Counting down

I have begun counting down the days until I return home. They now number 12. Every time I walk down the street to the wall(where you can sit and watch the waves come in), I find myself trying to burn the images into my head.

In many ways I am looking forward to my return, but I would think that is it mostly due to the familiarity and infra-structure. Not that you need one down here, but the thought of a long, hot, shower, music playing, and come out to lay on a good couch…oh, and a good steak at Hys Steak Loft. The beef down here sucks. I mean, it is terrible, tough as nails, fit only for stew or crock-pot, and best avoided until you are tired of chicken. Albertans are spoiled, on a global scale, when it comes to the beef we have.

Yesterday, I went back to El Valle to go horse riding up into the mountains with Phil, and two new Swedish girls that showed up a few days ago. B) Moa and Jana have sent four others from their home country this way as they met people in their travels. $5/hr on a rather scrawny looking beast….but a wiry little bugger, and fast. I am quite sure I was given the best of the bunch as I was constantly having to rein her in.

We took a trail up into the mountains that only a horse could take. You couldn’t get there on a dirt-bike, quad, or anything other than a horse. Oh, you could have walked it, but the trail was brutal, steep, strewn with ankle-breakers, and the only people who would walk it would be those that fell off their horse.

On the way back, once we returned to the roads, the girls wanted to let their horses go, so they did. Not a good idea at the best of times, but there was no holding mine back without fear of getting bucked off. The girls were already way ahead when I finally let her go, and this one caught up in to time. I just held on and prayed she didn’t loose her footing on the gravel road. That would have hurt.

I made it out alive, and now I really want to go back to Santa Fe to ride up to the waterfalls there. I guess I will made a day trip out of it before I go.

Everyone is up early today to see what the waves are like. The skid marks on my belly are just about healed now, so I will go again today whenever there is the chance.

I’m going to go down to the wall and see what I can see.

Panama City

Yesterday I finally got off my ass and went into the city.  Armed with what few maps I could find, I left here just before 8 AM with the intention of making it to one store in town and finding out a few things about storage of my vehicle.

Traffic, having been warned it was a nightmare, really wasn’t all that bad compared to many of the other cities I have navigated. It was slow in many parts that were supposed to be highways, and there were the regular problems of being in the wrong lane and having to make a turn when I didn’t want to, but having learned how to change lanes at the last moment (waving your hand out the window and just pushing into the right lane…begging…honking…whatever it takes, basically), things mostly went well.

I made my way downtown where there is a Rey, a large supermarket in these parts with a free parkade. I just parked there and worked the rest of my missions with taxis.

For those of you who might come here, you can get pretty much anywhere in the city for 2 buks, and it is just one hell of a lot easier to let them do the driving. The standard fare is 1.25, and add .25 per person. It can be a little more for farther places, but don’t let them rip you off because they will try. I have heard stories of charging 10 buks just to go a few miles. Cheap, compared to prices back home, but not here.

Anyways, the road out to the airport is one toll booth after another. There and back sucked five or six bucks out of my pocket, just in the search for a place to store my car. I finally found one and that is when I gave up on that idea.

A 4×6 meter bay, is $230/month, plus 5% tax. That’s around $1500 for 6 months. Woah.8| Not only that, but the place was FULL, and I would have to call at least 4 days in advance to try and secure a spot. So, if anyone wants to start up a real money maker, there is a town called Arriajan just outside of the city where it would be best to put another one of those. Sit back and rake in the cash.

Having said that, it makes the other option look much more attractive. The owners here know a guy…and he keeps his other car, a ’71 ElCamino (with a 454 big-block, headers, intake, carb, …ie the works. Nice Ride!) just down the road from here at his mechanics place. His mechanic was trained to work on hot rods, and knows his sh*t. I forget his exact qualifications, but there is a large amount of very highly trained people in this country.

Panama may be third-world, but just under the surface is a very educated and intelligent workforce that most people just take for granted. You have to remember that since the very early 1900’s (and even way before that), Panama has been an international crossroads, with exposure to high rollers from every country in the world that ships things through the canal. The wrangling that goes on in the Free Zone would make most from New York look like financial invalids. Not surprisingly, they often take advantage of people who carry this arrogant attitude around with them, and well they should, if you ask me.

I will get a few large tarps, and store it there beside it’s big brother. He will start it for me every once in a while, and deal with whatever needs dealing with, and there is no problem with trust. Not with the owners of this place just down the road.

Yesterdays’ adventure had a decent kick in the pants, though. Thinking I was smart, I took a picture of the page in the yellow pages of all the places to store things down here. It’s easier than copying it all down, and a picture gives better directions for a taxi driver, but when you get out of the cab, you should remember to take it with you. So, after two years, some 25 thousands kms of travelling, and thousands of pictures, I gave it to the cabby.   Plus a tip.

So, no more pictures from down here. I will get another when I return, as there is no use in getting one here. Central America can be a dumping ground for “less than perfect” product.  ‘Nuff said.

It’s now 7 AM and I am going to walk down to the end of the road to watch the sun rise.

Busting the Cherry

Today, I finally got on a surf board.

I wasn’t graceful, or anything remotely similar at all, but I did manage to stand up on my first wave. There is a lot to learn about balance. The board doesn’t do it for you, that’s for sure.

The board I had was what they call a soft-top, that had a “grippy” surface to it. They give it to beginners like me because it is hard to break, and supposedly easy to learn on…  So between the grippy surface, all the hair on my belly, the shirt I had on for the sun, and a lack of experience, I came out of the water with a good “rush”.  That is what they call the red marks on your chest and knees where you balance on the board while paddling.  Or, attempt to balance.   It feels like a bad case of rug-burn. I am sure I am going to be sore in all sorts of weird places tomorrow.

Never mind tomorrow, I’m sore right now. You have to arch your back constantly while you are on top of the board. Right now, where my back meets my hips is telling me it is out of shape. Loud and clear, I might add, but what a blast.

I will be doing more of this for sure. The hook is in! :DD

That’s all for now. Time for a siesta.