Yarr! There be pirates here!

A couple of weekends ago the Muhammad’s took us to Little Aden. This is an area renown for its beautiful and sparsely populated beaches. Many parts are accessible only on foot or by boat. At the Muhammad’s prompting, Ben, Matt, our new friend Alex (who came to us via couchsurfing.com) and I got on a decrepit part-wood, part-fiberglass glorified rowboat with an outboard motor. AND THEN WE WERE OFF! We went from standstill instantly to 30 knots- it was hysterical to watch leisure swimmers turn panicky as we whizzed past them with only inches to spare and watch as they were buffeted about in our wake.
The waves were surprisingly choppy and at first Muhammad tried to avoid the bigger ones lest we be drenched in sea water. The sun was boiling lava hot, the sky clear, and the waves a stunning aquamarine. Later spurned on by our laughter he gunned the boat through the choppy surf, we were just NAILING the waves and flying through the air- truly air-born more often than floating. My shrieks of exhilarated delight quickly turned to yelps of anguish and fear but all sound was lost in the roaring wind. We were sitting on planks of wood hammered into the gunwales- literally no cushion or give at all. Every wave we crested sent us plummeting back to sea in a bone-jarring, boat-crushing impact. I was wearing a hat to protect my delicate, lady-like skin from the harmful rays of the sun but the extreme force of the wind kept whipping it off of my head. Zipping across the water felt like ridding a bucking bronco- I had one hand holding my hat in place, the other tenuously clutching onto the boat for dear life. With the sounds the boat was making and the incredible pressure upon impact I still cannot believe that the boat wasn’t shattered into a million pieces and three Americans and a Spaniard never to be seen again… We pulled up to deserted strip of beach surrounded by wadis, dropped anchor, and came ashore.
The scenery was simply breathtaking- endless water as far as the eye cold see, our stretch of beach, empty save for the occasional jutting cliff face, or sprawling dune. Ever tried to run up a giant mountain of sand? No easy feat, even if the sand wasn’t boiling lava hot. That brief bit of exertion utterly exhausted me. After a while I arranged some sand just so, and curled up for a leisurely nap under the shade of a cliff face.
After a while I went to explore a dried up river bed for and roamed around some wadis. There were some old abandoned bunkers from Aden’s last civil war in 1994- it was straight out of the apocalypse, buildings and supplies abandoned where they lay. There wasn’t a soul in site. It was amazing to be so utterly alone. Not a noise to be heard except the gentle lapping of the waves upon the sandy beach. Eventually two of the Muhammads went back to civilization to get some lunch. They were gone for an alarmingly long time- so long that it prompted many discrete glances, and hushed convos between Ben, Matt and I- Wait? They are coming back today, right? They brought back a giant pot of zurbiyan(chicken cooked with rice, potatoes and lime) and a pot of tea. We all squatted around a communal platter grabbing handfuls of food and trying to breach the language barrier.
Throughout the day the Muhammads would periodically stop to pray. Muhammad Ali, an Imam, lead them singing out the call to prayer. It was awesome to see them miles from civilization on a deserted beach debate over which direction lies Mecca, and perform the ritual washings in pools of sea water and scrub with sand.

It was a truly wonderful day.

perfectly timed mid-jump-for-joy

In other news that was the first time I went on a boat, but have since been on several. I know that there are endless reports of lawlessness and pirating(pirateering? piratry?) (more commonly referred to as swashbuckling) but I haven't seen any evidence of it. And I'm looking.