March 2008

My house in Playa Malena

Julie: "Where are my Pants?"

Juan: "I will look under this piece of wood, hold on. Stop rocking the boat!"

My sister Julie y Hernan

March 6th or so, my Aunt Cherri and Sister Julie made they way from Cleveland to Panama. Unfortunately, i got to the Panama Airport 11 hours before them. Cold concrete feels SOoooo good on my back half! Did I mention the mosquitoes? What kind of airport has mosquitoes? Anyway...

We took the 1am bus to Santiago, arriving just before 4 am. We sat at the 24 hr outside eatery until 0600 when the bus to Playa Malena departs. Bored, very tired and out of ideas to entertain each other... Julie and I walked to the store and left Cherri to guard everything we owned south of the border. She did a good job, but i think she traded my comb for socks, b/c she had like 6 pairs with her. Snacked and people watched. Twice...

Eventually, the bus came and there was Ishmal, the guy who opened the restaurant in Malena. He helped "The Man" put our bags on top, and away we went on a 1.5 hour drive.

Ishmal also organized "The Man" to drop us off at the house, instead of on the main road. This is good b/c we had suitcases with wheels and that doesn't mix so well with re-bar bridges, mud, rocks and small chickens who run slow. I think we got in about 0730 and just sat there for a few hours. I'm not sure.

We had a good time relaxing, drinking rum, and watching the chickens make the rounds around the house.

Word got out the the Gringas had arrived, so people came down to see how we were.

I have a 4 year old neighbor, who, the minute he wakes up and puts on underware (and only underware) will be at my front porch laughing about something. He rides a bike with a seat that has fallen off so Cherri zip-tied it back on. A little too tight b/c now the post is poking up through the seat. I don't think he noticed. I have a used-but-new-to-him seat in my bag for next time. Cute kid. For those of you who know me, i have NEVER said that about anyone under the age of 5.

Calvin, aka Mr. Underpants

Julie and I went to the waterfall with Carlos and Reynaldo. Get the cows off the path! I didn't know what to expect. It was a 15 foot waterfall with a brown pool at the bottom. We swam, took pics and Reynaldo showed off his diving skills. I give him a 10!

We inquired to Arsalio, who is a boat maker and has made it into Cherri's Personal Collection, about going fishing with the men, and they laughed. Couldn't imagine why we would want to do that. Cherri didn't want to go, so Julie and I went on different boats. It is really a 2-person boat, but we made it work. We left at sunset, men pushing the boat into the Pacific when a big wave came. !Ciao Ting!

This is the bed we had on the boat

As soon as we found the perfect spot, Miguel y Joel threw the net over. Immediately afterwards they whip out 6 boards, and some mats to lay on. I think that wearing an additional t-shirt would have provided just as much extra padding. Anyway, as we tried not to expand past our 2 foot allotment of wood, we fell asleep.

Sleeping next to 2 men I don't know that well, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and no socks didn't seem weird to me at all. But, that's me.

Time to wake up! I sense some commotion and roll over - they are wrapping up the mats and moving around. I have no clue what is going on, so I just sit there and try to stay out of the way.

Joel takes a yellow raincoat and wraps it around his waist (see pics) and Miguel wraps plastic from above around his waist and puts a flashlight in his mouth. I'm like, "What are these 2 doing?" They begin to pull the net in. Miguel is towards the front of the boat and i am in the back, looking at Joels' butt. This is a good thing!

The net is about 5 feet wide, and each taking a side, they pull UP and IN. Pick out the fish, toss the little flat fish back into the water at night, and to the hungry Pelican in the morning. Funny, how the bird knew exactly when to show up. Set aside the sharks. This goes on for quite some time. I offer to hold the flashlight. I'm not sure if i was helping or not, b/c next time they pulled in the nets, they started up the mini generator and the lightbulb came on. For about 5 minutes. I think they had like 15 pieces of wire hooked together to this lightbulb. It kept going out, Joel would smack a random piece of wood and it would come back on. Shortly after this I puked once.

We repeated the cycle 3 times, sleeping in between each. How do they know when to get up? About 0600, we wake up one final time, pack up the Serta Perfect Mattresses. I swear the net stretched to 4 times its original length. It took Forever to pull in that time. I would look, and think i saw the end, but it wasnt.

It took longer this time b/c it was in the water longer and had collected more fish. This means, more fish to pick out.

Eventually, Julie and her crew pull up and she is looking fine, all in one piece. My dad said to not let her out of my sight while she was in Panama. So i put her with one guy that I know good who is married and visits my house with his son. We take some pictures, and she speeds away. She took 2 pictures of me on my boat, but my head is cut off in both. Thanks, Julie.

Another night she and I decided we need to watch stars from the Soccer Field b/c is is so dark there. So, we get our rum and are ready to go but notice it is a little cool. Neither of us have a sweatshirt. We grab the blankets from our bed, which are really curtains and wrap them around our necks like scarves and we are great explorers or something. I think the rum was getting to us. We sat out there for a while.

Cherri stayed behind in "The Pod, aka Mosquito Net.

The 3 of us went for a walk on the beach out front one night to investigate who had a campfire by the Turtle House. Nobody we knew, so we turned around and walked along looking for crabs - which we found. Big and small. That was cool.

Went for a drive and swam in a creek. Somehow, in the states that would seem like a dumb or inappropriate thing to do. Unless it was the state of Hawaii. I think it is acceptable there to swim in cow pee. The hair on Cherri's and my legs was so long that the fish were trying to pull it out and eat it. We were laying on our bellies looking sexy.

There were these 3 cows that got loose and were standing in the middle of the road, not sure what to do now that they were free.

We kept losing the time and the days so we decided to make a list of what we had to do the next day. We lost the list.

Since my mom didnt make it down with my Birthday Cake, Loos cooked up a Fish Dinner Surprise (Rose Neighland) and an Apple Pie type desert. Even though she cooked it at her house, it was still warm after dinner. It was great. Mmmm.

Kees took me to town and i bought a refrigerator. It is more like a cooler, since I dont have electric. We tried to use the extension cord from Reynaldos house, but it was not strong enough. I put ice in the bottom drawer and put beer an water in there. Bigger and better than my Playmate Cooler! And - it will hold magnets! Yeah!

Almandino y Cherri

I built this sexy bed...Watch out Ethan Allen!