This is a little island in Coco Bandero Cays. Greg took the shot from up the mast. This was a tight and busy little anchorage. In fact, we haven't seen so many boats in anchorages since leaving Desolation Sound...that's with the exception of our experience anchoring in Playita, Panama.
Looking down on the deck of Fortuitous, where Dad is belaying Greg up the mast.
The happy worker installing, or checking something? on the mast.
This is one of the better provisioning pangas. This one came from Tienda Eidi in Nargana.
Here I'm choosing some fruits or veggies. Strangely enough, although this panga came from one of the stores (and I use that term very loosely) in Nargana, most of what was aboard was never available in the store itself. Obviously the Kuna do not eat the same things as us and these pangas supplied us exclusively.
There are the ever-present mola makers/sellers. This is one of the most famous. His name is Venencio. Greg, Sarah, and I bought molas from him. Lisa, a Kuna transvestite (a very common occurrence in San Blas) is the most famous, but we didn't see her until Jeff and Sarah had left.
These are some of Venencio's wares. Such a lot of work. Most of the molas smell slightly smokey. I guess they work on them, at night, by the fireside or it is residual smoke from their huts.
Here we are with our purchases.
Greg's monkey golf game was a tremendous hit with us all. We had many a tourney on many an island.
This is Ralph hitching a ride with Serapio (otherwise known as underwear man-for his habit of only wearing that when delivering various foodstuffs to the yachts). We had ordered a few things, from him, before heading off for a monkey golf game. This was our first encounter with him and we didn't realize that we shouldn't give him $$ upfront. He returned, while we were on the island playing our game. Ralph went back to the boat with him and unloaded what he had brought. We'd already given him $20; Ralph gave him another $7. Unfortunately, he'd only brought some of the promised stuff, and had charged us even more.
We learned our lesson...we didn't do that again! Show me the goods, then I'll decide what to pay and if I want them. In the cardboard box, he usually had bread which he scooped out with is questionable hands. Greg really didn't want to buy bread from him any more, because of that, but you gotta do what you gotta do-bread wasn't always easy to come by and it's a lot of work to make aboard.
Greg having a good time playing monkey golf.
Sunset through the "monkey bars".
Such concentration! "Wow!!!!!!!!!!!! What a shot!! I can't believe you did that!" shouts Ralph.
The Kuna are true sailors. Their sails are made from whatever they can find. They have no keel under the water, and still manage to stay upright. This was one of the more colourful ones we saw.
This is dinner ready to be killed! We really enjoyed the crab the most, but the lobster were good too. We haven't had much fish at all. We expected that we'd having nothing but fish and bananas, but both are in short supply in Kuna Yala.
Careful, now!! No big front claws like the atlantic variety, only the tails are worth harvesting.
Not sure what variety the one on the left is. I didn't really like the look of him...kind of like a big beetle. The jury is still out on which tasted best. Don't ask Jeff, seafood wasn't his favourite meal aboard.
Sarah getting down and dirty with Ralph...er, getting her hands dirty killing and cleaning our dinner. She seemed to enjoy this just a little too much...hmmmnnn???
Yet another monkey golf tourney being played on yet another island.
It was tricky to throw your monkey golf balls and balance your drink. They seem to have it down pat, however! Practice makes perfect.
Another beautiful sunset.
The kids were flying out of Nargana, so we stopped there for a couple of days to see the sights and get ready to offload them for the flight to Panama City. Sarah and Jeff wanted some photos of the out-houses that dot (so to speak) the edge of the island.
Just a hole in the floor over the water.
It makes having to pump our toilet aboard not seem like so much work after all!
Yikes!! Wouldn't want to try this one at night!!
One of the Nargana fishermen with his catch. They are very small fish.
From Nargana, you can take the dinghy up Rio Diablo. Ralph did this with Jeff and Sarah, before they left. Our dinghy is just too small to accommodate more than 3. Ralph and I went up at a later date, and Greg went in his kayak.
On our trip up, it appeared to be laundry day. We've actually done laundry this way ourselves as we do not have enough fresh water aboard to do it there. It is not a lot of fun doing sheets and towels by hand, but they have to be washed somehow.
One of the lovely ibis birds. They come in several shades, but mostly white and this bluey-black.
Up Rio Diablo we saw many ulus carrying whatever kind of water container they could. We found out later that there was a problem in Nargana, and there was no running water that day.
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