Timbabiche

We have anchored every season at Timbabiche, sometimes several times, but never gone ashore. With Cathie and Terry along, we took the plunge: the first night, they kayaked over to the mangrove lagoon on the northeast side of the anchorage, portaged the kayaks across a sand bar and spent a couple of hours enjoying the exercise and the diversity of bird life.

The next morning we dinghied into the beach and walked back into the brush where we visited a small village, distinguished by its brand new school, its evidence that residents respect Semana Santa and Pascua (Easter), its rustic cattle ranch flavor, and its curious children.

There is a story behind this settlement...apparently a fisherman/diver in a local family discovered a pearl of great value and built a house worthy of a rich man. After he died, the story goes, his children fell to quarreling and the house was left to fall to ruin...a vestige of what once was...and a lesson for the future.
(If you haven't already done so, read John Steinbeck's The Pearl. If you read it when you were young, read it again)

We have a policy of not taking shells from the beach...instead, we admire them, compare, remark on how unique they are, (maybe) photograph them, leave them for others to enjoy, and for the earth to incorporate as nature requires.