Adventuro Familia

Pletch family in paradise

July 25, 2011
The lazy days of Panama are rolling by like freight cars on a railroad track. What day is it? How long have we been here? There were a few standout events to this day’s activities, however.
First, I needed to recap a memorable intercultural exchange moment from yesterday. After our hike over the crest of the island, we came back past the local basketball court. It is a very nice full court, outside lying directly on the waterline. Some young Isla Grande youths were playing a game, and Dylan and Ryan asked to join in. It was funny to watch them all playing barefoot island ball, with full contact street rules. The boys thoroughly enjoyed themselves even as the ball bounced out of bounds and into the Caribbean Sea.
Today our big activity was a boat ride to a snorkeling destination. Isla Mamay, which is about a 15 minute boat ride from our island. We dined at Restaraunte El Sueno for breakfast again, and battled the bees for our coffee. Whenever a fresh cup of coffee would be brought to the table, these Panamanian bees would curiously swarm the place. Rachel sustained a bee sting as the kids attempted to set up a diversionary coffee serving on another table, then capture the prey. That did not work out as well as planned.
During the night, last night we had a power outage, made painfully obvious when the fans stopped working. It was funny as nearly all of the adults recounted their dreams of abduction and fitful sleep while the power went out here in the Third World.
Our panga boat arrived at the designated time at 11, captained by Illiardo. He took us to Isla Mamay, past a beautiful private island with a single family living there. Their financial plan being quite a bit different than ours.
Well, we arrived at our island, and almost had it to ourselves, and it certainly felt so. We hastily prepared our snorkeling gear, and gained access to the reef laden blue waters of the Caribbean. This beautiful area did not disappoint, as we observed multitudes of tropical fish swimming along the reef walls, as well as beautiful, ornate and plentiful coral of all shapes and sizes. As usual, Ryan spotted some cool specimins as he motioned us over to observe a school of squid jetting over the grassy bottomed area. Yesterday, he also had spotted an octopus while snorkeling near Sister Moon, and chased it into a submerged cinder block, inking all the way.
Well, what seemed like a grand idea turned out to be a painful one. Most of the trees on the lush island were coconut palms, so before long the kids broke one open, drank the milk and began to eat the coconut meat from the coconut using seashells. I lent Eddie a pocket knife, and he unfortunately sliced his finger open, yielding a gash requiring stitches. This was our signal to wrap up the excursion as Eddie was escorted to the Portobello hospital by Rebecca the translator, and Christine, the wife. His six stitches experience with antibiotics came to a whopping bill of 8 U.S. dollars. Makes one question our own health care system.
Our afternoon was easily salvaged as we returned to our hobina for a full afternoon of surfing, the boys all tore it up, Ryan, Dylan, Zac, Avery, and of course Jorge and myself. It had not gotten much smaller than yesterday, however, it did glass off and get itself organized. What a fun sesh, followed by another dinner at Congo Bar, which they opened just for our party, as it seems that most of this town shuts down during the week. Following dinner and the shoreline walk to the hotel, we shot a little pool, and we were ready to surrender another day to sweet nighttime slumber.