Traveling and the Journey from El Palmar to Pedasi

One of the things I like best about traveling, is hearing lots of stories by and about other travelers. I’m amazed at how many people I meet along the way who also are making a mini-career out of traveling, a non-salaried mini-career, of course. The information exchanged through other travelers is invaluable, but I’m talking of the crazy-ass stories that you think of time and again long after they are told.

Within the past week and a half, I’ve met five Vancouver Islanders (three separate groups who didn’t know each other), and I’ve liked every single one of them. I’ve learned that Vancouver Island is definitely NOT the same as Vancouver. I’ve met three people from Vancouver and found only one to be half-way pleasant (two of them stiffed me for their share of our lengthy bus ride to Pedasi). I’ve decided to place Vancouver Island as one of my first trips north once I return back home.

The journey from El Palmar to Pedasi was long, much more difficult than it should have been, and frustrating to say the least. I headed up the road for the bus stop at 7:30 am, intending to drop little Josh to Coronado in hopes that the vet could eventually find him a home. While walking up the road with trusty Tomaso, however, I was convinced that it would be best to take Josh along on the journey, so at 8:00 am, Josh, Tomaso, and I waited for the bus to Los Santos or Las Tablas. None had come by 9:15 am and Tomaso had to go into town (San Carlos) to pay bills so we said our goodbyes, but when he passed by on his way back to El Palmar, an hour later, I was still there waiting. One bus had come and gone – already full. He waited a bit longer, but no bus, so we said goodbye again, still no bus. Finally after running his last errand around the corner from the bus stop, he returned and I again was still there – surfboard, puppy, backpack, and laptop computer. After the third goodbye around 11:00 am, he went back home and I continued to wait. At noon I was joined by a Canadian from Vancouver, B.C., also headed for Playa Venao. About 15 minutes later two other Canadian surfers (also from B.C.) joined us in waiting for the bus toward Venao, when I told them I’d been there since 8:00 am, they decided that we needed to take a bus to the next small town in order to catch the right bus. Knowing that this was not true, I went along anyway, just to get heading in the right direction. From there, we took three more busses in order to get to where the correct bus would have taken us, but was always too full. After the fourth bus loaded with four gringos, three surfboards, seven bags, and a sick dog, along with all the locals crammed inside, we finally made it to Pedasi around 5:00 pm. Having been stiffed with my delightful Canadian companions on bus fare, I parted from them immediately upon arrival, and met two other Canadians, Isha and Ty, both with great attitudes, very pleasant and friendly, contagiously happy, and excited to be beginning their first trip ever to the ‘Tropics’ in Panama, and willing to share their room with me for the night. Since the towns’ three inns were either full or unwilling to accept Josh, and I knew I had no interest in sharing space with the first three Canadians from the trip to Venao, I took them up on their offer.