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Bocas del Toro, Panama
9° 19' N 82° 15' W
Dec 18, 2005 03:39
Distance 0km

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Jacques Cousteau, fireworks, and a dog named Susie

Text written in: English

with great regret and a lot of sadness, we leave bocas del torro tomorrow. of course were excited to be heading into colombia and on with the rest of this trip but it is not hard to imagine that there will be few places along the way like this. this hostel, Mondo Taitu, which i highly recommend for anyone traveling anywhere remotely close to panama, is a paradise. not only have we been treated extremely well by the hosts but the company that weve shared has been spectacular. today we had lunch with a group of 10 people, half of which are leaving either today, tomorrow, or the next day, and everyone at the table at some point or another sat silently with the knowledge of the separation. its something about this place that brought us all closer together and made strangers friends. some of these people intended to make bocas a brief stop over and ended up staying for a month. and everyone promised to return again.

besides this great hostel, the city of bocas is a fantastic place. there is only one main road on which maybe 200 cars travel on any given day but sunday. bikes and motor scooters are commonplace and at night, street vendors set up their trade to supply dinner to the masses. of course there are the local small restaurants and the bigger hotel and seafood fares too but its just the attitude of the people and the relaxation in the air that makes this place wonderful. they have a saying here that summarizes the whole culture: tranquilo. it means easy going, peaceful, relaxed, and safe all in one word. please read davids journal to get more on this attitude that easily and happily seeps its way into your mindset after only a few days here.

so the past two days ive been spending my days under water. in preparation for the rest of our trip and to open doors to many new adventures, i decided to get certified to be a scuba diver. the training, classes, and dives took up most of my last two days but it has been and will continue to be completely worth it. so lets all pause a moment and appreciate the man whose brilliance and ingenuity allowed humans to experience a whole new world. all i could think about during my dives was about the French man who changed the world. God bless Jacques Cousteau.            
unfortunately the water here was not very clear and the sealife was not plentiful but my experience at the starfish fleet scuba school was amazing. i was the only taking lessons because i signed up going into a weekend when everyone else was gearing up to party. the dive shop that also served as a fantastic restaurant (yesterday i had homemade lasagna and today was thai chicken friend rice) had only two CDs which it played on constant loop. i love both albums but Abbey Road and Fashion Nugget have no business being played back to back to back to back. anyway, it was good listening while i suffered my way through instructional videos that could be more accurately described as creative marketing ploys on the part of PADI to spread and sell more scuba equipment and propaganda. my instructor was a 23 year old man named Eddie who has lived his entire life here in Bocas. his english is heavily accented and his spanish is as well. when he figured out i could understand a lot of what he said in spanish, he slipped back and forth between the two languages while giving me the lessons. im not sure he noticed. he was a great teacher and while most courses take 3 days, i was able to escape in two. now if that means that im not as practiced or qualified in the sport, im not sure but i did sometimes get the impression that they were happy for the business and even happier that their lax course structure is still recognized by the international scuba society. so now im all set to hit the Great Barrier Reef when we get there and hopefully a couple other fantastic underwater sites. for anyone who hasnt been scuba diving, i highly recommend it. there is really nothing like sinking beneath the surface and both feeling and hearing your lungs fill with air and your mind feels no panic. theres a freedom and escapism that is like nothing else ive felt before. bocas del torro has allowed me two amazing firsts, surfing and now scuba diving. i am very appreciative and grateful.

the children here are adorable. there doesnt seem to be much for them to do besides basic kid stuff. many of them ride bikes, use cardboard boxes for toys, swim and splash in submerged canoes, and of course, purchase and ignite many many fireworks. its a nightly occurance for loud explosions to rock people from their slumber or to hear bottle rockets whiz into the air followed by the laughter and giggling of those responsible for the excitement. most of the kids are friendly, will talk to you if you smile, and have even humored us to practice our spanish and tag along for some of their games. totally different from the paranoia and xenophobia of americas youth, these young panamanians seem comfortable in all situations because they too are growing up in a tranquilo atmosphere.

ive also been racially and ethnically profiled since being here, yay! since my skin tone and accent is different than most of the townsfolk, i have been treated differently in a few different areas. but first i must talk about chicken. in town there is only one main street. everything else is a backroad leading to somewhere smaller. at nighttime, a woman and her assistent wheel their cart out onto the side of the main drag and start cooking up delicious pollo asado. they are both very sweet and friendly and serve fantastic food. but while standing there waiting for our meal to be cooked, i noticed a minor difference in treatment for us gringos. when a local came up and asked for the same meal, she asked for and he paid a different price than she quoted us. i was a little upset about it at first but after thinking about it, i wasnt that troubled. if she is able to give her community members a better price and keep everyone happy while making an extra dollar off of foreign travelers, i think its her right and it is probably best for their small town. we can afford it and she probably needs it more than we do.

the next instance of discrimination was at a bar and i was not so understanding of the situation. two nights ago marked then end of some long stays for some guests at Mondo Taitu. so we made it a night to remember with a Luau themed party at the downstairs bar and then when Dan closed that up, we all made the trek to the only other open bar called something like Shipwreck (called that because the backend is a pier that surrounds a sunken ship which actually looks like a few large pieces of scrap metal simply thrown in the ocean). we entered as a party of 8 but when half of us had gone thru the entrance, a policeman in a green suit with billy club and 6-shooter on his hip stretched his arm in front of the rest of us and demanded a cover charge. i pointed to our friends who paid nothing and he simply shook his head. well, i was outraged and little inhebriated so i refused to pay and walked back out into the street thinking that this problem would simply go away after a few minutes. i busied myself with pretending to inspect some flowers and bushes, i took a picture with the local dog named Susie (hopefully attached) who everyone knows and loves because she is friendly and roams about town being pet and well treated, and partook in some street meat. after a few minutes of doing that, i returned to the entrance to find supercop still there. while talking with him a few locals walked up and right past us and he didnt bat an eyelash. wehn i asked him about what just happened, he shook he head and said they had already paid. Riiiiiight. so i lied and told him that my girlfriend inside had all of our money so i couldnt pay the cover. he then said no problem, but he had to take my hat as collateral until i returned. now my night was ruined. anyway, the bar was decent and most of us ended up just sitting out in the pier area looking up at the moon which was brilliantly full with a gigantic halo taking up most of the night sky. we talked until the night ended and then went home to gorge on more street meat and some Doritos.

One of the things i really enjoyed about this hostel were the people. everyone was genuinely nice and friendly and open. one person particularly so. his name is Simon and hes from Britain. he looks like the manager from Almost Famous and he sounds and his vocal mannerisms are like the roadie from Waynes World 2. you know, the slow drawl with upturned lips on each side of his mouth almost making him smile as he talks with the deliberate choice of wording for elaborate stories about crazy adventures. well simon has been traveling for 7 years and has many stories to relate. on the same night as the luau party when many people were leving teh next day, we were all sitting down outside talking about colombia because one of the girls is heading there right now. simon had the following advice for her (in Waynes World 2 Roadie voice): ¨Youre going to have a blast there. its a beautiful country and the people are friendly and generous. Now, if youre looking for marijuana, you'd best go to the cigarette vendors in the street. its tucked away underneath the boxes. Its cheap there and pretty good. But if youre looking for cocaine, same deal, the street vendors have it but this time its about who's the better haggler. its like a game with them, you can get it for dirt cheap if you just put in a little effort and bargain with them. otherwise youre paying out the nose and you'll lose their respect.¨ of course i wasnt paying much attention to that information because its not relavent to my life or our travels but i still thought it was pretty funny.

other activities we've been engaging in include 28 km bike rides, siestas in hammocks, and just walking around this beautiful town. this emails getting long and im not sure it makes chronological or just plain logical sense but i hope you enjoy it anyway. this beard of mine is getting long and bleading hot. contemplating shaving it. if you protest, let me know, otherwise its probably coming off.

hope to keep hearing from yáll back stateside. miss you guys