Woops-a-Daisy !

Tuesday 14th June.  Location: Bluefield Lagoon,

Everyone was so tired today, suffering from the after effects of the exhausting leg of our trip yesterday, we decided against moving on, and instead just hang around the lagoon; the water was still, and the surroundings beautiful, it seemed a really pleasant place to stay for a day.  When we arrived here at 3am this morning, the only single light (aside from the moon) came from the shore, at night we couldn’t work out what it was, but we discovered at daybreak that the light was from the Indian villages communal toilet, which is a small hut on stilts at the end of a boardwalk out over the water. Nicolette renamed the lagoon “Poofield lagoon” consequently we won’t be doing any swimming here!  

It was a day for resting, and for repairing the hole in the dinghy, caused by one of the tree branches that went straight through the bow during our river expedition on Sunday.  The poor dinghy looks so sad and pathetic now with patches and worn tattered areas, she hangs dejectedly off the davits like a limp rag: I really think it’s time for a new one.  Our dinghy’s called Woops-a-Daisy, and she’s really starting to live up to her name. We received lots of visitors today; several of the Indians from the village curious about us came over in their dug out canoes.  It was difficult attempting conversation with them as our Spanish is only a pathetically embarrassing handful of words, Nicolette fared a little better, but the trouble was they didn’t want to leave, they just hung around for ages determined to have conversation, I found it very frustrating.  We had a group of school children come over and I gave them pens and pencils, which they seemed delighted with.

  A lady and an adorable little girl about 4-5 years old came over and I gave the little girl Nicho-San’s pink bunny, and a hat, I bought a bunch of bananas for $2 from the Mother, and gave her some earrings. I realize that seems a strange thing to give, but with sign language I understood that was what she was asking for, and she seemed very happy with them.

In the afternoon we inflated the dinghy (once again) and went for a ride around.  There were many Indian villages up and down the hills surrounding the lagoon.  The land rises straight up from the water and lush vegetation grows with prolific abandon out of the rock; we didn’t see any beaches. We did however see several dolphins and lots and lots of jumping fish. It was pleasant to spend a day relaxing; tomorrow we head over to one of the outer islands so we can snorkel and swim.  There’s no doubt that we’re in rainy season, as more heavy storms moved in late afternoon, but at least it’s keeping Daisy’s decks washed off nicely…