Another landing

In the early hours of Tuesday morning a yola from the Dominican Republic landed on our beach.

There was less of a mess on the beach than usual but it appears there were more women on this boat than usual: panties in the sand and a bra left on the boat:



a snazzy flipflop:



a couple of purses, already ransacked either by Border Patrol or looters:



makeup:



We've written before about the sad human cost of these boats. But there is a nearly-as-sad environmental impact as well. This boat was driven across the reef to get to the beach. Who knows what damage was done there. Plastic bags and bottles are just left both in the boat and on the beach. Discarded clothes are left for looters and the ones the looters don't want are just left. Border Patrol doesn't pick up any trash; their job is picking up illegal immigrants. The local police don't do anything. You would think Recursos Naturales (the department of natural resources) would get involved but that would require them to get out of their air conditioned SUVs and actually get out on the beach. Tain't happenin'. Eventually somebody will make a bonfire in the boat. (Officials of both the Coast Guard and Border Patrol swear it's not them.) That will burn off some of the fiberglass resin and release it into the air. Eventually waves and tides will drag the boat back across the reef, then back onto the shore, then back across the reef and rocks again until it begins to break up. Big sheets of fiberglass will come loose and drift on the current until they lodge in some part of the reef. Eventually the sheets will be broken into smaller and smaller bits. The skeleton of the boat will bleach on the beach until it eventually rots. In two or three years there will be no obvious sign the boat was ever here.