Understand, dear readers, this is our last blog post until September. It does not mean we are deserting you it just means our travel adventures with Capo are stopping for now.

Mom told me to write a review of the past months. Sigh. Remember, I started writing this blog as part of my schooling. So sometimes it does feel more like a writing assignment than other times! I also had to explain our future plans. And find a good title.

I had to laugh when we were brainstorming about titles. This post is supposed to be the conclusion of a difficult chapter. So mom and me looked up synonyms for ‘epilogue’ in thesaurus. It came up with some interesting suggestions:

  • afterword (lame),
  • coda (aha),
  • codicil (??),
  • appendix (a bodypart)
  • and you’ll never guess: tailpiece 😆😜. Oh me oh my, poor Capo’s tail again! So… at the end of Capo’s tale… we are talking about his tail again 🤔🤣.

Enough with the introduction, on to part one of the assignment…

Review of the San Blas trip

Mom gave me & Capo 6 questions to answer about our adventures this year:

 1. What did you learn from this trip?

Me: That with every curveball there is always a way around it. And a story to tell. But also to never ever sail in a la Niña year.

Capo: Do not scratch small human (me), beware of noisy human (dad) when he takes out his noisy tool box, quiet human (mom) will always save some chicken or fish for you.

2. What did you like most?

Me: Having Capo with us to have more company than my parents, the diving in the San Blas, climbing up on the wreck and seeing the view from there, being visited by Yoren and having him there for my B-day, seeing Steve and Katie.

Good Things I’ll never forget: Going on the shipwreck, playing with Anika, having a Huge Hammerhead Shark pass by my face

Capo: Getting chicken, fish and meats, doing whatever I wish when all the humans go away and I have the boat to myself, and getting 5 days a week free therapy sessions.

3. What was difficult?

Capo: Trying to sleep with all that rolling around, trying to sleep when big stompy human takes out his noise box, trying to warn dumb humans that something broke and getting ignored, trying to sleep or eat while the ‘monster’ (the engine) is awake, trying to get a pet from loud human and quiet human in the night (impossible), trying to clean the pots and then have the small anoying human chase me away,  getting catnapped every night to the small human’s cramped hot room (that has very suspicious things in it).

 

Me: Having to wait so long in one place, being without my friends for so long, having one problem on the next, having an adventure turn into an ordeal. But I bore it through to the end 😜.

4. What was it like to be struck by lightning?

Me: I lay as still as possible as the storm raged outside. I tried to calm my heart which was racing. I was very scared and worried about Capo. Was he safe inside? Was he scared? Yet, I couldn’t stand up and find out. Suddenly, I heard a crack so loud I could’ve gone deaf. I knew that wasn’t good.

Capo: There was light flashing all around. I decided to stay in the couch with noisy human (whom was awfully quiet), instead of going to sleep with small human. Suddenly there was a flash, as if the humans switched on all their tiny suns at once and then switched them off at the same time. There was a loud beyond loud, that split the night air. There was a strange energy in the air that I didn’t like. This might have been around the time I started stripping myself of fur.

5. How did you handle it?

Capo: Pluck pluck pluck rip pluck pluck… I feel so much better after pulling hair out. You should try it some time…

Me: Dad did most of the work. All I did was help when I could, stay out of the way, massage dad’s sore spots and try to keep Capo out of his way as well.

6. Do you ever want to sail to San Blas again?

Me: ummm … maybe… but later much later when Mother Nature no longer feels like she must destroy us.

Capo: NNNNOOOO thank you!!!! I don’t want this moving island in the middle of a giant salty lake to ever move from its place again.

So thats 2024, May to December’s Ordeal in review.

Back to basics in Bocas

When we arrived in Bocas, Christmas was just around the corner. But no use in complaining, we were extremely happy to have made it back in time.

We spent Christmas stuffing our faces with ham🍖, cake🍰and ice cream🍨 etc etc…

Merry Christmas everyone❣️🎁🎄🎅🏾

The next day we went diving and had a picnic on BIBI’s beach. And later that week we had a braai on the sandbar.

Unfortunately the sandbar is not sticking out much any more and dad and Ferdie had to get cement bricks to lift our fire bowl out of the water. We braaied twice that day. A lunch braai fish and salads in calf deep water and a quick dinner braai of pork chops and leftover salads.

On new years eve we had ribs. We went to town at 8:00 and stayed until after midnight. Bocas had fireworks that lasted 45minutes without pauze! When all the fire works started blasting our ears off I felt like I was going deaf, and a bunch of people set off crackers. But it was very impressive to see.

Happy new year dear readers!!❣️💥💥🎉🎊🥳

It’s amazing to see how much Bocas has changed in the 7 months we were away. There are new shops and restaurant/cafes everywhere. It’s so easy to ride a bike now (almost too easy).

It’s so strange, I feel kind of awkward around some of my friends because I didn’t keep that much contact with them. But I guess that’s what happens if you leave for 4 months and turn up 3 months late 🙁.

Capo is happy we have stopped moving around with the boat. But now that we are back in Bocas Capo feels he must be on guard duty 24/7 because of all the taxi’s, lights and music. He won’t cuddle with me anymore 😡 which is really annoying.

Plans for the Future

Now we talk about 2025’s Adventure plan:

We have decided to postpone circumnavigation for 3 years cause no one feels like sailing in the near future 😉. Instead we are planning to spend most of the year normally (in Bocas, going to jiu Jitsu and doing our usual things).

And then in September we will take a flight to Brazil and then take a bus or rent a car and drive to Argentina because there are some relatives of my dad who live there.

Capo eating his dessert🍨

Oh right, what about the cat? Well, we’ll have to ask Jennifer, John and Wilson (Wilson is a friend and a neighbor of mine) to give Capo food and sort out his litterbox😈 and most important give him love and tell him we didn’t desert him. And that’s 2025’s plan.

We have other plans for the following years, but you’ll just have to keep reading to find out what those are 😜.

Blog pauze

So, ‘Hasta la Vista’ for now. I will be training my writers’ block until we start travelling again. Write you in September!

See you all again in September, 

Gitane

Good bye and good nap,

Capo

 

Capo’s coda

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