Isla Bastimentos - Day 4, Thai food, Cave, Joseph
Trip Start
Mar 14, 2008
1
10
12
Trip End
Mar 24, 2008
Bocas del Toro,
Panama
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Getting back to our time this past Friday, we had a very special time visiting Javier at his farm on the hill above Bastimentos Town
Bastimentos Water Taxis
. Then on the way back, we decided to stop at Island Time Thai restaurant in the middle of the jungle for some lunch. Thai people understand the whole vegetarian thing pretty well, so we knew we'd find something. We met the two owners, Cory and Nui, and chatted for almost 2 hours and ate some very delicious Thai food. He is from Oregon, where he met Nui, who is originally from Thailand. Nui cooked us up some Pad Thai and Noodle Soup, while we asked a million questions of them concerning their life on the island. They definitely matched their restaurant's name "Island Time," meaning they were very happy to sit and chat without worrying about the time.Cory has built a beautiful, sturdy home and restaurant on the hill, and is now beginning work on some cabanas that he will rent to travelers. He started on the main building just this past November and it's nearly complete! We got to wondering about the nuts and bolts of building on an island - how do the materials get there is the biggest question. The hardwood for floors and walls actually comes from tress right on Bastimentos! But, first it has to be sent by boat across to Isla Colon, the main island in the Bocas chain, where there is a sawmill. Then it comes back to Bastimentos by boat.
The most amazing thing to us was the location of the building, it's in the middle of the jungle, up a very steep hill and along some very muddy dirt paths
Bastimentos Walking
. How did all the lumber and stuff get up there? Cory told us he hired some of the native Bocas people to do the work carrying everything up, they are called Ngobe-Bugle. He described to us how one man carried the refrigerator on his back, up the hill and down the muddy jungle path. Another man carried the stove the same way, the total distance is probably ½ mile from the dock to the building site. Lap after lap they took, carrying lumber, wallboard, roofing, etc. They started at 7am and refused to stop when it got fully dark at 7pm, finally finishing at 8:30p in pitch blackness. Each man asked for only $10 for the full day's work, though Cory gave them more.We had a nice time looking out at the view of the ocean below their restaurant and talking about life and what's important. Like all of us, Cory and Nui have been working very hard for a very long time. They now are changing directions, opening the restaurant and rental cabanas in Bastimentos. Next, they plan to open a similar operation in Thailand! Then they will spend part of each year in each of their three locations - Oregon, Bastimentos, Thailand. Pretty cool! We promised them we would tell EVERYONE we met in Bastimentos about their excellent restaurant.
It's interesting how different Bastimentos Island is from the main island in Bocas, called Isla Colon
Bastimentos Town Walk
. Most people call the town on the main island simply "Bocas." Bocas is definitely a party town, with lots of restaurants, bars, hotels/hostels, and lots of young backpackers from all over the world. The town is about 4 streets wide by 15 streets long, and during the day at least it's a bit busy. Bastimentos on the other hand has zero roads, zero cars, no smog, 5 or so restaurants, and maybe 200 houses for the 1500 residents. The full island of Bastimentos is quite large, and mostly jungle with no people! Bastimentos really has the STRONG Caribbean vibe we heard about, even more than Bocas Town. The people in Bastimentos are mostly descendants of slaves from Jamaica and other Caribbean islands, and they are almost all tri-lingual: English, Spanish, and Guali-Guali, a creole dialect derived from multiple languages. Almost everyone speaks English with tourists, and Guali-Guali with each other, though they are quite comfortable in Spanish when needed.The main drag of Bastimentos Town is a long concrete sidewalk about 5 feet wide that parallels the coast on part of the south side of the island. There are houses on both sides. Most of the houses are showing their age, badly needing a fresh coat of paint. The people seem very gentle and kind. There are few jobs on the island, except in the restaurants or the few hotels, or guiding tours. Many people have little or no employment
Bastimentos Walk I
. It's a quiet, sleepy place that feels to us much more like the Caribbean than it does like Panama.Getting back to Friday, we went to dinner at Red Rooster, and as usual they laughed at our special requests, but happily made what we asked for. After dinner we had another gem of a cultural experience, meeting the leader of a local band, the Bastimentos Beach Boys. His name is Joseph and he makes his very modest living playing for tips in the few restaurants on Bastimentos, primarily Rooster and Roots. He appears to be in his 50s and he was born on Bastimentos, growing up with Calypso music. He strolled by our table and asked if we had any music requests, but we just asked him to sit and chat.
We started out the conversation asking what he used to do for fun with his playmates when he was a small boy living on the island. He replied that they loved to play with the lobsters they found in the shallows near town, teasing them, catching them, releasing them, and at the end taking them home to boil up in a pot. They also would play with the red frogs found all over Bastimentos, along with iguanas and whatever other critters they found in the jungle. He told us there were only 50 houses on the island back then, and maybe 300 people total, he knew every other person by name, which he can no longer say
Bastimentos Walk II
. In those days, almost all the men were employed by the United Fruit Company (Chiquita) at the giant banana plantations on the mainland. Every night about dusk, the local men who made up the work gang would board a boat on Bastimentos for the 20-min ride to work. They would process bananas all night long, returning the next morning. On the lightest shifts, they would process 15,000 bananas, finishing in just 4 hours or so. The heaviest nights would be as many as 70,000 bananas, and they would continue working for over 24 hours straight, returning the following day after dark!Joseph is very sweetly soft-spoken, and listened interestedly when we told him about the US. He told us he is an artist through and through and that it's all he ever wanted to do. In addition to music, he also paints with oils. He was very open telling us about life on the island and in Panama in general. He seemed touched that outsiders would have such an interest and would listen to his every word. He said he was very concerned about the young people today, who did not remember the courtesy and consideration of the past, and the increasing crime. We agreed with him and told him the same about the US. We also mentioned that in the US people can drive at 16, vote at 18, and then finally drink alcohol at 21. He said "That's Bullshit! If they are old enough to make a decision, they are old enough to drink." That was the sharpest word we heard from him
Bastimentos Football field
.Finally, we asked him to play a few songs for us, including a request to play any of his favorite old Calypso songs, something he remembered from childhood. He did and it was so sweet! He told us he learned the song when he was about 15 from some of the old-timers on the island, so it's probably well over 50 years old. He seemed to love playing it, a nice break from the steady stream of Reggae requests he normally gets.
After talking and playing music with us for an hour or so it was after 9pm and time for all of us to head home. joseph's house was near our little hotel, so we walked the concrete path together, talking some more. We promised to buy one of his CDs the following day if he would bring it to the restaurant! (We did, for $6, a very home-made looking CD, can't wait to listen to it!)
Absolutely a gem of an experience, talking and enjoying music with Joseph of the Bastimentos Beach Boys on a quiet Good Friday night in Caribbean paradise.
