Visiting Playon Chico, and Thanksgiving on BLUE SKY

The next morning we visited the village of Playon Chico with Damon of BRUIDAIRE. He rode with us in DITTY, guiding us around the tricky reefs he's navigated before between the Snug anchorage and the village shores. As you approach, one can see the long, steel footbridge connecting the island to the mainland, which has a couple of concrete school buildings and a busy airstrip. In ten minutes, we were tied up to the town dock between a Colombian trader and a soldier's panga, and set out on a tienda search and a look at the town. Almost immediately, we were adopted by 2-3 little boys who walked with us everywhere, asking us our names, where we were from and the like, all the way around the village and back to the dinghy.

We found a real bakery here, and a few general-store type tiendas that we stopped at and perused. We got some boxed juice, UHT milk, and cigarette lighters from one of them. As we continued walking down the main street, we came upon a group of 10-15 young boys who were walking on their hands and fighting like crabs. It was funny to watch. A couple of older ladies came out to pose for photos, for which we paid them $1 each. A wee toddler came into the street holding up a cane with a beautiful blue parrot perched upon it, which her "granny" invited us to pet and photograph, but we declined the offer of any more $1 photos.

At one point, we pulled out a bag of LifeSavers to share with the little kids, and pandemonium hit; we were was quickly mobbed by 20 kids in that stampede-y kinda way. Candy gone, we continued on. We saw a few albino children here and there, evidence of the inbreeding of the isolated Kunas. Interestingly, they are not shunned by their society, but considered gifted, potential leaders, and known as "moon children". A lot of the small thatch houses we passed had flags of the Kuna Yala Comarca flying from their low rooftops. A bandstand had the Kuna swatstika symbol and portraits of the fathers of their "Revolution of 1925" painted against the wall backdrop. We also saw a hut with an elfish Santa Claus painted on its door. There was an unfortunately recently-burned-down hut being cleared, ironically with a cardboard sign in front "se vende pan" (bread for sale). Streets are pretty clean; chickens and pigs are sequestered in overwater pens, as are the toilets.

After an hour or two of exploring the village, we got back back to RHAPSODY around 11 am, to get our Thanksgiving Dinner contributions cooked and ready. We made cornbread, coconut almond rice, marinated cucumbers, mixed vegies, and cranberry sauce, and cleaned and cooked six small lobsters to add to the mix. At 4pm, we headed over to BLUE SKY, where Debbie and Breeze had made Lobster Stovetop Stuffing, baked squash, baked chicken breasts, and chocolate brownies. Damon and David from BRUIDAIRE arrived with a wonderful curried crab'n'rice casserole, as well as a berry cobbler. In fact, we were so busy feasting on all this food that we forgot to take pictures of the people, although we did get a shot of the food!

Me and Breeze jammed for a bit after the wonderful dinner and everyone left back for their respective boats at 7 p.m. or so. It was VERY DARK back to RHAPSODY.