Just a little teaser from the last week of Jigarai doings... cruising in the San Bass islands, of the Kuna people who live in their own little kingdom, administering their own affairs and operating fairly autonomously from the rest of Panama. The Scenery there was really unbelievable. Definitive paradise lifestyle. The Island in the Chichime Cays where we spent some time has five families living on it. Heritages are coconut trees, which until two years ago were the official currency! The people fish and collect coconuts for a living, as well as sewing beautiful Molas for sale to the tourists. I ripped my shirt and the wife of our friend Señor Colman sewed on one as a repair. Its an angel fish in the stylized reverse aplique that they use. The Island in the top picture is one of the main centres of population and government, where for example the system of punishment and fines is administered. I heared of one guy wqho was sentenced to collect ten barrels of broken coral to use as landfill for hitting his wife. When he complained that she had provoked him, she was made to collect ten barrels too! The whole experience has been intense, as inbetween that we have been at sea in a 52 foot yacht, fully equipped with modern navigation equipment and shiny bits, but no amount of technology can make a small boat comfortable in the heavy seas we have been through, never mind one with fourteen landlubber backpackers, the captain and his Venezuelan girlfriend crowding every available inch of space. Against the trade winds all the way we had to battle, hitting an uncharted reef during our first night at sea. I thought that was it. Seasickness was rife. I was only one of two who didnt throw up, though thats not to say I felt good at all! I will update a little more soon.

At the moment I am an illegal immigrant in Colombia, until the pert authority turn up to stamp our passports, so head down, and look inconspicuous! When that is sorted its off to find a hostel and see whether the rumours of a bohemian restaurant with six courses and all the Chilean wine you can drink for a tenner are true.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Righhhhhhhhtttttttt.........

Ummmm been a bit slack here I see, with well over two months since the last entry it's more than a bit slack I think! The here and now is Cusco. I am thinking about heading off via a less trodden no rip off back road to Machu Picchu tomorrow. (Bus to Santa Maria- Collectivo to Santa Teresa- 5 hour walk to Aguas Calientes, 1 hour walk to Machu Picchu, and aparrently if you get there before 5am ish there is no-one to buy a shamefully overpriced ticket from...) I am thinking to take three of four days over the whole thing then off to La Paz in Bolivia via Copacabana on the Bolivian side of lake Titicaca. Here Cusco itself is indeed a beautiful tourist trap. It hasn't lost it's charm for being so either, and there is still a real Peruvian feel to it. You can even find tucked away if you have a sharp eye, cheap almuerzos (Lunch of Soup followed by rice with a salad, some beany lentily goodness and some meat) at a dollar as opposed to the gringo caffs with prices six or seven tim...
Read more

First impressions of Boruca

Hey hey folks.... Lots to tell seeing I have been here less than a week so far.... I'll skip all the dull stuff about cramped flights and so on, bar the fact that I had to catch a 4wd bus, at 6 this morning with about a hundred other people to spend 2 hours bouncing along rain washed muddy tracks to the nearest town -The positively bustling metropolis(!) of Buenos Aires- with internet... (it's not that bad really, just don't expect regular reports... oh and the nearest post office is here aswell,closed today!!!) So as you can imagine up in the village of Boruka where I am staying life is quite rustic. I am live with a family of four in their house, a pleasant room of my own and a thatched cabana outside where the cooking is done by Louisa over a wood fire, and I sit in the hammok in the evenings with my book watching the vampire bats flutter round me. The people here are so nice, really. I have been just accepted into the family as one of them I feel... sent next door to pi...
Read more