As we near the end of this cruising season we began to reflect back on all the places we have been and the people we have met since transiting the Panama Canal mid-December. We apologize for not yet documenting these in our blog. It’s not that I (Steve) stopped writing – no, on the contrary, I was doing too much – just not on our blog. Letters/emails to my Mom and Dad turned into my daily journal and they became the ships log of Silhouette. I was also given a subscription to Story Worth and was writing long stories each week about my life – one question at a time. I was writing my parents because the stories of our adventures had captivated them as they sat in their recliners in their less mobile lives now. My father turned 80 this year and was waiting on double knee replacement surgeries. My mother was in and out of the hospital more than a few times with her own set of medical challenges. My letters somehow were an escape of their world filled with doctors visits and therapy.
I thought I would pick some of the more interesting letters to home and share them with you every couple weeks as we wait out hurricane season.
Christmas found us in Domingo’s Bay on the Pacific side of Panama just south of the Costa Rican border. I could not wait to tell you about our crazy day so while I am having my morning coffee I will tell you about Christmas dinner at Domingo’s. The events of yesterday were unusual, unexpected and down right confusing. We loved every awkward minute of it. But before I get to Domingo’s I will just give you a hint of how my Christmas Eve was going. In the morning Kennedy, one of Domingo’s sons dropped by our boat in his cayuco. We traded a pair of shoes for some red grapefruit and limes. We are in such a remote place they trade with yachts for things they need. Yesterday it was a handful of fish hooks and two stainless bolts. So this morning Kennedy said he had a problem. He has three solar panels and his battery is “malo” that means bad in Spanish. He asked if we had acid for his battery. This is mostly in sign language because we really have a hard time with Spanish and he knows no English. He showed me his battery and there was no water in it that we could see. We added almost two liters of water to it and then I told him I would try and charge it for a few hours with our generator. Well, as I suspected it wasn’t looking good for this battery. It read 12.9 volts after the charge and within an hour it dropped down to 10.2 volts. This battery is bad…malo. I tried to explain it to him, I even showed him the voltage. He shook his head like he understood.
So my next repair job went just about as well. Our binoculars broke on our last underway and Liana insisted I should fix them right now. She gets these ideas that I can fix anything so she said, “Fix it”. Black epoxy was all I could think of so I mixed up a batch on a piece of cardboard. The ring that holds the lens in had broken and the lens was falling out. The ring is made of a carbon fiber with a metal ring inside of it and a rubber ring outside. I had to glue all three pieces together very carefully without getting epoxy on the lens, which I did almost immediately. So Liana, trying to help, got a paper towel and alcohol to clean the lens and promptly wiped it through the epoxy and made an even bigger smear right behind the one she was cleaning off. I was juggling all the parts now covered in epoxy goop. This was quickly going down hill. I was telling her she was making it worse, she was telling me she wasn’t. We were both getting frustrated with each other. She said she could not see very well and it’s only because, well, she can’t see very well. So we have this really bright light over our counter and my brilliant idea was to shove our project under the light so we both could see. Holding all three gooey parts I leaned forward and moved everything. When I stood back up Liana began laughing so hard she had to cross her legs and gasp for breath. I had epoxy, stir sticks and cardboard firmly glued to my stomach hairs. I still have my hands full with all three parts that need to be put together and she is dribbling pee down her leg from laughing hysterically at me and offering no help whatsoever. Ok, the dribbling pee I did not confirm but she could render no help until she regained herself. We eventually did get the binoculars fixed and the mess cleaned up with very little thanks to Ms Pee-body.
So now I must tell the entire events as I know them of Christmas dinner at Domingo’s home. He insisted he come get us even though we told him we could easily dinghy in. We were positive it was at 6:00 pm on Christmas Day. So this evening (Christmas Eve) we invited Mike and Kathleen from Content over to play Mexican Train after dinner. In the middle of our dinner Domingo came out in his motorized cayuco. He reminded us we were invited to comida-food at his casa-home for Navidad-Christmas. We asked him when and he said nueve-9:00. We were perplexed so I wrote down 9:00 am and he said, “si, si”. Ok we thought, they start early, no problem. I asked what can we bring? He flapped his arms like wings? This does not make any sense. The other day he said they were having roasted chicken. Are we supposed to bring the chicken? We assumed he did not understand us and was telling us what was on the menu. He smiled as he left and said nueve.
So while we’re eating our hamburgers Mike and Kathleen radioed us and said Domingo is at their boat and he is picking them up for dinner right now. They tell us to get ready to go he’s picking us up on his way back. We began racing around the boat getting some cleaner, more appropriate clothes on. They are scrambling to get stuff together and they pop their heads back out of the hatch and he’s driving away saying, “nueve”. What? So we told them we thought 9:00 am tomorrow, but we all came to the conclusion it might be 9:00 pm tonight. We are all really confused now and decided to plan for both and see which one happens. We really need to learn to speak Spanish…So our plan was for Mike and Kathleen to come to our boat and we will play Mexican Train and if Domingo shows up at 9:00 tonight we’d be ready to go. If not, he must have meant tomorrow.
We’re all dressed up playing Mexican Train and waiting to see what’s going to happen. But we could not figure this out because all the lights were out at Domingo’s. Not one single light. Last night he had his house lit up with all kinds of Christmas lights and tonight nothing, not even a light over the porch. We all guessed Liana and I were right-it must be mañana. Around 8:30 pm all of a sudden the lights came on and the music started blaring from his house on shore. Latin American parties always start with loud music. Hmm, maybe we are going to a party. Shortly after that Domingo showed up in his cayuco to pick us all up. Liana had just finished baking cookies and we had two, two-liter bottles of Coke to bring. That was all we could think of on such short notice.
We all got in the cayuco which had no lights. Domingo only had one dimly lit flashlight. The moon had already set and it was pitch black. He was motoring pretty fast towards the beach. Keep in mind this guy is nearly 80 years old. He would click the flashlight on for a second, look around and then shut it off. This is a very common practice. Batteries are expensive and hard to come by so they use them sparingly…too sparingly…all of a sudden a big boat was dead ahead and Domingo was speeding up and looking off in a different direction. We were getting closer and closer and at the same time we all start yelling at Domingo, turn, turn, boat, boat. We’re going to hit it! This is a very, very bad time to have a language barrier problem with an old guy we barely know. We were all getting ready for the impact. Mike and Kathleen were in front and they were going to jump overboard. All of a sudden Domingo realizes what we’re trying to tell him and yells “launcha” and swerves just missing the boat. We are all nearly rolled out of the cayuco, barely missing the boat by mere inches and then he jokes like it was nothing! So that’s how it began.
We realized this was going to be an interesting evening. We got to his house and the music was so loud it was hurting our ears. As we got to the front porch he had us take off our sandals and he washed our feet with a bucket of water just inside. There was a towel on the floor for drying off. On the porch they had a couple tables set up and behind us was a Christmas tree. He asked us to sit and he introduced us to his family. His daughter, Rosa, her husband Edwin, their son Edwin, Kennedy and his three kids, and many other family members. They served drinks and had a tray of nuts on the table. Kennedy told me the battery was malo. He said it several times. Apparently he wanted me to tell his girls because they did not believe him. They needed it to charge cell phones that they can only use for pictures and games because there is no cell service here.
Domingo spoke to us a mile a minute telling us all about his family, his home and all the boats that had visited his bay before us. He was very proud of his home and the work he put in to building it. By American standards it wasn’t much but he had the nicest place in the bay. We shook our heads a lot and wondered what he was saying in between the few words we understood. Then Kennedy would break in and again say his solar panels would not charge his batteries. At this point we realized he was getting a little drunk. His sister walked behind him and tipped her hand to her mouth like he has had to much to drink. Domingo kept on rambling away with his one tooth smile. This was awkward as we could not understand him and he assumed we understood every word. Rosa spoke the best English and she helped translate some of what he was saying. Next he brought out boat cards from all the visiting yachts and that was interesting to go through. Mike and Kathleen found the boat card they gave him 13 years ago, along with many boats they had sailed with. When they pointed out to Domingo that they had found their boat card he wanted to see it but as we all know he doesn’t see very well and asked to borrow Mike’s glasses. He put them on and nearly fell out of his chair and told Mike these are broken. I think he might have been seeing too well.
Dinner came about then and once again we did not understand their customs. They served us each a plate of rice, roasted turkey and some grapes along with some spicy potato salad. Everyone was looking at us but no one else had food yet. We didn’t want to be rude but we weren’t sure what to do. What about everyone else’s food? Domingo told us to eat but we’re like, what about you? This stand off lasted a couple of minutes and then he talked with the ladies making food. They brought him a plate and he said, ok now eat. Once we started eating they handed plates out to everyone else. Oh, before this Liana offered the cookies to Kennedy’s daughters and they loved them so much every time we looked over they had grabbed another. They were stashing them, rolling them up in napkins. We watched them stealing cookies even off of there now inebriated father’s plate. They loved them. They said they were taking some for their mom but then they came back for more. Liana gave them her approval and that’s all it took. Mike said he’d like to try one but may get his hand taken off if he tried.
After dinner young Edwin came over with one of his pets. He loves animals and is always bringing home strays his mom told us. This one was a fluffy black squirrel. They said when he was very young an owl raided his home and dropped him and Edwin rescued him. The squirrel was very friendly. The girls gave him a piece of cookie and he ate it like a nut chipping away at it. He apparently liked the cookies as much as the girls. Mike and Kathleen took turns holding him.
After this he toted out an old plastic bucket with a purple fish and a very interesting looking black and white fish in it. The purple fish was a tetra with long wavy fins and tail, very common in tropical fish tanks. The black and white one was very cool looking! It laid upright on the bottom and was a very shiny black with white markings under it’s belly and just before the tail. Us gringos agreed it looked like a baby killer whale. It was so interesting Mike was taking pictures and asked what kind of fish it was. We oohed and awed and Rosa looked kind of perplexed by our interest in the black and white one. Then she declared in Spanish to everyone what she had just figured out. In English she said the black fish is plastic. it’s a toy! We were spoofed! We all rolled in laughter. It looked real because it looked like it had just taken a dump in the tank with a little curly cue turd, his neighbor must have recently pooped on it and it fooled us.
After that it was time to say good-bye, we hugged and shook hands and thanked them for the invitation and we took another white knuckle ride across the bay with Domingo but we all made it home safe. So there is our crazy Christmas.
