BR in Panama

Trip Start Mar 17, 2008
1
17
21
Trip End Ongoing


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Flag of Panama  ,
Friday, August 1, 2008

Arriving in Panama we met Fidel our outfitter for the rest of the trip... and what a relief. They guy is a legend. Everything was organised and we jumped on our own private boat with a bunch or hired new boards and headed toward the surf.

The surf was an interesting one considering we were on a boat and I had to get both the kids and the boards to the beach in order to teach them... not that great an idea in retrospect. My faith in the sea faring abilities of "Perdo" (not his real name) were shattered when on the first day he managed to flip the dingy in surf with the boards, five kids and me. Luckily no one was hurt but that set the tone for about another 5 dingy flip in the next few days.

Other than the chaos of getting in, life on the boat was chilled out. Rob one of Fidel's mates was working as the chef and Ratta (another mate) was captaining the boat. They were both awesome. All of the kids surfed well in sometimes dodgy conditions so I was stoked. I was a lot of work though.

All in all it was a great experience working with the kids. They were challenging and exhausting but great fun. When I said goodbye to them at the airport there were tears from some of the girls and it was quite an intense goodbye. Had I not had only one hour of sleep I might have been a little more emotional but I was really ready to get out of there and recover some of the many hours of sleep I'd lost on the trip. Mariann was awesome and I'd work with her again any day. A friend for life for sure.

Robert was kind enough to offer me a spare room so I jumped in a taxi from the airport and to his place to sleep and work out a plan for exploring Panama. I'll post my Panama update soon. Panama real.

:) Mark.
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