Saturday, February 24, 2007
I’m sitting here in the cockpit exasperated because I can’t get into the Internet; there’s some glitch I can’t figure out (& neither can another sailor who’s down the dock from us & who has the same Internet access) so I’ll wait until 9 am or 10 am & then schlep up to the computer store to get it figured out.
Yesterday it blew with small craft advisories; the same is indicated for today. Getting weather info is really difficult here: We’ve subscribed for a free month to www.buoyweather.com; we get the wind, wave & tide info but interestingly enough, it doesn’t give temps. We’re accustomed to having the weather usually posted outside the marina office but that isn’t the case here.
As I’ve said previously, this marina is beautiful. The walks, the embarcadero, that surround the marina are works of art. They are about 10’ wide & inlaid with beach cobble & brick work in intricate patterns. Some of the patterns are geometric, some are wavy lines. There are areas that require replacement. An older man levers up the embedded bricks & stones, forms out the replacement pattern with small strips of wood as he squats or kneels or sits on his side, supported by one arm, as he works. A young helper brings him buckets of concrete that he pours into the form. He then carefully selects exactly the right beach cobble to place in the concrete. His helper has already sifted through a larger pile of beach cobble & dumped his selections in front of the old man. I say to the older man, “Que bueno!”. He looks up, nods, “Yes”, & unsmilingly goes back to his work. He is secure in his knowledge that he is an artisan & needs no acknowledgement from me.
Yesterday we picked up the dogs for a walk on the beaches north of here. There are homes galore being built – most of them quite large. The are being built by hand. We watched a dump truck being loaded by the shovelful. Rich wondered how many shovelsful it would take to load that 6-wheeler. The footings & foundations are all dug by hand. Concrete is used almost exclusively in these homes. Some of the homes have brick walls laid up, then covered with concrete. These homes must be like fortresses I expect that they are also easy to maintain, keep clean & cool in the summer.
Some of the beaches that are exposed to the sea are lovely with light sand. There is extensive beach cobble here & the shelling is not so good as the shells are ground to bits by the cobble & the wave action. The water here is more typical of the tropics being light green, aquamarine, shading into the deeper blue of deeper water. This area, of course, is where the old Club Med, hotels & time shares are.
The deep circular bays south though are dusty, gray and the sand granules are quite large. They appear to be mostly steeply shelving beaches surrounded by rugged rocks & crags. I need to explore the geologic history of this region to better understand the composition of these rocks & beaches. I really need the Internet!.
More Later...
