Day 3 in Panama-Portobello

This morning we had an early start at 5:30am to go to Portobello. We left early to go scuba diving today. Pat drove us to the other side of town where we met up with Mary and Dusty a couple of expats who have worked with spay panama in the past. We took a van to the coast. It took 2.5 hours and it was pouring rain most of the way. It was like a flash flood that wouldn't stop. It was just the 4 of us going diving. It turns out the owner of the dive shop grew up in spokane. The dive boat was pretty small and it seemed like 4 was the limit. Our first dive was pretty good. The visibility was only about 20 feet but the corral and sponge reef was very colorful and interesting. We saw a snowflake eel and some other fish that have a name we cant recall. We dove near a small island called Drake Island, named after Sir Francis drake who was burried near there in the sea in a lead coffin. Thank goodness we didn't mmet up with him. We didn't see any pirates but we did see a little boat full of a lot of police cruise by patrolling for Columbian drug traffickers. We headed back to the dive shop in a downpour of pelting rain. OUCH. There was no cover on the boat. We had some traditional Panamania food (cordina sea bass) for lunch back at the dive shop. They caught it in the surf in front of the dive shop that morning. Its a good thing we were hungry becuase our food was starring back at us. Our second dive was a little more eventful. The rain stirred up the water a bit and the visibility was only a few feet. Dr Cathy was having trouble clearing one ear half way into the dive at around 50 ft and couldnt go any deeper. The group kept going down and we got separated due to the poor visibilty. Finally they noticed Dr Cathy was gone. After she lost track of them she decided to head up to the surface rather than stay underwater by herself (insert jaws music here). duh da duh da duh da. In the meantime the dive master decided to surface instructing susan and the other divers to stay down at 70 feet. It didnt take long until panick set in and they wanted to go up. Finally they did and we all eventually found each other on the surface. The dive master asked if we wanted to go back down. We unanimously declined. We had the dive shop drop us off in the town of Portobello 10 minutes away where part of the group would pick us up. They dropped us off at a famous church, the church of the black christ. We wandered around the church and the town a bit seeing many stray dogs. After much searching and praying we finally found a banyo. Dr Renae, Dr Carlitos, and 2 assistants Alberto (a retired welder) and Marlena (a substitute teacher) arriverd about an hour later to pick us up. We drove to the city of La Guaria on a very bumpy road (MUCHO WACOS) with 6 of us in a small pickup full of all our surgery gear. La Guaria is the port town pn the way to the island Isla Granda. The locals all tried to get us to go in their boat to the island. We waited for a while for our pre-arranged transportation. One of the children wanted Dr Cathy to take his picture with his little brother. Soon there was a mob of children posing for pictures. They all wanted to see the imageon the digital camera. Our boat arrived and we loaded everything ftom the truck into the boat. The men wouldn't allow us to carry any f the supplies to the boat. We were tired so we didn't object. By the tim we were loaded it was dark out. We got into the boat and headed to the island. Luckily the rain had let up. We were pleased with our wonderful accomodations that had been provided by the locals. We had a 3 story bamboo house built over the water. All the beds had mosquito nets. Panama has Dengue fever and Yellow fever so we kept ourselves covered with bug spray. Susan, Cathy and Marlena slept in the 3rd story loft. After getting settled we went to get some dinner on the island. We went to a little restaurant on the beach. It took a long time for the food to arrive. Just before it arrived Cathy commented that she coiuld smell something dead. Very stinky. Turns out it was her dinner. Cathy ordered the shrimp (Carmones). After a smell survery from the table we all agreed that it was rotten. We told the waitress and she said "just a minute". Flip flop went her flip flops into the kitchen and she returned with a bottle of ketchup. Now thats customer service! Cathy decided she wasn't all that hungry after all and just skipped dinner. We have an early start in the morning so its off to bed. (There is actually no interenet on th island and we are writing this a couple days later. )

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