In Suriname we visited an amazing museum: a butterfly-farm. A what? Well, it’s a museum with an overwhelming collection of butterflies, but its main source of income is selling butterfly dolls. We were allowed to walk trough the gardens, and this enabled us to see the butterflies from nearby. In our trips we saw many of these beautiful creatures again, but never as close as in Suriname. Enjoy!
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Shall I compare you to a summer’s day?
You are more temperate in the early winds of May
In July calms you are willing I dare say
On all the seas and streams I stray
Before our mast you’re here you stay
First you play the hard to get
Yes, you make a sailor sweat
With your four sheets and halyard fetched
Without a twist or tangle yet
I know once that’s done, you are all set
Your hoist is long, a pillar from a pile
Of ultralight cloth every inch worthwhile
The sock shuffles up, in a gentle style
The wing widens out into its full profile
Making the sail fill in a breathtaking while
Then my wife at the helm shows a beam wide smile
Your sheets get tension when you fill the sky
On your trim you are such an easy guy
No luff neither leeway – all seas to defy
The helmsman stands with a twinkle in the eye:
“You make our yacht sail as light as a fly”
You bring her to speeds we never expect
Even in light winds, you see what you get
Spinaker, gennaker, code zero
They broach and tangle and twist, oh hell no
When breezes pick up from steady to fresh
Your wing valve saves us from a broach and a crash
Mile after mile we are making right now
Sailing the seas with you over our bows
Enjoying you comp’ny day after day
We stay fossil fuel free so easy this way
The Autoprop generates hundreds of Watts
We ‘ll arrive at the harbour with the batteries topped
O You Parasailor are so very alright
We dare set and sail you even throughout the night
Because your design is so smart and profound
We sail you shorthanded the world around
Making our course so easy at the helm
Crossing the ocean, my ship is my realm
===
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info@fossilfreearoundtheworld.org
Geckos eat bugs. But do you want them on board? Well, even though they’re very cute and useful, we think they’re best off on land. We caught it and brought it to Red Frog.
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The fun of fun shopping starts on the way to it. On our last funshopping trip, we got our new kayak. So, this time, we took the kayak and enjoyed the ride to the swap meet. You can find the ‘treasures of the bilge’ there, and it is all about walking and talking; buy, sell, trade or give it away. Need we explain how sustainable this is? Enjoy!
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How do you stand in life? Do you have fun? Or do you get into your car twice a day and put yourself in a traffic jam “because you have to”? It took us 40 years to understand this:
‘Life is a journey to be experienced, not a problem to be solved’ – Winnie the Pooh
We are anchored at Red Frog Anchorage, some miles from Bocas Town. Now, when our neighbors go shopping, they take their dinghy and go as fast as their outboard can. And so, with 45 minutes of too much noise, slamming on the waves, they are biting the bullet to solve the shopping problem.
We also go shopping, but we see this ‘problem’ as an opportunity. We like sailing, so we sail to Bocas Town, and back again.
The underwaterworld of Bocas del Toro can be beautiful. We found it in the remote areas, far away from the sewers and the sunscreens of the resorts and the towns.
Click the film and enjoy the beauty of nature!
Isabelle, the medicine woman from San Cristobal, and Mathilde (Darkland Foundation), know everything about the medicinal power of the jungle plants. During a 2 hours hike, they show us at least 10 plants that can keep you out of hospital. This knowledge goes down generations of the Ngobe tribe. Again, we learn from their respect in working with nature, using only what you need.
This was the second blog on our visit to San Cristobal. You can also read the article on making jungle bags (from dyeing the plants to crochet).
Do you have any comments or do you want more information? Or ypu want to sail with us? We welcome your email at info@fossilfreearoundtheworld.org
The dentist couple Marc and Angie joined the Floating Doctors organization, to serve the Ngabe-Bugle indigenous community with dental care.
In the past few months, they have treated patients in the most remote areas of the archipelago of Bocas del Toro.
Marc and Angie’s motivation is to help the community lead a healthier life. Healthy teeth are essential for that. According to Marc, the teeth of the Ngabe-Bugle are the most beautiful on earth. Strong and straight, and all teeth regular, well rooted, and beautifully placed.
But now, he often has to pull the teeth that could have been so perfect. Some of their patients are as young as 12 and Marc has to pull 6 teeth because they are rotted to the bone. So sad!
Angie: “Since the diet of the indigenous changed from natural to industrial, things went wrong. Sodas, sweets and chips came in, but not the toothbrush and dental care that have to come with them.“
Marc says: “they simply don’t know that Cola is bad, that sugar is bad. Some mothers even think that Coke is good, and you see even babies drinking that stuff. At fifteen, they have a sugar addiction, and… no tooth left.”
Everything starts with good information. And there is a lot to win, because there is a lot of teeth to save.
F
Angie and Marc are floating doctors now for 4 months. The complete organization runs on volunteers. And it is amazing what they do.
Angie: “The work is so rewarding. You can make so much a difference, for mothers, for the children.” But it is not easy.
There is a base camp, but there are no roads here. Sometimes they sail with their boat to the villages and go on anchor there. The rest of the way they do by motorboat and they walk to the village with their equipment.
“The tools are limited. There is no suction. We work with “mineworker-lamps” on our heads. You do your utmost on hygiene, but an indigenous hut remains an indigenous hut. And, you have a big number of patients to treat.” It requires every bit of creativity.
They discovered a fluid that kills the bacteria’s in little holes and forms a strong, protective layer. It was successful a century ago in dental care, but now it is a forgotten product.
“It costs next to nothing, and it is a great alternative for a filling for these young kids teeth.”
Pulling a tooth that is rotten to the bone, requires special tools a modern Western dentist practice has, but Marc has not. “A colleague discovered a surgery tool for fixing and opening sinuses. You can beautifully go along the root with it, without any violence, and then simply lift the remaining piece of the tooth with root and all. It is not in the dentists’ handbook, but it is simple, it works subtle, and I love that.”
And there are stories of hope. A young indigenous lady who escorted her brother to the dentist, assisted Marc because they were short of staff that day. She proved to be a natural talent, so Marc encouraged her to become a dental worker herself. That’s empowerment.
Now here’s today’s key question: do you know a capable dentist who can take over Marc and Angie’s place from October? Or would you know of any daring ‘dental’ volunteers who are willing to dedicate their holidays or study time to this great community?
It is super rewarding work for an amazing indigenous community in a paradise-like setting. You think we are exaggerating? Nope. We’ve been there.
Interested? Please contact Floating dentists on info@FloatingDoctors.com or visit their site.
Like to sail with us? please contact info@fossilfreearoundtheworld.org
With a big machete, Isabelle, the medicine woman from San Cristobal, cuts down an agave. And also, plants for dyeing. We take them with us. A few hours later, we know how to make a jungle bag. This knowledge goes down generations of indigenous women of the Ngobe tribe. We learn from their respect in working with nature, using only what you need.
Comments? Questions? Please contact us at info@fossilfreearoundtheworld.org
A dock with some kayaks and SUP-boards, a leaf covered hut with a small cocktail bar, and from there a path meandering uphill a garden, between trees, flowers and plants, a yellow hermit crawling away, it is like walking through the Garden of Eden. We end up at a two-store mansion with a nicely decorated porch. There we meet Brian and his partner Amy. They run Dolphin Bay Hideaway, and even in the low season they continuously have guests. Brian gives us coffee at the big wooden table, with the view at the plants and flowers, butterflies, hummingbirds, a black-and-green spotted frog, and at the very end a view to the bay. You feel all over that the Hideway hotel is run sustainably and makes the next generation happy.
But that is just part of their secret.
As fossil fuel free sailors, we first ask how they generate their energy. Like we saw on Solarte, also the island San Cristobal doesn’t have electricity. Brian says: “The choice for solar is obvious for us, although the investment is big.”
But they can supply mainly on solar power, because the hotel makes the guest use only what they need. Do the guests need airco? No, that would keep them inside, instead of closer to nature. So, they use ventilators to keep the pleasant atmosphere, in the rooms and on the porch, the gym or where ever.
Also, they see a growing number of vegetarians under the European teenagers. Eating too much meat is also an issue in climate change. So, their kitchen has adjusted to that, serving many attractive vegetarian dishes, and using local ingredients.
The hotel is also self-sufficient on water. The rain water from the roof is caught into big tanks. So, we ask if the hotel has enough in storage to buffer the drier seasons. We tell him that a Dutch household takes 130 liters per person per day. Brian answers: “Well, the average water consumption of an American USA citizen is a staggering 320 liters per person per day.” OK, now there is no lawn to spray or a car to wash, but still, they consume a lot.”
Brian continues: “I always monitor the water usage, and I need to. When American teenagers come to the hotel, wechallenge them to limit the number of showers required each day. At first this is an effort for them, but with some explanation, they are motivated to adjust their behavior, and quickly get used to it. Then they celebrate their vacation with the same joy.”
There are few and unenforced local laws regarding sewage systems, but on the hotel they use septic systems. When the tank is full, its contents are brought to a little land to fertilize the soil. It is now named ‘poopy field’ and everything grows super! This is the perfect solution for a scarcely populated area; the land benefits and no black water is flushed into the valued Dolphin Bay.
Brian and Amy’s driving force to start this hotel, is in one word: nature. You recognize their love immediately in everything. The beauty of the garden, and in all details everywhere in the hotel. The way it is built, from the wooden floors, the furniture, the flowers in the vases on the porch, the little signs with the plant names in the garden.
We talked with some guests. They don’t care to spend some extra time and money to go off the beaten track, so to be sure to spend their precious vacation time in a nature environment.
Click here to get an impression of the plants in the garden.
The hotel is small, but the business runs well. But Brian and Amy also see their environment, the surroundings of the hotel, and that is challenging.
Brian explains: “Deforestation is a big and growing problem in Panama. The jungle forest is cut out to make way for cattle grazing, other agriculture or land development. For sure it is good if here and there a patch is cleared to keep some cattle, but that was in the past. Now the scale gets bigger. Many of the trees, with huge natural diversity, have a good value on the lumber market, for wood or charcoal. So, they are cut down. Now, on some islands, only five to ten species remain.”
Deforestation is a global environmental issue. But here it is also a nature issue. Many of these trees cut out, are typical for Panamas’ jungle. It is the diversity of nature involved here, the wealth of our earth.
“So, what we do with the acres we have, is reforesting it bit by bit. We plant that mix of species to restore the original forest. “
All this leads to a subtle but clear interaction. Many hotel guests see this work. They like it. They plant a tree. The Dolphin Bay Hideaway hotel is not only an ‘eco lodge’, but the guests also see that a part of their money goes into building nature again. This is no ‘green talk’, Brian plans to plant 1000 trees each year. So the reforestation is a continuous part of the business.
The Dolphin Bay Hideaway hotel is an example of how to run your top-notch hotel business sustainably, and to keep mother Earth in shape, in all her wealth, for our next generations.
