Blogs from Boquete, Chiriquí, Panama, Central America Caribbean - page 5

With intermittent electricity this week, I was unable to finish my stories from the other day. During the time we did not have lights, many of the locals were stopping by our house and speaking with my host parents. My host father works for the electric company, so some of the locals think it is his fault when the lights go out in the town. He is quite famous. Today I started my volunteer work at La Jungla. It is a small wildlife rehabilitation center just outside of town and up another mountain. It is run by an American who lives on the property full time. There are monkeys of various species, birds and parrots, a small animal who looks like a tiny ant eater with claws that could shred glass. The entire facility is ... read more

I have learned a great lesson today; be ALWAYS thankful for what you have. Here is how my day went in quick review: Woke tO the sound of tha cockamani bird and I believe this morning he brought his bretheren to join in the circle around my window. I could only laugh. Headd to the shower to freeze my you know whats off and foun there to be NO WATER. I tried several times thinking there might be a delay. Nope. No water and my family had left for the day so i could no ask what as going on. What I failed to realize or make th connection in my brain was tha if there is no water for the shower well than there is no water for the toilet either. Aaaggh! So a couple ... read more

Laid Off. Fear and panic were apparent as I watched them process what I had just shared. These words had taken a stronghold in their brains as their tongues strung sentances of concern and empathy together and offered rapid fire suggestions of resolution. Names of friends in corporate positions and employment websites were jotted onto whatever paper was handy at that moment, and then placed in my hand with a reassuring pat. I couldn't help but smile slyly as their advice swirled in the air around me, falling just short of my ears and dissipating. For the record it had ONLY been 30 minutes since I was escorted from my workplace (and had skipped the rest of the way to my vehicle). I had been warned that in a week or two I might find myself ... read more

After a long, two day drive from Granada, Nicaragua, we are now in Boquete, Panama. Boquete is a small mountain town near Baru Volcano in northwestern Panama; in fact, the only volcano in Panama. Boquete is popular with expats from many countries and is hugely different from the colonial towns we have stayed in on our trip so far. The drive from Granada was not terrible even though it took two days. It was about 2 hours from Granada to the Costa Rican border. The border people from Costa Rica seemed surprised that we weren’t going to stay in their country. I don’t think they had ever had anyone pass through Costa Rica to get to Panama. It seemed like it hurt their feelings and they weren’t sure how to do the paperwork. We enjoyed the ... read more

Dear Blog Readers, I forgot to mention the state of the toilet in one of the bars in Santiago. It was without doubt the worst toilet I've ever seen. It rivals the one in Jaipur which was on a main road and was just a white tiled wall with men behind it taking a leak. This one was a wooden door which fell off it's hinges as I entered and before me was a white tiled floor and a wooden trelless that was soaked in piss and floating on the bodily fluids that emmanated below it. I was going to wash my hands but the colour of the liquid in the sink suggested that most people had foregone the plank in front of them and opted for a quicker exit. (It didn't take long for the ... read more