Silico Creek

We had to leave Playa Bluff fairly early to leave for Silico Creek on the mainland. We packed our things and we a quiet breakfast. I was sorry we had to leave so soon. It had rained during the night, and somehow I imagined that in the damp early morning the forest would be full of life. But almost exactly at 7:30, the taxi, a Toyota pickup truck painted somewhat incongruously in the traditional Yellow Cab style, came to take us to Bocas town. We stopped along the way at the island’s only ATM, and then met Carlos, our local guide, at the pier. It was a bit of a mob scene as you can see. We ended up switching to another company at a different dock in order to get a boat that left at at a reasonable time.

They packed us on the boat pretty tightly. I was grateful i had brought my Kindle so that I could think about something other than how much the boat was bouncing over the bay. By this time it had started to rain again, and all I could see was gray water and gray sky anyhow. We arrived at the little town of Almirante. We were met here by another taxi driver again in the same kind of pickup truck taxi. A rock had damaged much of his windshield, and as we started to bounce around I wondered if the glass was going to collapse and fall on John who was sitting in the front with the driver. The town of Almirante seemed covered in trash from one end to another. Even by Central American standards, it was filthy. We drove on fairly quickly, passing a few containers on the waterfront with the cheery Chiquita Banana logo on them.

The road was decently paved, but it twisted and turned as we headed into the mountains. I was glad that John had gone to the pharmacy while we were waiting for the taxi and had found some kind of generic Dramamine. Our driver seemed to know the road well, but I was still a little nervous as he passed other cars on turns. It took about 45 minutes for us to reach Silico Creek. We were met at the local cooperative office which also housed the town’s small ambulance. We were told that our guide was currently at church and that he would be there to meet us in an hour or so. This made me suspect that the church was not the local Catholic parish. 

We did not just want to wait around, so we asked if we could walk and see the community and the church. They seemed to have no idea why John would want to see the church, but they were only too happy to show us around. This is Arnold who became our main guide. His English was pretty rudimentary, but he had a good sense of how to speak Spanish to foreigners, and he really became our main guide for the day. There are about 500 people living here, and the community is build on a hillside.

Silico Creek is a settlement of the Ngäbe-Buglé people, one of the three principal indigenous groups in Panama. Many of the houses there are build in the traditional style with stilts and a thatched roof. 

When we arrived at the church my suspicions that this is a Protestant settlement were confirmed. While we could not get a sense of what groups had done missionary work here, Arnold confirmed that the people in the town were “evangelicos” and that the church service would be particularly lengthy today because they were also having the annual meeting to discuss their budget. The pastor was leading this when we entered.

While many of the adults were quite engaged in the discussion of how much money they needed for this or that, the children were clearly bored and found the white visitors intriguing. 

We were treated to lunch. The community has only recently added housing for visitors, and while probably about 12 people could be accommodated here at one time, John and I were the only visitors today. It was a slightly uncomfortable situation to have four or five people watching the two of us eat. But the food was great! They had rice and friend plantains, of course, and the main dish was a delicious fried fish. Notice the limes next to the fish. This is a local variety with orange flesh and a slight sweetness to the taste. I am surprised they are not found in gin and tonics throughout the world.

We also met other residents of Silico Creek. There are a lot of dogs in this community, but they are not feral. Pets seem quite important to the people here. This is Reina. She is about a year old and as friendly as can be. We were taken with her eyes. 

 

After lunch, we were taken on a tour of the local organic cacao production. Along the way John heard some activity from a small cement building. He asked Arnold about it, and was told that this is where the men play dominos. Like good Protestants they did not seem to gambling, but the competition was still vigorous.

As we crossed the highway to the cacao  farm, I noted the emblem of the “comarca” or regional autonomous authority. Notice the use of the term “sostenible” or “sustainable.” This, we learned, is really important to these people whose food production is entirely organic.

I had never seen cocoa growing before, so I was little surprised to see that it grows in these large pods in trees. The trees are not shaded, like coffee, but they grow best in extreme humidity so they are typically planted alongside banana and other tropical plants. Five different types of cacao are grown in this little plot. Each kind has a different color, and each apparently a slightly different flavor.

When the fruit is ripe, it is picked. The seeds are in the center covered with a sweet, sticky white fluid. The seeds at this point cannot really be eaten. Instead, they are taken out of the fruit and placed in a dark box and allowed to ferment for about a week.

When the seed have fermented and any remaining fluid has evaporated away, they are then sun dried for three to five days. We saw a couple different kinds of platforms for this, but this one, where the trays slid in and out, seemed to be the largest. 

The dried beans are then quickly roasted rather like coffee. This causes the skin on the outside of the seed to fall off. 

The seeds are then ground, and you have this lovely but somewhat bitter chocolate paste. 

Grinding the seeds in an old-fashioned meat grinder is frankly hard work! 

Unfortunately, I was stepping backwards into some mud as I was taking this shot, and this is what happened!

They took us down to the cooperative office where there was the only shower in town. It was not glamorous and the water was cold! But I cleaned up reasonably well, and they offered to wash our clothes for us for only a nominal amount. We went to our rooms. We are staying in a traditional Ngäbe-Buglé house - though if it were really traditional, probably about 10 people would be living there. There is basically a bed. There is no bathroom, though an outhouse is located about three or four meters away. There is some wiring for electricity, but running the generator is expensive and so we had no electricity. Looking down the hill - our accommodations are at the very top with a magnificent view of the surrounding mountains and rain forest - nobody else in Silico Creek had electricity that night, either.

They again fed us a wonderful dinner. I am not completely sure what the main dish was. It was a “guisado” or stew, and neither John nor I could quite identify the meat. But sure was tasty!

 

Sitting on the deck as night fell was pleasant, at least once I had sprayed myself from head to toe with Off. 

 

 

Tomorrow we head further up into the mountains to the Boquete. 

Playa Bluff

After three days, we had become surprisingly fond of Bocas Town. There’s something about the place that charms you despite the all the drunken tourists, all the trash on the street, and all that noise all night. It’s a lively and friendly place. We were particularly sad to leave the wonderful staff at the Bocas del Toro hotel, particularly our favorite, Johayvi at the front desk. We were originally supposed to go today spend two days with a group of Embera people, but at Carlos’ suggestion we decided to spend another day on Isla Colon, this time about a half hour out of Bocas Town on Playa Bluff or Bluff Beach. A taxi came to pick us up a little after ten. There was already another passenger there, a handsome but somewhat taciturn Swede named Adam. He lives in Stockholm and works in mergers and acquisitions. Like us, he had spent some time in Panama City before coming here, but he stayed at the Waldorf Astoria. We move in different circles. 

The road to Bluff Beach turns into mud and ruts only a short way out of town. We were surprised when the cabbie told us that it had once all been paved, but that a large earthquake some years ago had caused the coral reef to drop and that exposed the road to the surf, washing it away. We had always heard that Panama did not get earthquakes. I guess they only get the less frequently than some of their Central American neighbors. 

I am not sure why that call it Bluff Beach because there is nothing that would strike any Californians as anything that even looked passably like a bluff. But it is the longest, loveliest, and emptiest stretch of Caribbean beach you can imagine. The sand in soft and a striking reddish-gold. John and I enjoyed walking up and down it. 

The waves here are notoriously treacherous and there are deadly riptides. So the only people who go in the water are surfers. It’s one of the best surfing spots in Central America.

John and I decided to walk through the jungle to see if we could see howler monkeys or sloths. We did not, unfortunately, though we did hear and see some fantastic birds. 

At the end of one of the trails we found these basalt outcroppings. These began to suggest to us a little of the geological history of this area.

The hotel is fairly isolated, but it surprised us - and not always in a good way - what are party scene the area is. The Playa Bluff Lodge had a restaurant and bar on the property. There were a steady stream of surfers and other stopping by for a drink - well, we should be honest and admit that most had more than one - and maybe a bit to eat. There was quite a stir when these three showed up. We learned later that the one on the right is Felipe Beloj, a famous Panamanian football star. 

The bar at our hotel has made some effort to be kid-friendly with a pool in the back. This allows mommy and daddy to get a little sloshed while the kids were relatively safe. 

There was a second bar located right next to our hotel. It was a much wilder scene and the loud music was still going strong well after sunset. I think the drinks may have been cheaper and stronger because it was filled with surfers. The special tourist police also paid a visit while we were there. 

The rooms at the Lodge are pretty spartan. The best party of the property is the garden behind the hotel. There are a remarkable number of tropical plants. While some are planted like trophies, many others have been artfully combined to create an effect of great tranquility and beautify. 

We were assured that a sloth lives in a tree there, but we never managed to see it. Nor did we see any howler monkeys who are also known to pay a visit. We did see the resident alligator. 

By late afternoon the crowds on the beach began to thin and John could not only find one hammock, but two. He found this a perfect spot for listening to the sound of the waves and his Andrew Byrd playlist. 

At dinner we met a young couple from Ontario. They were staying at a nearby hotel. It turned out they had both trained to be PE teachers, so we were able to talk school shop for a bit. We also talked a good deal with Michelle who manages the restaurant and helps with hotel. She moved here recently from Toluca Lake. She really likes living in Panama, but admitted  that the lack of internet service on Bluff Beach is giving her major Facebook withdrawals. 

We also met the owners of the Lodge, a Dutch couple named Helen and Dieter. Helen has a lot of energy! She speaks Spanish fluently but with what even I could hear as a strong Dutch accent! They have a house in Bocas town and return there at night with their daughter. 

Tomorrow we have to get up early because we are headed inland to Silico Creek to spend some time in a indigenous community. 

Oh Ye Dolphins ... and Frogs, too

We took our second boat tour today. This was was free, an effort by the local tour operator to show how sorry they were for some of the problems with our missed airport connections on New Year’s Day. This was a nice gesture of good will. But as an excursion, it was basically worth every penny we spent for it. The trip today hit three of the main attractions of Bocas:  dolphins, coral, and beach. For us, it also illustrated the environmental perils that tourism can cause. 

I thought our boat yesterday was full, but today we had fourteen people, and from the dock I watched a boat leave ahead of us packed with eighteen. All these boats were trying to see some of the same sights - and that is the problem. The first stop was Boca Toritos or Dolphin Bay, a stretch of water between some of the cays that Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins use as a feeding and nesting area. Each of the boat operators tried to get his boat closest to where a dolphin can be photographed. While we were out there, John counted 18 boats literally chasing the dolphins. 

There is the occasional sighting as the animals do have to come up and breathe. But for the most part this destructive tourist practice simply is helping to destroy the local dolphin population. Like many English majors, bits of poetry come to me at odd times and I thought of the lines from Lycidas:  “Look homeward angel now and melt with ruth, And O ye dolphins, waft the helpless youth.”  It seemed to me that the angel’s pity now should be saved for the dolphins. 

There are a number of groups now raising concern for the dolphins and the protection of their habitat such as the Bocas Dolphin Project. Maybe visitors can come to realize that people watching is such a great Bocas pastime that we do not need to harass the poor sea mammals. Look at El Delfin, and leave los defines alone!

The tour really did not get better after this. They took us to Coral Cay. Here were were let off on a dock with a restaurant and a bar and told we should order lunch. The food would be ready after we finished snorkeling. The restaurant featured the usual long menu - we have learned that generally in Panama this means nothing because most of the items are not available on a given day - and the prices were not cheap. John was really pissed off about attempt to force us to pay 20 dollars for a miserable red snapper fillet and a cup of coconut rice. 

We declined to order. We did notice as the far end of the dock there was a little store selling provisions to local sailors. We checked it out and noticed that they had some soda for sale. We had also brought he last of our New Year’s Eve crackers. So we figured we could make do on our own.

The snorkeling was almost as depressing as the dolphin hunt. The coral reef here was in bad shape. Is this the result of a dozen tour boats unloading hundreds of people each day? It is hard to say because coral reefs are in decline all over the planet. But the human activity can hardly help. Plus, since the Almirante Bay is fed by a half dozen rivers, it is really an estuary and as you would expect the water if therefore a little murkier with sand and organic sediment. So what coral was still left was not exactly easy to see.

The day would have been a total waste except for the visit to Red Frog Beach. Red Frog, on the Isla Bastimentos, is hardly undiscovered. There is a significant amount of development in the area, mostly vacation homes and rentals. But they have managed to keep most of this away from the beach itself, and it is one of the loveliest stretches of Caribbean coast I have seen. 

The Beach takes its name from the tiny red frogs. These creatures, found from Nicaragua to Panama along the Caribbean coast, are poisonous, but not a danger to humans. In a book John is reading set largely in this area, the author talks about how native children get up in the morning and catch the little frogs on leaves. They then spend the rest of the day charging tourists to photograph them. Well, as John walked down the beach some children came up to him with a frog, and he was only too happy to part with a dollar to get this picture of the tiny creature. 

After a couple hours on the beach getting a bit too much sun, we took the boat back to Bocas town. We cleaned up. We met up with our friends Amy and Jolie. They were going to Guari Guari, the most celebrated restaurant in Bocas. We tried to get reservations but could not get in. So we used our free drink pass from the hotel.

We ordered our drinks from the bartender known to all simply as “Darling.” I think there is a story there.

We did not much feel like sitting down in a restaurant by ourselves. After all, when you have spent the entire day together, there is not that much to say while you wait for the food to arrive. We walked around for a bit and enjoyed the balmy night. We came across a man who had turned gourds into lighting fixtures. I really did not want one, but I still though they were rather cool.

After strolling, we picked up some soda at a chino, and we ordered some Chinese food to go from the restaurant right by our hotel. 

Tomorrow we will be spending one more night in Bocas, but this time at a new hotel on Playa Bluff, the surf beach.

Playa Estrella

"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well,” Julian of Norwich wrote. I am certain that the saint had more important things in mind than our problems with airport transportation and a malfunctioning trackpad, but somehow all of these problems managed to resolve themselves this morning and in Bocas del Toro all is well today. The sun even came out!

So we did what people usually do in Bocas - we found a boat tour and headed off towards the more remote parts of Isla Colon. Our boat stopped in a couple places and picked up passengers until there were ten of us in the boat. Half of the passengers were Panamanians, who brought along an astonishing amount of beer, four of us were Americans, and we had one lone Swede.

We cruised along along the riotously colorful Bocas town docks.

As the boat bounced over the waves, we learned a little more about our fellow passengers. And they also passed the time taking pictures of each other. Here Megan is taking pictures of Amy and Jolie from New York. 

We couldn’t resist taking a few photographs, too.

Our first stop was Playa Estrella, or Starfish Beach. John found a hammock and made himself comfortable right away.

Some of the children on the beach found the starfish that give the beach its name.

I do hope, however, that the kids heeded the warnings all over the beach to avoid unnecessarily disturbing the starfish which are diminishing in number in the area.

After a couple hours at Playa Estrella, we all piled into the boat again and headed toward Boca de Drago. We were only supposed to spend a scant half hour here before continuing on to another island, but our boatman explained that the sea was too rough to do this because we would have to go out into open ocean to get to that island. So we ended up spending the rest of the afternoon here. But we still found things to do. The young passengers were delighted to photograph each other and themselves. Here are the Panamanian passengers.

And Richard from Sweden took his turn, too.

John and I were content to photograph instead of being photographed. And we found something a little more languid to do while we waited to eat our lunch at a small restaurant down the beach.

We had salads there since green salads are not a typical part of the Panamanian diet and we are missing our vegetables. As we did so we chatted with Nick, a young Italian university graduate who is spending a few months here in Panama working for one of his compatriots here. 

On our way home we passed by some of the last bits of an older Bocas as we saw several groups of local people paddling by us in dugout canoes. I know what hard work it can be to paddle a boat like that, but I thought of how wonderful it must also have been when the sea was free from the deafening sound of outboard motors and the stench of their exhaust. 

Concluding a wonderfully lazy day, we had a fantastic meal at El Ultimo Refugio. It is a small restaurant with an eclectic menu and maybe the only fresh vegetables on Bocas. John had the most amazing seared tuna and I had some pork loin with a blue cheese sauce. 

We had some entertainment there, too. Some drunk, but obviously wealthy, Australian was having a dinner with a German couple at the next table. He started on his political opinions, which seemed pretty strongly libertarian, until the German guy could stand it no longer. He took his lighter and tried to set the guy’s leg hair on fire! Oddly enough, the Aussie took it all in good humor. 

And let me finish the day by giving big thank you to Suzie Masters at Mongol Global Tours for sorting out all the problems we had yesterday. You’re the best!

 

Bocas del Toro

I will not, dear readers, relate the problems we had with getting to and from the airport for the simple reason that I want to forget them. Instead, let me introduce you to Isla Colon, the main town in the Bocas del Torre area of northwest Panama. We are staying at the Hotel Bocas del Torre. It is built in Caribbean style and the back of the hotel is elevated over the water.

After we checked in, we had some lunch on the deck. Yoivy - I think that is how she spells her name - was not only solicitous at the front desk but stopped by the restaurant to make sure we were getting served there, too. 

As you can see, it was a rainy afternoon here in Bocas. We napped a bit as it rained making up for the sleep we missed last night, and then we went off to explore. We saw the traditional houses.

And we also saw how tourism will start to change the laid-back Caribbean charm of this place in time.

There were reminders that fishing is still an important occupation in this community.

And maybe this nativity scene in front of a house here says everything about “peace on earth, good will towards men.” I was touched by the backdrop of the mosques.

But this is an inclusive community where Jews are welcome, too.

In fact, just about everybody seems welcome in this friendly little town. John snapped this picture as we were waiting for a downpour to subside. It may be my favorite of the trip so far.

Tomorrow we will be off to explore beaches and reefs of this archipelago. Pray for sun!