What is a “Cayuco?”
Odd as it may sound, we get this question a lot. Cayucos are the hollowed logs that the locals have been using for their boats for centuries. What struck us was the culture that is intrinsically linked to these amazing craft. From birth, the Gnobes use cayucos for cradles and playpens. Once the children are old enough, they paddle to school in smaller cayucos, which are their equivalent bicycles. With the need for fishing, diving and transportation of goods, these vessels increase in size, until some are well over 50 ft and deeply drafted in order to ferry tons of material. There’s nothing more inspiring than to witness the locals standing while paddling these very unstable boats, and little more amusing than to witness a cow being transported across the waterscape by one either. What ceases to amaze are the intrepid fisherman paddling miles offshore to fish in oftentimes huge seas only to return under “sail” with their sprit rigs formed from old sacks and other discarded material. Out
