Day 4

Did it really thunder during the night? I woke against my will to my alarm and a steady drizzle. Fried some eggs for breakfast. I met William at the Escuela del Mar office located across from the police station, and we boarded a lancha for Carenero.

All I knew about William was that his boss had warned “he’s a good-looking guy and he knows it. So just ignore him.” Okay. William was actually quite nice. We started with a lesson on paddling and working on form on the sand. Then we took two beginner boards and had another lancha drop us off in the middle of the archipelagos for the reef breaks.

My upper body was not up to par for so much paddling. I listened to everything William said—stay in the middle of the board, far back enough so that my feet feel the leash, and when he says go, paddle three times, back foot to front knee and push up. I caught a wave on my fourth try. Exhilarating. I want more. There weren’t too many waves but I caught the next one as well, and semi got up on two more when W stopped giving me that final shove.

 

 

The lesson lasted two hours and cost me 45USD. W offered to buy me a drink at Bibi’s while we waited out the rain… and I picked bottled water. We were engrossed in social media for a bit which led me to learn that he used to live in Dominical and befriended Rachel Brathen seven years ago! I freaked out when he showed me a photo of them together and told him adding her on snapchat is a must. He told me if I went to Envision Festival in February he would introduce me…

 

 

I got to take a peek inside Aqua Lounge, a popular party hostel with sea swings, slides, platforms, and a trampoline on a deck right in front of reception. The website boasts of a handwritten “Holy Book of Drinking Games.” I was impressed at the one chick who started snorkeling since everyone still looked dysfunctional from the night before. Aqua lounge hosts parties each Saturday with 5USD cover which includes one drink.

 

 

 

The reason why Heike is so appreciated is that they close everything—roof terrace, kitchen, front door—at 10pm and everyone has a key to get back in the hostel. That way, the noise is never on home soil. Back in this cozy temporary home of mine where sleep and intelligent conversations are a thing, the kitchen was bustling with sounds of chopping and boiling. The front desk lady was finely grating green plantains and squeezing them into dumpling sized balls (not at the front desk). Pumpkin, broccoli, potatoes, taros, and squash were cubed up. A fresh salsa was made. Lentils and beans had been cooked in water, the veggies were added and simmered for 25 minutes, and the salsa was mixed in last. My contribution was running over to the minisuper for a baguette and some dried coco. At the , the cashier was Chinese as always. This was the second time I’d talked to one in Mandarin since it was by far the easiest option.This lady told me that the Chinese kids growing up here know little English and sadly lose the bit of Mandarin they had as toddlers, quite peculiar for me to hear. Sad as well.

 

 

I sat down to a family-style almuerzo. The way I like to describe the soup is vegan, and full of nutrition, fiber, and flavor. Served along with sweet plaintains simply sliced and boiled in water, an easy prep I’m totally copying at home, it was the perfect meal for this rained out Sunday. I acquainted myself with a Guatemalan who’d been biking all over Central America during his holidays for eight years, and some more German girls. This time, they were 18, but still doing gap years and visiting Bocas from Costa Rica. They had better Spanish than me solely from living in Latin America since August. I swear, in the past three days I had learned more about Germany and German culture than I ever did when I was actually in Germany. They urge each other to make time for foreign travel whether they are quite young, retired, or middle-aged with full-time jobs. They adventure.

 

 

I took my happy tummy to nap time. And was out until dark. I went back downstairs, listened to the entire itinerary of my favorite British couple on their honeymoon (Peru to Caribbean), and found some octopus street ceviche for 2USD. The portion size was disappointing but I was surprised to find I actually liked the taste of raw tentacles…