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Other entries in Bocas del Toro

i have at least one idea for a job after this trip

im sitting indian stlye in a hammock cradling a laptop computer using my new friend dan's wireless internet in his upstairs loft over the hostel he owns and operates. weve only been here 24 hours and its been amazing. dan is a emory graduate, one year ahead of us, who decided his senior year, with two other buddies, to find a place in a tropical location and open a youth hostel. one year later theyve made a tremendous name for themselves in this tourist beach community and the atmosphere is perfect, the guests all enthusiastic about the experience, and the staff all young, friendly, and in the right mindset for this type of job. dan is one of three owners who bought and restored this run down house and with the knowledge of a traveler, turned it into a paradise for backpackers making their way through panama. its affordable, even though he refused to accept our money, it cosy with hammocks randomly strewn about the facility and a communal kitchen where everyone shares the duties of cleanup and cooking, its fun, free access to board games, movies, and surfboards, and its informative, there are maps, books, and people with useful details of previous trips and experiences that are more than happy to sit down and spill their thoughts onto your open mind. its perfect because its a hostel built by travelers. they know what is fun and important because they have experienced the life. being your own boss at a hostel you own in a great beach town, shooting the shit with friendly travelers your age, and learning the true lessons of business at 24 is not a bad way to spend your life. at least these guys are setting a good example of what an ideal job can be. im having a fantastic time and we still have another 4 days here. last night they had a promotional party with happy hour at their attached bar that they also operate. beers were 50 cents and mixed drinks a dollar. travelers from all over town came to this off the beaten track hostel to meet and greet. a few locals even dropped by for the good deals and i conversed with one of them, feliz was his nickname, for over an hour about his life, job, and his desire to learn english. we practiced back and forth, him in english, me in spanish, and because he works for very little, i bought him a few drinks to prolong our conversation. david and i met up with the people that shared the rain-drenched taxi ride yesterday and we were all able to get to know each other better and agreed to meet this morning for a joint surfing session. i have never surfed before in my life but have a willingness to learn and the beaches here are accomodating enough to allow someone of my skill level to get some lessons. when david and i left this morning to meet up, we didnt actually find our friends so we had to go the path ourselves. we took a boat taxi across to bastamientos, another island close by, and with instructions from dan, followed a concrete path through a local village to a hidden dirt path to an even more hidden beach. the trek through the village was cool because we got to see a community of panamanians with a distinctly carribbean influence. all the houses were tin or aluminum and built on stilts. the buildings closer to the water were mostly restaurants, bars, or boat taxi depots. here the chickens and roosters looked healthier than the dogs making us note the difference in the two countries animal environments. david and i looked drastically out of place walking shirtless with giant surf boards and a skin complexion that could most accurately be desribed as pasty white. if it werent for the help of a random local man eating his early lunch and asking "playa?", we would have completely missed the path to the beach and continued on the concrete sidewalk till the end of the island. there was no distinguising sign for the path, only the fact that there was brown dirt instead of lush greenery. we started akwardly up the trail with our cumbersome surf boards under one arm. we quickly removed our sandals as the previous day of rain had soaked the path and conditions were very slippery at best and that was in the good areas. soon we were up to our calfs in mud and bits of grass and wondering how much farther this trail could possibly go and what exactly we were getting ourselves into. the answer was about a mile of slow, twisting, dangerously muddy, barely able to distinguish path from grass, slippery journey. along the way we passed no one but a brown horse munching on some tall foliage and fire ants working feverishly carrying bits of leaves back to their home. much of the path was intermixed with roots and trees blocking our way and often we had to stabalize our feet against the roots to prevent us from keeling over and getting an unexpected mud facial. the hardest part of the trek was near then end when we could hear the crashing of the waves on the beach but were still surrounded by trees and hanging vines. the path had expanded into a broad swath of a muddy downward slope with trees and their roots marking our path downward. we carefully took steps down the hill and at the bottom when sand started to appear, someone finally thought to install wooden planks for easier access through the mud. by then of course we were filthy but happy to be near the conclusion of our trip. when we came out of the forrest onto the beach, it was breathtaking. the sand was a perfect yellow-orange and the waves were coming in from all directions. there were about 4 other people on the beach, all of the locals. we dropped our boards, ran into the water to clean off and get refreshed. after that it was time for my first lesson and many failed attempts at surfing. its a lot harder than the tv shows and movies make it out to be as i was easily tossed around and about by mother nature and her white crested water minions. attempted surfing (i call it that because i was only able to get up once and even then it was only about 75% vertical) is draining on your body and we had to take many breaks to recouperate and then were back out there getting our butts kicked. a little while into it a boat came around the cove and four much more experienced surfers dropped themselves over the side and showed us a thing or twenty about the sport. after a while we reserved ourselves to just sitting on the beach watching them and tried to pick up pointers from their display. after a few hours, we grew tired, thirsty and hungry and decided to retreat back to bocas for lunch and a nap. the path back was equally rough but this time the heat from the growing day had cooked the pools of mud into a warm broth infested with gnats and other small insects. now with our arms tired from paddling, holding the board and balancing through the rugged terrain was much more difficult and we had to take it a bit slower. by this time of day, more people had started to make their way to this secluded beach and we had to inform people just how far it was to go or how much worse the path was going to get. most people seemed impressed that we were able to navigate the muddy trail with our gigantic surf boards while they struggled with just themselves. so we had to explain that we were superhumans and this was a common routine for us. lunch was a bbq pork quesadilla and a bottle of water. this afternoon i plan on continuing my relaxed behavior. perhaps a movie is in order, perhaps just a nap. either way im very much enjoying bocas del torro and even bad weather or mudsliding cant turn this smile into an upsidedown crescent moon.

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