Skerdi sat beside me and then pulled down his baseball cap and donned his sunglasses. He interlocked his fingers with mine. He asked me as i smoothed out the sunblock across the bridge of his nose. It means cackle or loud laughter. Some say the island is haunted by witches. The boat pushed off from the dock and headed east into the sun. A crewman balanced his way forward to the very front of the boat. He read the waters as one would a book, inferring depth and activity below the surface of waves and ripples. Then he would signal his interpretations to the captain. We slowly navigated the calm waters and enjoyed the labyrinth of mangroves and islets. Coconut and palm trees surrounded us. As the sun rose and penetrated the sheet of water, we could see live corals where orange fish darted in and out. Inside the cabin, and on deck, many slept. Skerdi and i let the gentle wind cool us as we enjoyed the vista. You have a wonderful ability to make your readers enter into a culture through your mesmerizing descriptions of food, scenery and social behavior. At the same time, in this and in previous blogs, you have helped your readers understand as well as navigate between different cultures. You have done this while maintaining the detachment of a keen observer of human relationships and daily events, a hallmark of great writing in my view. Thank you so much for all the love and support. So we set up camp and went straight to bed. This was a pretty solid piece of rock. This trip was all about lead or sport climbing, which is climbing up the rock with the rope at your feet instead of the rope above you.