Market Day up the Estuary
Sowell Family's Travels on Gijima
Skipper: Tim Sowell Admiral Tracy Crew Sean & Alex
Thu 8 Apr 2010 03:35
river for 4 miles to the closest town, we wanted to check out we can buy
there and what we could not as this is a regular resupply station and we
would need to adjust our diets to fit what we can replenish regularly. The
ride up was through the mangroves gliding around the islands in the middle,
and avoiding the pangas coming in all directions as this the day all the
outer island settlements come in to re supply as well. To get to the market
by car would take us 1 1/2 hours, it took us 20 minutes by dinghy and it was
cooler and a lot more fun, 4 dinghies flying up the river.
On arrival we walked up the streets but Sean noticed they had "Tuk Tuk" like
taxies (there 3 wheel taxies effectively a motor bike with a back seat)
similar to what we used in Bangkok. But we were trying to get our bearings
so we walked up to the local bakery (see photos) collected very fresh bread.
Then we headed into the markets after the boys had done some game rides.
Collecting fruit and veggies, all very cheap. 2 cantaloupe melons and water
melon 50 cents us. We looked around getting toilet paper, etc.
It was clear that we could get fresh veggies but we would not trust the meat
as it is all in the open, this will have to come from San Salvador, but our
aim for the next month is to work through the freezer using up the stores we
have of meat and fish so we do not need to run it while we are away. We
caught a Tuk Tuk back to dinghy which Sean loved and we will have to do
again. We had finished in 2 hours (having spent a grand total of 5 dollars
and we have 3 full bags), and sat on the dock up there with a cold beer
before setting off home.
The afternoon Gary and cut and mounted our mahogany plank for our outboard
stand replacing the old one, we also fixed the after deck leak. Both are a
success and better than original, which is nice.
We also tested making water in the estuary on an incoming tide, as this is
key when we need drinking water as all the land water is well water and has
a taste to it, this worked, so tomorrow we will do maintenance on the
engines changing oil etc.
So we settling in.
