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Published: January 27th 2013
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Here we are in the Windy City of Boquete, Panama translated means ......... Gap! (Gap?) maybe this is because it sits in a valley in between mountains. Either way our trip here was uneventful, we traveled by boat from Bocas del Tora as it is an island......(and of course there was a gringo that got on the boat, late, because he was waiting for a bus...duh) then jumped onto a comfortable mini van with 4 others and proceeded to climb up the side of one mountain to the top where Boquete is situated. We were ready to leave Bocas del Toro. The food poisoning laid me up for almost a week, then the last few days we were there Ian came down with something too, so most of the time we stayed pretty close to home. We enjoyed the rustic cabin with the gaping holes in the walls and the floor, no, really, we did! It was built on stilts so my terror of huge critters crawling through the spaces actually didn't happen, much to my relief. It had large shuttered windows, without glass, so when you opened the window, you were practically outside. When all the windows were open it
created a nice breeze thought the cabin. We had mosquito netting around the bed as they were a problem there. The water there was not drinkable so that created a bit of an expense, garbage issues and hassle. When we first arrived I thought meh, we can just boil the water then drink it, until I saw the source to which the waters came from. Ours came from 2 places I'm thinking, one was a huge plastic tank that all the roof gutters drained into, and the 2nd was a old swimming pool. One could see the water was yellow with cruddies floating in it, so after that we contributed to the excess water bottles there. Garbage is an issue in Boca's.....I'm not intending to "trash" the place, pardon the pun, because it really is beautiful there, but seeing garbage strewn around everywhere, really takes away from the beauty. I saw a little girl standing on her porch drinking a juice box, then just toss it onto the road. At the airport ( where we were detained for our misdemeanor ), we saw welcome signs from the Mayor, welcoming us to his beautiful city, asking us to respect the town
and people. I believe "most" tourists understand about garage and recycling, I would rather he spends the time and money on education for his people. To add to that there is a issue with the mayor not paying the fellow who's land the open air garbage dump is situated on, preventing a lot of the garbage being picked up by trucks and hauled away. The residents are also complaining about odors and rodents as it is wafting into town. Sounds like some local political coruption going on..... The locals are fed up with their garbage not being picked up, so they are piling it up at the front door of the town office. (See pics)
Our stay in Boqueta was nice, we took a week of Spanish classes at a school and our brains dang near exploded! We did a " homestay" which is where a local family puts you up for so many dollars a day, and this included breakfast and supper. She was a fine cook and prepared us many traditional Panamaian foods. One of the most memorable was called Pesa de Nance. These little yellow berries are acidic tasting and grow in this area. They have
The other view from the hamock
This guy didn't want the other drinking from "his" feeder a pit in them similiar to a cherry pit. Luz Maria, who was our 72 year old house mother, made a special breakfast for us one day with Pesa de Nance as the highlight. Actually I helped her make it. The recipe goes as follows : take the pulp of several pounds of nance berries. Luz Maria did this by running water over the berries and squeezing them with her hand repeatedly until the pits were separated from the pulp. From there we took the pulp, added more water and heated it all up in a large pot on the stove. Add to that the juice of 1 lemon, 2 1/2 huge bricks of something brown and hard and a few tablespoons of corn starch. I later learned the brown bricks was cane sugar. To serve, you scoop the now gelatinous (see pics) goop into a soup sized bowl and crumble some white tasteless cheese into it, then add milk. Sir altogether and enjoy...or not lol. Actually it wasn't tooooo bad, we nic named it "sugar soup" because it was so sweet. And of course Luz Maria went through all the trouble of making it, wanted us to eat "mas
mas" ( more more) I am thankful neither of us are diabetic, hmmm maybe should get our sugars tested now though! We didn't do too much touring or sight seeing whilst in Boqueta as most of our energy was spent at the school and fighting the high winds to and from the school to our casa. When I say wind, I don't mean breeze, I mean wind so high it will take your hat off and you won't be able to catch up to it. The wind doesn't come in gusts either, it's straight in your face all the time. The wind was so strong ( how strong was it ask you ask? ) It was sooo strong that it was hard to breath sometimes when we were walking back from the school and at night you could hear the tin roof creaking and groaning, making me wonder if pieces of it might fly off in the night. Apparently this was their " windy" season, that lasts for a few months. When we arrived, the town was hosting a flower/coffee fair. It brought people from all over including some of the native people. The indigenous peoples of Panama have their
own distinct cultures and with the exception of employing Guaymi indians to pick coffee I know nothing of their culture. I have only observed these few things, children appear to be loved and well taken care of, men fight over women (nothing new there) and education does not seem to be considered important. The women, (girls) have their children very young, some look 14, but their men seem to love them, as they were all holding hands and everyone looked well fed. The women all wear full length colourful cotton dresses, decorated with different embroidery which apparently signifies different tribes and status. ( see pic) We are now headed to the pacific town of David Panama ( pronounced Daveed) where we will stay at a Hostel and once again enjoy the heat and the ocean. Hasta Lugeo!
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Gratitude for Life!
Thanks for the BLOG. Such a treat, I feel honored to be there with you both. Courage is another name for you. Love Mom