Panananamana
Trip Start
Mar 17, 2008
1
18
21
Trip End
Ongoing
Panama City,
Panama
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
So Panama! I actually have very little concept of how much time I spent there but there have definitely been some highlights. After seeing of my group of kids at a ridiculous hour of the morning I headed back into the city and to Roberts house. Robert was helping Fidel out by cooking on the boat and acting as "lifeguard". When I mentioned that I'd be hanging out in Panama he offered me a place to crash. I accepted and it was sweet. Over the following weeks (who knows how many) I was more or less adopted into Rob and Fidel's group of friends. It's awesome. They're all referred to as "Zonian's", that being people born in the Canal Zone in Panama. It was for a long period of time official territory of the USA and all of the people within it went to American schools, had America passports and spoke English as a first language. Of course with the US leaving at the end of the Millennium and Panama taking over the Canal the became the last of a kind. It's kinda weird.
Some of the highlights of hanging with Robert and his friends was seeing a locals perspective on Panama city. I didn't really visit the tourist sights at all but more the local hang outs. One afternoon we showed up at the canal in a sort of industrial area, bought some beers and watched the ships go buy. The beers were bought from these beer drinkers come boat builders. When we showed up (during work hours) they were kicked back on chairs drinking while half a dozen unfinished fiberglass boats sat unattended. After minutes of hanging out random people would either drive past and stop or merely show up. It wasn't like an organised hang out it just seem that they all had some sort of telekinetic drink by the canal vibes they were attuned to. We chilled and watch the massive... massive ships roll by and spoke spanglish. Was sweet.
They also took me along to 'Lum's' a local bar near the canal... more than a few times and more or less everyone in the bar would know everyone else. There's always be David or Rata with his girlfriend enjoying not working on a container ship (which he does 9 months of the year) along with heaps of other crew. It's a cool spot.
I got to hang out with a 'doctor crowd' since Keyra, Roberto's girlfriend is a legit doctor. I felt kind of uneducated until they got drunk then I felt good smart. That was fun. She's cool.
I went on a surfing road trip with Robert and Chris up to a place called Santa Catalina. Robert came back to his place at about 11pm and was wired from too much redbull. He woke me up and we packed the car, then he looked for his debit card for about and hour and then we left. We picked up Chris at this mansion like place where there was some party amongst a group of friends. We jumped in the car and I sort of fell asleep in between times of Brown (Roberts dog) deciding that she didn't like the boot and would climb over the back seat inadvertently managing to rub her ass into my face. 6 or so hours later we arrived and the swell was um... big. It was about 8-10 foot and there were about 40-50 guys already in the water. In my fatigued state I made the 40 minute paddle out the back. It was there I had a realisation. I hadn't surfed in about 6 months. I was on a 6'0 board that I'd never surfed before, I was incredibly unfit and had never, ever surfed with so many people competing for such big waves. I then had another realisation as I found myself caught in the impact zone right before the lip landed on my head... I might die here, today. Turns out I didn't or did I... It was one of the first times I've (in my head) thrown my hands in the air and though screw it... I'm not having fun surfing. It was also a realisation that if I kept traveling to surf then I was going to see very little else... as I know how easy it is to get sucked in to that lifestyle (mostly because it's awesome). I had planned to stay on in Santa Catalina but I jumped in the car with the boys and headed back to the city.
The next day I jumped onto a bus out to El Valle. A sleepy little town which sits in the crater of an ancient volcano. I ended up camping in the backyard of this very rasta looking Hari Krishna called Swami. He was one cool dude. He spent 8 years living in India, was on a plane high-jacked by Pakistani terrorists and has been arrested (multiple times) and deported (once) from Cuba. Besides the fact that the tent I rented was less than water proof and that I had to wait for the mud on my feet to dry before I jumped into my sleeping bag... it was 5 star accommodation. While in El Valle I did a couple of hikes. The first up to some waterfalls and indigenous rock paintings (which were kinda lame) and the second over the length of this mountain referred to as "la India dormida" or 'the sleeping Indian girl because of the shape that it makes. Some parts were kind of sketchy, especially when I got lost and ended up emerging from the bushes to find a sheer drop of oh... 50 meters or so. I took a break on her boob for about half an hour and again around her bum about an hour later. The whole hike took around 5 or 6 hours and I was more or less shattered after that. On my last night I caught up with Jaime - one of the zonian crew from Panama city who lived out in El Valle. We went out to dinner at the place where all the bus driver ate... thanks Jaime... actually other than some expensive restaurant it was the only thing open... plus they had beer. My favorite food.
Back in Panama City I had a few days before Nancy flew down from New York. I pretty much just hung out, drank with my friends (notice they became my friends at the part of the story), had an interesting Chinese brunch/Dim Sum experience and played with brown and the rat dogs which also occupy Roberts back yard (along with two turkeys and a couple of ducks).
The day Nancy flew in I caught a lift with Keyra out to the airport and was lucky enough to discover that her flight had been delayed. Yay for me. So I waited four four and a half hours in THE most boring airport in the entire world. I payed too much for a few beers and then spent the rest of the time contemplating whether "there" actually exists. Think about it. By the time you get "there" you are actually "here" therefore there really is no "there" but only "here". Yeah, deep I know.
The Panama section is... to be continued. Wow sounds dramatic doesn't it. In reality I need to pee and it's about dinner time and I can't be bothered writing any more. But hey... To be Continued...
