Christi was once again up very early with a sick tummy. She was worse than ever. She contemplated starting on antibiotics, but decided to give it one more day to pass on its own. The nice thing about being up so early the last few days is that she has seen some nice sunrises. Here is today’s.
From where we sat, we could see four of the islands. They all seem to be Continue reading
Today both of us woke up feeling sick. Eric had a sore throat and felt like a cold was coming on. Christi had a sick tummy causing frequent trips to the restroom, no doubt the consequence of the pink hamburger the day before. This is the first time on our entire journey that either of us has ever become sick from something we ate. And it figures that it happened to be from an American style restaurant that almost assuredly uses American beef.
Neither of us felt like doing anything, but we absolutely had to go to the grocery store and get food for all the houseguests we would be having for the transit. Victor only has one day off a week from driving the bus, and today happens to be the day. So, there was no bus to town. The nice marina staff hunted down a private car for us. It appears they have sweet talked their husbands, boyfriends and friends into shuttling cruisers around in their spare time because even professional drivers don’t want to get stuck at the locks forever. On our way out of the base we saw several huge, and we mean really huge, buzzards hanging out on a cleared field on the base grounds.
And we did have to wait a full hour on the way out. This time the ships were going the other way. Two very large ships went in a row before they opened the gate for car traffic. We didn’t have a very good view, but we could see the locomotives pull one ship in, then the ship rose up out of our line of sight. Then the locomotives brought another ship in, and it Continue reading
Eric let Victor know we would use him as our agent as soon Victor’s work day started and gave him all the necessary paperwork. In the afternoon Victor showed up at the boat with 4 super long lines and 20 tires. The tires are used and cost $3.00 USD each to buy. The lines cost $100 USD each to rent, which we thought was a lot of money for a rental.
Victor said our measuring appointment was Continue reading
Continued from yesterday”¦ After everyone else was served, we were offered the beer. Suddenly, all eyes were on us, intently watching for our reaction. Visually speaking, we would have mistaken it for molasses. It was black and thick, like syrup. They insisted we do the little dance prior to drinking it. Another local joined in to lead us in the dance, which we think we followed along with pretty well. We went to down our beer. It was absolutely disgusting. Mr. G had lied when he said it was non-alcoholic. In those 8 days, it had definitely fermented. It wasn’t a strong alcohol taste, but it was enough to make a gross beverage even grosser. Christi could barely get a small sip down. Eric took one gulp. Everyone insisted we finish our cups. Eric took another sip and said he could drink no more. Everyone was disappointed we wouldn’t drink it, but simultaneously incredibly amused by our reaction. We sat down and held onto our cups for a while people continued to insist we drink it. When it was evident we would drink no more, two guys drank it for us.
We asked where the girl being honored was. Apparently, a special room with a special layout is built for her somewhere, and she is Continue reading
Continued from yesterday”¦ After we finished at the museum, we headed to Rincon to go to the Mangazina di Rei cultural center. It is housed in the second oldest stone building on the island, built in 1824, which was originally built as a food and farm tool storage center. The center tries to actively preserve the cultures and traditions of 100 years ago. We expected it to be a museum where you wander around at your own pace, but it was actually a guided tour. We joined a tour group about halfway through the tour. The group had just gone out into the gardens.
In the gardens, they grow the plants that were used for every day living, from food to export crops to materials for tools. They pointed out a tamarind tree, then gave us some tamarind juice to taste. It tastes kind of like beans and sugar and is different. They pointed out a calabash tree. Calabash are inedible, hard, and round, and are good for making assorted tools and cookware, such as bowls, ladles, and so forth. The musical instrument maracas (the shakers popular in Latin American music) are made from calabash, too.
They showed us candle cactus, which are used to make the living cactus fences. For some reason, they can only be cut on a full moon in the dry season or they rot. The guide showed us the tools they used to cut, move, and replant the cactus along the fence. The cactus cuttings form new roots and become a living fence.
The guide also pointed out the kadushi cactus that they make a traditional soup from, and also explained how they cut and skin the cactus to get at the pulp inside. The cactus is absolutely enormous, but only young shoots are eaten.
They showed us the plants that sorghum flour is made from, which was the staple of the traditional diet. Sorghum is Continue reading