A little surfing in Panama

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(Joce) After re-working our original plans a bit, we decided to spend a bit more time in the central American countries surfing, and then quickly return via the much shorter east coast of Mexico (as opposed to the lengthy west coast which took us 3 weeks). This, we decided, left time for a couple of days surfing around here. We took the RV down to playa Venao and had a really nice surf. There must have been a cold current coming up, because the water was slightly cool, which is rather refreshing around these parts. Allyne and I got henna tattoos at the restaurant, from a tattoo artist named Omar. He was trying to convince us that we needed real tattoos, and if we paid in advance, he could go to panama city to get some needles, and then tattoo us. We told him that the temporary ones were just fine thanks.

The next day we drove down to Cambutal, and met Scott and Annette, a Canadian/ American couple and parked at their place. We went for a surf at the beach break nearby, and true to some reviews we read on the internet, the waves were “mush bombs.” The thing is however, most of us don’t mind mush bombs, because they are much gentler than something that is fast and barreling. We all had a fun surf. Afterwards, Annette made a great pasta dinner, Scott fried up some Panamanian steaks, and we all stuffed ourselves with some tasty fare. In the morning we went for a snorkel out front, and we saw large corals, schools of fish, and loads of jelly fish. Luckily no one got stung.

On our way home we decided to take the shorter route from Tonasi to las Tablas, through the hills, and encountered a very steep climb. The RV was un happy and kept coughing and choking. It eventually stalled out, refusing to go any further. We reversed into the nearby pullout to bide our time. After sitting for awhile, we started her up, and she took us a further turn up the hill, before stalling once more. A longer wait, and a consultation with dad later, we got her going and back to Uvrito.

We figured the heat and the hill did her in, so we delayed our final departure (up towards Canada), to get an oil change and check up on a few things. We also had a chance to have a last dinner at la luna (a nice restaurant at Uvrito beach) with everyone, before Ken and Janine left. We had a really nice night, and were all excited to get back on the road and drive towards Canada.

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