Stacy's Awesome B'day party!

Stacy showing off her new t-shirt.

I must be the luckiest girl on the face of the earth to spend my 32nd birthday in the San Blas Islands with my wonderful husband, Dave,and crew of Ladybug, Jo and Matti. I missed my friends and family for the celebration, but I did not miss the cold weather and snow. I awoke around 7AM before the first plane arrived, I was hoping our friend Kirt was going to show for the party. Kirt did not make it, much to my disappointment. I am sure there was a good reason. Dave made me tea and we sat outside to open my first present. Dave (with no help from me) managed to surprise me with an awesome dive t-shirt from Bonaire. This really was a surprise because I thought he was shopping for one of his brothers, not me! The T-shirt is very colorful with fish, coral and a diver. Then we decided to do some baking. Dave made 2 loaves of wonderful bread ( with spices from mom: Thyme & Basil). I made a spice cake with cinnamon and nutmeg. Both bread and cake turned out excellent! After we were done baking I worked for a while on a new shortstory. Then we decided it was time for a little exploration. We got in the dinghy and headed south to the next island called "Wichubhuala". I rowed part of the way because it was quieter and we were going with the wind. We found a pier on the far side and tied up the dinghy. We immediately found the store at the end of the pier (canned goods, sugar, eggs, butter, soap, engine oil, coke, beer, etc...). A tour of the complete island (the parts that weren't underwater) took less than 10 minutes. It is only about 1/4 of a mile in diameter. Lots of thatched huts, a tailor and another store with fabric and school supplies, and a small 2 room school. There are only foot paths and the island is made completely of sand. Everyone was friendly, the kids and adults greeted us. We went back to the pier and shared a coke. While we were relaxing a fishing pirogue (large wooden canoe shaped boat). showed up with nets and a lot of fish...Baracuda, snapper, gar, yellow jack, etc. The fish was divided up among certain families (probably families of the fishermen), then the rest appeared to be for sale. We stood in line and picked a large yellow jack and paid him $3. Then we bought a few beers and some butter and headed back to the boat. When we arrived at the boat, we saw another sail boat coming into the anchorage. As we watched this new boat come in we noticed a dolphin swimming in front of the boat. We quickly donned our snorkels, masks and flippers and jumped in the water in hope of a close up view. No such luck, but sure worth the try. When we got back to the boat Dave worked on cutting the fish into fillets, more than enough meat for 4 of us. Shortly after Matti and Jo came back from snorkeling. Matti's only catch snorkel-fishing was too small to keep. But Jo showed up with another birthday present for me. A beautiful conk. The shell was larger than any other we had seen (dead or alive) and this one was alive. We struggled at removing the meat from the shell, but well worth the effort. Dave pounded the white meat to tenderize. Then he breaded and fried the meat as an appetizer. It was very good. Hopefully we will be finding more conch in the future. Jo started the grill for the fish and Dave made some rice to go with it. We had a special bottle of wine with dinner and candle light. After dinner we at some of my spice cake and relaxed. The final event of the day was to watch a DVD movie on the computer. We watched "Priscilla Queen of the desert" on our larger than life couch (lower the table add cushions to make a 9 foot by 5 foot couch/cinema viewing area). The movie was hilarious and a perfect end to a perfect day!! Thanks guys!
-SLC


Jo showing off the conch that he found to contribute to our celebration.


The Yellow Jack that we bought in the village on the next island.


Stacy cutting into the very delicous spice cake!