" /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-56b5-87f6-42bf-b8c85b284cb0" style="vertical-align: baseline;">Happy to have the opportunity for a selfie with a monkey, he got closer to the female and she took the chip from his hand. Then he touched her arm and posed for a photo. She was not pleased with this. When he turned around to smile for the camera, she lurched forward and bit him hard on the wrist. Even though her smile was mostly all gum, she still managed to break the skin and draw a decent amount of blood. It looked painful. Garth said that just before she bit him, the female squinched up her face, bared her teeth and screeched at him. He didn't notice because he had his back to her, giving the camera a thumbs up.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/a22.jpg" /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-56b7-76ec-ffd5-63a4cbeedafa" style="vertical-align: baseline;">I guess it's hard to remember that monkeys are wild animals, because they're so friendly and they look like people. But they're wild animals. They're used to people but they're not house pets, and we're the ones intruding on their home. So I'm not surprised that they get angry with people touching them while they're trying to have breakfast. You'd never approach any other wild animal while it was eating, but for some reason it seems okay here because spider monkeys are like cuddly little people. I'm not surprised so many people have been bitten by them! (Having said that, I'm sure they sometimes just snap for no reason if they've had a bad day and too many people have been bugging them).</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/a30.jpg" /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-56b8-32c6-d9f2-1378fe698647" style="vertical-align: baseline;">Dripping blood, the two guys left and we were alone with the monkeys again. Garth stayed where he was, calmly sharing their world. Then he moved closer to their tree and just sat. Eventually the female climbed back down and hung from the lowest branch, right next to his head. Garth didn't turn to look at her. He just sat still and she hung down next to him. After a while she leaned over and pressed her head against his. For a minute or two they both just stayed like that, their heads pressed together. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/a37.jpg" /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">She must have thought he was safe, because she took an arm off the branch and leaned on him. Slowly, she extracted herself from the tree until she was sitting on his shoulders with just her tail and one arm still clinging onto the branch for safety.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/a39.jpg" /></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/a42.jpg" /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Eventually her worries were gone and she slid down onto his lap. She kept one hand on the tree for a while, but once they were all cuddled together she looked at him. Then she looked back up at the branch. Then she looked back at him again and in one swift movement her arm went from clinging to the tree to clinging onto Garth. She looked up at him with her big doey eyes and then nuzzled her head into his chest, wrapping all her arms and legs around him. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">They stayed like that for at least half an hour. She couldn't decide on the best way to hug him and constantly squirmed around, arms, legs and tail moving all over the place. She would continually look up at him and then nuzzle her head into his chest. I tried to feed her some more apple, but she wasn't interested. She just wanted a hug. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/a57.jpg" /></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/a68.jpg" /></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/a66.jpg" /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. I don't know why animals and children love Garth so much, but I suspect it is his calm and gentle nature. A few minutes after this wild monkey had attacked somebody, Garth had her in a cuddly ball of happiness. He said she was like a sweet little grandma. She was obviously quite old, and her movements were much slower and more gentle than those of her younger male friend.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/a53.jpg" /></span></span><br />
<centre><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">I'll scratch your head if you scratch mine</span></i></centre><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/a54.jpg" /></span></span><br />
<centre><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Having a laugh together. She somehow enjoyed Garth's endless supply of bad jokes</span></i></centre><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/a67.jpg" /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">After they hugged for a long time, the sun started getting hotter and cuddling seemed like less of a good idea. They both started dripping In sweat, and Garth's new lady friend decided it was time to move on. She nuzzled into his chest one more time before wandering off back into the trees.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-56c5-b414-e947-71ae4facf1fc" style="vertical-align: baseline;">I'm not entirely sure what kind of spider monkeys our new friends are but I suspect they're Black Headed Spider Monkeys or Geoffreys Spider Monkeys, which are both critically endangered (although all spider monkeys are either under threat or endangered). They're about the same size as the howler monkeys we've been seeing around Panama, except their brains are twice as big. They mostly eat fruit, but they like nuts and leaves as well (not tortilla chips). I can't help but wonder if our lady friend was missing so many teeth from inappropriate food brought by well-meaning tourists. They're more social than most other monkeys and usually travel in large troops. I'm not sure how many other monkeys share this island with them, so maybe they were so affectionate because they're lonely. Because they mostly eat fruit and there's fruit trees scattered all through the jungle, they have to remember where all the trees are and when the fruit will be ripe (they keep track of up to 150 different trees at once). So the whole jungle is like a complicated game of memory and they're very good at it. It's assumed that this is probably why their brains are so big. It's also probably why the cheeky little things are so clever and wily. It was kind of bizarre interacting with animal that are almost as smart as us, but definitely very special at the same time.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Xxx Monique</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Believe it or not, I took took a ridiculous number of photos. <a href="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151005/index.html" target="__BLANK">Click here</a> to see the rest.</span></span></div>
Svheartbeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15992606035707210558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122282645407038709.post-88704659135634623892016-01-01T10:56:00.001-08:002016-01-02T08:22:21.412-08:00Panama, Portobelo - 03/10/2015<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Portobelo! Everybody casually talks about visiting Portobelo, because it's just one of those places that everybody goes to. I didn't realise that there was anything particularly special about this little town and we weren't going to go out of our way to stop here. In fact, we almost skipped it altogether on our way to Linton and the San Blas Islands. But our extreme aversion to getting up and doing things meant that we left our anchorage quite late in the day instead of in the early morning, so we just popped round the corner to Portobelo instead of continuing on to Linton.<br>
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It's beautiful here. After all the squalls and miserable weather, it was lovely to wake up in the morning to this. Perfect blue skies and stunning blue water. Christopher Columbus is supposed to have named the town "Puerto Bello," in 1502, which means 'beautiful port.'<br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151003/a53.jpg"><br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151003/a51.jpg"><br>
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But the main attraction here are the ruins. They're hard to miss as you come in - crumbling walls line the hills around the harbour with rows of cannons pointed straight into the anchorage. <br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151003/a02.jpg"><br>
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The town itself is gorgeous, filled with brightly coloured houses and friendly people. Most of the buildings are obviously very old. It looks like somebody has come along with a tin of bright paint and just covered up the oldness with pretty colours. But everything is properly old rather than just neglected, complete with crumbling stone walls and moss covered windows. I've never been to a country old enough to have buildings made out of big solid bricks before. <br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151003/a37.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>A house along the main street</i></centre><br>
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When you walk from the street into where the fort used to be, you're immediately thrown back in time to when there were pirates and warships. The stretch of land overlooking the harbour is lined with cannons, their noses poking through the holes in the wall. Standing behind them you could just imagine lining up the approaching ships and letting the cannonballs fly. <br>
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The fort was built because the harbour here was used to export silver between the 16th and 18th centuries - it was one of the ports used by the Spanish treasure fleets on their route back home. It turns out that everybody else likes silver too, so the Spanish figured they had better do something to protect their treasures. <br>
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Pirates attacked and captured the city twice, and the last man to do it was Captain Morgan (of Captain Morgan's spiced rum). He had 450 men with him, and together they managed to get past all the cannons and walls and tiny windows with guns pointed through them. They plundered the fort for 14 days, and during that time they managed to take nearly everything of value whilst raping, torturing and killing all the locals (in between bouts of plundering). That was in 1668, which was long before Australia or New Zealand were settled by anybody weilding guns. Yay, pirates! <br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151003/a48.jpg"><br>
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So wandering around the fort I got a real sense of pirateness left behind from years gone by. The walls themselves were pretty awesome. I didn't know this, but Garth (my permenant tour guide) informed me that the walls were all built with an angle on the edge to make it easier to hide behind them. The windows were all the same, angled in to end at a tiny little hole just big enough to sneak a gun into. <br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151003/a05.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>Garth demonstrates how clever the walls are</i></centre><br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151003/a08.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>From the inside looking out</i></centre><br>
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<centre><i>From the outside looking in</i></centre><br>
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There were a few watch towers on the corners overlooking the harbour, along with other random buildings. It was fun trying to figure out which one was the armoury and which one was the powder store or barracks. There were several underground rooms that we ventured into, which were pretty awesome too. Dingy and damp, it was easy to imagine hiding out down there.<br>
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<centre><i>Looking down at one of the little buildings</i></centre><br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151003/a46.jpg"><br>
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When we headed back to the boat we found another area of crumbling ruins, which had more supports and things around it. Maybe it was an older section, or maybe they just moved their base because the other area has a better view of the harbour. There were more cannons here, all pointed at the water. <br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151003/a23.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>The entrance wasn't hard to find</i></centre><br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151003/a42.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>Inside the walls</i></centre><br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151003/a50.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>The second fort overlooking the anchorage</i></centre><br>
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So it was pretty fun exploring all the ruins and running around in a place with so much history. I'm definitely glad we stopped here! We're not staying long though, and tomorrow we're heading to Linton - our last stop before the San Blas. Yay!<br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151003/a35.jpg"><br>
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Xxx Monique<br>
<br>
Click here for <a target="__BLANK" href="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151003/index.html">LOTS more pictures!</a></div>Svheartbeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15992606035707210558noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122282645407038709.post-20842828169277276952016-01-01T10:38:00.001-08:002016-01-01T10:43:36.303-08:00Panama, Colon - 01/10/2015<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">We haven't done much over the last two weeks. In fact, I have no reason to be writing a blog post other than to share these pictures of scary storms that keep rolling over us. <br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151001/a03.jpg"><br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151001/a04.jpg"><br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151001/a05.jpg"><br>
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We're anchored in a random spot about 8 miles from Colon at the moment. We've been here for a week, casually fixing a few things, enjoying the internet reception and mostly just chilling out. There's nothing here though aside from storms, water and an annoying number of no-seeums. <br>
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After we went through the canal we stayed at at the Shelter Bay Marina. It's much too fancy for our tastes, but it was amazing to be on solid land for a while. Two guys came out to help us tie up to the dock and I didn't have to do a thing. There's amazing showers there, along with with a pool and a little store. It's magical. Does everybody else know how awesome marinas are? Somebody should really be sharing this information! <br>
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Shelter Bay is also in the middle of the jungle . We went for a walk looking for monkeys and sloths, but drew a blank. The monkeys here are howler monkeys and they make a crazy amount of noise, so you can at least tell when they're nearby. We heard their cries echoing through the trees but we didn't actually see any, which was sad.<br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151001/a01.jpg"><br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151001/a02.jpg"><br>
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We did see an Agouti though, which was pretty cool. It's a strange animal that sits somewhere between a pig and a wombat and they're actually pretty interesting. He ran across our path as we were walking in amongst the trees, but didn't stop or look back for a photo. He just wanted to run.<br>
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The reason we stayed so long at the marina was because our oven finally broke. The burners have slowly been dying, and we are now down to one instead of three. Garth agreed to take it apart to clean the connectors in the hopes that a bit of love would fix it. Unfortunately, as soon as he took took it apart the metal burners just disintegrated into dust. They were so old and rusted that they had just been hanging on by a thread. It's remarkable they were working at all. Not safe. So we've had to order a whole new oven, which was painful and expensive. But it's also exciting and awesome! As much as I don't want to spend more money, it will be really amazing to have an oven that's insulated properly, starts every time and isn't a nightmare to operate at sea. Yay!<br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151001/a07.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>One of our rusted burners</i></centre><br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20151001/a06.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>The oven with the top removed</i></centre><br>
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In the meantime we've had to buy an outdoor camping stove and a new gas bottle to fit it. So cooking is going to be a much bigger deal for the next few weeks as we try to do all our cooking in the cockpit, but before long we'll have a new oven!<br>
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Xxx Monique</div>Svheartbeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15992606035707210558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122282645407038709.post-72073734172001591032015-11-25T18:09:00.001-08:002015-12-19T21:42:19.449-08:00Panama, Heartbeat canal transit - 19/09/2015<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
Finally, we're in the Atlantic. The whole canal thing is over. After all the build up and planning and stress I feel like it's a bit anticlimatic just sitting here in Shelter Bay Marina, but here we are.<br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a26.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>Inside the locks (Taken by <a href="http://www.thelifenomadik.com/">Mira</a>)</i></centre><br>
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I'm not going to go over the canal and how it works and what it's like going through on a yacht. You can read my other blog posts on it from when we went through as line handlers, <a href="http://svheartbeat.blogspot.com/2015/09/panama-canal-transits-panama-290615.html
">here</a><br> and <a href="http://svheartbeat.blogspot.com/2015/10/panama-las-perlas-islands-and-canal.html">here</a>. I think I've well and truly covered the canal and all the details surrounding it. <br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a29.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>Maya, Mira and Ivo doing some mid-canal yoga</i></centre><br>
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Our transit was pretty easy. Nothing went wrong and we arrived safe and sound. This was partly due to the amazing advisor we had, and partly because of our amazing line handlers. We managed to score the help of our wonderful friends on SV Fata Morgana, who were parked in the La Playita anchorage with us. We didn't even have to beg - they offered! They are a pretty amazing group of people and they live life in a way that we really love and admire. Mira, Ivo and their daughter Maya live on their catamaran, well and truly off the grid. They use kayaks instead of a dinghy (they don't have one onboard at all), and they NEVER start their engines. They have run the motors for about 30 miles over the last year, and that was to get through the canal. They sail off their anchor, moor under sail and don't stay in marinas. We spend a lot of time bobbing around on glassy seas, but we definitely run the engine more than that! When these guys get stuck, Ivo jumps into the kayak and pulls the boat by himself. So they're a pretty awesome group of people and we were in great company for our transit. I should also point out that while I was running around stressing (over nothing) Mira took lots and lots of really great photos so most of these are hers, but you can blame the bad editing on me (Mira is an amazing photographer - check out her blog at <a href="http://www.thelifenomadik.com/">www.thelifenomadik.com</a> for more awesome shots).<br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a05.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>All ready to go! Ivo snapped this from the kayak just before we set off</i></centre><br>
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I kind of felt like our friends drew the short straw when we all got onboard and got moving. I had been hoping to get through the first set of locks before the sun got really hot, so we could put the shade cloth up and get out of the heat. Unfortunately, our advisor was late. They often seem to be late, which is infuriating considering we got up at 5:30am and had to drag everyone along with us to be off the anchor and waiting out near the canal for him to turn up at 7:30am. So we lost the lovely morning rays as we waited. By the time the pilot boat rocked up over an hour later, it was getting hot. And it was going to get hotter (Although I should point out that the change in time is usually because the canal schedule changes rather than the advisor just not rocking up to work on time. They can't exactly call every boat to tell them about every little time change). <br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a06.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>Goodbye Panama City!</i></centre><br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a09.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>Loaded up with tires and giant ropes</i></centre><br>
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Instead of going through first thing in the morning like we had wanted, we would hit the first set of locks at 9:45. We wanted to go early because our boat is small and slow. Motoring through Gatun lake to the locks on the other side takes a full day to cover the 27 miles. But if we moved fast we should still make it through in time to slide into the locks on the other side just before they closed for us and opened up to traffic coming from the other direction. <br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a14.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>Going under the Bridge of the Americas</i></centre><br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a15.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>Us in front of the bridge (Taken by <a href="http://www.thelifenomadik.com/">Mira</a>)</i></centre><br>
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Unfortunately, fast was not an option. Panama is in the middle of a drought at the moment - it's the rainy season, but there hasn't been any rain. Every time a boat goes through the locks in the canal, mass amounts of water fills the top lock from the lake. That water then flows down through each lock before ending up in the ocean and then it's just gone. With no rain to fill up the lake again, water is just continually being moved from the lake to the ocean with no way to replenish it. The lake is slowly being drained. Because of this, the water level is really, really low. <br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a69.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>A ladder on the edge of the lake... it's supposed to go down to the water</i></centre><br>
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Aside from the obvious problems of running aground, our advisor told us that their boats are getting messed up because of it. There are huge bits of rubber along the side of the locks that act as a tiny buffer to the concrete. Every once and a while they fall off into the water along with other miscellaneous bits and pieces, and the canal boats (tugs and pilot vessels) are continually being damaged from all that junk being dredged up and caught in their props. A month or two ago the Panama Canal released a warning that they would have to start enforcing stricter weight restrictions for the big ships because of the low water levels in the lake. The ships get told one month in advance so they have time to change their schedules. A lot of the boats going through would be affected, mostly because the're always overloaded and even heavier than they should be under normal conditions. A week before the restrictions were supposed to come into effect they were lifted, even though there hadn't been any more rain and the lake was still low. The canal just didn't want to look bad. <br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a18.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>The big guy who who was slowing us down, as the water swirled in on an up lock (Taken by <a href="http://www.thelifenomadik.com/">Mira</a>)</i></centre><br>
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So we were never going to get through quickly with a big, overloaded cargo ship in front of us. He had to go into the lock and get into place before we were allowed to follow him in. Unfortunately, he only had about 1 or 2 inches of water underneath him. The ship was just edging along trying not to scrape off too much of his bottom paint. He was literally crawling. As in, if you placed a baby on the canal wall and made it crawl in a straight line next to this boat, the baby would have reached the other side of the locks first. So instead of it taking one hour to get through the first set of locks, it took us three. In the scorching hot sun with no shade or protection. So that sucked.<br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a01.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>Maya trying to find some shade</i></centre><br>
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Luckily our advisor made everything as easy as possible for us. For the first set of locks we tied up to a little canal boat that was tied up to a tug. So it was like tying up to a tug, which is the easiest option for a small yacht, except instead of being next to a big dirty tug we got a little boat that just sat there all snug and nice without rubbing any dirty black marks all over our already messy paint job. The up locks are the roughest, so it was a big relief to have the whole thing go so smoothly.<br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a21.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>The little boat is the one one we tied up to (Taken by <a href="http://www.thelifenomadik.com/">Mira</a>)</i></centre><br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a16.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>Early morning before my skipper got worn out (Taken by <a href="http://www.thelifenomadik.com/">Mira</a>)</i></centre><br>
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One slightly bizarre thing was that everyone got really upset and really vocal about the state of our courtesy flag. We've been here in Panama for a few months, so our cheapo courtesy flag is starting to rip. To be fair, almost half of it has disintegrated from all the storms and strong winds that have been tearing through the rigging lately. I managed to find a new one the day before (not an easy task for some reason - even the $2 shops don't sell them), and I had forgotten to put it up what with all the drama of getting ready for our transit. As we pulled into the lock and started throwing the other boat our lines, there was a heated discussion between our advisor and the captain of our neighbouring boat. He was not happy. I had no idea what was going on until we were secured a few minutes later and our advisor pulled me aside. He told me that the captain would not shut up about the flag as we were tying up, and he actually had to tell him to just shut up and help secure the boats before worrying about the flag. It had to come down immediately. I think everyone was pleased that I had another (although the main problem was that they just didn't want a broken flag being flown, which was fair enough).<br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a17.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>That's one unhappy captain (Taken by <a href="http://www.thelifenomadik.com/">Mira</a>)</i></centre><br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a19.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>The advisor helped me swap the flags (Taken by <a href="http://www.thelifenomadik.com/">Mira</a>)</i></centre><br>
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Even after a late start we were stil hopeful that we would get through the canal in one day, but it didn't matter how fast we went. It wasn't going to happen. I hardly had to to do anything at all the whole day, which I was really surprised about and very grateful for. Mostly I just ran around and worried needlessly. When Garth needed a break, Ivo took over the steering and then Maya did a shift as well. I didn't even need to watch what was going on - they had it all under control. It was amazing. Maya was the perfect height as well - when we stand at the wheel we're too tall to see over the dodger standing up, and too short when we're sitting down. Standing up on the seat, Maya had it all figured out.<br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a35.jpg"><br>
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A storm started brewing just as the sun went down and we made a beeline for our mooring buoy. We got tied up just as the rain started, but luckily it didn't last very long. I was really sorry to see our advisor go, not knowing who we would be stuck with the next day. He was so friendly and sweet. When we were trying to pose in front of the webcam at the Mira Flores Locks, he called up the tower and asked them to point the camera at us. After he left us he missed his ride home and didn't get back until 10pm, just after we'd fallen asleep. The first thing thing he did when he got home was to call us to let us know what time our advisor would be arriving in the morning. This was the fifth time we've been through the canal and he was definitely the only advisor to take our phone number and check up on us later. He was awesome. <br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a36.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>The sun set just before we arrived(Taken by <a href="http://www.thelifenomadik.com/">Mira</a>)</i></centre><br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a37.jpg"><br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a39.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>Early morning in Gatun Lake</i></centre><br>
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The next day our advisor was late again. This time it it was not a scheduling problem. He jumped onboard and told us to 'Go, go, go!' The mooring buoys are only about five or ten minutes away from the locks, but we weren't organised. <br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a40.jpg"><br>
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We hadn't ended up using the big blue canal ropes the day before. It seemed a bit ridiculous to use massive ropes to tie up to a boat smaller than ours. So they were still laid out all ready on one side, but not on the other. We tied up to the mooring buoy as if it were a dock (it's half the size of the boat) and our starboard side would be a mess of lines until after we let go of the mooring. So when the advisor jumped on and told us to move, we started sorting out the ropes and untying from the mooring. Then he pointed at the locks and a big blue car carrier that was just coming up to the entrance. He told us we we had to get there before it did. Lines were thrown off and it was a mad scramble to get there, with Garth at the wheel and and the rest of us setting up the ropes. But nobody knew what was going on. Our advisor didn't know if we were going to be tied to the wall or if there would be other boats with us or if we had to go in the centre chamber. All he knew was that we had to get there fast and get there first. <br>
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Garth floored it, and managed to duck behind another ship that had just come out. He maneuvered through the swirling mess of water left behind in it's wake and managed to stop us spinning around in circles. Then he came round to the other side of the blue car carrier and managed to squeeze through a gap that wasn't dangerously tight, but was still much too close for my comfort. And then he slammed on the brakes. We still had no idea what was happening. We slowly drifted towards the end of the lock, and all our advisor could do was wait for them to get back to him. We made it almost to the closed gates in front of us when he finally got the okay for us to tie up to the wall. Phew! I really didn't want to be in the centre chamber. Aside from not wanting to put Maya to work (she was happy to help but didn't volunteer for a day of hard labour!), our boat is too small to have two people on the bow. It would have been tricky. Plus, we were almost at the gate and there was nobody on shore to throw us lines. We were just slowly moving towards a solid wall. <br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a41.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>Squeezing into the lock first(Taken by <a href="http://www.thelifenomadik.com/">Mira</a>)</i></centre><br>
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When we got the all clear Garth just sidled over and lightly kissed the wall with our huge fenders. But there was nobody to take our lines and we just sat there. Our advisor told me to just stick our stern line over the huge cleat on the wall, which I thought was a little crazy. But it was the right height and it was was right there, so I just plonked the rope over as a guy slowly got up from his seat and put our bow line on as well. It was insane how easy and relaxed it all was. <br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a51.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>The cleats were super easy (Taken by <a href="http://www.thelifenomadik.com/">Mira</a>)</i></centre><br>
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I had bought new gardening gloves to protect my hands from the icky green gunk on the walls as we slowly went down. If the boat starts rocking from the currents, the spreaders can scrape against the sides. Pushing off the walls can help avoid this. But I didn't even need them except to lightly push the stern away as we untied and moved onto the next lock. After doing the canal a few times on other people's boats, I've seen how smoothly it can go (along with how quickly it can all go to shit). But it was just insane how calm everything was. It was much easier than docking in a marina or pulling up a mooring buoy.<br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a45.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>Just chilling (Taken by <a href="http://www.thelifenomadik.com/">Mira</a>)</i></centre><br>
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The other thing I noticed was what a big difference it made being in the locks in a small boat versus a big boat. We've been through on yachts of various sizes between 40 ft and 50 ft, but never anything smaller. When something goes wrong on a big boat, it's scary. If it gets turned sideways inside the locks, it's a big deal. It felt like our boat was more like a dinghy than a big yacht once we were inside the walls. We could drive around in circles if we wanted to, or pop over to the other side just to say hi. We were a small thing in a big space instead of being a big thing in a small space, which is the case for almost all of the other yachts going through the canal. It made a huge difference in how our baby handled in amongst all the stone walls and strange currents. It's obviously easier to maneuver a smaller boat in most conditions, but being in the locks made it really clear what a big difference a few feet can make.<br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a50.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>Gates opening (Taken by <a href="http://www.thelifenomadik.com/">Mira</a>)</i></centre><br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a54.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>Looking down at the last lock (Taken by <a href="http://www.thelifenomadik.com/">Mira</a>)</i></centre><br>
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The only other thing that made our canal transit different was a well placed crack in one of the locks as we were going down. We managed to tie up right above it. Garth's theory is that water builds up behind the wall and occasionally finds its way out through cracks when the pressure is too high. It started off by just wetting our feet, but as we went down and the crack stayed in the same place, it turned into a shower above us. It was fresh water from the lake and it was a hot day, so no prizes for guessing what we did. One after another we stuck feet, hands and heads under our free shower. The water was cold and refreshing, and added a lot of excitement to the second day (which was short and sweet considering we just had to go through one set of locks and we were in Colon). <br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a58.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>Cooling off (Taken by <a href="http://www.thelifenomadik.com/">Mira</a>)</i></centre><br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a60.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>(Taken by <a href="http://www.thelifenomadik.com/">Mira</a>)</i></centre><br>
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Aside from the random water flowing onto our boat, Maya provided most of the entertainment. Fata Morgana doesn't have steps up her mast and when Maya saw ours she was super keen to monkey up and take in the view. Usually the advisers get cranky when we do that... on almost every boat we've been through the canal on, at least one person has tried to get up higher to take a quick snapshot of the view over the locks. Somebody always gets in trouble and the fun doesn't last very long at all. On Eva Marie, Dave actually went right up to the top. The Advisor was displeased and demanded he come straight down. But Maya is (only just) small enough and quiet enough to sneak off into the background. On our first day, she was up and down quite a few times, but never for too long. Nobody official seemed to care, and we certainly didn't.<br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a38.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>Maya up the mast first thing in the morning (Taken by <a href="http://www.thelifenomadik.com/">Mira</a>)</i></centre><br>
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However, on the second day she didn't really have to ask for permission. She wasn't going to fall and she wasn't disturbing anybody, so she just started hanging out up on the first spreader. She's a very zen kind of chick, and is really great at just relaxing quietly with her thoughts. When we were heading out of the last set of locks into the Atlantic ocean, I went to find her to ask if she could take a video of the gates opening for me. But I had no idea where she was! Coming out of the last lock is the most dangerous part of the whole canal, as the current gets really strong and really crazy, really fast. Plus if there's any breeze at all, as soon as the last gate opens you get blasted with wind. It's easy to get spun around in a circle and you have to crank the engine to full speed to have any hope in hell of getting out. <br>
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So the gates were about to open and nobody had seen her in ages. I'm sure it's blatantly obvious by now that she was sitting up on the spreaders, just chilling out and enjoying the view. Our adviser had no idea she was up there so he never got a chance to tell her she had to stay down (genius) and I have no idea how long ago she had scrambled up. She's a girl after Garth's heart though - he's always happiest at the top of a tree or sitting up on the spreaders. So just before the gates opened she zipped back down, much faster than I could ever manage. She's freaking awesome. <br>
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So that was the whole canal drama done. I'm really grateful it went so smoothly, and I'm really, really grateful that Ivo, Mira and Maya were wonderful enough to help us out. They didn't even seem disappointed when it took two days instead of one, or that our boat is like a small tent compared to their palace. They were just amazing in every possible way. Even though nothing went wrong, if something unexpected had happened I felt so much safer having these awesome guys with us instead of inexperienced strangers. <br>
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<img src="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/a02.jpg"><br>
<centre><i>The last lock lock and the Atlantic ocean! </i></centre><br>
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So now we're in the Atlantic! We've crossed an entire ocean and covered nearly 17,000 miles. This was a big milestone to cross off, and we're super proud of how far we've come and super excited about what's ahead! We're officially in the Carribean! (How's that for cheesey?).<br>
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Xxx Monique<br>
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Click here for <a href="http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150919/index.html" target="__BLANK">LOTS more pictures!</a><br>
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<br></div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">For anybody wanting to do the canal as cheaply as possible, you really don't need to do all the stuff that people say you do. We didn't use an agent and really don't think you need one unless you want it done fast with no running around. We had to take a 10 minute bus to the office in Panama City to fill out the papers, and walked across the road to pay. The office organised the time for our boat to be measured and the guy came to us on a pilot boat when he said he would. We got our tires from friends who went through he canal before us and left them on the floating dock at the La Playita anchorage in Panama City for a month. It's the off season, and they were still there when we came back from the Las Perlas. Lots of people dont even use tires, but we side tied to the wall so I wouldn't have risked our fenders. We got ropes from the infamous Roger for $80 and he came out to Colon to collect them once we were done. The canal cost $1000 for a boat less than 50 ft, and without an agent we also had to pay a $800 deposit. The deposit was back in my bank account a week later, without me having to chase it up or remind anybody. The only extra cost was the food and drink - I pre made most of our meals so they only needed reheating, and we bought a disposable cooler full of ice for the cockpit which made life much easier. We kept it stocked with soda and bottled water (you need to have bottled for the advisor), and I didn't have to worry about fetching drinks at all. Unless you have 2 fridges, this is the best way to go! You definitely don't need professional line handlers - as long as one or two people have been through the canal before (or at least know how yachts work) it should all go smoothly. And I should point out that our original transit date was booked for 3 days after we started the process, then we changed it twice with no dramas because we both got sick right before we were supposed to transit. Instead of being scary, complicated and difficult as we were led to believe, the whole booking and paperwork process was really easy and everybody was super helpful.</div>Svheartbeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15992606035707210558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122282645407038709.post-61368804551196823552015-11-13T10:37:00.001-08:002015-11-13T10:37:16.121-08:00Panama, Panama City - Canal prep - 13/09/2015<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>We definitely waited too long to go through the canal. After finally making it back from the Las Perlas, we got started on organising our canal transit ASAP. To sort out the paperwork we had to find the canal office, which luckily wasn't very far. It turns out our boat was already registered! We knew it had been through the Canal before, because it made it to New Zealand from the Carribean. But it hadn't really clicked that she had already been here and done this all before without us. Luckily that meant there was less paperwork to fill out, and it also meant that she didn't need to be measured. Unfortunately we still had to have a guy come out to the boat with the measuring forms, I guess to confirm that we haven't attached any giant contraptions to the boat since it was here last. But she's still the same size without any bells and whistles, so the guy didn't even look twice at it. He handed us some papers and we signed them quickly while his pilot boat circled the anchorage. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150913/a02.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Looking towards Panama City from the dinghy dock at he La Playita anchorage</i></centre><br/>
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"Is it fine for you to go on the side wall?"<br/>
That was a question we had been dreading. Everybody says not to go on the side wall. It's rough and dangerous and you can scrape your spreaders on the wall if the boat tilts over with all the swell. But we went on the wall for the down locks with Tori and Dave on Eva Marie, and it was as easy as pie. In fact, the whole thing was much calmer and nicer without all the stress of getting secured from the middle of the locks.<br/>
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"Can we agree to side wall for the down locks and not for the up ones?" I asked tentatively. His answer was a flat out No. Of course it was. <br/>
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"It's one or the other for the whole way through. Side wall is better. Side wall, yes?"<br/>
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This was not a decision we wanted to make quickly. I had a lot of questions, and he had a lot of places to be. After a bit of probing I found out that if we agreed to go on the side wall, they didn't need as many people working as line handlers on the canal wall for you to go through the locks. If you go centre chamber, you need four guys on shore to throw you ropes. If you tie up to the side you only need one or two. Of course he wanted us to go on the side. We also found out that it meant we could transit at any time of the day. They have less line handlers working at night, so if we went on the side then they could have us go through whenever without needing to wait for the four guys during the day.<br/>
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Garth quickly made the decision to tick the box for side wall. I crossed my fingers that we hadn't just made life harder for ourselves. <br/>
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After that everything was done and the guy was gone. All we had to do was pay. And if we wanted to go through the canal before the weekend and before Tori and Dave's visas ran out, we had to pay straight away. In cash. Unfortunately, our banks don't let us withdraw $2k cash out in one day. My bank only lets me take $500! I found that out at an inconvenient time, as we were standing at a collection of ATM's near the bank. The ATM's are also picky, and not many of them will let you draw out much cash at once. I'm guessing that's why there were three of them near the bank used for Canal business. After much begging and credit card waving and fund swapping and card juggling, we managed to get the right amount of money out. 1 minute before the bank closed. Phew!<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150913/a01.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Chasing giant ants while we wait for the bus</i></centre><br/>
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I called up straight away to book our time... Which would not be until Saturday. Tori and Dave had to leave by Sunday, so if it ended up taking two days they couldn't come with us. And you never know if it will take one day or two until you're sitting in Gatun Lake and your advisor starts shuffling paperwork, sadly shaking his head. Tori and Dave were out.<br/>
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It was entirely our fault for staying in the Las Perlas for too long, but it was still disappointing. We had been looking forward to sharing the canal experience with them! Luckily our good friends Ivo and Mira on Fata Morgana agreed to help us out. And they have a fabulous daughter, Maya, who could make up our fourth line handler. Everything was suddenly much easier! Tori and Dave could focus on provisioning and getting ready to go to Ecuador, we didn't have to rush any more, and instead of having strangers onboard we were going to be transiting with some really fun people who we already knew were great company. Phew again!<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150913/a03.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Crossing the road to get to the Abastos vege market</i></centre><br/>
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Ivo and Mira were amazing in helping us get everything ready. With Tori and Dave needing to provision as well, the three of us tagged along on a trip to the Abastos markets escorted by Ivo and Mira. The Abastos markets are huge! They whole place is a few acres long and you can drive between the different sections. It's where the restaurants get their food from in bulk, and I think most of the other fruit and vege stalls in Panama City are just reselling produce from this place. I'd been wanting to go for a while, but had no idea how to get there. Ivo and Mira to the rescue! <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150913/a04.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Right at the entrance to the market</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150913/a05.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Mira analyzing the papaya</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150913/a06.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Sugar cane! They were prepping it to get the delicious juice out</i></centre><br/>
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I was torn between wanting to get some nice pictures of the place and not wanting to look like a tourist taking pictures of everything. The gringo tax for tourists is huge everywhere in Panama, and usually the smartest thing to do is to just look like you know what you're doing and where you're going. We were buying our groceries for the week, not running around on a tourist excursion. So I gave in and just took a few sneaky gopro shots, and of course they were all out of focus. But I did end up with more veges than I could carry, which was much better than pictures!<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150913/a07.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150913/a09.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>This was the melon section - a whole row of stalls with nothing but watermelons</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150913/a08.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150913/a10.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>This whole undercover area was just rows of pineapples. Love at first sight!</i></centre><br/>
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A few days later we reluctantly said our goodbyes to Tori and Dave, who have made our time in Panama truly unforgettable. I decided not to be sad about us parting ways though - We love them so much and they're so goddamn fabulous that it's inevetable that we will meet again in another part of the world at another time in our lives. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150913/a13.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Tiny birds sing from our lifelines every morning</i></centre><br/>
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The rest of the canal prep was easy. We bought food and I cooked a lot. We cleaned the boat from top to bottom. I bought all the extra things you need for the advisor (like a disposable cooler, ice, bottled water and lots of soda). We retrieved the tires that Tori and Dave had stashed on an abandoned floating dock for us after they came through the canal. I got the ropes from Roger, who was helpful as always. And we were ready to go! Kind of. As ready as we could ever be. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150913/a14.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>There's always a storm coming in Panama</i></centre><br/>
<br/>
Xxx Monique<br/>
<br/>
<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150913/a11.jpg'/></div>Svheartbeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15992606035707210558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122282645407038709.post-56540940727079829252015-11-07T05:36:00.001-08:002015-11-07T05:36:01.377-08:00Panama - Las Perlas Islands to Panama City, 04/09/2015<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>Well, we're back In Panama City again. And now everything is crazy.<br/>
<br/>
We were having so much fun with Tori and Dave that we ended up staying in the Las Perlas for longer than we should have. Their visas expire in one week and they have to provision, check out and make their way to Ecuador. Somewhere in the middle of all that they're going to help us go through the canal somehow. We definitely left it too late, but it was totally worth it.<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150904/a37.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Tori being fabulous at the front of their dinghy</i></centre><br/>
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After we left Esmerelda in the Las Perlas, we headed for a cute little anchorage tucked away further down the coast of Isla Del Ray. It was small, but big enough for us to raft up sandwiched between a beautiful beach and stunning rocks that towered over the little bay. Unfortunately, Eva Marie headed in first and reported back that it was going to be too bumpy for us to be comfortable. On we went. We decided to sail across to Isla Pedro Gonzales, which was a much longer day than any of us had been expecting. We got in before dark though, dodging whales left right and centre. They were frolicking everywhere! We anchored in a nice little bay on the eastern side of the island, mostly because it was the closest place we could stop. We had to kill the engine as we entered the bay, because there were two more whales lazing around in front of us blocking the channel. They keep coming so close! It's been really amazing seeing so many of these magnificent creatures up close and personal.<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150904/a44.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150904/a45.jpg'/><br/>
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We hung out there for a day or two, but there wasn't much to do. We went exploring towards the plantation that was supposed to be right next to the beach, but all we found were a heap of potted trees and some giant lizards. We didn't get a good look at them, but they sprinted through long grass near the road we were walking on and looked like they were about the same size as big dogs. I wanted to follow them, but at the same time I didn't want to get eaten...<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150904/a01.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150904/a03.jpg'/><br/>
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There was another boat in that anchorage with us, the 2nd boat we've seen so far. But it was just a big launch. We thought the people onboard were just antisocial, and couldn't figure out what they were up to. They went swimming in different spots along the same beach, zipped back and forth in the dinghy for no apparent reason and tested out the jet skis constantlyàà. Then on our 2nd day there, they all changed into uniforms. Somebody took off in their mini-launch/giant tender, and the rest of the crew started fussing around on a quiet patch of sand on the beach. Then when the tender came back later on it clicked - the owners were arriving. The crew had set up two bright blue beach chairs on the sand, along with matching umbrellas and a little drinks table. It was almost comical thinking that these people wanted to arrive to a fake resort-style holiday, when they were on a boat and could just move to a different beach every day if they wanted. The fake stuff isn't anywhere near as nice as what we get to see.<br/>
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When we got sick of people-watching, we decided to head to the next anchorage. The most protected spot on the whole island has been taken over by a marina that's still under construction. They didn't want to have anything to do with us. We couldnt anchor near the marina or even anywhere in the vicinity of the marina - the lone watchman said it was because they were worried about all the equipment and some guys came over in their boats to chase us away. But there was nowhere else to go. There's a village there called Ensenada, but the waves were too rocky to drop the hook nearby. So we began a not-so-fun game of 'find a spot to anchor.' We crossed over to a smaller island hoping to find some protection there, but it was even worse. After hours of messing around we eventually came back across and found a nice spot around the corner from the village. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150904/a36.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Ensenada village up on the hill</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150904/a22.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150904/a20.jpg'/><br/>
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It was a cute village, perched on top of a little hill with all the different coloured houses painting a pretty picture for passers by to look up at. Eva Marie's dinghy doesn't plane if you load too many people onto it, so the next day Garth stayed behind and I accompanied Dave and Tori on an expedition to explore the village. This time all we wanted was fresh vegetables and fruit. Anything. Everything. We needed more food. Even our desserts and cakes had gotten less desirable since we'd run out of butter. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150904/a07.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Walking through the village</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150904/a09.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150904/a11.jpg'/><br/>
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Luckily, this village was bigger than Esmerelda. They had an actual store! One not attached to somebody's house, or a part of somebody's house or actually inside somebody's living room. They had lots of stuff, including eggs, fake butter, wine and crackers. Desperate, I even bought some plastic cheese (which was sold in individual slices for 25c each). But we still hadn't found any veges. We explored the village and chatted to a few of the locals. One particularly nice guy sat down and chatted to us for a while, and before we left he presented me with a big shell and Tori with a shell necklace. What a sweetheart! <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150904/a33.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>New friends!</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150904/a34.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150904/a27.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Tori taking in the view</i></centre><br/>
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Ensenada is a stunningly beautiful place to live. With amazing views of the ocean and picture perfect beaches, I can see why these people stay put. The houses were more extravagant than in Esmerelda as well, with some of them decorated with a lot of love and care. They even had pretty gardens everywhere! We eventually tracked down the one guy on the island who could scrounge up some veges for us. He was busy, but promised to stop by our boats later on with some fresh stuff. Fingers crossed, we headed back.<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150904/a17.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>The view from the village</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150904/a19.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150904/a30.jpg'/><br/>
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It didn't take our guy long to collect some produce for us. Unfortunately he only brought by plantains, bananas and limes. But there were a lot of them. He started loading stuff into our cockpit and I had trouble actually getting the huge bunch of bananas onto the boat! He wanted $5 for everything, which we happily paid. <br/>
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We didn't hang around for too much longer, and decided to head back to Panama City via a brief stopover back near where we'd been earlier in the month on Isla Del Ray. There wasn't much to do, but while we were waiting for enough wind to get us home we fixed the kayak so we could do a bit of exploring in amongst the rocks near our boat. There was a full moon while we were there, which was stunningly beautiful. Unfortunately that meant spring tides, so even though we'd anchored in over 6 metres we managed to lightly touch the bottom when the moon was full. Whoops! <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150904/a39.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i> the rocks on shore</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150904/a40.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150904/a48.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Eva Marie under the full moon</i></centre><br/>
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After a few days we were more than ready to head home. We were missing both cheese and fresh vegetables. So we spent a day getting eady to sail and then woke up well before the sun, to a dead calm morning. There wasn't even a whisp of wind. So we waited all day for the wind to pick up before finally giving up. We tried again the next morning, again waking up at 5am ready for the long slog back to Panama City. Tori and Dave popped their heads up to say goodbye - they would catch up later. Finally there was wind! About 5 minutes later, as we were rounding the corner next to a reef, the engine spluttered and died. Not good. <br/>
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We were about to pass through a tricky section of water with rocks, reefs and shallow bits everywhere so we didn't have the sails up yet. We killed the motor as it struggled to stay alive and quickly launched the headsail, just before we got too close to the reef. The anchorage we'd just left was straight upwind. Surrounded by hazards and not much room to play with, we tried getting back into where Tori and Dave were fast asleep but we couldn't make it. We'd drifted too far and the wind was not cooperating. All ready for the trip back, we both had our dinghys on deck. A quick tow was out of the question. So close, we had to give up and head to the other side of the bay. It was a bumpier anchorage but it was safe. <br/>
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We got the hook down and Garth spent all morning trying to figure out what was wrong. It had sounded like the engine was out of fuel. We were not out of fuel. He eventually had to take the top of our stainless fuel tank off to see what was going on. We found out that the pipe going from the fuel to the engine had gotten blocked by tiny bits of dirt, dust and hair that had made their way into the fuel tank. It had probably never been cleaned out, and today was the day it decided to stop working. Unfortunately, we could have found that out without taking the fuel tank apart. Lamenting poor choices, Garth then spent the rest of the day putting the fuel tank back together as the wind picked up and the boat bounced up and down in our unprotected anchorage. <br/>
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Eventually it was all sorted again, just as the wind died. With our tail between our legs, we headed back across the bay to join Tori and Dave once more. We would try again tomorrow. After all, third time's the charm I guess. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150904/a50.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Eva Marie sailing with us back to Panama City. A split second after I took this, a whale breached right behind them!</i></centre><br/>
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Xxx Monique <br/>
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Click here for <a target='__BLANK' href='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150904/index.html'>LOTS more pictures!</a></div>Svheartbeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15992606035707210558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122282645407038709.post-89861642099482609832015-10-31T19:57:00.001-07:002015-10-31T19:57:40.203-07:00Panama, Las Perlas, Esmerelda village - 23/08/15<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>We're in the small fishing village of Esmerelda, on Isla Del Ray in the Las Perlas. We're supposed to be spending our time out here fixing things and preparing for our canal transit, but to be honest we've mostly been relaxing and playing. We spent a few days around the corner at an anchorage near the entrance to the Rio Cacique river, which was really nice. We were planning on exploring the river but we had to go in at low tide, which was stupidly early in the morning. Then the swell picked up in our quiet little bay and we had to escape from the rocky waves in the hopes of getting a good nights sleep. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150823/a07.jpg'/><br/>
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We didn't actually do much while we were there. I did go to shore with Tori and Garth in the kayak, to explore the stunning rocks surrounding the little bay. They were gorgeous, standing tall in amongst hidden beaches and patches of jungle. It didn't really feel like we were in a jungle until we climbed up the rocks and Garth very nearly stepped on a snake curled up in the nonexistent sun. He was hanging onto the edge of an outcropping ledge and didn't seem overly interested in us. Phew! I know nothing about snakes in foreign lands, but I do know that in Australia if their head is bigger than their body then their venom usually won't kill you straight away. Hopefully that's true here too, because he had a nice big head. I didn't want to get too close for a picture though!<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150823/a08.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Find the snake...</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150823/a09.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>We later found out that it was a Boa Constrictor!</i></centre><br/>
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I walked along the coastline with Tori while Garth paddled over to another beach. We found a waterfall, but with so little rain lately it was reduced to a sad little trickle from the stream above. Garth led us to an almost-cave he'd already explored with Dave, which was filled with tiny little bats hanging off the ceiling. They looked like baby mice! Cute little squeaking noises filled the silence when we stuck our heads in, so I'm guessing comparing them to mice isn't that much of a stretch. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150823/a11.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Looking for bats</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150823/a13.jpg'/><br/>
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We had a hermit crab race on the beach (Tori's entrant shot out like it was on fire and ours refused to wake up), walked through the bush to find some mangroves on the other side, and discovered a mango tree just begging to be stripped of all it's fruit. Unfortunately the branches were too high up and all we could do was throw things at the mangoes to get them to drop down. While we were in the kayak some gorgeous spotted rays swam underneath us, and then Dave came to our rescue in the dinghy so Garth didn't have to paddle all three of us back with only one paddle. So that exploration mission was definitely a success.<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150823/a15.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150823/a16.jpg'/><br/>
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Because we were just round the corner from the village, we had people come out nearly every day trying to sell us things. Sometimes they were in fishing boats with big outboards and sometimes they paddled out in their leaky little canoes. I gave one of them a bailer, because he was trying to scoop a neverending flow of water out of his canoe with an old ripped up container that wouldn't hold water. It was painful to watch. They all asked for chocolate and cookies, which they obviously don't sell in town. We managed to acquire coconuts, bananas, papaya, yuca (a type of cassava, which is a funny looking root vegetable), limes and fish without having to leave the boat or even put on proper clothes. They were all very cheap as well - one very friendly guy just started loading things onto our boat and only wanted $5 for the lot. They usually cut the coconuts open for us, but whenever we need to open a coconut I can never understand how we have failed to buy a machete. I saw them for $3 in Tahiti, yet we never remember to buy one. <br/>
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We even bought some lobsters, and I'm very glad we have Tori around to translate for us. She's so good at getting them to lower the price and the look of disgust she puts on whenever somebody tells her the cost of something is priceless. She even manages to wrinkle up her nose while still looking adorable. By the time I have figured out what the people are trying to say to me in Spanish, there isn't really room in the conversation for bartering. I feel like I have to pay them just to say thank you for putting up with my incompetence with the language. So the lobsters ended up being a lot cheaper than they would have been if I'd bought them myself, and Tori and Dave prepared them wonderfully. I'm very excited about all the cheap seafood! We bought 2 big Mackrel from a guy in a canoe for $2 each, and ended up getting eight good sized meals out of them. It's a big change from not being able to eat any of the fish in between here and Australia because of cigaturia. With so many people coming by and yelling 'Langosta!' at me, I've even managed to remember the spanish word for lobster. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150823/a05.jpg'/><br/>
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We spent the rest of our time in that anchorage just relaxing. Garth has gotten into the routine of scrambling up the mast with my trapeze and the rigging pole every time we get somewhere new. So my trapeze is always up, which is awesome. I've been up on it at least once a day, and I'm slowly building my muscles and callasus back up. The other day a fishing boat came past filled to the brim with locals, and they killed the engine by our boat to watch me. I was just playing around and I'm still not very strong after so long at sea, but I managed to pull off a few beginner tricks for them. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150823/a02.jpg'/><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150823/a04.jpg'/><br/>
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After the swell picked up we ducked round the corner to the anchorage outside the village of Esmerelda for a day. There aren't many people living here and it says in the cruising guide that it's just a small fishing village, but I absolutely love it. Before we even had the anchor down we were surrounded by kids in little canoes trying to scavange rope and chocolate. We eventually got rid of them, but they were soon replaced by our friendly vegetable guy from the other day. He was in a fishing boat with an outboard this time and was ready with a big smile when we arrived. He took our jerry cans to refill our water, and came back later on with a big bag of Yuca for us.<br/>
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Tori and I went to shore in Eva Marie's dinghy, leaving Garth and Dave alone on our respective boats. Before we could get out of the dinghy when we got into shallow water, we were surrounded by children. They came running from every direction, racing their friends out of the water and abandoning whatever games they had been playing. Hands came from everywhere to help us carry the dinghy up the beach and we were completely overwhelmed by how many children had appeared out of nowhere. One of the older boys who had come out to us in a canoe looking for chocolate took charge and led us to the shops. There were actually several of them, but they were just tiny little holes in the wall connected to people's houses. <br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150823/a19.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>The kids wanted to pose for pictures! The ones on the right tried to step aside, not realising what a wide lens the gopro has. The main shop for the town is in the background - it's just somebody's house.</i></centre><br/>
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Thanks to Tori's translating I managed to get almost everything I needed. Unfortunatly the only thing on her list was fresh vegetables and all she could get out of them were a couple of sad looking cucumbers. We were led to another store that didn't have anything fresh either, but I was impressed that they had refridgeration. We'd been told that most villages didn't have anything cold, but this town actually had margarine and a few other cold things for sale.<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150823/a22.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Tori chats to the children in Spanish</i></centre><br/>
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The town was absolutely gorgeous. The walls of all the houses were brightly coloured, which were complemented by a rainbow of colours strung up across the streets as the locals waited for their washing to dry. Our following of children grew bigger and bigger as we walked around until we must have acquired every single young child in the village. The older ones were sitting around chatting amongst themselves, some of them with huge rollers in their hair. They musn't have much to do, because all the girls had their hair done up. The younger ones just had braids with clunky plastic flowers on the ends, but every single girl was adorned with something. As we were walking one of the younger girls reached up and took my hand, which was adorable. Everybody seemed so close, it must just be natural for them to hold hands all the time. The smallest girl in the village was just darling, with huge eyes and a pretty dress. She kept running off and coming back to give us chips out of her sister's packet, which the sister didn't look overly impressed with. She wanted to hold my hand as well and it was all I could to not to take her back to the boat with me. It was lovely seeing all the kids banding together and playing amongst themselves. When we had to step over a big crack in the path, hands shot out from everywhere to grab the little one and help her over. They're obviously just one big family.<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150823/a24.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>The little one had such big eyes!</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150823/a23.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Outside another "shop". You can see the playground in the background - no swings, no rings on the monkey bars. It's been stripped of all rope and chain</i></centre><br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150823/a20.jpg'/><br/>
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A lot of the men recognised us. I guess they all fish, so most of them had been near us in the last few days, either fishing or selling us things. One of them had a laugh when he saw me and very excitedly managed to ask if I had been the one on the trapeze. He flexed all his muscles and grinned, so I guess they think I'm strong!<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150823/a26.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>Tori walking back to the dinghy with some of our followers</i></centre><br/>
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As we went back down to the beach our following grew again, as everybody who had gotten bored and run off to play returned to see us off. I couldn't help take the dinghy down to the water, because I couldn't physically squeeze in between the children to lay a hand on it. Some of the smaller kids tripped over and were left in the dust as everybody ran down to the water with the dinghy - I couldn't believe how fast that thing flew by! It took us a while to get it started once we were in the water, with kids climbing all over it and some of the older boys taking over from us poor, weak girls to get the thing going. I think they must have flooded it in their excitement. They were neck deep in the water hanging onto the stern for ages while we gave the outboard few minutes to recover from their overzealous help. They all started begging for money and sweets, and Tori handed out cash to our little leader and the big guy helping us start the engine. She eventually got the outboard going and kids went flying off over the sides as we took off, giggling as they jumped into the water.<br/>
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<img src='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150823/a29.jpg'/><br/>
<centre><i>All the kids running with the dinghy down to the water</i></centre><br/>
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There's nothing else to do here so we only stayed the night, but visiting this town was definitely one of the highlights of our Panama experience so far. We were visited by more kids in the afternoon, all demanding chocolate and rope. They eventually gave up and came back later with fish and coconuts, which we didn't want. But Dave and Tori traded some lollipops for a few fish and they said they were delicious. I guess the kids don't have anything else to do, so fishing off their ulu canoes is just entertainment. We should have bought more candy in Panama! I never would have thought that we could have fresh fish every day in exchange for lollipops. <br/>
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Xxx Monique<br/>
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Click here for <a target='__BLANK' href='http://sixmonkeys.geek.nz/svheartbeat/20150823/index.html'>more pictures!</a></div>Svheartbeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15992606035707210558noreply@blogger.com3