I have now joined an elite fraternity. It took me five weeks to accomplish the necessary tasks and earn the right to call myself a true member of this most prestigious club.
I fell through a dock.
Ok, so, I was walking down a dock to catch a water taxi with joe, when i heard a crack. Next thing I know, I'm falling toward the water at roughly 9.8 m/s^2. I actually had the presence of mind to get a grip as i fell and thrust myself onto another piece of wood so I didn't actually land in the water. I did, however, manage to scrape my left shin along another piece of wood, leaving a nasty trail of scrapes and a pretty impressive, baseball sized bruise in its wake. So I'm in a bit of pain. It's nothing serious, i didn't break anything, the dock excluded, and I've definitely had worse injuries. But I'll be fine here in a few days.
Other than that, I haven't been robbed lately, so I guess I'm doing alright.
Also, I moved. Again. Pictures to come.
adios
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Trouble in Paradise OR How JJ got his stuff back
I was robbed.
As I slept on Tuesday night, someone with enormous balls crept into my room and stole my backpack. Actually, I'm assuming the thief had giant, brass testicles because he was about three feet away from me when he opened my bag, removed my passport and passed it through the bathroom window. Once the deed was done, he crept out the front door, past four other sleeping dudes and disappeared into the darkness. That had to take some serious, serious bravery or an extreme crack addiction. I'd prefer it do be the whole bravery thing. Drugs are bad.
So I wake up the next day. Life is good, the sun is shining. I still had that just-woke-woke-still-a-little-groggy air about me when i noticed my passport in a box next to my bed. "Hm..." i thought to myself, "Who left their passport out. That's just foolish." So i picked it up and checked it. "Oh, it's MY passport. That's weird, I keep this in my back..." at that exact moment, i realized what had happened. My heart sank through the floor of the house and landed in the sand under my feet. I went absolutely nuts. My computer, my camera, my iphone, my watch, some notebooks, my sunglasses, and all my chargers and cords were gone. Just like that. Like they had never been there. The conscientious thief did leave my passport, so I had that going for me. Immediately, the roommates and I hatched a plan.
We immediately assumed that the brass-balled thief was none other than Kkleyton, a rastafarian who Brian employs to do various work with the jetskis and stuff. Yes, that's really how he spells his name. With all the ruckus going on, the neighbor, a panamanian guy with at least 14 kids took notice and came over. He said that he was sorry he didn't say anything before, but the other day, he saw two black rasta guys (kkleyton [from now on I'm going to call him clay, get over it] and one of his many many many cousins) passing a computer bag through the bathroom window. Interesting...Tim, the surfer guy that hangs out here, had his computer stolen a few days before. So now we pretty much knew that clay was in on it. We figured that even if somebody had woken up mid-robbery, they would have seen him, and probably not thought much of it since he's here sometimes anyway and it wasn't too unusual for him to crash here occasionally. So, we went through the scenarios in our heads, like Tim Curry in the Clue movie, and decided that we should: A) Go to the cops. Tim, Josh and myself would go to the police, fill out reports, and do shit the right way. 2) Brian and Joe would go find clay, and just keep an eye on him to make sure he didn't leave with a nice new backpack.
On the way to the police station, we ran into Rosanna, a chef at the restaurant and Juan's wife. I informed her of my predicament and she volunteered to come to the police station to serve as a translator. Double awesome. Three hours later, two reports had been filed and the police said they'd meet me at my house in an hour to take finger prints.
After a quick lunch at subway (yes, one just opened in bocas town last week and I never thought that Subway would represent comfort food. Plus I was hoping that they might have dr. pepper. They don't) we headed home to find clay, brian, and joe chillaxing like nothing had happened and nothing had been burgled. Then, the police showed up and shit got interesting. They came in and fingerprinted the bathroom window, took a shit ton of pictures and talked to everyone about what happened in both my case and tim's. Then, they took clay to their boat, which is an awesome drug-running boat that they confiscated from, well, drug runners. As they walked him out, he looked at me and asked me why they were taking him to jail. I said, "dude, I don't know if you did it," (p.s. that was a lie) "but I just want my stuff back. If you know where it is, tell me or tell them and get it back to me." They walked him to the boat, took some more pictures and left just in time for me to have to go to work.
At this point, I had pretty conceded that would never see any of my shit ever again. The most I could do was hope that some young children would learn to read using my computer, or donate my camera to charity or some nice thing. So, I'm at work for, I don't know, an hour, when clay walks in and asks me to go outside with him. Of course, i shit a brick and just knew that I was going to get stabbed in the eyes and even if i got my shit back i'd never see it again. So I asked Juan to join me, mostly because he's a boxer and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't hesitate to punch a bear in the ovaries. So we walk out to talk to clay and he shows me a dollar bill with a phone number on it. "Aye men, Aye tall yoo wat. Dey let me owt da jell hasta six dirty and de tall me aye nee to fine yoo stoff o they gon' thro me back in. Somebody tell me if yoo kawl de nomba ayn yoo ask fo yo shit, day kno where it be."
So I call the number on the dollar, and a guy answers. Before he has a chance to say anything, I tell him I want my stuff back, and I want it back now. He told me he didn't speak english, and for some reason I turned into Ricky Ricardo. My rage boiled over and for a few seconds I spoke fluent spanish. I told him that I wanted my stuff right now, or he and Clayton and everyone is going to jail. The guy on the other side of the phone said he'd give it back to me for $850. Instinct took over. "Go fuck yourself," I said. In retrospect, it probably wasn't the smartest thing to say but it go things moving. I told him "I can't possibly pay you that much money. I can't make any money without my computer anyway. You're completely insane." After some quick negotiation, I got the price down to less than a third of what he asked for. At this point, clayton was about 15 from going to jail, and even though he obviously wasn't the one on the other phone, it was pretty obvious that he did it, or had direct knowledge of who did and knew exactly where to find it. So anyway, I ran into town, got some cash from the ATM, and came back. I handed clay the money with Juan standing next to me and told him to get my shit right now. He said he'd be back in ten minutes with the backpack and the stuff inside. "You'd better be back in 5 minutes or I'm calling the police." he was back in four minutes.
I opened the bag to make sure the stuff was there. For the most part, it was there: my camera, hard drive, camera cord, computer charger and most importantly, my computer. The iphone was missing, but i was so relieved that i really didnt care. It's replaceable and now I can get a new one. I was really tempted to hug clayton but then I remembered that he was the one that did it and that hug became stab. Then, he asked me to sit down and call the police and tell them that i had my stuff back so he wouldn't go to jail. I made the call with him sitting next to me, and the inspector asked me to come in the next day. I told him over the phone that I didn't recognize the guy that I had done the deal with, but only because clay was sitting right next to me. Then clay left, and I went back to work, relieved but still mad that it happened in the first place.
Today at the police station, i had to fill out another report, but I told them all about clayton being the "middleman" and how it all went down. They told me, and please, keep this to yourself, to tell him that as far as i'm concerned the investigation is over and they're no longer actively pursuing him. It is, of course, bullshit. I'm pretty sure that they're going to set up some kind of sting operation with Tim's computer and haul clayton off to jail. The sooner the better.
Not everything has been bad though, in fact, i was having a great week.
Joe's dad and stepmom came into town the other night from their island. We all hung out and they invited me out to their island the next day and night. So the next day I called in dead to work and took off.
It was about a 45 minute boat ride out to their island. I was a little skeptical of the whole situation, to be honest, because there are a lot of islands. I figured they had a little piece of land that stuck out of the water a little bit and there was a house on it. I was mistaken.
As you can see, for the most part, i was right. It really is just a piece of land that sticks out of the water a little bit, but it's AWESOME. Joe's dad, Keith, burnt the whole thing to the ground five years ago to get rid of the snakes, bugs, armadillos, plants, hippies, and everything else that they didn't want there, and then he planted golf course grass. I mean, this is some high quality stuff. They're one step away from having to hire Bill Murray's character from Caddyshack. Then, after the grass got going, they put in a few buildings, one's a bedroom, one's a kitchen, one's a living room/bedroom, and another grass-hut type building with yet another bed in it. That's where I slept, here's a picture.
So basically, this whole island is like a big treehouse. If Gilligan and co. had been here, they wouldn't have wanted to be rescued, not that they really seemed like they did anyway. That professor should have just built a raft or something. Crazy Gilligan. Anyway, the island is kind of remote, so they don't get a lot of boat traffic nearby. In fact, when this guy drove by, keith said it was the busiest he'd seen it all week.
yes, there's a canoe out there. Yes, that was the only boat that went by all day.
But the best part of the whole island...well, let me show you.
Yep, MONKEYS. Well, just one monkey. He's their pet, and he's awesome. as you can see, he liked my camera, but he also liked my sunglass my shoes, my hair, chairs, food, bugs, water hoses, grass, ropes, hammocks and the dogs. Check it out.
Why yes, as a matter a of fact, that monkey is riding on a dog. But that wasn't even the cutest thing on the island.
This little guy was.
No, not the human, that's Joe by the way. I'm talking about his pet kinkajou, Bradley. Bradley is awesome. He's like a monkey, but without Ebola or AIDS. It's like the best of both worlds. Also, he has little hands and feet that look and feel like human hands and feet. Ha ha, nature is hilarious.
Bradley liked me:
Probably because I'm so damn awesome. That must be it.
Here's a picture of one of their dogs, Jack, keeping an eye on his domain.
And the sunrise was beautiful.
Keith and his wife came and woke me up so I wouldn't miss it and although it was really early, i really appreciated it. Words don't do it justice.
Speaking of sun events, I just had to take a picture of the sunset the other day, it was absolutely epic.
When my camera was stolen, I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to see all this stuff again, thank goodness I got it back. Shit sucks, but life is good.
adios.
As I slept on Tuesday night, someone with enormous balls crept into my room and stole my backpack. Actually, I'm assuming the thief had giant, brass testicles because he was about three feet away from me when he opened my bag, removed my passport and passed it through the bathroom window. Once the deed was done, he crept out the front door, past four other sleeping dudes and disappeared into the darkness. That had to take some serious, serious bravery or an extreme crack addiction. I'd prefer it do be the whole bravery thing. Drugs are bad.
So I wake up the next day. Life is good, the sun is shining. I still had that just-woke-woke-still-a-little-groggy air about me when i noticed my passport in a box next to my bed. "Hm..." i thought to myself, "Who left their passport out. That's just foolish." So i picked it up and checked it. "Oh, it's MY passport. That's weird, I keep this in my back..." at that exact moment, i realized what had happened. My heart sank through the floor of the house and landed in the sand under my feet. I went absolutely nuts. My computer, my camera, my iphone, my watch, some notebooks, my sunglasses, and all my chargers and cords were gone. Just like that. Like they had never been there. The conscientious thief did leave my passport, so I had that going for me. Immediately, the roommates and I hatched a plan.
We immediately assumed that the brass-balled thief was none other than Kkleyton, a rastafarian who Brian employs to do various work with the jetskis and stuff. Yes, that's really how he spells his name. With all the ruckus going on, the neighbor, a panamanian guy with at least 14 kids took notice and came over. He said that he was sorry he didn't say anything before, but the other day, he saw two black rasta guys (kkleyton [from now on I'm going to call him clay, get over it] and one of his many many many cousins) passing a computer bag through the bathroom window. Interesting...Tim, the surfer guy that hangs out here, had his computer stolen a few days before. So now we pretty much knew that clay was in on it. We figured that even if somebody had woken up mid-robbery, they would have seen him, and probably not thought much of it since he's here sometimes anyway and it wasn't too unusual for him to crash here occasionally. So, we went through the scenarios in our heads, like Tim Curry in the Clue movie, and decided that we should: A) Go to the cops. Tim, Josh and myself would go to the police, fill out reports, and do shit the right way. 2) Brian and Joe would go find clay, and just keep an eye on him to make sure he didn't leave with a nice new backpack.
On the way to the police station, we ran into Rosanna, a chef at the restaurant and Juan's wife. I informed her of my predicament and she volunteered to come to the police station to serve as a translator. Double awesome. Three hours later, two reports had been filed and the police said they'd meet me at my house in an hour to take finger prints.
After a quick lunch at subway (yes, one just opened in bocas town last week and I never thought that Subway would represent comfort food. Plus I was hoping that they might have dr. pepper. They don't) we headed home to find clay, brian, and joe chillaxing like nothing had happened and nothing had been burgled. Then, the police showed up and shit got interesting. They came in and fingerprinted the bathroom window, took a shit ton of pictures and talked to everyone about what happened in both my case and tim's. Then, they took clay to their boat, which is an awesome drug-running boat that they confiscated from, well, drug runners. As they walked him out, he looked at me and asked me why they were taking him to jail. I said, "dude, I don't know if you did it," (p.s. that was a lie) "but I just want my stuff back. If you know where it is, tell me or tell them and get it back to me." They walked him to the boat, took some more pictures and left just in time for me to have to go to work.
At this point, I had pretty conceded that would never see any of my shit ever again. The most I could do was hope that some young children would learn to read using my computer, or donate my camera to charity or some nice thing. So, I'm at work for, I don't know, an hour, when clay walks in and asks me to go outside with him. Of course, i shit a brick and just knew that I was going to get stabbed in the eyes and even if i got my shit back i'd never see it again. So I asked Juan to join me, mostly because he's a boxer and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't hesitate to punch a bear in the ovaries. So we walk out to talk to clay and he shows me a dollar bill with a phone number on it. "Aye men, Aye tall yoo wat. Dey let me owt da jell hasta six dirty and de tall me aye nee to fine yoo stoff o they gon' thro me back in. Somebody tell me if yoo kawl de nomba ayn yoo ask fo yo shit, day kno where it be."
So I call the number on the dollar, and a guy answers. Before he has a chance to say anything, I tell him I want my stuff back, and I want it back now. He told me he didn't speak english, and for some reason I turned into Ricky Ricardo. My rage boiled over and for a few seconds I spoke fluent spanish. I told him that I wanted my stuff right now, or he and Clayton and everyone is going to jail. The guy on the other side of the phone said he'd give it back to me for $850. Instinct took over. "Go fuck yourself," I said. In retrospect, it probably wasn't the smartest thing to say but it go things moving. I told him "I can't possibly pay you that much money. I can't make any money without my computer anyway. You're completely insane." After some quick negotiation, I got the price down to less than a third of what he asked for. At this point, clayton was about 15 from going to jail, and even though he obviously wasn't the one on the other phone, it was pretty obvious that he did it, or had direct knowledge of who did and knew exactly where to find it. So anyway, I ran into town, got some cash from the ATM, and came back. I handed clay the money with Juan standing next to me and told him to get my shit right now. He said he'd be back in ten minutes with the backpack and the stuff inside. "You'd better be back in 5 minutes or I'm calling the police." he was back in four minutes.
I opened the bag to make sure the stuff was there. For the most part, it was there: my camera, hard drive, camera cord, computer charger and most importantly, my computer. The iphone was missing, but i was so relieved that i really didnt care. It's replaceable and now I can get a new one. I was really tempted to hug clayton but then I remembered that he was the one that did it and that hug became stab. Then, he asked me to sit down and call the police and tell them that i had my stuff back so he wouldn't go to jail. I made the call with him sitting next to me, and the inspector asked me to come in the next day. I told him over the phone that I didn't recognize the guy that I had done the deal with, but only because clay was sitting right next to me. Then clay left, and I went back to work, relieved but still mad that it happened in the first place.
Today at the police station, i had to fill out another report, but I told them all about clayton being the "middleman" and how it all went down. They told me, and please, keep this to yourself, to tell him that as far as i'm concerned the investigation is over and they're no longer actively pursuing him. It is, of course, bullshit. I'm pretty sure that they're going to set up some kind of sting operation with Tim's computer and haul clayton off to jail. The sooner the better.
Not everything has been bad though, in fact, i was having a great week.
Joe's dad and stepmom came into town the other night from their island. We all hung out and they invited me out to their island the next day and night. So the next day I called in dead to work and took off.
It was about a 45 minute boat ride out to their island. I was a little skeptical of the whole situation, to be honest, because there are a lot of islands. I figured they had a little piece of land that stuck out of the water a little bit and there was a house on it. I was mistaken.
As you can see, for the most part, i was right. It really is just a piece of land that sticks out of the water a little bit, but it's AWESOME. Joe's dad, Keith, burnt the whole thing to the ground five years ago to get rid of the snakes, bugs, armadillos, plants, hippies, and everything else that they didn't want there, and then he planted golf course grass. I mean, this is some high quality stuff. They're one step away from having to hire Bill Murray's character from Caddyshack. Then, after the grass got going, they put in a few buildings, one's a bedroom, one's a kitchen, one's a living room/bedroom, and another grass-hut type building with yet another bed in it. That's where I slept, here's a picture.
So basically, this whole island is like a big treehouse. If Gilligan and co. had been here, they wouldn't have wanted to be rescued, not that they really seemed like they did anyway. That professor should have just built a raft or something. Crazy Gilligan. Anyway, the island is kind of remote, so they don't get a lot of boat traffic nearby. In fact, when this guy drove by, keith said it was the busiest he'd seen it all week.
yes, there's a canoe out there. Yes, that was the only boat that went by all day.
But the best part of the whole island...well, let me show you.
Yep, MONKEYS. Well, just one monkey. He's their pet, and he's awesome. as you can see, he liked my camera, but he also liked my sunglass my shoes, my hair, chairs, food, bugs, water hoses, grass, ropes, hammocks and the dogs. Check it out.
Why yes, as a matter a of fact, that monkey is riding on a dog. But that wasn't even the cutest thing on the island.
This little guy was.
No, not the human, that's Joe by the way. I'm talking about his pet kinkajou, Bradley. Bradley is awesome. He's like a monkey, but without Ebola or AIDS. It's like the best of both worlds. Also, he has little hands and feet that look and feel like human hands and feet. Ha ha, nature is hilarious.
Bradley liked me:
Probably because I'm so damn awesome. That must be it.
Here's a picture of one of their dogs, Jack, keeping an eye on his domain.
And the sunrise was beautiful.
Keith and his wife came and woke me up so I wouldn't miss it and although it was really early, i really appreciated it. Words don't do it justice.
Speaking of sun events, I just had to take a picture of the sunset the other day, it was absolutely epic.
When my camera was stolen, I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to see all this stuff again, thank goodness I got it back. Shit sucks, but life is good.
adios.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Ok, bear with me here
So, I know this is a bit of a stretch, but how incredibly awesome would it be to ride a motorcycle back to texas? Blah blah blah, its dangerous, blah blah blah. I know I know. But all naysaying and reasonable thinking aside, wouldn't it be the coolest thing ever? It's just a thought...for now.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
one fish, two fish, dead fish, blue fish
Hey guys, I'm coming to you from the comfort of the hammock once again. The weather isn't perfect today, but it's still pretty damn nice. We've some clouds rolling in off the mountains to the south and it's keeping the temperature in the lower 80's. It'll probably rain tonight, and the circle of life will march on.
I'm a little sunburned today because Juan, Josh and I went spearfishing for about 4 hours yesterday. We started off at the restaurant-dove in right of the dock. Unfortunately, it was mostly a snorkeling expedition. I didn't even get to shoot at anything. I did watch Juan in action though. He's a spearfishing ninja. He can hold his breath for days. He's like Kevin Costner in Waterworld, but without the gills and a much better actor.
So, after that we moved on to spot 2: a shrimp boat that's tied up to a pier on the other side of the island. The water is clearer there, but it's also quite a bit shallower. We were there for about six seconds when Juan caught his first fish. He tossed the fish on the bank and went back to end the lives of even more fish. We were there for about an hour, Juan caught a few more fish, and I realized how much I suck at shooting a speargun. On the plus side, I did sheck out some HUGE starfish.
We ended the day at our dock behind the house, or is it the front? Anyway, we were trying to kill this decent sized fish that likes to hang out around the house. He was good though, crafty and quick. Even Juan came up empty handed. We ended up getting a few smaller sized fish that I'm gonna take into work today and get fried up for me. Life is good.
So my fishing experiences have lit a fire in me. Tomorrow I'm going to town to buy a speargun and I'm going to spend all my free time snorkeling, looking at fish and killing the big ones. Also, eating and sleeping. I want to become the guy from the dos equis commercials, you know, the most interesting man in the world? I can see it now..."He once caught a great white shark with nothing more than a spear gun and a grudge." I'll either have a great story to tell or an awesome obituary.
So life continues to be extremely difficult down here. I'm thinking about spending the next few days getting my scuba certification. It's something that I've always wanted to do and now's the time to carpe the day.
This place is absolutely full of insane characters. Every single day I meet someone that just amazes me and has hilarious stories. I wish I could bottle this stuff. Caveat: The prostitution here is pretty insane. By here, I mean in panama, not in bocas. But a lot of the old locals talk candidly about how they pay $150 to have girls flown here. It's a little awkward. And by a little, I mean extremely. I laugh it off, and sometimes, genuinely funny stories result, but I swear to god if another 80 year old man tells me about the last weekend he spent with "mya" i'm going spearfishing. For human, the most dangerous game.
It's hard to get too mad though, with the view that I wake up to every day. When I buy my speargun, I'll take some pictures of it and my first haul of fish. Until then, I'll just keep on keeping on.
adios
I'm a little sunburned today because Juan, Josh and I went spearfishing for about 4 hours yesterday. We started off at the restaurant-dove in right of the dock. Unfortunately, it was mostly a snorkeling expedition. I didn't even get to shoot at anything. I did watch Juan in action though. He's a spearfishing ninja. He can hold his breath for days. He's like Kevin Costner in Waterworld, but without the gills and a much better actor.
So, after that we moved on to spot 2: a shrimp boat that's tied up to a pier on the other side of the island. The water is clearer there, but it's also quite a bit shallower. We were there for about six seconds when Juan caught his first fish. He tossed the fish on the bank and went back to end the lives of even more fish. We were there for about an hour, Juan caught a few more fish, and I realized how much I suck at shooting a speargun. On the plus side, I did sheck out some HUGE starfish.
We ended the day at our dock behind the house, or is it the front? Anyway, we were trying to kill this decent sized fish that likes to hang out around the house. He was good though, crafty and quick. Even Juan came up empty handed. We ended up getting a few smaller sized fish that I'm gonna take into work today and get fried up for me. Life is good.
So my fishing experiences have lit a fire in me. Tomorrow I'm going to town to buy a speargun and I'm going to spend all my free time snorkeling, looking at fish and killing the big ones. Also, eating and sleeping. I want to become the guy from the dos equis commercials, you know, the most interesting man in the world? I can see it now..."He once caught a great white shark with nothing more than a spear gun and a grudge." I'll either have a great story to tell or an awesome obituary.
So life continues to be extremely difficult down here. I'm thinking about spending the next few days getting my scuba certification. It's something that I've always wanted to do and now's the time to carpe the day.
This place is absolutely full of insane characters. Every single day I meet someone that just amazes me and has hilarious stories. I wish I could bottle this stuff. Caveat: The prostitution here is pretty insane. By here, I mean in panama, not in bocas. But a lot of the old locals talk candidly about how they pay $150 to have girls flown here. It's a little awkward. And by a little, I mean extremely. I laugh it off, and sometimes, genuinely funny stories result, but I swear to god if another 80 year old man tells me about the last weekend he spent with "mya" i'm going spearfishing. For human, the most dangerous game.
It's hard to get too mad though, with the view that I wake up to every day. When I buy my speargun, I'll take some pictures of it and my first haul of fish. Until then, I'll just keep on keeping on.
adios
Friday, October 10, 2008
It's a hard life
So, I'm just sitting in a hammock, looking out at a beautiful day. I moved in with the guys yesterday on the other island. By "moved in" i mean i brought my two bags over on a boat taxi. It was the fastest, easiest move I've ever made. This place lacks a/c, but the fact that I'm not living alone now, along with the view that i'm looking at right now more than make up for it. I think while you're at work/school/being productive, I'm going to go into town and buy myself a hammock and relax for the rest of the day. I may take the short walk down to the pickled parrot, a restaurant/bar on the island, and grab myself a giant burger and a couple cold ones. Bohmfalks is still closed, and I'm on another island anyway, so it's time to move on. Plus, the owner of the pickled parrot Jorge, is an american. He came into the restaurant the other day while I was working and recognized me. We were just about closed, and when I got off work, he bought me a few drinks. He's had a super interesting life, and I'm looking forward to hanging out at his place.
This island, Carenero, is significantly smaller than the other one. There aren't any cars on this island, there aren't any roads and you could easily walk around the whole place in about an hour. Did I mention that the views are beautiful? Starfish, stingrays, crabs...this place is awesome.
On the negative side, the chitras here are absolutely ferocious. I mean, they're so thick it looks like fur when they land on you. We picked up this soap stuff at the store that your rub to keep the bugs away. It's like a brick of solid off and it works like magic. I haven't even seen a bug since I put this stuff on.
Tomorrow, I'm going spear fishing with the chef from the restaurant, Juan. He's meeting me at my new house at 8 am manaña and we're going to spear us some fish. Then, he's gonna fry 'em up and work his magic and I'm going to eat a magnificent meal. And then, as if it couldn't get any better, I'm going to watch Texas beat the jesus out of Oklahoma. Tomorrow will indeed be a good day. Sorry you're at work or school. Get over it.
adios
This island, Carenero, is significantly smaller than the other one. There aren't any cars on this island, there aren't any roads and you could easily walk around the whole place in about an hour. Did I mention that the views are beautiful? Starfish, stingrays, crabs...this place is awesome.
On the negative side, the chitras here are absolutely ferocious. I mean, they're so thick it looks like fur when they land on you. We picked up this soap stuff at the store that your rub to keep the bugs away. It's like a brick of solid off and it works like magic. I haven't even seen a bug since I put this stuff on.
Tomorrow, I'm going spear fishing with the chef from the restaurant, Juan. He's meeting me at my new house at 8 am manaña and we're going to spear us some fish. Then, he's gonna fry 'em up and work his magic and I'm going to eat a magnificent meal. And then, as if it couldn't get any better, I'm going to watch Texas beat the jesus out of Oklahoma. Tomorrow will indeed be a good day. Sorry you're at work or school. Get over it.
adios
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Rainy days and panamanian workers are my El Guapos
Alright alright, so it's been a while. I've just been so super busy down here where the water is clear and the beer is cold/cheap that I haven't found the time to update. Forgive me.
I had Thursday and Friday off so naturally they were nasty days that kept me from doing to much outside. The good thing is that the weather here is kind of like the weather in texas, if you don't like it, wait, and it'll change.
I didn't quit my job at the restaurant. I decided I'd be straight with them and just go in and tell them what irked me and see if they appreciated my candor. I didn't get the chance though, because as soon as I went in on Saturday after my two days off, they told me I didn't need to work. They had finally worked out a schedule with another waiter and we both work three days a week, with the restaurant closed on Mondays. It's perfect. Now I have time to veg out in the sand four days a week! So I didn't end up quitting, and I probably won't for now. It doesn't pay a lot, but it doesn't need to. I only pay for food on days that I don't go to work, and it's so cheap that what I make each night at work more than covers it. Also, if you time it right, you can drink all day for 75 cents a beer. Not that I do.
So I've been hanging out with these guys I met at Bohmfalks for a week or two now, and they're pretty ok dudes. They live on the same island as my job and they have a boat, so I don't have to take a water taxi every time I need to go anywhere. I didn't get pictures of all of them, but I did get some on camera.
Ok, so, from left to right we have Taylor, Brian, and Tim. Tim doesn't live with the guys but he likes to hang out at their house and use the internet. He's had a pretty interesting life and he's a hilarious old surfer guy. Salty is the word that comes to mind. Now that I think of it, he reminds me Brian Doyle-Murray. Brian's cousin Josh also lives there as does Joe, the guy I jammed with at bohmfalks.
here's a view of the living room, which is basically a covered porch with, you guessed it, two hammocks and some chairs. Their whole house is kind of like this and the only rooms that are actually enclosed by walls are the bedroom and the bathroom. The rest of the house, including the kitchen, is just kind of an open air patio. It's really cool when there's a breeze coming in off the water and the view from their "living room" is hard to beat on a nice day.
Their dock broke one night while they were all standing on it so they were getting it repaired when I took this picture. Well, it wasn't actually getting repaired but it was in the process of about to be getting fixed. or something. Anyway, I took this picture a little before it usually gets dark, but there were some storms blowing in and it was super gloomy. Whenever storms blow in it seems like they're huge clouds of certain death. It looks really wild. The whole sky goes black and it looks like a Mount Doom. Even when it gets like that, though, the wind doesn't pick up too much and it doesn't get too crazy. It just looks like it. Despite all the darkness from the clouds, you can still see how clear the water is thanks to the flash of my camera. Here's another picture looking straight down from the edge of their living room. It was raining and the water looks cool.
I know I've said it a million times now but the water is so beautifully clear here. Sometimes when I'm on the water taxi to the other island, I can look down and see tons and tons of starfish. The other night, at work, it was kinda slow and the chef and I were looking out at the water and we saw a bunch of cuttlefish chilling out under the dock. They just kinda floated there being awesome or whatever it is that they do.
There's been some interesting developments at Bohmfalk's lately. I haven't been able to go there after work because his workers are on strike on his front porch, refusing to let people enter the building. Apparently he owed them some money or something. They've been there for six days now with a big sign that says "we have rights" or something similar in spanish. They're doing it all wrong though. They're just sitting out there, keeping Bill from making any money so he can't pay them back anyway. If they sold beer from his porch, they could pay it all off in a few weeks. Anyway, it came to a head the other night when I got off work. I saw my friend josh walking towards the bar after I got off the boat so got to talking to him. He said he was heading to his "friends' place". So, naturally, I went along. When we got closer to Bohmfalks, he handed me his drink and said, "When I get up on the porch, count to 15, and if we're fighting, come help me." So I knew immediately that I was in some shit. Apparently, Bill's former employees got tired of not letting people in, so they decided to not let Bill or his wife OUT of the bar. They called Josh because he had filled in for the workers when they had pink eye. The police really aren't an option here because: 1) Bill is white, and his workers are panamanian. and B) Because even if he wanted to bribe them, he didn't have enough money to do it properly. So Josh walked up and just kind of talked to the people about what was going on and eventually they let Bill out of the place. It went about as well as it possibly could have, no one got stabbed.
Luckily, nothing happened, and I ended up just getting some notes for a possible story for the paper. It actually turned out to be pretty funny and not dangerous at all, mom and dad. I promise. I just want the place to reopen so I can watch football there on Saturday.
Well, I need to get off to work. I'll take more random pictures and try to post more, lower quality, material more often.
adios
I had Thursday and Friday off so naturally they were nasty days that kept me from doing to much outside. The good thing is that the weather here is kind of like the weather in texas, if you don't like it, wait, and it'll change.
I didn't quit my job at the restaurant. I decided I'd be straight with them and just go in and tell them what irked me and see if they appreciated my candor. I didn't get the chance though, because as soon as I went in on Saturday after my two days off, they told me I didn't need to work. They had finally worked out a schedule with another waiter and we both work three days a week, with the restaurant closed on Mondays. It's perfect. Now I have time to veg out in the sand four days a week! So I didn't end up quitting, and I probably won't for now. It doesn't pay a lot, but it doesn't need to. I only pay for food on days that I don't go to work, and it's so cheap that what I make each night at work more than covers it. Also, if you time it right, you can drink all day for 75 cents a beer. Not that I do.
So I've been hanging out with these guys I met at Bohmfalks for a week or two now, and they're pretty ok dudes. They live on the same island as my job and they have a boat, so I don't have to take a water taxi every time I need to go anywhere. I didn't get pictures of all of them, but I did get some on camera.
Ok, so, from left to right we have Taylor, Brian, and Tim. Tim doesn't live with the guys but he likes to hang out at their house and use the internet. He's had a pretty interesting life and he's a hilarious old surfer guy. Salty is the word that comes to mind. Now that I think of it, he reminds me Brian Doyle-Murray. Brian's cousin Josh also lives there as does Joe, the guy I jammed with at bohmfalks.
here's a view of the living room, which is basically a covered porch with, you guessed it, two hammocks and some chairs. Their whole house is kind of like this and the only rooms that are actually enclosed by walls are the bedroom and the bathroom. The rest of the house, including the kitchen, is just kind of an open air patio. It's really cool when there's a breeze coming in off the water and the view from their "living room" is hard to beat on a nice day.
Their dock broke one night while they were all standing on it so they were getting it repaired when I took this picture. Well, it wasn't actually getting repaired but it was in the process of about to be getting fixed. or something. Anyway, I took this picture a little before it usually gets dark, but there were some storms blowing in and it was super gloomy. Whenever storms blow in it seems like they're huge clouds of certain death. It looks really wild. The whole sky goes black and it looks like a Mount Doom. Even when it gets like that, though, the wind doesn't pick up too much and it doesn't get too crazy. It just looks like it. Despite all the darkness from the clouds, you can still see how clear the water is thanks to the flash of my camera. Here's another picture looking straight down from the edge of their living room. It was raining and the water looks cool.
I know I've said it a million times now but the water is so beautifully clear here. Sometimes when I'm on the water taxi to the other island, I can look down and see tons and tons of starfish. The other night, at work, it was kinda slow and the chef and I were looking out at the water and we saw a bunch of cuttlefish chilling out under the dock. They just kinda floated there being awesome or whatever it is that they do.
There's been some interesting developments at Bohmfalk's lately. I haven't been able to go there after work because his workers are on strike on his front porch, refusing to let people enter the building. Apparently he owed them some money or something. They've been there for six days now with a big sign that says "we have rights" or something similar in spanish. They're doing it all wrong though. They're just sitting out there, keeping Bill from making any money so he can't pay them back anyway. If they sold beer from his porch, they could pay it all off in a few weeks. Anyway, it came to a head the other night when I got off work. I saw my friend josh walking towards the bar after I got off the boat so got to talking to him. He said he was heading to his "friends' place". So, naturally, I went along. When we got closer to Bohmfalks, he handed me his drink and said, "When I get up on the porch, count to 15, and if we're fighting, come help me." So I knew immediately that I was in some shit. Apparently, Bill's former employees got tired of not letting people in, so they decided to not let Bill or his wife OUT of the bar. They called Josh because he had filled in for the workers when they had pink eye. The police really aren't an option here because: 1) Bill is white, and his workers are panamanian. and B) Because even if he wanted to bribe them, he didn't have enough money to do it properly. So Josh walked up and just kind of talked to the people about what was going on and eventually they let Bill out of the place. It went about as well as it possibly could have, no one got stabbed.
Luckily, nothing happened, and I ended up just getting some notes for a possible story for the paper. It actually turned out to be pretty funny and not dangerous at all, mom and dad. I promise. I just want the place to reopen so I can watch football there on Saturday.
Well, I need to get off to work. I'll take more random pictures and try to post more, lower quality, material more often.
adios
Thursday, October 2, 2008
another day, another dollar
I'm back with photos of the super-busy restaurant.
This is a picture from the boat dock where I get off the water taxi everyday. It's a 75 cent ride across the channel to the restaurant. Taxis are easy to get during the day, but at night you have to stand out there with a flashlight and wave it like crazy to get someone to notice you. It's a fun game I like to play. I call it, "hail the water taxi with a flashlight".
Here's a picture from the inside of the place. You can see some of the tables and the bartender, Marisol, in the background. Also, note how many awesome customers we have! I'll give you a hint...zero.
Here's a picture of Marisol. She's actually a terrible bartender because her hands are stuck that way, but she's the owner's cousin so they have to give her a job. It's sad, really.
This is Juan. The Chef. He enjoys scuba diving, spear fishing, impregnating his wife and cooking gourmet peruvian dishes. He's actually a pretty cool dude and a damn fine chef. The other day, he made some dish for all the workers, and all it was was cut up hot dogs with rice in some sauce, but it tasted like heaven.
Here's a little video I took while I was at work. Not working. Because no one came in that night. At all.
So, I'm still working at the restaurant, though not for much longer. I think when I finish writing this, I'm going to call up the owner and tell him that it's not going to work out. I do like the job; it has some nice perks. At the end of the day, though, it's just not right for me. I could be working a dead end job 8 hours a day, seven days a week in Austin. It's just not what I came down here for. I know, I know, poor little rich boy. I just need to keep myself above water for a while, not buy the whole damn boat. Another job'll come along any day now, right?
Also, junior's been nagging me to come pick up my bike so I went yesterday and guess what? No freaking bike. "Oh, so sorry amigo, my esposa, she rode it into town." Ok dude. Whatever, you have one more chance. So I went today. Surely, SHIRLEY, it'll be ready and waiting for me to ride gloriously into the sunset? Right? No actually. "So sorry amigo, the bike, it has...flat tire. I call you when it's ready." Ok junior. Good luck getting rid of that bike that you spent, oh, i don't know, 2 weeks on. I'm going somewhere else. And I'm not getting a pink bike. Shove it.
So that's that. I didn't get to go to the beach today because it was rainy, but hopefully I'll make it over there tomorrow. With my camera. We'll see. Until then, bye for now.
adios
This is a picture from the boat dock where I get off the water taxi everyday. It's a 75 cent ride across the channel to the restaurant. Taxis are easy to get during the day, but at night you have to stand out there with a flashlight and wave it like crazy to get someone to notice you. It's a fun game I like to play. I call it, "hail the water taxi with a flashlight".
Here's a picture from the inside of the place. You can see some of the tables and the bartender, Marisol, in the background. Also, note how many awesome customers we have! I'll give you a hint...zero.
Here's a picture of Marisol. She's actually a terrible bartender because her hands are stuck that way, but she's the owner's cousin so they have to give her a job. It's sad, really.
This is Juan. The Chef. He enjoys scuba diving, spear fishing, impregnating his wife and cooking gourmet peruvian dishes. He's actually a pretty cool dude and a damn fine chef. The other day, he made some dish for all the workers, and all it was was cut up hot dogs with rice in some sauce, but it tasted like heaven.
Here's a little video I took while I was at work. Not working. Because no one came in that night. At all.
So, I'm still working at the restaurant, though not for much longer. I think when I finish writing this, I'm going to call up the owner and tell him that it's not going to work out. I do like the job; it has some nice perks. At the end of the day, though, it's just not right for me. I could be working a dead end job 8 hours a day, seven days a week in Austin. It's just not what I came down here for. I know, I know, poor little rich boy. I just need to keep myself above water for a while, not buy the whole damn boat. Another job'll come along any day now, right?
Also, junior's been nagging me to come pick up my bike so I went yesterday and guess what? No freaking bike. "Oh, so sorry amigo, my esposa, she rode it into town." Ok dude. Whatever, you have one more chance. So I went today. Surely, SHIRLEY, it'll be ready and waiting for me to ride gloriously into the sunset? Right? No actually. "So sorry amigo, the bike, it has...flat tire. I call you when it's ready." Ok junior. Good luck getting rid of that bike that you spent, oh, i don't know, 2 weeks on. I'm going somewhere else. And I'm not getting a pink bike. Shove it.
So that's that. I didn't get to go to the beach today because it was rainy, but hopefully I'll make it over there tomorrow. With my camera. We'll see. Until then, bye for now.
adios
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)