We woke up to absolutely no wind so we decided to stay put, it was a very hot night, very grateful for our big Dyson fan, and that Rowan got aircon installed in our bedroom while the boat was in NZ. As we head north it is going to get a lot hotter, the water temperature is already 30.6 Celsius which seems unbelievable.
Both other boats left this morning. As we are staying the day we thought we better go and pay our respects to the chief. There was quite a lot of boozy partying noise last night, so we were wondering what the village was like. It turned out to be a very small village, we met lots of ladies under the big trees at the beach. The houses looked more modern, in plots of cleared land for growing things. We met the chief’s wife who said her husband was not around, so we gave her a kitchen knife, soap and tinned meats, and some old clothes for her hubby. We got a cucumber in return which was nice, it’s a while since we had a cucumber in our salad! One young girl volunteered to show us around. She was so interesting, spoke brilliant english and hopes to be a doctor. She is 15 and will have to study at school for another 5 years before studying medicine, which seems a long slog. I guess their curriculum is way behind. She hopes to study in Cuba. We met a lot of Cuban doctors in the Caribbean, they have good medical training facilities, which she seems very switched onto already. She took us up the hill to where they have a big secondary school, it serves all the the surrounding area so has a big boarding establishment. Everyone is currently on holiday. Our guide doesn’t have to board as she lives nearby.
It was very hot, we got back to the boat and went out for a snorkel to cool down. Sadly the coral was not in great shape, there was a lot of coral, it must have been magnificent in the past. At least there were quite a lot of fish. Some of the water we swam through was unpleasantly hot, goodness knows how the fish will survive.
Back at the boat we had a few kids visiting, with goods to trade. An enormous bag of what look and taste like Padron peppers, a very white aubergine, huge thick fat bananas, more snake beans…….. until we had enough! All very sweet kids though.
The stars were amazing and the new moon looked stunning until it sunk behind the horizon. Tomorrow we will head off early on our next hop as it most probably will be slow.
The village houses on cleared plots, no roads here, they all rely on banana boats
Our guide in front
Walking up to the secondary school, just loved the additional garden on this tree
Getting some shade and resting at the school after the steep climb up, all very smart and well looked after. The school is big and on its own up here, with staff accommodation and separate boarding houses for the boys and girls
A younger relative of our guide, I liked her hair decoration
Still waters in the evening light
Lovely beach, with a big of church singing wafting over the water
Just as I get laundry out the clouds loom
New moon and calm waters
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