This will be my last day at Caddo. I had a wonderful morning paddling around for almost 3 hours. An hour was spent going out to the river, and rowing up it while just enjoying all of the new home construction going on. You wouldn’t even know that there was an economic catastrophe going on. Seems like this financial epidemic, as usual, is really only affecting poor people.
I just can’t get enough of photographing these majestic cypress tress.
On the way back to my campsite I stopped to photograph a white heron. He was trying to fish, but some gringo kept taking his picture.
Ordinary yes, but still majestic!I see ART.
I thought that I would finish off this post with a photograph that I took on my first day here. I was out in the kayak and it began to rain crazy like. I just laid back, the inflatable is really comfortable, and let the cool rain wash over my sweat soaked body. It was a great start to a wonderful time here.
Things are just going really well. My little inflatable has been a wonderful addition. It allows me to get up close and personal with the bayou.
What a relaxing way to photograph nature.
I usually at least get a boat ride in the morning, and then one in the evening. It is usually just too hot and humid mid day to go out. The worst part is the worry of somehow losing all my camera gear over board. I don’t have a great track record in that department, do I?
Another nice addition is this popup shower/ porta potty. It was about $25 and allows me to not have to use the bathroom facilities which I am assuming, at this point in time, are not all that sanitary.
I have literally taken hundreds of photos of and in the bayou, many of them are just fabulous, if i must say so my myself. The hard part will be going through them all and finding the best of the best.
I couldn’t take it anymore so I had to get out into the real world. I packed up the van and my camera gear and 7 hours later here I am in Caddo Lake State Park.
My little 15 year old inflatable canoe, a Sea Eagle, has been doing fabulous. It’s a a little scarey rowing out in to the middle of the bayou carrying $1000’s of dollars of camera gear, but so far so good.
Morning at my campsite
The above photo was taken with my iPhone 7, and edited on my phone with Snapseed. It kind of make me wonder why I have all of this expensive camera gear?
Walks, bike rides, canoe trips and lounging by the open fire is exactly what the doctor ordered. now if it would just cool off a little!
Corn Island was a strange place, but one that we fit into very easily. It didn’t take us long to realize that we wanted to buy property and live there. The island was the truest definition of total anarchy. There was only one government official from Nicaragua, but he really didn’t have much to do. There was no crime there. People used to say that, “Life was so sweet that no one wanted to misbehave and get banished from paradise.”
When they needed money the old men collected coconuts.
No one worked very hard at all, and if they did it was only for a short time. This was definitively a trait that we had grown to love in our 6 years of travel! The young boys dove for lobster, or worked on a fishing boat for a few months, and then it was time to rest and party until they needed money again. The old men harvested their coconuts whenever they needed money. Everyone was tall and proud and physically in good shape. Also, there were no heavy weather events on Corn Island. It was often said that bad weather started here and went somewhere further north to do its damage. That’s why the island had some of the tallest and most graceful coconut trees that I have ever seen. Some were over 60 years old.
We asked everyone if they thought that we could live here.
Once we decided to buy property it was not easy to find anyone willing to sell. Rainy and I spent over 3 months going around to every house on South End, taking tea in living rooms, and asking if they thought that it would be OK if we lived here permanently? In the beginning we were met with pretty cool attitudes, but eventually, when they figured out that we were the real deal, they softened their tone.
The black population is composed mostly of black English-speaking Creoles who are the descendants of escaped or shipwrecked Caribbean slaves; many carry the name of Scottish settlers who brought slaves with them, such as Campbell, Gordon, Downs, and Hodgeson.
Mr. Campbell collecting coconuts
Mister Campbell was willing to sell us 2 acres on the beach in a place called Shallow Water with just two stipulations. One that he could come down and bathe his horse in the shallow ponds that were formed at high tide, and two that he could retrieve as many coconuts from the 100 plus trees as he wanted. We quickly agreed and closed the deal with a handshake, a handwritten note and an exchange of 8,000 Cordoba’s (about $850 US in 1980).
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