Isla Bastimentos Property Visit
A few days ago we trekked out to see the 50 acre property on Isla Bastimentos owned by my friend Bram. This property is about 25 minutes away from where we are living. The weather was beautiful but the water was very rough. High winds from the South created quite the wave action. We booked it through the rough open water, while avoiding the coral, to find protection near the islands. We arrived at the property where there used to be a dock which was wealth redistributed to the neighbors over time – if you don’t use it here, you loose it. The mangrove was pretty overgrown so the boat didn’t fit so well next to the pilings of what remained of the dock. I hopped into the water to pull the boat in as close as I could get it, then got...
Pseudosphinx Tetrio
We have em’, Pseudosphinx tetrio all over our Plumeria tree, probably over 60 of them. Pseudosphinx tetrio, otherwise known as a Tetrio sphinx moth or caterpillar (depending on the stage). Brightly colored, beautiful, kind-of scary looking caterpillars with what looks like a spike that moves forward and aft as they walk. Bella wanted to hold them, but I said hold up, lets google it, like the pioneers did back in the day when they came across similar situations. Sure enough, its a no-go on the holding of them, they bite. Later I checked with some locals who in turn said they “pican”, or sting. Here are some photos: Plumeria flower – awesome fragrance! Plumeria tree. Check out the eating this one has done to this leaf. Look...
Shu Mani Tutanka
“Shu Mani Tutanka O Wachee” is “Dances with Wolves.” (Proper spelling is “Sunkmanitu Tanka Owaci” in Lakota.) If you’ve seen this movie, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Over the last few days we have lived out a chapter of that story, with a Ngobe family. We call this chapter, first contact. A few days ago, in the evening, Falco and three of his kiddos stopped by for a visit, to play (Falco is the Ngobe man I met on my maiden cayuco voyage.) On that voyage I told Falco, “mis hijos necesitan amigos”, my kiddos need friends. Falco responded by saying he would provide my kiddos with friends. Cool. They played and played, running from place to place like a herd of wild chonchos (pigs). ...
Cayuco
This week we purchased a cayuco. A cayuco is made from a section of a jungle tree, it is hollowed out and shaped into a boat, all with hand tools. There are a couple Ngobe on each island that seem to have this skill. Most cayucos have a standard size of about six feet in length, cost $100, but that’s only Ngobe to Ngobe. If they know they are selling to a gringo, that price doubles, if not triples. I purchased about a ten foot cayuco that is at least 50% wider then the standard. This is mainly because I am a gringo, I’m heavier so the boat sits lower in the water and my balance is horrible compared to the locals, so a wider bottom boat helps me in that area, I hope. Alvaro found me a cayuco and purchased it from the Ngobe builder, so he...
Mimosa pudica
Mimosa pudica or touch sensitive plants are all over the place here. Ellie noticed that much of the lawn we have here is touch sensitive. Now that we know about the plants, we are in awe every time we walk through the “grass.” God really got creative here in the tropics.
Ethan vs. Gecko
Our house is filled with Geckos, which we love. They eat the many insects that also fill our house. These Geckos are smart. At night the congregate around any lights we have on and wait for the bugs to be reeled in, and just as they get close… slurp – they’re gone. The Geckos range in size from 1/2 inch long to about six inches long and come in colors from black to almost clear. They have awesome suction cups on their feet, which feel super weird when they run across your skin. This afternoon I grabbed a plantain to eat and noticed there was a gecko on it. I went to show it to Ethan, who LOVES them, and that is where our video begins. 😉 Gecko: 1 – Ethan:...
Red Frog, Police, Chocolate & Parrots
Over the last few days we have been doing some traveling around the area, getting to know the islands, people and boating routes. We headed over to Red Frog Beach on Isla Bastimentos from our house off of Dolphin Bay in Tierra Oscura, which is about a 35 minute boat ride, since I don’t know my way around the mangrove, rocks and coral yet. The Red Frog public dock. There was a sloth at the entrance of the park. Last time I was here in January there was a sloth here too, but it obviously infected with a disease called Leishmaniasis, which is transferable to humans. It is a nasty disease and requires ten days of IM shots of a chemotherapy drug. I have met many people in the area who have had the disease and still have the scars from it. Needless to...
Learned So Far
The random things we’ve learned so far: Luggage is fully insured by the airlines when traveling, except for the following items; wheels, handles, zippers, the physical case and the contents. Sharper Image luggage has a hidden advertising campaign to advertise from the garbage dump. Kirkland and Brookstone luggage is by far the most rugged luggage we’ve used. Lightweight clothing like REI or Columbia quick dry clothing drys very quick but also stinks about as well as it drys. Check for chicken poop in the shower before walking in. Buy flour in plastic bags, even if they are smaller, they have far less bugs. Roosters in Panama have no internal clock or an ability to know it is dark out and therefore they crow every 20 minutes to make sure they are...
Howler Monkey
We have howler monkeys living next to our house. When we talk to him, in his language, he talks back quite forcefully, sometimes spitting while howling. Here is a video of the male:
Shirlene’s First Blog Entry
How’s that for a title? 🙂 Bobby and I have both pretty much always considered ourselves “non-blog” people. I enjoy reading things other people post and like everyone, I have my favorites. You and I both know there are those really talented bloggers out there and those tend to be the ones I find the most entertaining and my mind finds great delight in. Those are the bloggers that could be writers and aren’t, you know the the ones I’m talking about. They write mind tantalizing posts with just the right amount of wit, humor, creative writing and interesting facts that your mind just gobbles up what has been written and you’re left feeling a little more informed, a little more inspired, and a little more alive...
Welcome to Island Life
Our last post was uploaded in the central square park in Bocas, tethered 3G to my cell phone, for all you technology geeks. Soon after that we took care of many errands and headed back to our boat. We loaded up and headed out. We were feeling good, beautiful weather, fairly smooth sea, sunburned but relaxed, and then it happened – the boat motor all of a sudden went from 5,000RPM to 3,000RPM, then hesitated, to put it in technical terms, the boat motor was unhappy. At this point, honestly, Shirlene and I weren’t stressed, only one of our children was feeling quite stressed, thinking we were going to die, I won’t mention any names, I’ll just say this, she is the oldest one. 😉 I cut back the throttle and it seemed to run fine,...
Tierra Oscura
When we started this blog, one thing we wanted to make sure we do is be authentic and transparent. This blog entry is just that, raw transparency. We re-packed our bags for our trip from Panama City to Bocas, loaded them into a truck and suburban at 7:20am and headed off to the airport. Our flight didn’t leave until 12:50pm but in order for our numerous bags to make it, we had to get them in line early since we were shipping them cargo, which is half the price of normal. Alejandro, who works in cargo explained that all of our bags needed to be unlocked, opened, inspected, tie-wrapped, taped and labeled and would probably not make it to Bocas for a few days or a week. After talking with Alejandro and getting to know him, suddenly those...
First Impressions
Our first impressions actually started on the plane from Miami to Panama City. We went from efficiency driven to relationship driven. The flight attendants were much more concerned with getting to know people than serving them, which is why, when the plane landed most passengers still had their garbage from the one time only drink service of the flight. In fact, when passengers came back to ask flight attendants for more to drink, they were directed to the galley and told they could help themselves – I love it. At one point during the flight I got up to change Ethan, I didn’t notice the long line of people waiting for the lavatories in the galley, as I went back with Ethan in hand they all graciously motioned for me to go ahead of them –...
One Word: Panama!
Two words: we’re here. 😉 Well everyone, we made it. We are currently in Panama City, Panama staying with friends on the YWAM Chilibre base. We are safe and sound and feel very blessed in our travels today. At 4:20am we arose with our sleepy children packed in Janelle and Seth’s van with a crazy amount of luggage, which was handled great and nothing was broken (that we know of), the kids did great, the planes were on-time, TSA was pleasant, the plane even had a changing table! A great, yet tiring day of travel – Praise You Lord! Thank you sooooo much for your prayers, this trip was flooded in prayer and we felt it. We will be making our final leg of the trip to Bocas del Toro in two to three days – we’ll keep you...
CHE
This week I attended a full week of CHE training. No, this is not a guerrilla warfare training school led by the former rebel leader Che. CHE (Community Health Evangelism) is a plan for individual and community development through physical and spiritual teaching. CHE reaches people holistically: spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically – just as Jesus did. Teaching how to help people, not hurt them. As always, after a full week of training in any area I feel as though I’ve reached a point of information saturation and hope that I absorbed what I learned. CHE principles are both very simple and yet completely profound in this day and age of missions and humanitarian movements. I would highly recommend it for anyone who wants to...
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