Bocas del Toro is a beautiful place, discovered by Christopher Columbus on his fourth and final voyage. The local population is made up of “Creoles” which descended from protestant Negroes, the Chinese and various indigenous Ngobe tribes. Their language is “ guariguari”, a mix of Afro-Antillean English and Ngobere, spiced up with some French. Bocas del Toro is located 30 miles from the Costa Rican boarder and consists of two big bays, 8 major islands, 51 cays and over 200 islets. Very protected and very beautiful. It is fast becoming the “place to see” when touring Panama. The Caribbean music is loud, the residents speak with the Caribbean influence and their hair is black dredlocks – the children have frissy black hair, the girls are held in many tiny coloured bands so they look like tiny coloured antennas glued onto their head – very cute.
Whilst transiting the Canal on Mahboula we met Rick from the sailing vessel Evenstar. Rick was mainly sailing single handed. His wife Kim was still working in LA and would come to visit during holiday periods. Rick's Panamanian visa had expired so he and Don left at 7am in the morning for Changuinola to see the local immigration people and get a new visa. The trip should have taken a few hours, a water taxi to the township, another water taxi to Almirante then a bus or taxi to Changuinola (about 45 mins). Easy.....
They arrived in Almirante, caught a taxi but found a demonstration was being held - the locals had been into the hills, cut down huge trees and placed them on top of each other to form a barricade across the road. Rick and Don got out of the taxi, walked passed the barricade and waited for the next bus .....it took them to the next barricade and so on it went ....
They finally arrived in the town to find Immigration closed - in fact all the township closed, there are locals with hoods on and stones and rubbish everywhere - it looked as though a riot had been through. An official told the boys to book into a hotel and stay there as trouble was about to begin - either that or get out fast.....
They could not leave via the road and after enquiries Don could not fly back because he did not have his passport with him. I offered to fax a copy of the passport to immigration at the airport but they said that was not good enough. Due to the severity of the unrest they allowed Rick and Don on the flight from Changuinola to Isla Colon (a flight of 7 mins) providing I could deliver his passport to the immigration officer at the Isla Colon airport prior to arrival.
What a story to tell their grandchildren !!! Boy am I glad I decided to sleep in and not go with them !!
They arrived in Almirante, caught a taxi but found a demonstration was being held - the locals had been into the hills, cut down huge trees and placed them on top of each other to form a barricade across the road. Rick and Don got out of the taxi, walked passed the barricade and waited for the next bus .....it took them to the next barricade and so on it went ....
They finally arrived in the town to find Immigration closed - in fact all the township closed, there are locals with hoods on and stones and rubbish everywhere - it looked as though a riot had been through. An official told the boys to book into a hotel and stay there as trouble was about to begin - either that or get out fast.....
They could not leave via the road and after enquiries Don could not fly back because he did not have his passport with him. I offered to fax a copy of the passport to immigration at the airport but they said that was not good enough. Due to the severity of the unrest they allowed Rick and Don on the flight from Changuinola to Isla Colon (a flight of 7 mins) providing I could deliver his passport to the immigration officer at the Isla Colon airport prior to arrival.
What a story to tell their grandchildren !!! Boy am I glad I decided to sleep in and not go with them !!
A few days later the unrest in Changuinola fired up and continued to be a problem. No water taxis were going to Almirante which is the port on the mainland which serves our area. As the violence increased, with 2 dead, over 100 injured, a curfew has been imposed for everyone in the Chiriqui Province (that includes us) - no problem for us - we are on "cruisers" time - ie go to bed when the sun goes down and rise when the sun comes up !!!
It is all about the banana plantation workers - the boss (Chiquita Bananas) has decided to increase their working hours to a 10 hr day without compensation, take away any extra payment for Saturday and Sunday - the poor things only get about $4.00 per day and live in total poverty. I sympathise with them. The banana industry make up over 80 percent of Panama's exports and produce nearly a million tons of bananas a year for export.
We were not affected - there are no banana plantations on our island therefore no unrest. The only problem is transportation – no produce was delivered via boat from Almiarante which meant supermarket supplies were very low. The airport worked overtime transporting people who had originally booked to leave via buses.
It is all about the banana plantation workers - the boss (Chiquita Bananas) has decided to increase their working hours to a 10 hr day without compensation, take away any extra payment for Saturday and Sunday - the poor things only get about $4.00 per day and live in total poverty. I sympathise with them. The banana industry make up over 80 percent of Panama's exports and produce nearly a million tons of bananas a year for export.
We were not affected - there are no banana plantations on our island therefore no unrest. The only problem is transportation – no produce was delivered via boat from Almiarante which meant supermarket supplies were very low. The airport worked overtime transporting people who had originally booked to leave via buses.
We spent a day at Starfish Beach with Rick and Kim from “Evenstar”. We caught the local bus (a small minivan) that took us half way across the island then stopped at the local tienda (grass hut restaurant) for drinks. We spent the rest of the day at the beach playing with the large orange starfish and swimming.
Over the next few weeks we waved goodbye as all our new Bocas friends departed for home – it was too uncomfortable for them to remain in this area for the cyclone season. I dreamt up some excuses for going home and after a week or so they became “very important” reasons in my mind. I put my case to Don (who supported me as usual). A few days before I was due to leave, and after a sweltering day with bugs trying to find an unbitten place on our legs to satisfy their hunger or whatever reason they feel they need to continue to bite us – actually they don't bite, they have an acid on their tongue that burn, Don sat up in bed at midnight and began to book his flights home for the same dates – I couldn't wipe the smile off my face !!! He is not so tough after all.
No comments:
Post a Comment