Chachuate 7/16/15

Today was supposed to be a work day but alas when someone offers you a free boat ride to one of the neighboring fishing villages, are you supposed to pass that up to be doing work on a computer that you could put off until later? I didn't think so! I think I did work this day (to be honest I am writing this quite late because I wanted to soak in the last days of being on the island and didn't want to stay glued to a screen). Adam and I probably pretended to look at our data but ended up goofing off and swinging in the hammocks most likely. I went with Codee, Olivia (initially reluctant), Carlos, and Dante. It was a great day. The boat ride while very short was a roller coaster ride where I couldn't get the goofy grin that was plastered on my face off. There's something about riding up a wave and then falling back down, the wind and spray on your face, and the sun on your shoulders that I can't find anywhere else. The feeling of your chest about to burst open with happiness and sheer exhilaration is something that I don't feel in most other parts of my life but this brought me true joy. When we got to the island or what you might call a sandy football field surrounded by water we were immediately surrounded by women and children showing us their best wares on chunks of Styrofoam that had washed up. We had been warned that we should not buy anything that was made of turtles and sharks for obvious reasons. Thankfully I think we only saw one woman with some suspicious looking pendants, and you knew if something was made of something you didn't want to think about when they told you, "It can go in the water, no problem!" The houses were sturdily made of the wood that had washed up on shore and the insides of them home were used in the most space efficient way possible. Some of the "fancy" ones had a singular light bulb that was run by a tiny, hand crank-able generator that one of the kids would enthusiastically get going for you to show you their prized possessions. The island was surrounded but perfectly clear water that was every blue you could ever image with white caps and beautiful conch shells washing up on the beach. Meanwhile, the boats that were once brilliantly colored but now are dull and chipped from years of use, sway in the water moored to ramshackle structures on the shore with pelicans balanced precariously on them. We got to walk around, which felt slightly invasive in my personal opinion because these were people's homes, but Dante said that no one really minded since everyone was fairly used to the tight quarters already. We saw women who were making their own corn tortillas, chickens wandering in and out of the homes, children crying and playing, and men and women arguing (I could not understand what because they were speaking in Garafuna) while they drank Salva Vida beer and lounged in the shade. I cannot wait until my film is developed and you can see how amazing this place was. We hung out for a while on the island and finished the day with the purchase of some good Guiffiti for the folks that had stayed behind.

Apologies for the blurry pictures. It seems as though there was some precipitation in the GoPro housing.

Olivia cheesing super hard.

Sister sister