Sal Si Puedes, Panama (Part 3)

It has taken me a while to add this Part 3 to my update of my Panama trip. It's because I realize that I've totally messed up what events took place on which days. Annoying. (Not F-U! this time. More like Eff Me). But I will try to wrap this up and straighten it out!

So it turns out that Dave and I MUST have gone kayaking for fish on Saturday, (just a day after we got to our island we ran out of food - crazy!) not Sunday - because on Sunday, we went in to Bocas Town to actually have a decent meal for dinner and buy more food for our Casa. For lunch on Sunday, we had the leftover Mac & Cheese and spaghetti warmed up on the stove from the previous nights meals, accompanied with the last pieces of bread from our loaf. All 3 cans of Pringles were gone at this point. I started eating the Nutella out of the jar with a spoon. The Pineapple had been devoured. The Watermelon had fizzed and exploded into oblivion. The stale cereal had been tossed. Nobody wanted to eat the dry, crunchy Nature Valley Oats 'N Honey granola bars that were purchased. No OJ or Coke left to energize our taste buds.

Dave went to talk to Gregorio to ask if he'd be OK driving us in to the main land that evening around 4 or 5. G-man agreed. Now, the 3 of us were wondering about the payment to Gregorio, as usually the initial trip from Bocas to the house and the final return trip from the house to Bocas is included in the weekly rent of the house. But since Scott hooked us up and we were staying at this house for free, we needed to pay Gregorio for all the trips back and forth. When we first arrived at the house Friday evening, we asked Gregg-o about what he usually charged for the boat trip. He told us $30, so that's what we paid him. For some reason, he seemed upset when we gave him the money -- like it wasn't enough or something?? We were confused by his reaction and our confusion grew when he didn't even get out of his boat to show us to the house, or let us know where things were, etc. Overall, just an uneasy feeling... (F-U!)

We speculated about what we should do, but decided that since G-man told us 30 bones, that's what we would pay him. 5PM rolls around and Dave goes to get G to let him know we're ready to head in to town. G answered, "This late?" Ummmmm.... YEAH. Remember how Dave asked you earlier today if that time would work and you said yes? Well, now's the time, old man. Fire up that boat engine. (F-U!)

We load up in the boat and are on our way! We are all hungry and looking forward to a yummy meal.

The boys are OOZING with happiness. HA!

A short while after we take off from the boat dock, we stop at a little floating store/gas station where G gets some gas for the boat. We pay for it, which is $36. Then when we get to Bocas, we pay G his standard $30 for the trip. This is getting to be quite pricey!! When we get off the boat, we immediately make our way to the little airport to see if we can change our flight to leave a day early. This time I stop for a photo with the crazy Satellite residence.




When we get to the airport, it is closed, so we head back to the main street to eat. Dave is tempted by this tasty choice of cuisine (HAHA!):



Gourmet food cooked just for you! (not quite). We actually ended up going to Wari Wari (I made us all go there - as I was attracted to it the first day we landed in Bocas) and sat down at an open table. I ended up ordering a Greek salad, as my body was telling me I needed some veggies. It was actually VERY good, as it had yummy feta cheese in it. :) We all ordered several drinks, as it was still very hot and humid. Just couldn't get enough cold liquid down our throat! The atmosphere was fun with music pumping through the speakers and a few baseball games being shown on the tvs over in the bar area.

Notice the dance floor. Apparently they teach Salsa dancing some nights.

My sweaty, glistening self waiting for my drink - with ice, please! - to come to me

I love how they built this place AROUND the tree!

You can see why I wanted to stop and eat here.... right?

As should be expected in the tropics, the service was VERY slow, but we still underestimated the time it took us to actually get our food and eat. At one point, Dave had to leave the table to go tell G that we would be a bit later than originally thought. We finally got our check and made our way crummy grocery store #2. Maybe we could purchase some meat here to take back with us so we could have a decent meal the last night we were to reside at the Casa. No such luck. I wish I had a picture of the case of meat. GROSS! I don't know if that crap was refrigerated or what, but it sure looked putrid. I found a can of Hormel Turkey Chili, though! EUREKA! I was happy to pay 4 dollars for that can of deliciousness. We bought more pasta and sauce, drinks, bread and who knows what else. I certainly don't remember. Maybe some canned fruit cocktail. Oh, yes. I remember now that I plucked that little gem off the shelf.

By the time we walked out of the grocery store with our 'goods', it was completely dark. We met up with G-dude and asked him if it would be a problem getting back to our casa in the pitch black. You see, there is a lot of foliage in the water that you have to navigate around, and you have to know EXACTLY where to go in order to avoid the shallow water. Only the locals have this knowledge. G assured us it wouldn't be a problem. We hopped in the boat and we took off shortly thereafter. I figured G had a big spotlight on the front of his boat that he used to navigate through the blackness. But no. We pulled away from the lights of Bocas and were quickly submerged in total darkness, G driving at full speed. What a rush! We literally couldn't see ANYTHING. At some points, G would slow down and turn the boat one way or the other and eventually we would see that we were passing through some close foliage-growth of some sort. We were certainly amazed by his abilities.

From the boat ride -- hopefully this portrays how truly dark it was!

At one point I looked over the edge and saw light! In the wake of the boat, there were glowy plankton things EVERYWHERE! So freakin' Cool! This 45 minute boat ride turned in to more like an hour and a half, since we were navigating through the dark, but it was seriously one of the coolest parts of the whole Panama trip. Imagine going at full speed, racing in to seemingly nothingness, but catching glimpses of what could be your demise - if G had been slightly off course - breezing right by your boat, not seeing it until it was right in your face. So crazy!! My neck had a crick in it before long from looking over the edge of the boat; mesmerized by the bright plankton whizzing by in the wake.

Finally Gregorio slowed the boat and handed Scott a flashlight. We were at our boat dock! Wow. How he got us there, I have NO idea. Scott shined (shone?) the light so Gregorio could successfully park our boat, and there we were! Home sweet home. (Another 30 bones to G, although this time maybe we got our money's worth). We unloaded our few groceries, then Scott and I decided to go take a *skinny* dip (gasp! How scandalous! Good thing it was pitch black) in the blackened ocean to see if we could awaken some glowy plankton ourselves. It worked! We moved our hands through the water and there were little living lights that followed the stream of our movements. Sweet! It was fun and exhilarating. I could only see a faint outline of where Scott actually was, but I could perfectly see the bright plankton in the water where he moved his hands. However, the fun was shortly lived for me, as I quickly started getting bit by something. Felt like a leech sucking on my upper thighs or something. Or maybe it was a fish. Or a manta ray. At any rate, it freaked me out, so I quickly took myself to shore. (F-U!)

In the middle of the night that night, Dave woke me up to tell me that he thought the power went out. This house is run on batteries, powered by solar panels. The water for the house is collected rainwater that is filtered and stored in huge barrels in the back of the house. Kinda cool. Anyway, I wake up and hear this *BUZZ* *BUZZ* *BUZZ*, then a surge of power throughout the house for 3 seconds, then immediately the surge died and the *BUZZ* *BUZZ* *BUZZ* started again. This cycle went on for HOURS, in which (thanks a lot, Dave!), I couldn't go back to sleep. Apparently all the juice in the batteries was gone. The power tried every few seconds to turn on, but the batteries couldn't support the energy needed. Finally Dave got out of bed, walked across the house to the laundry area, and flipped the breaker switch. Aahhhh. Silence.

Have I mentioned how this house has no A/C? I believe I have. It has been the root of Scott's misery. It makes it hard to sleep, as the air is hot and sticky. The house is built so that the walls stop several feet short of connecting to the ceiling in order to create the best air circulation (and very audible bathroom visits, we quickly found out)... And while the house DOES have ceiling fans, they pretty much do nothing because they are placed too high up to feel any relief from them. So to be completely asleep and be woken up is frustrating, as it's hard to fall asleep in the first place. Dave and I shared the king size bed in the bedroom (Scott preferred the wicker 'couch' in the living room in front of the floor fan) but there really was no thought as to it being inappropriate. Really, there was PLENTY of room on that hard-as-rock mattress, and nobody wanted to get close to anybody anyway. Too hot. Too humid. Anyway, we all got a few more hours of rest (not really sleep) after Dave cut ALL power off, and then I got up to use the restroom and discovered that the water pressure is linked to the power in the house -- the sink water trickled out while I tried to wash my hands. (F-U!)

Gregorio ended up turning on the generator to charge the batteries, and explained that we better not try to watch the tv or use too much electricity overall. The constant loud "hum" of the generator was not welcome to my ears. Later that morning, the housekeeper showed up. Her husband was wandering around close-by, so Dave asked him about getting fish, retelling our sad tale from a couple of nights before with the undertone of conveying how ridiculous it was that there were no fish. The dude's response was, "Yeah, there's no fish" (or something to that effect). WHA -? Again, how can there not be ANY fish? We are surrounded by ocean!! He did, however, let Dave know that he could get us some fresh lobster. Sweet! We'll take it. We'll be eating fine tonight!!

Since this was our last day on this island, Dave and I decided to do some exploring on foot. Scott didn't want to deal with the heat or humidity, so he found a book and sat himself in front of that floor fan. Dave and I eagerly headed out on our adventure:

Is this inhabited? If so, how did they get in there?

What the what?! Where is this disgusting water coming from?

And we had to walk through this...

Seriously! What IS this?

Dave hops in the local's grocery-getter

I'm on the lookout for Pirates.... Actually, I'd really like to find some fish in this huge ocean surrounding us. Shouldn't be too hard, right?

Just some cool scenic shots...

We came across this hotel in the jungle. Dave asked how much it costs for a night, and he was told over $300!! That much money to stay on an island with no A/C and no fish to eat? CRAZY-LOCO

We had some climbing to do..

More beautiful scenery

This is one of 3 stray dogs that followed us at some point along our excursion. It seemed to think the nasty water was just fine!

Dave and I pose in the Jungle.

I am so hot and sweaty by this point!

<-----------------

But Dave captures a candid shot of me showing that I really AM enjoying the adventure

On our way back to the house, we came across this sign! -----------------> I wonder how miserable the contestants were in the heat & humidity. But I bet it was worth a million dollars for whoever won.

<------------------------- I was walking in the shore when I saw just the top of a shell about the size of a child's palm. I started digging to get it out of the sand and water and it turned out to be this HUGE conch shell! That was a really fun discovery. I carted it back to the house with me and wished that I could have fit it in with my luggage to take back to the States.

Not long after we returned back to the house, our housekeeper's husband delivered the lobster to us and Scott got to work. He declared what good luck it was that he had JUST watched how to prepare lobster just the day before on tv. :) Even so, it was quite the feat! Pretty disgusting to watch:

























After Scott graciously prepped, gutted, cooked and picked all the meat out of the lobster for us, we plopped that meat right on top of a huge pile of spaghetti and took our dinner outside to the porch. The lobster was surprisingly sweet, but it was a beautiful evening and we took our time eating, talking and taking in the scenery.

That night marked the worst night for me there...... Stay tuned for the details! (I really hope part 4 will cover the rest of the trip! According to my counter above, it's been 5 weeks since Panama. My memory is fading, and I'm ready to move on to more blog posts!!)

Curious as to where I live?

This pretty much sums it up. I live about a mile away from all of this. Funny!

Sal Si Puedes, Panama (Part 2)

Time for Part 2 of this adventure before I start forgetting all the fun and funny details of the trip!  If you follow my blog posts on Google Reader, you may want to log in to my blog directly to get the full story of the previous post.  I accidentally published mid-composition and had to take it back in to edit-mode to finish.

Anyway, let's see.  I left off with the awesome crazy thunderstorm that came through in the middle of the night.  The next morning, we all got up and decided to try out the snorkel gear.  There was a convenient set of 3, so we got to work trying on flippers, arranging face masks with the tubes, and washing mouthpieces.  We all looked AWESOME!


<--------------- Trying to figure out how this little spring-like-loaded contraption works.  If it goes underwater, does it seal shut so I don't breathe in the ocean?

Scott and I check out the gear

Examining the tubes and masks

It's hard not to drool when laughing with the mouthpiece stuck in there

WORD!

I can't help but laugh as I look over at Scott

BAM!

So we all flapped our flipper-feet down to the water to see what we could find.  I was anxious to see some fish and starfish like we had seen the first morning.  Let me just say first that I have never snorkeled.  So this was a new experience for me.  I waded out in to the water tentatively, as the dudes went right for it -- stuck their faces in and started kicking.  I prepared myself by breathing in and out of my mouth through the tube, then slowly put my face in the water.  Immediately, my breathing gets harder and faster, as my instinct is to NOT breathe.  I tell myself, "Don't panic!  You can breathe fine!  Just in and out through the mouth - not the nose"  It works for a bit, but then water starts rushing in to my face mask.  And I don't know how to breathe ONLY through my mouth.  It seems like there's still air going in and out of my nose, too.  So of course I panic and pop my face out of the water, tilt the mask to let the water get out, take note of the distance the boys have traveled in the last 30 seconds, put my mouth piece BACK in my mouth, and practice breathing again through the tube.  I get in a nice breathing rhythm and slowly lower my face back in the water for a Take 2.  Again my breathing picks up as soon as my face is submerged, and again I tell myself that I am fine.  I start to straighten out my body and move my flipper-feet, when water rushes in to my mask AGAIN.  I'm thinking maybe this is normal??  So I hold out for a bit and keep going.  Finally, I figure out the hard way that yes, there is still air going in and out of my nose, and I just sniffed up the tiniest bit of water.  That's it.  I'm done.  I stand up, rip my mask off and awkwardly walk my flippered-self to shore.  Dave sees me and asks, "What's going on?" To which I respond, "I don't like this."  (F-U!)

A few minutes later, the boys declare that it really isn't the best time to go snorkeling, as the storm from the night before really made the water murky and dirty; not much to see.  So they come to shore.  Scott is about to go inside, when we convince him that he REALLY needs to experience the floaty device.  You see, he had been sitting inside most of the day each day, directly in front of a floor fan watching tv and reading his book.  The heat and humidity was a little much, and he just couldn't seem to get any relief from the discomfort.  He and Dave took the floaties out for a nice morning ......  well, FLOAT.  And as expected, it was a little piece of heaven.










I settled in to the chair on the porch to read my book.  Eventually Scott & Dave came in from their float, and I heard the tv turn back on.  So I stuck in my headphones to listen to music while I read.  But I could still hear the laugh-track pretty clearly from whatever sit-com was on, so I took my book and my iPod down to the chair on the beach.

Have I mentioned yet how all the locals seem to congregate around our Casa?  It's true.  The first morning, Dave woke up to some banging.  He looked out the window and there was some dude hacking away at a tree with a machete.  Wha-?  Then there were the dozen crazy boys who played water polo for like 6 hours straight, screaming and yelling under the pier.

[The first day we were there, Dave and I played some Frisbee in the surf.  Very soon a little boy and his sister, Margarita (can't remember the little dude's name) came over to watch us.  When we would have a wild throw, one of the niños would run and fetch the Frisbee. We thought this was a nice set-up.  Then we started throwing it right to them, including them in our game.  Dave taught me a few Spanish phrases to use, since I kept saying things to them in English.  I learned how to say Good Job! (¡Bien Hecho!) and Almost! (¡Casi!). It was fun, albeit unexpected.  I felt like one of those peace corps people, interacting and bonding with the local children (minus the constructing of adequate housing and distributing of information on proper hygiene)...]  

And then there were the constant new faces who would just come to the pier, hang out for a few hours talking, then go disappear back in to the jungle wherever they came from.. Do all these people on the island hang out at this house whenever there aren't tourists in it?  We came to the conclusion that yes, they must.  There are just too many people who keep coming around and hanging out RIGHT in front of the house. (F-U!)








After a good bit, I am hot and sweaty in the beach chair, so I finish the chapter I'm reading, go inside to grab a glass of ice, then take a floaty and head out to the ocean.  Dave, I notice, has moved to the porch and is reading his book.  Scott is in his usual spot on the couch, fan pointed at him on HIGH, TV on.  He's already flown through the book he brought to read.

It doesn't take me long to fall asleep

Dave wakes me up so I can smile at the camera.

After snapping some shots of me sleeping in the ocean, Dave joins me on the other floaty and proceeds to tell me an interesting story.  But first some background: When in Bocas Town, we purchased a pineapple and a watermelon from a fruit vendor.  While we devoured the pineapple the first afternoon, we had yet to cut in to the watermelon.  I don't like watermelon, so I didn't even think about eating it.  Story: Dave figured it a good idea to cut in to the watermelon that afternoon, thinking it would be a nice refreshing afternoon snack.  He went to retrieve it from the counter and noticed there was some juice under it.  Hmmmmm.  So then he picks the watermelon up and it is FIZZING.  When he takes a knife to it, it actually explodes out, like a shaken up can of soda.  WTF?!?  Even after that craziness, Dave thought it would still be a good idea to sample the fruit, so he put a bit of it in his mouth.  Immediately, he spit it out, as it had gone completely rancid.  A fizzing, rotten watermelon?  In the trash.  (F-U!)

After a several-hour float, Dave and I head in to the house for a bit to eat.  It is then that we kind of realize that we don't have much food left.  The 3 of us have spaghetti for lunch, then decide that tonight is the night that we will go to 'the point' to get some fish and rice from the guy that Mrs-White-Neighbor told me about, and then we better ask Gregario to take us back in to Bocas the next day so we can get more food.  The grill is all set up on the porch for us to use, so Dave and I head out in the 2-person kayak with a little styrofoam cooler to fetch our dinner fixin's.  Grilled fish and rice for good eats tonight!!  We both feel that this is pretty cool; kayaking out in to the ocean to get our dinner.  Very Panamanian of us!

We eagerly head out, syncing our movements so that we quickly glide across the top of the water.  We pass a lot of houses.  We see a lot of locals.  We are happy to be kayaking for our dinner.  .......  FINALLY we reach the point of the island and the dock with a shop.  We see an old man sitting in front of the shop, but the shop windows are boarded up.  There is also a younger man on the pier, and a little boy.  We paddle up to shore, get out of the boat and walk up the pier with our cooler.  Dave starts talking to the man.  They exchange some words, Dave laughs, they talk some more, Dave looks around, they exchange a few more words, then Dave starts walking back.  It's times like these that I really wish I knew Spanish!  I really hate the language, but it sure is useful to know -- even when I'm not in Panama.  I ask Dave what was said and what's going on.  He tells me the following took place:

Dave: Good Evening!  Do you have any fish we can buy?

Old Guy: No, no fish.

Dave: Oh?  Are you closed?

OG: No fish.

**Dave chuckles uncomfortably**

Dave: What do you mean, no fish?  There's a whole ocean of fish out there! (said in a friendly way, while chuckling)

OG: Times are hard.

**Dave turns to the Young Guy**

Dave: We have money to give you.  Do you really not have any fish?

**Young Guy smiles and laughs uncomfortably**

YG: No, there isn't any fish.

**Young Guy walks away**

OG: Look!  That's what that boy is doing right now; trying to catch some fish.

**Dave looks and there is the little boy throwing a net over the side of the pier, then slowly bringing it back out of the water**

Dave: Do you have any rice or anything?

OG: No.

Dave: So do you think you'll have fish tomorrow?

OG: Times are hard.  Could be harder tomorrow. 

So we leave.  We walk the walk of shame down the pier, our shoulders a bit slumped.  We push the kayak in to the water, the empty cooler sitting between us, and we proceed to kayak back to our house defeated.  We were so eager and excited to come out here to buy some fresh fish from the locals and have ourselves a nice dinner, with Scott manning the grill.  To come back empty-handed is pretty depressing.  We have no motivation to get back quickly and be the bearers of bad news.  We have no dinner to look forward to.  It took us forever to kayak out here, and now we just have to go back with nothing to show for it.  Our hands are already starting to form little blisters from the paddles.  So we just drift for a bit.  We discuss what a let-down our little excursion was, and how the freak do they not have any fish?!?  Isn't that what their whole life is?  Generations upon generations have fished in this ocean.  They should know where the fish are.  They should be able to get fish, right?  It just seems bizarre.  What else do they do with their time on this food-desolate island?  Surely their day to day activities can only include fishing and coconut gathering and getting more palm leaves for their roof.  They must be bored out of their minds.  Same thing over and over again, day after day after hot day after humid day.  There is no change.  What is the quality of life out here, I wonder?  We conclude that they must not even know that killing themselves is an option.  (F-U!)

We laugh out loud with each other at our surmises of everything.  While drifting, we spot a TON of starfish!  So we spent the next 10-15 minutes trying to get one on the edge of our paddle.  We proceed to flip a bunch of them over, but can't quite scoop them up.  So we start paddling again and we see some HUGE manta rays scurrying out of the murk!  Very cool.  We finally make it back to the house just as it is starting to get pretty dark outside and tell Scott the bad news.  Scott declares that we really better get in to Bocas tomorrow to get more food.  Then he tells us that the tv is acting weird.  It keeps turning off.  He's hot and sticky.  We have no food.  He's kind of done with this whole thing and thinks we should leave a day early...  Dave and I say OK, as we know Scott's not had the best time here.  So the plan is to go in to Bocas the next day, go to the airport, and ask if we can change our tickets to leave a day early.  We have Pringles for dinner.

Stay tuned for Part 3...