Salmonete and Bahia Honda

Each town has one store, one Play Park, one school, one soccer field, one health center, lots of children, lots of chickens, and colorful clothes hanging outside the homes. It’s hard to take my eye off the camera. The beauty of this places, not only is the composition of Nature, but the simplicity of the people’s life. Besides a doctor and a dentist, could they be better off with more? I wonder… I would load the school with computers, a science lab, musical instrument, Art supplies.. I would bring a supermarket, a toy store a clothing store… but that’s me.. already contaminated by civilization. (I am not saying I don’t like it… I do, but clearly, my life does not depend on those as I have proven myself in this trip). The kids here learn to fish, preserve nature, grow a garden, they learn basic skills to survive. Do they need to learn about google? do they need to dress in fancy clothes, do they need to know about iPods and Polly pockets? Knowing more will facilitate or complicate their circumstances? I truly don’t know!

The children

The girls have had several forms of interaction with Domingo’s grand kids; Melanie and Daisy, playing soccer, watching movies, sharing cookies, playing Barbie dolls, Polly Pockets, dancing or just looking at each other and giggling. They have also interacted with the children in the towns of Salmonete and Bahia Honda. Many children, I mean many. The island has 800 people of which 200 are kids.

There have been many times where the local kids stared at Samantha and Trinidad as they recognized them as being foreigners and so different, but nothing like in the towns in here. There is a small feeling of celebrity when the kids come running to the dock to receive us and then they follow us every where we go. It is a feeling that increases my confidence to interact with them, but it becomes totally overwhelming to the girls. Typically, they want to get close and touch the girls’s hair, they are curious, they want to hear how they talk, and they want to make friends. The case was a little different in Salmonete, another town up the river, where the children gathered by the slide to watch every step Samantha and Trini took. They kept their distance. I didn’t want Samantha and Trinidad to feel intimidated and it was working well, Trini was even making the kids laugh. It was great until she tripped and fell. The laughs became evil in Trini’s perception, but the kids realized her sadness as the crying reached the higher decibels and they stopped. At that point I quit trying to blend in.

Domingo Gonzalez and family

Upon our arrival we were received by the man of the guidebooks; Domingo. He introduces himself as the man who provides the fruits and vegetables to the boats. He points out that the anchorage is safe and that right in front of his house is the spot or anywhere in front of his property. He owns a large portion of what we can see in this bay. It used to be a popular anchorage some years back, 15 to 20 boats would be sharing this jewel of a place, but now, he wonders “what is happening to the boats they are not coming as much as they used to? It’s starting to get lonely” , He enjoys the cruisers company and makes a portion of his living selling produce and trading. He has made very good friends through out the years. He remembers most of them quite well, what they liked, what they bought and how long they stayed. We must make a good impression so our cruiser friends who will make it this way in the future hear no gossip about us.

In his 70’s Domingo still climbs the coconut palm to retrieve some coconuts for us and uses his machete to get stocks of bananas to satisfy our cravings. His day starts at 4:30 AM with a shovel and a rake in the field of the spinach, bell peppers or cucumbers. If he needs supplies or to make a phone call, he gets into his dugout canoe and rows with his one oar to town; an island 15 min away. There is no weather condition that could possible affect his agenda, he loves the rain. He is a hard working man, with experience in all trades; from fishing, gold digger, carpenter, chef, farmer and more. I find something new in every one of our meeting, very humble and wise with a practical vision of life. “No es proooobleema!”

He lives in his house with his wife; Cornelia of over 30 years, Son; Nelson, daughter; Rosali, son in law; Edwin and grand children; Daisy and Edwin Jr. Next door lives his son; Kennedy, daughter in law; Olivia and grand children; Melanie and Kennedy Jr. With the exception of Kennedy Sr., we have met them all.



Rosali and I spent some time by the creek doing laundry… well, she was doing the laundry and I was doing the watching and chatting. She made it look so simple and fun, I really wanted to take over her load, but she may have felt uncomfortable. We had a nice and relaxed visit (despite all the scrubbing and squeezing). Her husband, Edwin, invited Matt, or Matt invited Edwin to go fishing in the dugout canoe… theirs. It was a successful outing! They caught more than 30 littlelus fishelus. (I better get the real name…”Jurel”) of which Matt came home with 7 that reside in the fridge until we get the scoop on how to cook such specie. Olivia, Domingo’s daughter in law, rowed to us yesterday to introduce herself, to offered fruits for sale and ask if we had ice we could share. Ice in here has a silver value; for them to get ice or any cold item they have to travel by boat 2 hours to the bigger town. Our freezer is the size of a shoe box, pretty small, but we manage to produce 2 trays of ice every 3 days. We gave one away and we got a papaya, bananas and fish in exchange.