Bahia Santa Elena, Santa Rosa National Park, Costa Rica.

La Puntilla, Costa del Sol, El Salvador.

We fought our way north to Isla Bayoneta against the norther that’s been blowing for the last week or so. We anchored inside an Austrian boat, spoiling their view, and immediately jumped overboard.

A short time later, we’re dripping wet and reading our books when guy comes by in a 20 foot dugout to ask if we have any water. I say, “yes” and eyeing his baskets add, “Do you have any vegetables?” He replies “Pues, sandia y ñame.” “yamy?” I asked. “No, ñame” he repeated while digging around in one of his baskets. After a while he held up a hairy dirt clod about the size of a football and again says “ñame.” I’m always keen to try anything I’ve never seen before so we got the ñame and a good size watermelon. He got a dollar and a liter of rainwater. I should have gotten his picture.

The watermelon wasn’t ripe… bummer. I don’t think I’ve ever had an unripe watermelon before. It was still juicy, cool and fun to eat, but not red and not sweet. Once you’ve cut off all the dirt and skin the ñame is white and slimy. It cooks up into a big starch bomb but thankfully the slime goes away. Pretty good, but there’s nothing to really recommend it against a potato. We had it with refried red beans and that curry sauce that you probably remember from Costa Rica if you’ve ever been there. Not a typical TimeMachine meal, but we aren’t too picky at this point. Our fresh food stores consist of two onions and a shriveled potato. The scurvy will set in soon.

We rounded Punta Mala (Point Bad) two days ago and it sucked utterly. Luckily the Perlas are every bit of a prize as they have been talked up to be so we’re pretty happy to be here and have almost forgotten how miserable we were not 48 hours ago. We have had the clearest water we have seen the entire trip anchored at Isla San Jose (we could see the bottom in 40 feet of water) and we are now anchored off Isla Bayoneta, working our way north until we make the final passage to Panama City.