Sailors' Humor
The first time I crossed the sea on a boat to get to Margarita I was about 16 years old. I had never been on a boat and I was nervous as hell.
One of my older brothers was taking me on this "adventure." He promised it would be fun, faster, and cheaper.
I'm sure he was being driven by the "cheapest" part. It was too good to be true.
What my brother did not tell me was the "most-dangerous" part. The road to get the the most septentrional part of mainland seemed taken from a video game; the kind where no one can move on to the next level.
When we arrived at Chacopata, the humble fishing town without any kind of infrastructure that served as port, we were met by drunk sailors, rustic boats and no life jackets or any other kind of safety measures.
It will be so fast, you will not notice the wild waves, my brother told me. So much for a motivation speech. When we were half crossing, the boat started to "fly". Every time it "landed" it felt like it was crashing against some rocks. The sea is shallow today, they joked. Maybe we are hitting some sharks, someone else offered. One of the sailors, noticing my consternation, asked me, Can you swim? I was so afraid they would ask something like that. Just in case, he said, if need be, he added looking at the water leaking inside the boat, swim towards mainland. Margarita is still too far.
Nothing happened. I was so scared and angry at the same time, I could not even throw up. Apparently that kind of crossing is business as usual for these people. I promised myself I would never make that crossing again. I don't care how much I have to pay to avoid it.
Thanks for your reading
This was my entry to @mariannewest and @latino.romano’s 5-Minute Daily Freewrite: Tuesday Prompt: CAN YOU SWIM. You can see the details here.
Make sure you visit the Freewrite House!!!
Can I swim?! 😂 I went through something similar while going to Manicuare. "Tapaítos" are the worst 🤣 Now I can laugh about it!
Abrazote, @hlezama 💕
😂
They are a threat to mental health
We really need some fancy bridges around here.
Hope everything is going well over there
Tremenda Aventura, inolvidable🙈
Ya me imagino lo terrorífico que fue escuchar la pregunta que si sabías nadar.
Conozco ese mar y se pone muy agitado, de verdad es un mar .
Muy divertido tu post, me gusto👏😸
Gracias!
El viaje fue corto, pero tiempo y distancia pueden ser conceptos escurridizos cuando se está en aprietos. Fue el viaje más largo y tortuoso de mi vida 😂
It reminded me the days when my aunt took us to Araya but instead of taking the ferry, she took us in Tapaitos to get to Manicuare. Not fun at all. 🤭