A Broad Abroad

Maybe it was the cold medicine or images provoked by salman rushdie’s “midnight’s children”, but I experienced a rebirth out in boquete’s market square. I’m solo again and was able to nap and read most of the day. Late in the afternoon after finishing rushdie’s book, a feat I’ve been struggling to accomplish for weeks, I emerged from my hotel and into the square to find it full of ngobe bugle’ indians at their Saturday market. At the same time an incredible rainbow arched overhead. I found myself back in touch with what inspires me to travel. My medicine, pms, midnight’s children-filled head was reeling and I was on the verge of tears of relief.

The ngobe girls and women wear very colorful, flowing dresses and the men wear the plain clothes of men from the field. Their faces are distinct and serious. More serious than any culture I’ve encountered thus far in my travels. After watching a girl of about 3 run and smile and play I wondered at what age this behavior is suppressed. Or do they go back to their homes and party all night ☺? Probably not but I love to wonder. I was also surprised that in a town known for being gringo-filled, mine was the only white face to be seen.

So like I said, I’ll chill here and take advantage of the “services” boquete has to offer (like internet and laundry) before I head to more remote areas on the other side of volcan baru and the osa peninsula in costa rica.

Rest and solitude can be very theraputic!

Our second day in boquete took us to boquete tree trek, a zip-line company. The pricetag wasn’t cheap: $60.00, on the high side for this type of excursion but we needed some adventure and we sure got it. We were taken via 4WD high up in the rainforest where we found both forest (amazing, towering, green forest) and rain (wet and cold). This did wonders for the senses but little for my health.

I had ziplined once before, over cenotes in the yucatan of MX, but these ziplines were in a completely different league. They were longer, higher, faster. Also, ones “breaks” with leather covered hands which takes some doing. But a good time was had by all (or almost all, since some got more than they bargained for).

we dined with samuel, an israeli that provided me with a much needed non-travel related conversation the evening prior. Samuel is a diamond broker and since the usual cast of travel-talking characters were out on an excursion I took the opportunity to delve into the world of diamonds and ended the evening with a refreshing conversation about wealth and happiness. We both marveled at the arbitrary value placed on items such as diamonds and diesl jeans. He and his bosses are fond of saying that they owe their business to stupid women and whores. I had to add “and cheating husbands” who cough up diamonds to make up for their indiscretions, but I suppose that may fall into the “stupid women” category. stupid for allowing themselves to be bought with rocks. I say he is an israeli but he lives in LA. This also makes for an interesting culture conflict to probe.

Overnight my cold worsened and I lay awake deciding whether I could make our planned trip to the other side of volcan baru, to the small town of cerra punta. I realized I couldn’t and worried about disappointing janae, who only has several more days in panama. But I decided I couldn’t risk getting worse, especially since the territory I will ply after I leave boquete will be far more rugged for at least several weeks.

In the morning I broke the news to jenae who completely understood and she made plans to head to panama city for some fun there before she flies out. I found a new hostel with far superior beds and a lovely backyard facing the river. In addition to the comfy bed my room at hostel boquete has a private bathroom and balcony – all for only $20. Less in total than the room at nomba that after 3 days looked shabbier and shabbier and left my back aching. I am very pleased and will likely settle here to recuperate for a few days.

Well, I suppose spring is sometimes stormy, eh? But apparently this wind is unusual, even for boquete. It storms on and off but in the interim i have gotten out for some hikes and now know that this is a really beautiful place. I had my reservations about boquete because it has become quite a retirement haven for americans. I didn’t want to end up in “del webb’s sun city boquete” ☺. But the center of town still has some local flavor and it appears that the retirees stay in their mountain fortresses most of the time.

There is a real alpine feel with steep, green valleys and a crispness to the air. This is big coffee growing country. Jennae, a friendly brit and I decided that we would rent bikes (here at nomba), cab up 8 steep kms to a coffee finca (farm), then bike down another road back to town (and do a waterfall hike on the way). Well, after dawdling during breakfast at the finca it was becoming clear that the very stormy weather was not going to break. Since I’m still fighting my cold I decided I didn’t care to ride several hours in wind and rain (yeah, I’ll blame my cold) so I cabbed back down to hike in the sunnier valley. I’m glad I did. Tho the other 2 were troopers determined to make the best of it, it was clearly not an ideal ride.

Lots of friendly folks here at the hostel from holland, israel, germany, canada, japan and uptown oakland (yes, oaktown is in da house!). I can say that ryan, the owner of nomba, is a wealth of info after being a rafting guide boquete for several years and now running this hostel and a new one in panama city. He’s extremely friendly, helpful and good-looking. Heck, doesn’t hurt to be easy on the eyes.

There is no need to detail my time in bocas del toro but I do have observations to share. We stayed in a casita on isla carenero which is directly across from bocas town. Maybe this used to be a sedate alternative to bocas town, and maybe the leeward side still is, but no longer can one stay on the side facing bocas town and have a “quite” vacation. This is partly because several bocas town bars have insanely loud sound systems and partly because carenero now has several of its own party spots – the most extreme being “aqua” bar and hostel. It’s not the music from aqua that makes the impact – it faces to the water and is more likely heard in bocas town than carenero. it’s simply the mass of people that decend on this place after the day’s water sports (mostly surfing) have ended. I believe we most clearly heard the music of barco hundido which is more tragic for its content than it’s volume :).

That being said, it was still a ton of fun. Would I go back to bocas? Probably not. I first visited 2 years ago april. It has grown exponentially since this (which was expected) and reaches an insane level of activity during the holidays (which was entirely expected). I just didn’t understand the magnitude and didn’t know that so many 20 year olds could be drawn to one place. How can one forget that?

Highlights: having my friends there (!), dona mara restaurant on carenero, bastiamentos town (where I would stay if I went back) and breakfast there at the red rooster, OM indian restaurant, tony the water taxi driver and his encredible friendliness, the “local bar” on carenero who happily served us vodka coktails even tho we ordered seco y coca (clearly gringas weren’t supposed to drink seco! We got this response several places) and the general pleasantness of the local people despite the fact that they have been decended upon by hoards of gringos who have everything while they still have practically nothing……nothing except a beautiful place to live with their family and friends. This seems to provide them with more than enough happiness, tho, which is refreshing.

Places that come with caveats: I did not enjoy the food at el pirate tho they pour a mean cuba libre, the food was good both times I went to the cosmic crab on carenero but I didn’t like the freaky florida boating crowd that was always there nor did I like the way the owner treated his staff, my dinner at hotel limbo had no redeeming qualities nor did our lunch at bongo café. We decided a good policy in bocas is not to wait until you are hungy before you go out to eat. Go at least an hour before because it’s bound to take that long and also don’t expect to all eat together – food comes to the table as it is ready.

Today I left bocas with jaenne and headed to boquete (boe-ket-ay) in the highlands of panama. First, one must take a boat to almirante ($4), then a bus to david (dahveed – $7) and ideally another bus to boquete. All transport is mobbed after the holiday so we grabbed another traveler and a cab to boquete, which is appx 30 minutes away and cost $20 for all 3 of us. Faaaar better than waiting in david for another few hours until we made it to the front of the queue for the bus. Now I know the trip from david to boquete by bus is not as simple as it sounds during big travel times! Or maybe it is always like that.

Anyhoo – we’ve settled into a hostel here, hostel nomba, where my share of our double room is $11. There are also dorms, single and triple rooms. Tomorrow I explore boquete, which is currently most famous for it’s rep as a growing retirement haven for americans because it is beautiful and cool. Right now we are in the middle of an incredible wind storm!!! Crazy, crazy! More later.

i’ve uploaded some pics to flickr and will continue to add more periodically while i’m here in bocas with internet access. i added a link on the right sidebar to “Peg’s Central American Slideshow”

stop by if you’re interested :). i’m also trying to figure out a better format for pics that i “cross-blog” from flickr. they are squintshed up to the side. hhmmm.

Costa Rica

Originally uploaded by peggydaly

it was certainly a wet christmas but today, after a 5 day streak of constant rain, the horizon is clear. for the first time since i arrived i can see the mountains on the mainland. yay!!! regardless, it was a lovely christmas. debbie, dustin and rita made it here and we’ve been having lots (!) of good times.

today i suspect we’ll get in some beach-time and soak up all the sun we can. the rain did give me an opportunity to upload some pics so i have a few i can post. things take a long time to upload so i’m trying to be choosy. i haven’t really focused on photography much so far. i enjoy “people” photography most and up to now my travels have been nature-oriented. i’m a terrible landscape/nature photographer.

i got word that my family received their presents from me on christmas eve. i gave an assortment of pigs, goats, rabbits, etc from Heifer International. hope everyone had a merry christmas and that santa was good to you! i got everything what i wanted – including a sunny day!!!