Bocas Del Toro, Panama

I am currently on the island or more accurately the archipelago of Bocas del Toro. Originally settled by United Fruit as a gateway to its Banana plantations, the island now survives on a combination of tourism and real estate. The population is diverse consisting predominantly of indigenous locals, European descendants, Afro-Antillos and Chinese. The latter two groups arrived during the construction of the Panama Canal along with the Americans. (A sizable number of Americans remained behind in Panama City and are now called Zonians, the moniker was derived from the now extinct U.S. Zone around the Panama Canal, but I digress ... )

My hostel is a ramshackle wooden building with a corrugated iron roof; its large deck, and the majority of the building for that matter, extend out over the ocean. The practice is standard throughout the islands due, in part, to the almost non existent tidal variation and makes for quaint and picturesque shorelines.

The waves have been decent and I have managed to get four days of surfing in, including one particularly pleasurable wave that left me with perma-grin for a solid 24 hours. The swell has dropped recently allowing me some time to read, write my in journal and relax. The drop has also coincided with the mild aggravation of an old injury and so is, at least to a degree, welcome.

I am contemplating a visit to the mountain town of Boquete, renowned for its coffee and flowers while I wait for a new swell, but for now I am content to remain here.

I have found the Panamanians approach everything with what might politely be called a lack of urgency; it appears they have adopted their Caribbean neighbours approach to the rigours of daily life. As you might expect, Panamanians do wear Panama hats and immaculately pressed linen shirts. Oddly, however, the hats are made in Ecuador.

Akin to the rest of Latin America the staple diet consist of arroz y frijoles or beans and rice with some kind of protein, usually chicken. The food is not as bland as I expected and on the Caribbean side there are some wonderful hot sauces available to make up for the lack of spices used in the cooking.

As I sat typing this, a local paddled by in a dugout. Having heard some rumours I yelled out to see if he had any lobster. 'Yes' came the smiling reply. As he drew closer, I could see that the bottom of the dugout had some 15 medium sized cray fish, mine for a mere 20 USD. To put this in perspective one of the local restaurants sells one butterflied tail for 22 USD. So for now at least I am going stop to put on a pot of boiling water and enjoy some fresh Lagosta

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