Stranded in Panama...

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Yesterday Lucia, Eloisa's sister, and I went to a beach on the Pacific side. It was a one and half hour ride in a small and uncomfortable bus to a tinny village called Rio Mar, from where we walked about 15 minutes under a blazing sun to the beach. The beach was gorgeous and was virtually deserted in spite of being Saturday. Lucia told me that that's something that sets Panama appart from most of Central America. It has a lot of beaches and a really small population, the whole country has less than 3 milllion people. Turism is not strong as in other countries like Costa Rica, so the beaches are never crowded. We spent a lazy day on the beach and headed back around 6pm.
I must have got back to the hostel at 8pm or so, and got some bad news. The capitan of the boat that was going to Cartagena had arrived a day earlier than planned and had a meeting with the people that were interested in going. I was fourth on the list, but since there were a lot of other people waiting, my spot was given to someone else. I was pissed and I spoke to the capitan, but there was nothing he could do, the boat was in full capacity, which is 6 people and besides himself. Fussing wasn't going to help, so I let go. This morning I spoke with him again, he is a really nice guy, I'm sure he would have helped if he could. He is said he is going to speak with other capitans he knows who are in the Caribbean side and try to get someone else to take more passengers to Colombia, there were at least 5 other people that wanted to travel but there wasn't enough space.
This business of taking turists across to Cartagena is a good deal. The capitan charges 250 dollars for the 4 day trip, not including food. Capitan Hernando Higuera has a small sail boat, 33ft. long, and is making 1500 bucks for taking six people across. Since it's a sail boat, there is virtually no fuel costs. 1500 dollars is the wage of several months for most Panamanians, and probably the wage of years for most Colombians. There are only a few boats that do it and they are always full. That should be something to consider as a career, especially for people like you Erik, who I know loves sailing, loves the ocean, loves Latin America and will kill yourself in two weeks on an office job.
Now I have either to wait for the next boat that shows up, which may take another week or two or bailout and fly to Bogota. Either way, I have to get out of Panama city, cause I'm getting crazy here. I wake up every morning at 7 am with the cars hunking on the street. Hunking at least once every block must be one of the items of the driving test. Drivers hunk if someone else cuts in front of them, when the light turns green, when they see someone they know on the street, if a pretty woman walks by. Also the concept of pretty woman is very broad, some seem to hunk to every woman regardless of physical attractiveness, age or weight.
Another option to get out of here is taking a cargo boat. Cargo boats that go to Colombia are small boats with very old engines and misterious loads. I talked with some people about that possibility, but was discouraged. Some of the dangers include shipwrecks, a friend of Eloisa was in a boat that rescued people floating on the ocean after their boat sank; police raids looking for drugs, which they are very likely to find on the boat; and pirates. I'm not kidding, the Caribbean of 2005 is infested with pirates. They attack boats to steal the cargo, or sometimes simply to steal the engine. Some people do it anyway, but my mom and AG will be happy if I avoid that risk.
So here I am stranded in Panama waiting for a boat to Colombia. I will check out Portobelo and Isla Grande in the Caribbean, maybe to some scooba diving, unless I decide to fly to Colombia.

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Comments

[Roger]

Honk
Wouldn't it be fun if wish cars can honk different tones right? Whistle tones say when the woman goes by and angry sounds when people cut in front and almost cause an accident, which as you say happen every couple blocks.