San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. #1
[ Written by Willem H. Eickholt , november, 2005 ]
San Juan del Sur was, and still is, a little
known gem. Unspoiled by tourism, a bit isolated and thinly populated by people
who make their living mostly from fishing.
Multi colored boats crowd the best protected corner of the half round bay.
The beached are white and sandy, tall palm trees bend in an offshore breeze,
small restaurants serve cold beer, hamburgers and fresh fish dishes. Tired
of cooking everyday, I take the crew to the cleanest looking eatery and blow
$17.00 on delicious fresh fried fish,french fries, tossed salad and beer.
The almighty dollar is even mightier in Daniel Ortega's Nicaragua. At these
prices we cannot afford to cook on board, we row ashore for dinner every evening.
The single mother who owns and runs the little restaurant is delighted. Business
hasn't been this good for a very long time. She and her young son prepare
the meals, clean up afterwards and keep the joint spick and span. She is a
beauty, loves to chat even when there is a giant language barrier and gets
a kick flirting with the crew .
One day, we return from an early dinner and Bill is about to jump in his hammock
when he suddenly stops in agony and screams: There is a snake in the hammock!!!!.
Now, there never was snake aboard Stardate so we all thought that Bill was
up to one of his usual practical jokes, so we just laugh and say things like
"Oh sure"!! and "Snake? Right !" But Bill is not amused,
and his face says: This is no joke.
Then he grabs the hammock, turns it upside down and a life, 6ft greenish snake
drops on the deck. We are all staring there in disbelieve before we figure
that something has to be done to get rid of the serpent. A couple of blows
to the tail end with a boat hook renders the animal harmless before it goes
plop into the bay.
After some discusions with friends in town we come to the conclusion that
the snake was not a sea-creature but a land snake, thrown aboard by a passing
fishing boat whose skipper didn't like the attention my crew was paying to
the local women. From here on out we play it safe. We go on a sightseeing
trip on Lake Nicaragua by boat and visit the Solentiname Islands with their
gorgeous active vulcanos, sleepy villages
and hospitable people who send us back to our boat loaded with fresh tropical
fruit.
Towards the end of the day and as we get close to touring boat's moorage we
turn around a small isle and find ourselves suddenly in front of an old American
harbor.
We have to sharpen our eyes and pinch ourselves to make sure we are awake.
The crew is having a ball observing our bewilderment. Of course they know
what is there.
It is an abandoned film set made to resemble a part of San Francisco's harbor
for the movie "Walker".
We talk about the events of the day all the way back to our own boat especially
the surreal experience of seeing turn of the Century SF harbor in the twilight
of Lake Nicaragua.
Time to set sail again and I wonder if we have enough diesel to run the motor
if we hit an extended windless area. The only fuel in the area is under control
of the Ministery of Transportation, so I talk to the commander who reluctantly
releases 50 gallons of Soviet diesel and has it delivered to Stardate. His
truck gets as close to the anchored boat as possible which is next to the
Nicaraguan Navy's Patrol boat.
The drum is dropped on the deck of the navy ship and a number of idle mariners
helps our crew syphon diesel from the drum into jerry cans which are then
taken by dinghy to our boat.
I can still hear the remarks of the Nicaraguan sailors when they found out
that this foreign pleasure boat had been able to buy diesel while they had
been tied to the dock for weeks for lack of fuel. Ah, what a few good connections
can do in Central America...................
( to be continued)