It shouldn’t come as any big surprise that the rest of the world doesn’t understand what all the fuss is about for Super Bowl Sunday. So it’s up to us as cruisers to introduce them to the festivities and fun that they’re missing! Of course, keep in mind, they all think “football” is soccer, so our work is cut out for us! 🙂
While we were in the Rio Dulce, the American owned Catamaran Island Marina and Resort celebrated NFL football every Sunday with bocatos (snacks) at the bar. This bar is a wonderful place to hang out and watch football – two “big” screens (well, big is a relative word, but state of the art for Guatemala), friends, free snacks, drinks and socializing all day every Sunday – it doesn’t even have to be Super Bowl Sunday! So if you get to the Rio, be sure to join Kevin and friends for Sunday NFL Football!
Then there was the year, 2007, to be exact, that “my” Indianapolis Colts played David’s Chicago Bears. We were a boat divided, even though neither of us is a diehard football fan. Cruisers are always looking for an excuse for a party and this one seemed perfect! Anchored in French Cay Harbor, Roatan, we dinghied in to the Fantasy Island Bar to watch what seemed like a 27″ television. All was well, the “tailgate” party was well-attended and then we all sat down to watch the game. DAMN, the Bears ran back the opening kickoff to score a touchdown – this rivalry is NOT going my way! When BLAM!!! All the electricity goes out. This is not an uncommon occurrence in the islands, but at this exact minute, it was very inconvenient. We run outside to see that the entire island is black. Our friend Doug would say “life is in the timing”, but this was outrageous! We wait – usually power comes back on within a few minutes, but not this time. OK, fine, we have a new Sirius radio antenna aboard and we’ll just go back to the boat and listen to the game. We make our way down to the dock with our dinghy and give one more glance over our shoulders to make sure the electricity hasn’t come back on. Still total blackness. Halfway out to the boat, all the lights flicker and then come back on! The dinghy does an abrupt u-turn and we’re back just in time to see that “my” Colts have somehow taken the lead! It can’t get better than this! The rest of the game, the electricity cooperated and we celebrated the Colts Superbowl victory and Peyton’s Superbowl ring!
But by far the best was 2008 in Kuna Yala (San Blas Islands), Panama. The little Kuna villages mostly didn’t have any electricity and lived in bamboo huts with grass roofs. We listened to the playoffs on the Sirius satellite radio, usually with friends. Then our “organizing committee” decided we should find a place to watch the Super Bowl and the adventure was launched! First we had to find a village with electricity — enter Nargana and Corazon de Jesus. We enlisted a Kuna friend, Frederico to help. Frederico knew everyone on both islands and was the first guy out in his wooden cayuco to introduce himself when your anchor wasn’t even set yet. He claimed he could do anything and get anything we needed, so we put him to the test. Both these villages have electricity and schools, but we had never seen a television. Frederico assured us “no problemo mon”.
The appointed day arrived and cruisers from all over Kuna Yala descended on the anchorage, dinghying in to Corazon de Jesus for the big game. Everyone arrived early enough with all the fixin’s for a “tailgate” and invited the Kuna to join us. Sure enough, no problemo mon! A local Kuna man volunteered to move his television outside behind his house to accommodate the party and the fun was on!
Unfortunately the wrong team won (we’re NOT Patriots fans), but everyone had a good time and now the Kuna, at least the ones in Corazon de Jesus, know what a Super Bowl Party is! 🙂 How do you celebrate Super Bowl Sunday?
