The Guna congress assign a family to live on the island of Yansaladup- this is the 19-year-old matriarch.  She lives in a large one room shelter with her husband and baby and 16-year-old niece.  In March, she'll be able to go back home (she's counting the days) when another family takes over.  The anchorages most favored by tourists always have a family designated to live on their islands.  Otherwise, we tend to set up barbecue pits and picnic tables, and start tidying the place up.  This makes the Guna leadership nervous.  

We're in Panama City buying groceries and other necessities of life.  This building is just down the street- its facade is covered with plants.  It's usually dripping when we walk by.

The bread goddess:  the other day Gretchen from Infinity came over with her bread-making tools.  We made:  pain au levain, pain a l'ancienne, and rye bread.  I didn't realize how gentle you need to be with bread, and how attentive- there are many steps.  And next time, you'll want to remember what you did wrong.  It requires something of a mad scientist temperament.

The veggie boat!  always happy to see the veggie boat.  This is Geraldo and Co.  This time they had fruit, veggies, and eggs- no chickens, though.  We're stocked now for the week.

Getting back to the basic blogging categories:  cute children, exotic sea creatures, brilliant sunsets.  These girls were between classes in Nargana, and happy to play on the iPad with me.  Actually, four of them were spinning in circles trying make themselves dizzy, but when I tried to take a picture, they sat down politely and posed.

Had one of those wonderful days when everything I touched turned to shit.  Started out getting slammed by my anchor trying to untangle the chain in the water, then I hit a large coral head going full speed.  Sprang a leak in my shaft log, and then trying to stop the leak, I picked up an extension cord while standing barefoot in salt water and got shocked so bad I couldn't let the cord go for a good 5 seconds.

Kiss my ass, Neptune.

Mike making nice with Neptune

a lovely wedding