Day #2 in Portabelo
It rained for a while last night, washing Tanda Malaika clean. It kept drizzling for a while, so Jonathan whipped up some breakfast for everyone, and we also tried the granola I’d made yesterday. It was all delicious.
The first place we wanted to explore was the third fort across the bay from the town. We loaded into the dinghy and meandered through the sleepy sailboats, and pulled up on a small sandy beach. This fort was much bigger and extended all the way up a hill. Many cannons lay ready to fire, and parts of several structures were scattered about. Danny found the large brick oven in one of the structures, and I could just imagine baking many loaves of bread among the brick and stone. Just beyond the walls of the fort, I noticed a couple of lime trees, which had a few limes on them. Aidan, Danny and I stood below it and reached up and picked the larger ones we could find, when suddenly Danny felt bites down his back and I felt them up my legs. I looked up into the branches and realized we’d shaken up an ants nest and they were letting us have it! Danny pulled his shirt off and shook it out while I danced around smacking ants on my legs. It was quite a funny sight, but we did get some good limes out of it!
We stopped back at the boat to grab the pickle, and made our way back into Portableo. Many of the locals laughed and made funny comments about the pickle, and we took it to the fort for a photo shoot for it’s instagram. As usual, the pickle was quite photogenic.
We walked back into town and the creatures took us to a monkey in a cage that they had seen. As soon as the monkey saw the pickle it started jumping around excitedly and wanted to hold it. It held it with it’s hands and tail for a while, then wrapped it’s tail around Mycah’s leg. I felt so bad for it and wanted to sneak back and set it free.
After chatting with him for a while, we entered the church and sat quietly, studying the statues of Christ and watching the many candles burn at the alter. Big metal fans blew down on us and it felt so good to cool off for a few minutes.
At a food stand on the main street and each picked out a coconut treat. Some were strawberry flavored, some chocolate and some milk. They were very sweet and not quite as good as they looked, but it’s always fun to try new things.
Back on Tanda Malaika, we relaxed as late afternoon turned into early evening, and after resting the creatures took a walkie talkie with them so we could stay in contact, and went back in to Portable one last time. Danny and I tried our luck at fishing once again, and even though fish were jumping, tormenting us all around the boat, we didn’t catch a darn thing. After about an hour we saw a huge storm coming into the bay from open ocean, and radioed the creatures, who said they’d seen it and were headed back. Just as they reached us, it started to rain, and a few minutes after everything was put away and ready out on deck, it began to pour. What a beautiful rain! Thunder and lightning filled the thick, grey skies, and buckets poured down hard and washed the world around us clean once more. I made a huge pot of spaghetti and a towering mound of garlic bread, and everyone ate till overflowing.
Since today is Kjira’s 24th birthday, Emma made a birthday cake in honor of her, and we all sang happy birthday to her across the miles, and ate cake together. Once again, Emma’s creation was so delicious.
The creatures pulled out games and began playing together, and I was more than ready for bed. Tomorrow morning we will set sail for Shelter Bay, and hopefully receive our batteries soon so we can set sail once again.
Adventures of a Tribe 