Can't leave Bocas del Toro!

by Helen
(Panama)

Our new home on the water

The Last Few Days of 2008

We find ourselves unable to leave Bocas and return to Panama City! Not through lack of transport, just lack of desire. We are very happy here in these Caribbean islands in Panama and keep putting off our return to the hooting and tooting of the city. Luckily there is no charge for changing a domestic flight and there seem to be plenty of flights each day from the tiny airport just two minutes walk up the road!

Just for interest the airfield is also used as a baseball pitch for the local team! The original airstrip used by United Fruits to fly out their bananas is now the wonderfully wide and straight main street running parallel to the sea in the center of town.

As ideas of working in Panama City have flown rapidly out the window, Joel has got a job working as a consultant for Century 21 here in Bocas and has already taken a few people out!

Real estate is definitely moving here as particularly the Americans look for somewhere saner, cheaper and warmer to live. The property here is exciting to sell with marvellous plots of land with their own beaches or incredible sea views and homes made from teak literally built over the water. There are also a few condos for sale but I find those less interesting. There are some smaller lots for sale as part of a larger community sharing a dock and perhaps some other facilities which seem pretty nice.

I, after swearing I would never get involved in a restaurant again, have agreed to work for a month in the Hotel Angela here to reorganise the kitchen, redesign the menu and train the two cooks here. It will be a satisfying little project and pays in kind with room and board until February when we can move into our little wooden home on the ocean on Isa Carenero just opposite the town of Bocas.

I am contemplating putting Chocolate Nemesis style thing on the menu as Isla Bastimentos (about a 10 minute boat ride away) makes its own chocolate from the local cocoa beans and you can buy the raw cocoa paste from the Indians for about $3 for a large ball. I thought it could be good with a rum and coconut flavoured cream. I’ll keep you informed on the results.

We had Christmas day here in the hotel as guests of the very kind hotel owner, Claudio. They made us Turkey, roast ham with fresh caramelised pineapple, stuffing and all the trimmings. It was delicious and bizarrely un-Christmassy as we looked out across the sunny bay wearing our summer dresses and shorts!

A few night ago, as we sat on the veranda here drinking our evening Mohito (crushed limes, brown sugar, fresh mint, Bacardi rum and a dash of soda for those of you who have never experienced one) watching the sky turn pink and the waves breaking on the reef, a dolphin swam lazily by while a few pelicans dove for fish. This is such an Eden.

As we had a lunch yesterday there were three or four tiny metallic green humming birds drinking from the sugar water left out by the owner hanging from the covered dock. I am going to have to get a bird book as there are so many beautiful birds her, none of which I have seen before.

Alongside all the beauty and lush nature there are of course a few bugs. The most pesky are the no-see-ums which are a kind of leg attacking sand flea that should immediately be renamed we-feel-ums! They are like a tiny black dot on your skin but must be entirely made up of teeth and jaw from the effect they have! The gringos (people like us) that live here, cover themselves in a mixture of coconut oil mixed with citronella and lemon oil. Apparently the blighters drown in the oil which is a satisfying if not very Christian thought. If anyone has an idea about what we could spray on our deck and around our house to keep them away we would love to hear about it.

If all goes according to the latest plan we will fly out of here on the 31st, arrange our affairs in Panama City and be back here hopefully by the 15th January to start our wonderful new island life here in Bocas.

Be careful if you come to visit here, you may never leave either!

We wish you all a happy and loving 2009