6 Aug 2003

Right now I’m sitting on the balcony of the only hotel in Almirante, Panama.  I’m not going to lie. It’s the pits. It is filthy nasty.  I don’t even want to stand up and pee, that’s just how awful it is.  I know for a natural fact we will be here for only one night.  We can only take a water taxi to Bocas City in the morning. That is our escape.  I hear there are English speaking blacks that live over there.  It’s about a twenty-five minute ride. Because it’s touristy, it’s bound to be cleaner.  Almirante is pitiful.   The locals have told me it used to boom because of the banana industry, but that has faded.  The Almirantians need something to boost the town.  I suggest more hotels.  Clean hotels.

10 August 2003

I dropped my writing pad in the water a few days ago.   We just entered a water taxi on the way to this island called Bastimentos and Roberto (an acquired friend) grabbed my pad before it sank. It slipped from my photo bag.   I am barred from writing because it will take two days to dry. I am writing these notes from two-day old memory.

Bastimentos is what you think of when you hear the word paradise.  The air is clean and fresh, the water is crystal clear, and it’s green, green, very green!   I’ve only seen parrots, but I hear there are sloths, iguanas, and a few other wild animals.  It is a pedestrian island with one sidewalk paved halfway across the island comforting a population of about 1,000 people.  I’ve seen some Kuna Indians, but most of the inhabitants are black descendants from the West Indies.  Their parents mostly came to Panama to work on the canal.  When the canal was complete, they decided to stay and a lot migrated to this island northeast and close to Costa Rica.   I have always wanted to live in a foreign country and as of now, this would be the place I could call my future home.  I thought about Joe and Toni who just moved from California with their two school age children.  I commend them for making such a life changing decision. I will decide to leave my home country one day too.