Santa Catalina is a fishing village circled by real estate sharks. There is already blood in the water and so it is only a matter of time before the feeding frenzy begins in earnest.
But right now you can still meet a surfer from Devon there who attended the same boarding school as Winston Churchill yet [...]
The news is…. I have a job!
I am managing a hostel in Santa Catalina. The Blue Zone is a laid back surfer hang out that comes complete with a charming house with an ocean view, a slightly crazy dog and a definitively crazy cat. It the slow season and the regular manager is taking some [...]
Small village life.
Two hours on the bus to the nearest grocery store. No internet to speak of, no phone, no post.
On the other hand, there is the sunset over the Pacific ocean. Whales, dolphins, turtles. Surf. Clams on the beach. Fried fish. Rainy season thunder storms. Endless star gazing.
I going to be taking time* out in Santa Catalina on the Pacific side of Panama to do more dive training in the Coiba Marine Park.
* …’time’ here referring to maybe six months or so…
Today:
A day of sunshine surrounded by storm clouds
A three wattled bellbird by the road
A gift of freshly caught tuna
A friend for the afternoon
A loan of an intriguing book
A wasp sting
I have spent the last three or four weeks watching the sea. The rise and fall of the tides; an endless ebb and flow. A constantly shifting surface comprised of liquid light and the sky, stirred by random eddies and hidden currents.
It has put me in a reflective state of mind.
I wonder why I am [...]
Bocas del Toros can only be described with a slew of tourist brocheure cliches.
A group of interlinking islands surrounded tropical beaches fringed by swaying coconut palms, monkeys, sloths and birds above in the forest canopy. The echoing throbbing roar of a distant troupe of howler monkeys.
Fingers of light and shadow shoot across the sky as [...]
The return journey of an overnight trip to Costa Rica on the bus in order to get my rear hub repaired proved very entertaining with road blocks and riot police creating a blockage about fifty kilometres from the border that had to be circumnavigated through jungle and banana plantations. (There will be photos…eventually…)
Thanks to Michael [...]
Two years on the road has taken its toll on my bike. My rear hub has self-destructed and all the pedalling in the world produces no result right now. So, having finally made my escape from Costa Rica, I am now faced with the prospect of having to return to find spare parts to get [...]
Tagged bike, panama, things breakWell, I have tried to like Costa Rica but it’s a small country – as I’m sure I have already mentioned – and much of it is in the hands of foreign property developers and other dubious expats who see the place in terms of real estate opportunites whose value is measured only in dollars. [...]
Tagged costa rica