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Published: September 21st 2005
New Maternity Hospital?
Panama City. Just an office block but I reckon it's a good look for a maternity hospital, yes?OK, maybe I was a bit harsh, yesterday so here's another view of life here...I finally went the lash and got a rent-a-wreck yesterday and today and have been all over the isla, fantastic because you can never really get lost on an island...well not easily...suffice to say I have been along EVERY road and seen every beach, millions of them..fantastic...
When I first get the car I find its almost empty of gasoline..... fcuked again.... thats why its called Hertz.....(in fact I went to City Rentals but that was too good to pass up....)..anyway, pulled into a servo and before I could say...'just 10 litres please' ..the guy had filled 'er up...bloody 28 litres....but then he told me it was 2,800 Bolivars..Ha!...depending on where you change your money thats about $1.20!!..they tell me that sometimes, if the amount is less than 1000B they just wave you thru...trying to make change is more hassle!!...this is a great place...fabulous..... I was going to say 'people' but really its the women who are fabulous...and beer at 50 cents a stubby, smokes a bit dearer here, about $1 a pack...gasoline to burn....Water and Coke tho' hey, that's real expense!
Later, out in
Worth protecting!
Isla de Margarita...some old fort, difficult shot to get the pirates but... the back blocks, I was coming up behind 2 guys on bicycles, I slowed down, and as I came alongside I could see one was dinking a third guy, blood on his leg, head banged up, holding one limp wrist with the other...the other guy had what looked like some modern sculpture made from a bike strapped across his handlebars...say no more!!
Later a big hold up in the traffic...eventually got to the scene...two distraught bikini chicas and their 4WD anxiously and nervously explaining some story to the 4 cops surrounding them...on the road a cop motor bike, 2 halves of a helmet, bits of plastic and metal, big dark stain on the bitumen...the body already gone but the shit about to hit the fan...think I'll give the car back manaña morning!
Stopped in one of many little fishing villages in a totally picturesque little bay...sat in a open terrace restaurant looking out to sea...just across the road the fishermen sat in their boats or on the rocks picking thru their nets, lovely high bowed, open boats, quite wide, and broad flat sterns with a couple of outboards...very serviceable....the same (?) pelicans balancing precariously on the sides of
The old and the new
Isla de Margarita...some old fort over some town vacant boats rocking on the waves, overhead the same frigate birds endlessly and effortlessly circling with their jerky style as they pick up on the slightest current of air....further out in the bay some serious fishing boats, long liners and big netters....with Rita just across the way I reckon they might be holed up for a day or three....
A massive 4WD pulls up out front and a couple of families pour out....the 2 men, big and fat go straight to a table and order beers and something...the 2 mothers round up their collective 6 or 7 kids and try to get them to sit at the other end of the table...the men pass on some of the food to the women...it seems to be just the way it is, everyone is all friendly and such but the men have this attitude that boggles the snag mind...
A scraggy little kid, maybe 8 or 9, slinks up to the entrance and tries to make himself part of the doorway...he's on the bot for anything and will try and kid us when we leave that he has been 'protecting' our cars!...he's watching the squalling, scrapping, over-indulged behaviour of the kids, about
It's all black and white
Isla de Margarita...Kujo and cat at my place....took a few days for Kujo to let me in! his age, at the family table...wondering about how things might have been?...I give him 500B when I leave.
A cat walks thru the restaurant with a mouse in its mouth, I kid you not!..looking as proud as all cats do in this situation...nobody notices except for me and one of the mums, quite attractive, 30 something, 3 or 4 of the kids are hers, we catch eyes and smile, acknowledging the cat...she looks down then looks back directly at me...wondering about how things might have been?....well, I was...
Been swimming every day and copping a bit of sun so today was shade day. I must have stashed the bored shorts in the bike but luckily had the budgie smugglers in the day pack and they have been exposing a lot of flesh to the harsh light of day...aaarrrggghhhh I hear (some of you) say....not the most fashionable look but they are seen a lot here!....so today I drove all the way to the westernmost end of the isla...some really deserted beaches down here...and big mountains as well...like a mini-tasmania...and a fantastico maratime museum with all sorts of fabulous stories, treasures and photos of the isla.
OK, now to try and
Fishermen on the rocks
Isla de Margarita...and in their boats, mending the nets get some photos happening...if you haven't seen them by now it obviously hasn't happened, if you have...oh god Bill, just get on with it!!
PS: It looks like it worked...hope you can download yours D...
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