Many years ago, before De Palm Island was De Palm Island, a trip on board the Seastar Catamaran carried guests for a day on an island off-the-island, to play Robinson Crusoe – living the life of a castaway on a narrow, sun bleached coral shoal.
I took that boat one day and I remember us girls lined up on the rickety pier like sardines taking in the sun. Bronzing was in fashion then. The place was drop-dead gorgeous.
On Sunday, Dia di Himno Y Bandera, we mobilized to visit the coral shoal in front of WEB, shuttling across the channel from the little beach behind the Vet Services in Barcadera.
A friend-of-a-friend motored us with more coolers than people. The big migration with enough food and drink to feed the Russian army, plus two small dogs, took about five trips in a Boston Whaler, but we got there and settled down – Kooyman chairs, Price Smart towels.
Our Rancho was nicely maintained with a field kitchen, a BBQ pit, a large living room, pier with ladder into the water and an outhouse, all set in the mangroves. The prominent sign read Rancho Di Chonai.
Chonai rents out the rancho for a reasonable rate and the above mention hobbyist fisherman, he says he never catches anything, ferried us over for a song and a dance, divided among 25 friends we each shelled Awg 12.50 into the pot.
Marjo who is a great organizer assigned all a chore – potato salad, toilet paper, etc., you know — and it all fell in place brilliantly.
The water, wow the water, pure crystalline, the strewn bleached coral, redefining white, colors so vibrant and inviting. We hung out. I took a nap, in my comfy bucket chair.
The shoal is graced by three Ranchos, the middle one seems abandoned. We walked in the shallow lagoon exploring the sights, we encountered nothing, but serenity.
Then some more nothing happened, except that a juvenile boa decided to drop in for lunch. How did it get there? Do boas swim?
We enjoyed a classic BBQ. Chef Bas marinated, precooked and flipped. Not that Bas, another Bas, equally handsome and equally talented.
We collected our unbelievable clutter and trash and took it with us across the channel at the end of the day.
I hope to get to do this Robinson Crusoe thing again, it’s so beautiful out there. True you occasionally pick up a nasty whiff of the WEB combustibles – what are they burning? But overall it is pristine!
