2-15-10 Sanblas Islands

I have never seen a drunker group of people than I did today. It was Monday, before noon and they were all older women.  Welcome to Carnival!

We had docked on one of the many Sanblas Islands and were in search of fresh water.  The island was owned by the Kuni tribe whose flag consists of yellow and red sections with a black swastika in the middle. No Nazi relation.

While Fritz went to work finding water the rest of us ventured out into the little island and came upon a group of women all dressed in native garb whose distinguishing characteristics were beaded leg-bands, gold nose rings, red blush, a black line down their nose, red hair bonnets of sorts and brightly colored dresses. Oh, and many accented their outfits with bottles of  'Aguardiente' which almost translates to 'tooth water' but in reality is a flammable alcohol made from sugar cane. Thing a rum/gas cocktail with a touch of anise.  They weren't drinking for flavor today. These lushes were all off by themselves boozing so we crept over near them with the help of some drunk local guy who kept calling me Luis for no reason, but I didn't object. 

The women would pair-off then take turns pouring each other shots, downing one every 30 seconds perhaps. Often times, there were 'spotters' for some of the older women, who would prop grab them from behind as they seemed to fall backwards often while taking a shot.  After watching this in awe the women all mobilized and started heading back to the main communal building which we'd seen earlier, it had several rows of benches on each wall, all facing inward which was used for community meetings, etc.

The women got in groups of three or four and held each other's shoulders like a rugby scrum so as to reduce the chance of falling in their drunken stupor.  This worked well for some, but proved disastrous for others. We saw several groups all crumble to the ground after one lady stumbled and initiated the collapse.  Some of th older ladies were wailing too. (??)

We sailed/motored for a few hours and frequently checked on the bikes as things were starting to shift a bit with the rocking of the catamaran which rocks quite differently than monohull, or 'regular' boat. The cat rocks almost exclusively fore and aft, see-saw like with virtually no lateral movement. Monohulls, on the other hand, rock less violently fore and aft but have more movement laterally. It is said that cats are better for seasickness which I have to agree with thus far. Think it is also better for the safety of the bikes as they're not subjected to movement in all directions.

We docked up at another small island in search of several hundred gallons of fresh water again as the last island only seemed to have Aguardiente. Every square inch of the island was used for something, just like a modern city. It felt strange walking through as there was very little privacy with the bamboo walls.

They have no private bathrooms on the island, just a few thatch huts on stilts a few yards off-shore.  Various splashes were audible in the evening. Torben became aware of the bathroom situation only after a good swim in the area.