Supper consisted of cooked bananas (plantain), cassava and salted pork or, pork^13
fat.
Three other boats also moored along the jetty, and everyone knew one another.
Soon darkness fell, and all settled in, crew in hammocks and passengers
underneath them on the hard, wooden slats of the boat deck.
Day 2
Our first morning dawned, and the boat sailed out of the small harbour at around
a.m. The first stop was shortly afterwards at an island village to collect the
necessary goods, where a breakfast of boiled banana and chicken feet was served.
As a vegetarian I had great difficulty with the food. Still, the others were happy, as
there was a lack of shops on the islands. The cans of pork & beans purchased
turned out simply beans in watery tomato juice – quite gross. Gross or not, we had
quite a few of these cans to work through, and I had a choice between chicken feet
or beans in a watery tomato juice. Soon after departing, the crew caught a large
fish, and I was sure it would be our evening meal.
The inhabited islands were packed “wall-to-wall” with reed and palm-thatch shacks.
Islanders wore traditional clothes and were surprisingly short. The Rey Emanuel
slowly putt-putted between the San Blas’ teeny islands, stopping numerous times
to load empty crates and gas cylinders, and collect outstanding money. The Rey
Emmanuel couldn’t have covered much distance before our overnight stop. Sure
thing – supper consisted of rice and fried fish, which was a great deal more edible
than the salted pork fat.
Life in the San Blas was at an unhurried pace. With no electricity, we all went to
bed when it became dark and woke at sunrise, making it a long night on the
uncomfortable deck.