Life is a Beach and Then You Fry

Ron wanted to take a day trip to Playa Barqueta. It was supposedly close to David, so why not. Let me list the reasons. I grew up blocks from the Atlantic Ocean. Even when I was a kid, I preferred the pool club to getting sand in every bodily crevice, having a coating of fish water with a side of salt, and playing hide and fry with the sun.

This is where the conundrum comes to play. When I absolutely refuse one of Ron’s schemes, I wonder forever if it were something, I would have loved and missed the experience. Then the alternative is giving in, having a horrid time and needing to write about it endlessly to get it out of my system.

Trying to go with the flow, first I asked Ron why he wanted to go to the beach. When he responded that he wanted to relax, I nearly keeled over. Relax from what? We have been so relaxed most of this trip, I have given him CPR twice so far just to reassure myself there is life after arriving in Panama.
According to Luis at the hostel, there is one bus that leaves at 11 am and one bus that returns at 5:30 pm. The bus ride is one hour, giving us from noon to five and half hours later to do nothing. I am not good at doing nothing, but of course, I can bring my book to read. Luis told us there are cabanas that are rentable for $5 for the day. With this in mind, we thought there would be some hope to this.

In order to get to the bus station, we needed to take a taxi. Then we found that the bus doesn’t come until 1 pm if it was on time. Let me explain that ‘bus’ is a misnomer. They are actually oversized vans that can hold maybe 30 people. There were six people standing in the middle aisle for the first thirty-five minutes. The ride did take the hour promised, but it let us out at an area that looked like the outer make-out area before entering a drive-in movie. On either side are restaurants that look similar to what I remember on boardwalk circa 1960 New Jersey. Getting off the bus, I confirmed with the driver what time he would return. It would not be until 6:30 pm, not 5:30. I thought I misunderstood the Spanish, so repeated it. When he confirmed it, I repeated it again. I just didn’t want it to be so.

Walking onto the beach, we discover the ‘cabanas’. These were not what I would call cabanas under any stretch on the imagination. They were what you would expect near extinct tribes that have not yet been discovered yet, living in. Thatched A-frames sans a front or back. There were no chairs, but there was a wooden bench. That is all that existed in these cabanas. That is all there is on this beach.
Because the sand is from volcanic lava, it is dark in color. I wouldn’t call it black, but rather muddy brown with grey overtones. It is a glorious beach, causing you to excise those thighs getting to the water. Finally, a beach that doesn’t have erosion issues. But wait! The temperature is 90 degrees; the sand is hot enough to make glass without further heating. We have no blanket, towels, or umbrella. It is so hot out, there was no one to siphon $5 off of us for the use of the unfurnished palm tree lean-to poor excuse for a place to rest from the sun. 

After taking turns watching our meager belongings in the shade, for fear they would melt in the heat, the other explored the beach. We sat under one of the restaurants’ cover, but eventually we needed to order food to justify why we wanted to be there for five plus hours. Ron had a fish that arrived with a full grimace, teeth still showing the displeasure at his foolishness over getting caught. I had some pork that once went through a witness protection program, but finally got met its end. There is still no confirmation that this was indeed pork, but we will just let it go so I don’t feel sick.

After asking Ron what time it was so many times, he finally gave me his watch to wear. My watch absolutely refuses to stay in touch with Fort Collins, CO where it is supposed to automatically sync 6 times in a 24 hour day. I tried doing it manually after reading the manual, but still nothing. Strangely, I bought it in Spain; it should like these Spanish speaking syncing sites.

By 4 pm, I was ready to drown a lifeguard, but there were none to be found. By 5 pm, the restaurant next door opened up. Their patio has a clear view of the parking lot where the bus would arrive, so I made Ron move. I asked 35 people what time the bus would return, which was interesting since there were less than 20 people in the area. Some of them did I a second round to see if they would give me an answer I liked better the second time around.

At 6 pm, I was standing in the street ready to throw myself in front on any vehicle that looked like a bus. Three times Ron had to drag me off the gravel; I mistook three vans as the bus. I begged the people climbing out to take us back to David, but they were ready for beach fun, even with the sun setting. When the real bus finally turned up, the driver must have characterized me as a dog happy to see its owner. When I climbed on the bus, the passengers on-board already started to giggle.

We didn’t get back to the bus station until 7:40 pm. There are few bus stops, but the bus will stop whenever hailed by someone on the side of the road.

I set my pedometer to zero when we arrived in Panama City. When we left Panama City, we racked up 32.71 miles. Then resetting it for Boquete and David we added another 26.61 miles. So far the total is 59.32 miles

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Dog Days of Summer

Those dog days of summer will soon be approaching, bringing invading thoughts of going to the beach for many people. Speaking of dogs, I have always exclaimed that the Hungarian dogs are the best trained that I have ever seen as a whole. Here is a beach time video to show what I mean.

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A Forest Without a Spirit, a Beach Without Water

Our driver, Dennis, was ready for us at 8am. The owner of the agency came with him and wished us a pleasant journey and also asking that we spread the word. His agency needs business, tourism is really down. They are all struggling for work. As most of our excusions have borne out, the scenery leaving the city is interesting, but not beautiful. With every mile, you are confronted repeatedly with the poverty that abounds, yet the people all look content. As I look at the roadside businesses created in shacks, huts, and tin buildings, I cannot help but wonder how they raised the money to even stock a store. Most of the areas look desolate, not buyers in sight, so it boggles my mind how they can stay in business. Yet, the Coca-Cola delivery man is everywhere as well as their logos.

Driving for close to 2 hours, we finally reached our first destination, the forest. Dennis led us to the office to buy our tickets from the Kenya Forestry Service. At $20 per person, we were official to hike the trails, but if we wanted to drive them, it would cost more. We had thought we were heading for a 'kaya', a spiritual place where we could only be led into by a holy person from the reigning tribe of the particular kaya. Instead, we met Jonathon, our guide for our hike. Jonathon was quick to respond to our questions about this being a kaya, saying it was only part of the National Forestry Service and not associated with any kayas. Our first disappointment in the day's adventures.

I was set to have a spiritual experience, but I was destined to have trees identified for me, butterflies named, and bird watching here and there. Jonathon also found some elephant shrew, but neither of us could spot where he was pointing, so we missed them. The longer we walked the hotter it became. At the end of an hour, Jonathon said, "Wow, is it hot!" My response was that if he thought it was hot, then imagine how we felt. He said the temperature was hovering around 98 degrees and the storm clouds above proved that the humidity was just as high. We walked to the elephant trail, passing through an electric fence to keep the elephants in their own area. Part of the forest is a sand quarry where they mine the sand for making glass. It is the finest, silkiest sand I have ever felt. He took us to a tree house for a look-out point. It was too high for my taste, so I stayed behind, not having an appreciation of heights. Ron climbed up, but did not return with exaltations, so I guess I did not miss much. It turned out Jonathon was in a hurry to leave early today to attend a friend's wedding. We told him we saw enough trees, so we could return to the office. There were a splendid assortment of butterflies, but as their nature is, they do not stay still long enough to pose for a picture. I did not take a single photo during this forestry venture. There were also no spiritual experiences to be had either.

The next stop was a special beach with a boardwalk. However, when we arrived, we found that there was an 800 shilling (8 euro) admission charge per person, so we decided to forgo it and moved on. It was deserted, so I think the entrance fee was dissuading visitors. The final stop was a premier beach in Mombasa. It was littered with vendors selling drinks. Each had about 20 bottles of soda or water to offer, the extent of their stock. The beach was empty, but the sand went for a mile before reaching ocean. Seaweed was decorating the sandy beach brought in during high tide and left there. Some seashells were interspersed with the green leaves, but nothing is allowed to be removed from shores, leaving me helpless as a collector.

Ron decided he needed to dip his feet in the water, so I waited with Dennis. Ron had a long walk ahead of him, but finally reached his thighs. Dennis said that at 4pm, the beach would be filled, because this is when the water returns. All those that were arriving early with their inner tubes and water toys were in for a disappointment for a few hours to come.

With the beach half way back to the hotel, the ride to return was shorter, but once we reached the hotel at 1:30pm, there was not much to do.  It was too hot to explore Fort Jesus again, so we stayed in the room and read or wandered down to the patio for a cup of tea. With non-stop air conditioning, the hotel is a welcomed refuge, unlike Zanzibar, where the electric goes off and on. There are often entertainers on the patio also, usually a trio playing all of the golden oldies of the American music. One singer joined in for some time and sounded like Louie Armstrong.

One thing that I cannot fault anyone for in our experience is the service we have received. Everywhere we have been the service has been excellent from top to bottom. A couple of times, we have walked in on the maid cleaning our room. Each day, the furniture is polished, the sheets are changed, and the floors are mopped, in addition to all of the usual cleaning duties one would expect.   

Behind the hotel is a Chinese-Malaysian restaurant. We gave it a try for dinner. The food was great, but it was curious to see an all Black staff in a Chinese restaurant.

To read more about a Kaya forest, go here.

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Going into the Big City - Cairns

We ventured into Cairns today getting the bus at the correct time, but not sure which direction we needed. Apparently we did not realize what an adventure it would be, so we each stood on one side of the road to flag down anything that came. Since I was on a bend, I could only hear large motor noises and tried flagging down a couple of trucks before realizing they were not buses.

When we finally had a bus arrive, for the first twenty minutes, there were only three of us on it. Traveling through the suburbs, it is strip mall after strip mall, but once we reached a highway, the highways were beautifully manicured; I could easily have felt like I was in Hawaii. The hills and mountains in the background filled with trees, foliage and lush flowers planted along the way, was really lovely scenery. It was in the 90s today with equally high humidity, so the mist was playing off the tips of the mountain tops. Our journey lasted forty-five minutes before we arrived at our destination.

Cairns immediately reminded me of an East coast city, circa 1970s. Only a couple of buildings look like they were built long ago, while the others look like they were built without the aid of an architect's imagination. There is not much of a city there; the streets were fairly empty of tourists. The central business district is just about three long streets made up of restaurants, souvenir shops, cafés, and of course, hotels and one casino. Here and there is a mall or shopping plaza interspersed with the other stores. We walked up one street and down the other, checking out everything, lest we miss some hidden treasure.

Stopping for a coffee, we thought we had picked a prime location with outside seating. However, when we asked for an ashtray for the outside table we were informed that there is no smoking outside anywhere in Queensland. Queensland, the state we are currently in restricts smoking within four meters of the opening of any food serving establishment. Perhaps this is the reason why there are so few people eating in these places. Making it stricter, you cannot smoke in any area that is covered either, which includes awnings; most of the stores have metal awnings that span the entire block. In order to smoke, you have to stand in the curb and on a corner like a pariah. This explained the congregation of people at the curbs and corners of the streets, puffing away until they finished and then went back to the store or restaurant they came from.

One section of the business district has all of the Asian oriented stores and businesses that range from travel agents to souvenir shops that specifically cater to the Japanese and Korean tourists with all of their signs in both languages. Business must be poor is the city. There were a number of empty store fronts with for sale or for rent signs posted in windows.

As we walked the streets, we saw this fascinating tree that had hundreds of branches coming from the trunk rooting into the ground. We found it was a type of fig tree called a strangler fig. A sign on the tree caught my attention and thinking it was an explanation of the tree, it was a request to inform the authorities if anyone spots a flying fox bat baby that has fallen to the ground. Included in the warning was not to touch it as they carry a virus fatal to humans. When I looked up, there were hundreds of bats hanging in the tree. All of the squawking we assumed was coming from birds was in actuality coming from the bats hanging around. Although daylight, they were busy flying around, spreading their wings, and most likely fighting for territory. We thought better of staying under the tree for too long fearing bat pooh bombs.

Our host had suggested we walk toward where the beach should be, but explained that Cairns does not have a beach, but a mud land. With the waters out, there is very little sand, but a large mud area, so the city built a pool for the locals to swim. It is splendidly designed so that it starts as a fountain working its way into a full fledged pool. Boasting a full 43,000 square feet, each area of this salt water pool is clearly marked with the depth and one point is deep enough to dive into. Huge starfish sculptures elevated into the air on poles are fountains pouring water into the pools. There is park area all around for sunbathing, plus ingeniously, the city installed permanent grills, in series of three that can be started with the push of a button, so people can barbecue and then eat at the picnic tables spread through the area. It is so completely user friendly, but no smoking anywhere in the area.

Cairns may be small and the area may seem like one suburban resort after another, but this area is the only place in the world where two World Heritage sites are side by side: the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics Rainforest. The rainforest in Daintree is 110 million years old.

We were told by our host that if we were too hot, we should check out the air conditioned mall to cool off. Malls are malls anywhere in the world, same same, but different. We did however stop into a grocery store to buy a roasted chicken and some salads for our dinner, before catching the bus back to where we are staying. When we boarded the bus, I asked the driver if he would warn us when he was approaching Gannett Road and Bondi Court. He said “Do you see this blank look on my face? I have no idea where you are talking about.” If we were not positive it was the right bus, I would have been concerned. There was no reason to even pay attention until after forty-five minutes had passed and by that time, there were only three of us on the bus anyway. When we told the driver we thought we were close, he drove slower so that we could identify the stop. Our stop is the only one not marked with a sign. It is only a utility post that identifies it as a place to hail buses. One thing I have to say is the bus drivers are terrific and helpful. They will do anything possible to be of assistance and none of the other passengers seem to mind being held up while the driver is helping others.

After a shower, we jumped into the pool to cool off. After reading some e-mails, we chowed down on our dinner while the two Argentinians ordered take-out and the Brit had gone into town. The hosts went out for dinner, so it was cozy. Our chicken and salads were exceptionally good, one salads was an antipasto, which I had doubts about when ordering. It was memory shattering, bringing me back to my childhood. Now I wish we had bought a larger container. What a treat to jump back in the pool to cool off before going to bed.

I have come to grips with appreciating where we were staying. The host Andrew is beyond accommodating and the other guests are really a treat to spend a few hours with in the evening. The one clincher is there is WiFi here. If I had to hunt around for it, it would have been murder. Oh and the pool calls with invitations to jump in regularly.

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Kangaroo Island Sea Lions

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Kangaroo Island Beach

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A Day of Relaxation in Swapokmund

We arrived in Swapokmund yesterday and are staying at a really nice accommodation with eclectic colors. Our bathroom is purple and the room is dark blue. As strange as it may sound, it works. The bar is on the second floor of a lodge type building and the downstairs is reception and the dining room. It is rustic looking, but very well built, cheery and comfortable.

We were meeting Omo and Jean for breakfast at 9:00 and as is usual, I was up early to read and write. The four of us had breakfast at the lodge and then went walking

through the town looking in stores. This is the first time on the trip that we have had time to get off on our own. Most other times and places, we have been in a group only.

Omo and Jean wanted to check e-mail, Ron and I wanted coffee. We met at the café and then continued shopping until lunch at 1:00. We found a restaurant called The Blue Onion and had a great lunch. The ladies took off so Jean could go quad biking and Ron and I walked to the ocean. The city is so European, the German influence is inescapable. After a short nap later in the afternoon, we then met up with everyone else in the bar at the accommodation. Our group took over the bar, leaving little room for the other guests, but we were having a jolly time. They had a huge wide screen television, but they did not have any service for those of us that were desperate for some news. Adrian, Doris, Inike, and Wilfred had gone skydiving that morning and Inike and Wilfred had wanted to show us their DVD of their experience. We could not get the equipment to work on the TV, so we finally crowded around a laptop and watched it there. As exciting as it was to see, the rest of us could not imagine doing it ourselves. The four of them were held in high esteem for having the guts to do it.

We had dinner as a group in the accommodation’s dining room; Bruce fixed a chicken pasta dish in their kitchen. The Rasmusson family is staying behind tomorrow and going off on their own. We were all going to be feeling the loss of their spirit and energy when they are gone. Anna and Omo had done a little presentation of hand slapping a few nights ago and Anna found the theater bug from the applause. She wanted to do some other presentation for their last night with us. Ron and Rikard got involved too, so Ron rewrote the words to a children’s tune to fit our group experience. After dinner, Anna, Rikard, Alma, and Ron did their little presentation It was so heartwarming.

The words to the song are:

The wheels on the truck go round and round (Repeat 3 times)

All over Africa!!!

The tires on the truck go flat, flat, flat (Repeat 3 times)

All over Africa!!!

The tires on the truck get fixed, fixed, fixed (Repeat 3 times)

All over Africa!!!

Bruce on the truck says “All on board” (Repeat 3 times)

Driver John on the truck says “Time for a smoke” (Repeat 3 times)

All over Africa!!!

Thomas on the truck says “Alles gutt” (Repeat 3 times)

All over Africa!!!

The people on the truck say “Are we there yet” (Repeat 3 times)

All over Africa!!!

The people on the truck say “Nomad rocks!” (Repeat 3 times)

All over Africa!!!

Everyone was duly impressed. Anna and Rikard, being so young, are warm, polite, and intelligent children who gave a great deal of enjoyment to the rest of us.

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