There really is very little better than a boat party. And the Palmillaso New Year’s Eve party celebrated at Palmilla, just a short sail outside of the Marina Casa de Campo really is rather awesome.
This year, as every year, Casa de Campo Living and friends set sail for local beauty spot Palmilla – to join the party.
Getting into the festive spirit on our way to Palmillaso
Under beautiful blue skies, the journey to palmilla gave us plenty of time to celebrate, crack open plenty of bottles of champagne and really get the party started!
Upon arrival, it was time to sit back, relax and absorb the atmosphere – while we waited for the famous “boat circle” to form. But as it turned out our mixed group of Russians, Germans, Italians, Brits and Americans didn’t much like the idea of “taking it easy”, so our celebrations continued with plenty of music, dancing, toasts and the occasional dip in the crystal clear blue water.
As the afternoon progressed, the area slowly filled up with more and more boats, and we were visited by our friends Robert Garcia and Charles Fombrun, who were accompanied by their pet monkey – Coco and tiny doggy – Chanel, visitors who caused quiet a commotion amongst our female passengers!
And then it… didn’t happen. The famous Palmillaso “boat circle” never actually took shape. So while that is normally our favorite part of Palmilla and the Palmillaso – there is nothing quiet like “boat hopping” around that circle – it was still nevertheless a pretty good party!
So what exactly did happen? Lots of little parties. This year, rather than there being one central “boat circle” there were maybe 3 or 4 different groups of boats all lined up and partying together; boat hopping, drinking and dancing until the sun went down….
In the end we couldn’t resist a little “boat hopping” ourselves and ended up doing a circular tour of the entire party area, visiting our friend Aleco Azqueta for Ron Atlantico daiquiris aboard the Ron Atlantico boat on the way. Cheers!
The following collection of photos were taken on Tuesday December 31st at the Palmillaso boat party:
A note about nurse sharks
In the midst of all this merry making, we did have one unpleasant experience. A group of local fisherman – who are normally seen in the area selling fish and lobsters – had caught a shark. A nurse shark. Nurse sharks are harmless “bottom feeders” that eat crustaceans, molluscs, tunicates, sea snakes, and other fish such as stingrays – and as we do not eat them, there is no reason to catch them.
This is the first time we have seen a nurse shark “for sale” at Palmilla, and we hope it will be the last. Sadly on this occasion, the nurse shark was actually purchased by some people at Palmilla (we saw it on Instagram), so all we can say is – in future please help discourage the hunting of these harmless creatures by NOT buying them.
