I'm not sure what made me do it - perhaps the waves, the pueblo, or the cozy feel of the place, but I decided to rent a little guest house which is about a two minute walk to the beach from my front door, and made the enormous jump of purchasing my very own surfboard yesterday.
I love waking up, walking out to the Mango tree to find the best fallen fruit, and then slicing them up for my breakfast. I love slowly swinging in my hammock in the garden with my new book, 'The Life of Pi', and waking up to the sound of wind chimes and lots of active birdies chirping and singing their happy morning songs.
The surf board was an adventure for sure. A friend from town accompanied me into Panama City to help me look for a good used board (being the town board repair expert). We started out at the Albook Mall, where the Albrook bus terminal is located and the bus dropped us. There were three surf shops that we successfully found in the Mall after much searching, but with no suitable board for me. We then took a taxi to another shop, about a 30-minute drive in traffic, to another board shop that was supposed to have used boards. They had used boards, but none that our town expert felt were worthy of the money asked, and that would suit my needs. During our search, Tomaso had been placing calls to his friend Bruno, who runs the panama surf web site and has tons of surf contacts. He received a call from Bruno saying that he was not able to find any used 'fun boards' after making several calls around, but found a good priced new board at a shop we then promptly took another taxi to. 
Bruno met us there, and indeed there was a brand new beautiful seven-foot board with red flowers calling my name, and not just softly, it was screaming my name. After walking to the bank for a major cash withdrawal, and purchasing a lottery ticket for a guy from the town who insists that the lucky lotto tickets are found only in the City, we returned to the board shop to walk out with my new board. The next obstacle was transporting the 7-foot brand new board back to El Palmar (1 1/2 hours by bus, with a 15 - 20 minute walk down to the town from the bus stop) without scratching it. Tomaso, without my knowledge, had already started to call around in search of rides from friends who also 'happened' to be in the City. The stars were aligned correctly I suppose, because sure enough, some of his friends happened to be heading back in the right direction, and were happy to tote the both of us, along with my new board back to their house (also having a board rack and straps to safely carry it).
Once we got to the house in Gorgona (a different surf beach about 15 miles from El Palmar), there happened to be two guys there from the house/hostel I stayed in when I first arrived, who were willing to take us back to El Palmar with them. Yippee! We both agreed that we had 'mucha suerte', much luck, in our mission accomplished, as we rode down the street leading to our beach, crammed into the back of a tiny little 4x4 with five people and a brand new red flowery surf board I couldn't wait to play on!
The surf board was an adventure for sure. A friend from town accompanied me into Panama City to help me look for a good used board (being the town board repair expert). We started out at the Albook Mall, where the Albrook bus terminal is located and the bus dropped us. There were three surf shops that we successfully found in the Mall after much searching, but with no suitable board for me. We then took a taxi to another shop, about a 30-minute drive in traffic, to another board shop that was supposed to have used boards. They had used boards, but none that our town expert felt were worthy of the money asked, and that would suit my needs. During our search, Tomaso had been placing calls to his friend Bruno, who runs the panama surf web site and has tons of surf contacts. He received a call from Bruno saying that he was not able to find any used 'fun boards' after making several calls around, but found a good priced new board at a shop we then promptly took another taxi to. 
Bruno met us there, and indeed there was a brand new beautiful seven-foot board with red flowers calling my name, and not just softly, it was screaming my name. After walking to the bank for a major cash withdrawal, and purchasing a lottery ticket for a guy from the town who insists that the lucky lotto tickets are found only in the City, we returned to the board shop to walk out with my new board. The next obstacle was transporting the 7-foot brand new board back to El Palmar (1 1/2 hours by bus, with a 15 - 20 minute walk down to the town from the bus stop) without scratching it. Tomaso, without my knowledge, had already started to call around in search of rides from friends who also 'happened' to be in the City. The stars were aligned correctly I suppose, because sure enough, some of his friends happened to be heading back in the right direction, and were happy to tote the both of us, along with my new board back to their house (also having a board rack and straps to safely carry it).
Once we got to the house in Gorgona (a different surf beach about 15 miles from El Palmar), there happened to be two guys there from the house/hostel I stayed in when I first arrived, who were willing to take us back to El Palmar with them. Yippee! We both agreed that we had 'mucha suerte', much luck, in our mission accomplished, as we rode down the street leading to our beach, crammed into the back of a tiny little 4x4 with five people and a brand new red flowery surf board I couldn't wait to play on!
2 comments:
Jenniloo....what is the name of your Panamanian beach head? I need to spy on you on the GoogleEarth but I don't really know where you're hanging out specifically. How's your new flowered ride--and how are the waves in your area? And what amount did your hippie motorbike sell for back in the Dom Repub??
That board is gorgeous! I hope you've loved using it. Do you have a home base where you can keep it while you're off exploring?
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