Yesterday I had the loveliest day, and I made a very unusual sighting...something rarely seen out of its natural habitat alone or in pairs, prefering to remain within the security of its known environment or to travel in a herd of at least twenty. I speak, of course, of Italian people. More info later...
It was Saturday so no lessons -hoorah!!! - and much as I love them one can experience too much of a good thing, no? And my brain is adled. And I am having trouble speaking any language coherently so a couple of days off was very welcome.
I decided to have a little adventure. It´s easy to get about here..there are excusrions left, right and centre, but for me they lack something of the reality of travel (plus they cost a heap more) so I prefer to go solo.
I set off at 8.30am. As usual the rain was making its presence felt, so Tilcia kindly (she is SOOOOOOO lovely) gave me a lift to the bus stop. Travel here is actually easy. there are organised buses between certain larger places and then smaller minibuses which will obligingly pick you up and drop you off in the right place. Being a country of only 3 million people or so (like Wales but with fewer Welsh people and for those of you saying ´that can only be a good thing´ you are too predictable) it is a friendly place where people generally only want to make your acquaintance, to talk and to know what you think of Panama.
I took the bus south from Boquete to David. $1.75 (ker-ching!) and funnily, you pay when you get off. The journey was only an hour or so and was made hugely enjoyable by the plethora of videos shown. There seems to be a general theme to videos for South American songs, let me paint you a picture...
First of all there is our ´hero´ whose importance is denoted by the size of his sombrero and the quality of his moustashe. These traits are obviously indicative of something because aforementioned hero is able to attract a girl whose age is predetermined by a complicated mathematical formula:
If H=<60/3+5 if H=>60<40/2.5+3if H=>40/2
Its all carefully worked out to ensure she´s about 23, give or take. Formula of video is as follows:
1. Hero stares pensively into space
2. The word ´corazon´ (heart) is mentioned
3. Girl appears, usually inappropriately dressed in too large/small frock
4. Religious symbolism shown.
5. Back to hero who has now taken up a ´power stance´
6. Hero and girl - she hangs on his every word but doesn´t speak herself (obvs nothng interesting to say in the face of Hero)
7. Horse appears - this is where poetic licence is evident. Sometimes hero is capuring horse, other times riding, once I saw dancing (blatant link to prowess).
8. Ending is immaterial, we now know the qualities of Hero.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apFHxRBXkzg - Check out Pepe Aguilar whose power stance is so good, he doesn´t need a horse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvu3k0B19fw - Watch Marco Antonio who foregoes the hat (due to big hair) and demonstrates Christ´s blessng on his snogging.
Anyway, I arrived in David and thought about what to do next. I had heard about a little island called Boca Brava, some way South East of David so I thought I´d try to get there and back in one day. I found a bus and got on it. The bus waited to be full (one hour). By the end of the wait I was thinking it was a bad idea but that I may as well stick with it.
The only two other westerners on the bus were sitting behind me. I could hear them talking and thought they were Spanish. The journey took about an hour and cost $1. Half way through two other westerners got on. The others recognised the newcomers as Italian and they all started talking. The bus stopped and we were ejected and told to get on a jeep to Boca Chica (where the small motor boat/ferry goes from). The five of us got off and sat in the back of the jeep. By this time I was thinking I might get stuck there overnight but I had enough cash and had come so far that I thought it would be ok and I may as well go the whole hog... so...
In the jeep I realised a strange thing - I could understand the Italians. how freaky is that? At the moment my French is out of the window, my Spanish is Spa-nglish, my English is pigeon but I can understand Italian. As it turned out two of the Italians could speak English so the communication table looked as follows:
Valentina-----Italian------Spanish
Phillipo-------Italian------Spanish------French
Frederico-----Italian------English
Ricardo-------Italian------English------Some French
Me-----------Incoherent Spanglish.
The conversation was hilariously disjointed. We decided to go to the beach.
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| Photographical evidence. |
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| View from Boca Brava. |
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| Treking to the beach. Why make it easy through the use of signs? |
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| A beach. |
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| Frederico and Ricardo find a coconut. |
It was quite an exciting find. The lads decide to open it. After ten minutes of trying Frederico realises the coconut does not want to open. Despite finding tools (a stone and a large rock) the homosapiens find that the coconut is less friendly than its fairground reputation belies.
Quote of the week, by Frederico: Do you know, the best bit about doing something is the way other people stand there, watching and advising you.
He gives the coconut to Ricardo, who opens it seemingly effortlessly.
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| Frederico is naffed off. |
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| Frederico maintains a supervisory capacity. |
Its a hard day. The coconut is eaten. A lem-orange (we couldn´t decide) is found and eaten. we feel brave and adventurous. We swim and chase crabs (strangely pleasurable). we walk back to the hotel. It has been a busy day.
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| We find beer. It is easy to open so we get one each. |
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