Friday 12th July 2013
Well the last few days have been very quiet, up until today.
Wednesday, was a cooking day for me, I have been having a never ending battle with making bread, I have blamed everything from The Oven, The Ingredients, The Boat ( rocking), the temperature either too hot, or too cold, the yeast, being too old, The recipes you name it, I have blamed it.
Well am finally gonna admit it, It has to be the cook! No matter what I try it does not work.
Now I have had some great recipes given to me, ( Thanks Heather )
and also in books on board, google well you can get lost there in their recipes, but still nothing, have tried with yeast, no yeast, flour no flour, butter, no butter, sugar, no sugar the list goes on an on.
Now don't get me wrong it always taste good, if you don't mind, the charcoal, or cutting it with a chainsaw, or the so over cooked, and so under cooked, that its just like eating raw dough.
I guess I'm lucky that The Captain will try and eat anything, and is very nice about it all, even though sometimes it taste so bad.
So will keep trying as sooner or later I have to get it right, and we can always buy it here, but it's not so nice bread either.
So Thursday,
Well talk about all dressed up and no where to go.
We decided the night before that we would get up early and head into Colon to get some paperwork done, we need to go to the Admeasure office to arrange to get the boat measured to go through the canal, this is step one.
So up we get, get dressed and its raining surprise surprise, and after an hour of waiting it looked like it was set in for the day.
So we took the day off, changed back into boat clothes, and had a relaxing day of just reading and lounging around, was so nice just to do nothing.
Well today sure made up for that.
Friday 12th
We decided yesterday, rain, hail or shine, we had to get into Colon.
This came with a lot of organising, as you know it's not a safe area, and we have been told to only take enough cash on you that your willing to get stolen.
So The Captain wore long cargo pants with lots of pockets, we were told when you go to any official office you should where long pants as its a mark of respect and they will help you so much more.
I can tell you by the time we left this boat we were almost ready for world war three, we had Mace spray, we had hand held tasers, we had money in socks and Bras, we had papers hidden, credit cards is separate pockets, dummy wallets, you name it, yeah I know I had read up a lot about travel safety, on google.
So we meet up with Trevor and Gwen, from America, and off we set in the famous bus's here, man what a trip, they are old American school buses and they are decorated up like you would not believe, the more hotted up they are the better, these young guys treat them like the guys at home treat their cars, but are really bright big mufflers the lot and talk about loud man it's crazy.
They also play very loud music, I suppose it's Spanish duff duff, and they only care about the outside, the inside is falling apart ripped seats, holes in the floor, and not very comfortable.
they fly, man they go so fast it's crazy, the roads are sometimes not even roads, but do they care no way, you bounce and fly all over the place, and it's hot, no air con, just small windows, and sweaty bodies.
They also do not give too hoots about how many people they let on the bus, it just keeps filling up and up, until you are all most bursting at the seems, and road rules, huh there are none, everyone just hoots their horns all the time.
So after an hour of sheer torture, Trevor and Gwen get off to do some grocery shopping and leave us to it, they say we have at least another half hour, to get to the terminal, I almost cry.
And on hops a guy, that must only be a preacher, he gets on with a mega phone, and a bible in his hands, he says something and everyone starts clapping, then he starts up,
Now it may of been quite enlightening, if we could of understood what he was saying, but I swear he never came up for a breath he went from almost good cop, bad cop, if you know what I mean, one minute he was screaming, then next talking so so soft and smiling, than back screaming, then would throw in a little song and so on, this went on for at least half an hour, The Captain and I am sure had our jaws on the floor and at one staged looked at each other and just burst out laughing.
It really was so so funny.
Anyway we eventually made it to the bus terminal where we were told to get straight off a bus and climb into a taxi.
Well that was easer said than done, man what a place there was so many people and bus, cars taxis all beeping people yelling, and I have never ever seen such third world in my life.
Just shocking, I really just can't understand how they can live like that, it's so so sad, so dirty, it's a wonder they don't all have horrible diseases, I was just so shocked, it's hard to even describe it.
Anyway we are standing here in the middle of all this, turning around in circles trying to work out which way to go, there are people in our face the whole time saying this and that all in Spanish of cause, and a local guy comes up and he can speak English, we almost kissed him.
We explain where we need to go he says follow me, now I'm thinking bad move, we have been through this before, but all was ok and he walked us to the entrance of the dock.
One very nice guy.
Long story short, after a lot of sign language, broken english, having to go hail a taxi to take us into the office, ( your not allowed to walk there,) we made it to the office, the taxi driver even walked us up to the door, all went well we are booked to get the boat measured on Monday, so will motor around there on Sunday afternoon.
Then we got dropped off at what they call free zone, where there is a heap of shops that are duty free, walk around a bit, then taxi back to the terminal find the right bus and off we go again this time to rap music blaring in our ears.
So nice.... Not.
But after a stop at the grocery store we eventually got thrown out of the bus back in Portobello, that was now looking very very nice...hahaha
And back to our little home on the water, that has never felt so good.
Well tomorrow is another day.