A panga boat ride is similar to when your best friend takes dad’s Porsche out for a spin: fast, unnerving, uproariously fun with fist-clenching close calls. This is the Caribbean Coast’s main mode of transportation, and how blueEnergy can access our communities.
Our two-hour panga ride on a recent trip to Monkey Point leaves us still bruised, black and blue on each cheek. I only wish we had a Porsche’s seats.
Why? For two hours we shielded ourselves from raindrops that felt like pebbles, dowses of saltwater and the occasional equipment flying from bow to stern. Worried volunteers looked to me, a fishing captain during the summer, for confidence that we were actually going to make it. I kept optimism painted on my face, even though I was lying through my skin at the top of a few wave crests.
What these boats provide is access to communities such as Monkey Point, Rama Kay and Set Net Point where life is minimal, albeit challenging. Pigs roam the yards of the thatched roof houses, along with chickens, roosters and horses. It’s simple: no glitz, no glamour.
While there, I studied the community fisheries and one morning woke up at 4 a.m. to meet Edwin, a local, and his 10-year-old son at the beach in front of their house.
I wasn’t entirely clear what boat we were going to use, whether it would be a panga with a motor or a cayuco, a dugout canoe made from one large tree trunk. Our weapon of choice was the latter, and I was thrilled by its simplicity.
We shoved the cayuco into the breaking waves and waded out until we could jump in and paddle to where the gillnet lay all night, trapping any unlucky fish swimming by. This time we left the Porsche behind.
This last trip to Monkey Point created lasting memories, which, I suppose, is why many of us are here at blueEnergy. Everyone wants a great story to tell our grandkids. But, the most tragic and heroic stories came from two community members.
We were asked to bring a pregnant woman and her child to Bluefields because of a severe infection in her eyes. We had just enough gas to handle two extra people, but we couldn’t manage to fit her husband in the panga for the entire trip. The solution: he woke up at 3 a.m. and walked for twelve hours through the dense jungle and sun-baked beaches to the entrance at Bluefields Bay from Monkey Point. Twelve hours, nonstop, in order to meet our panga at the bar entrance and hitch a lift for the last 20 minutes of the panga journey. He held a shell he found for his wife in his hand and hopped onto our boat.
Brett Veerhusen is currently living in Bluefields, Nicaragua as the Controller for the blueEnergy Group. At the moment, Brett lives by the quote “Dream aggressively” from the blueEnergy Group. Even more recently, Brett was profiled in the fantastic website, Escape the City.
Latest posts by bveerhusen
- Nicaragua to Alaska: An Unlikely Duo - June 15th, 2010
- Water is What Water Does - April 26th, 2010
- Productive Uses Create Sustainable Energy - April 9th, 2010
- Pan Doesn't Only Mean Bread - March 19th, 2010
- When Microenergy and Microfinance Meet - February 19th, 2010
- The Experience: Enjoying Your Time as a Volunteer - February 4th, 2010
- Nica is Cash Only - January 19th, 2010
