Un Año Hoy!

It has been a long time since the last time I wrote something but I feel now is a suitable moment to write something. One year ago today, I left England for Mexico with a girlfriend and a backpack full of things I didn’t need. One year later and I am waiting in Panama for a boat to Colombia, now travelling solo, but still with a backpack full of stuff I don’t need. Over that year, Central America and Mexico have introduced me to many friends from many different countries and shown me many a sight to see. I have visited many places that simply take your breath away, I have been graced with the company of many exotic and sometimes bizarre animals and I have had the pleasure of watching nature’s great performances on multiple occasions.

The year has been amazing and to bring you to this point in time, I need to go back 6 months and back to Nicaragua. I was staying at Chocolate beach and I continued to stay there a little while longer. In fact, I overstayed my Visa by a week with the risk of a small fine, but they didn’t even notice at the border. Getting into Costa Rica is not the easiest of tasks to complete. They want to see proof of an exit ticket so they know that you will be leaving their country. There are a lot of people who don’t know when they will leave the country and will leave the country by foot so a ticket is an unnecessary purchase.

This is where my problems with Costa Rica began. It would cost me $25 dollars, as the cheapest option, to buy an exit ticket at the border. Even though I will never use it, there was no other option there and then so I had to pay the money. Costa Rica is a country that is based on tourism and because of this, you have to pay entrance fees to lots of areas of outstanding natural beauty. It is a country out of my budget and therefore I didn’t want to spend too much time there.

I did find a cheap hostal at a beach called Playa Avellenas, a reasonably quiet location with decent waves. The hostal was cheap to stay but there was only one shop nearby and that was overpriced. This meant it was hard to eat even basic food cheaply and my daily expenditure was way too much. But the location was beautiful. The hostal itself was not on the beach, but about a 5 minute walk away. You had to pass through an American resort and once you passed the area with buildings, you entered onto a wooden walkway that passed through a forest of dead trees in a shallow lake. Once you came out the other side of the creepy tree cemetery, you were on the beach and waves were there.

I had one of my most beautiful surf sessions on this beach, try to imagine if you can. It was a perfect day for waves, the correct size to function well for this beach and a good size for me to improve on. I was surfing with the guys from the hostal and everyone was catching lots of good waves. The sun was beginning to set in the distance over the horizon of the Pacific Ocean. The sunset painted the sky with a variety of reds, yellows, pinks, oranges and many more. The clouds that were forming helped make the sky, and the distorted reflection on the almost glassy ocean a sight to see by itself. But if you turned your head the other way, and looked over the land, an almighty storm was taking place. As the light began to fade the constant lightning strikes illuminated the sky with colours of blue, purple, green and many other shades. With the storm mixing with the colours of the sunset, it was one of those moments where you just have to stop and say wow.

After spending a bit of time here surfing, I headed to the Costa Rican border with Panama. I spent the whole day travelling and was ready to cross into Panama the following day. I saw the majority of Costa Rica through a bus window so maybe I will return one day when I have a bit more cash to burn. I was heading towards Boca’s del Toro to meet up with Alex who was already there. But first I had to cross the border which was just as hard as the previous one. I need proof of a follow-on journey, which I didn’t have again and spent a long time arguing with migration. After convincing them that I would leave the country eventually, they requested to see proof of funds in my bank account. This meant I had to find internet nearby, pay for it and access my bank account to take a picture. Eventually, they let me pass and I was on my way.

Boca’s Del Toro is a province in Panama in the north of its Atlantic coast that is known more for its vast selection of beautiful islands. I went there to speak with Alex but I had ruined any chance of us getting back together. It was a good idea for me to leave Boca’s fairly soon as Alex was looking to find some work there. I have spoken to her recently and she managed to get commissioned to paint 25 paintings for a new hotel. The money she will earn is good enough to help her continue to travel for a bit longer and that is all she ever wanted.

So I left Boca’s and headed across the country to the Pacific coast to search for more waves. I first went to Las Lajas, a remote beach with empty American resorts and one cheap hostal. I stayed there for a little bit but spent most of the time eating, surfing or waiting to surf. I took the opportunity of having spare time and started to look at ways to earn some money whilst travelling. There is a site which is a platform for finding work whilst on the move and you only need a laptop. I looked originally for the jobs without skills like data entry but the pay was stupidly low. I then came across writing jobs for web pages and blogs. Only having experience with this here, I didn’t really know what I was doing.

Within a few days, I had an offer to write a test article for someone and for some absurd reason, they liked it. After that, I wrote 3 articles regarding HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) averaging 500 words each and got paid $10 for the set. I also got a decent review and continued to write for this person but away from the website. With the review, I was able to get other work offered to me and eventually I had too many articles to write and not enough time or desire to write them. Apart from writing 60 plus different articles regarding the same HVAC Company, in the 15^th worst city in America, I have also had a variety of topics with other people. These range from leg work out exercises to exotic kitten breeds, and from Catholic wedding presents to low protein dog diets.

As easy as it became, it also became too time-consuming and was affecting the freedom I had through travelling. Rather than stop, I attempted to find people who would do all the work for me. I was trying to employ writers to write my articles and I would pay them considerably less than I was being paid. That was my problem I think, the standard of writing was poor and it was often plagiarised, sometimes from my articles! I did manage to get a few test articles from other people which I could alter and use so it wasn’t all in vain. By now I had left Las Lajas behind and had moved on to Playa Venao, where I stayed for over a month.

Playa Venao is a sheltered cove that probably takes about an hour to walk from one headland to the other. There are 4-5 spots where you can get waves depending on the conditions of the day. The view from the beach is beautiful wherever you look and behind the beach is a little bit of jungle. There are monkeys living here too and a walk in the jungle meant we were able to say hello. I had the pleasure of chilling with 30-40, maybe more, monkeys as they came to see what we were doing. I don’t know if it is my face but yet again, a monkey showed me his balls on purpose and then proceeded to throw fruit at me. There is also wildlife prevalent in the ocean too with huge tuna often joining in on the fun whilst you are taking a wave.

Playa Venao is an up and coming beach with lots of investment into it. It is busy sometimes but it is also a little remote and therefore it has only one shop. Yet again, when there is only one shop, they can capitalise on this and charge extortionate prices. Fortunately, there is a fruit and veg truck 3 times a week that comes to the hostal and that is very cheap. I kept trying to leave Venao but every week a new set of waves were due to arrive meaning that I had to stay a bit longer. I was also lucky in the fact that a friend was leaving for a few weeks before returning so I could use his surfboard and save the money I would have spent on renting one.

This beach was another place where I had one of my best surf sessions too. A group of us were walking back from a party hostal at 3am from the other end of the beach. All of us were ‘slightly’ drunk and that is when I suggested it would be a good idea to go for a surf. The sky was relatively clear, the moon was at its fullest and the tide was at the optimum level for good wave. A few were easy to convince, others waited to see what happened first but eventually joined in. Whilst in the water, it was bright enough to see a black wall coming towards you and when it got closer you had to decide quickly if you wanted to take it. I did this 5 times in a row and had 5 of the best rides I have had. The sea was like glass and the waves were consistently perfect for me. After 5 waves in 5 attempts without 5 seconds rest, things slowed down a little bit. This enabled time to play with the plankton. Because the moon was full, the plankton was a little bit harder to see, but whilst you were swimming through the water, a trail of blue flickers was left in your wake. The experience as a whole was possibly enhanced by the alcohol but was incredible to witness.

Having spent its course, it was time to move on from the beach and hit the jungle. I had found a place to volunteer, Pachamama, a jungle community of travellers and volunteers. Located on the road that leads to the San Blas, it is surrounded by jungle and nature. The San Blas Islands are the main passing point for people who don’t wish to take a plane between Panama and Colombia. You pay something like $550 for the 5-day boat journey to Cartegena, Colombia, from Panama and that is too much money for me. So that is why I am currently where I am. Pachamama’s owner has a boat that does the journey to Cartegena and can arrange your journey if there is space on the boat. If you volunteer with them for 7 weeks and put in a suitable amount of effort, this journey is then free of charge.

 

The volunteering here is the same format as most of the other places, especially the places that are in remote locations and far from any shops. They provide you with a bed to sleep in, or a hammock if you desire. Food for breakfast, lunch and dinner is supplied every day, and cooked by the volunteers. There are about 12 of us here in total, sometimes more, so you nominate yourself if you want to cook. The food is fairly basic but always really nice. Fruit and veg is used from the garden and pasta, rice and lentils are bought in. There are a lot of fruits here so most dishes are something revolving around whatever fruit there is an abundance of for that week. I am certainly having to broaden my tastes otherwise I would have to go hungry, or be a monumental pain in the arse.

Of all of the volunteers here when I arrived, there is 1 Englishman (me), a French dude, a Polish girl, an Italian girl and I think the rest are Argentinian. Some people have been here for well over 6 months and everybody is like a family, to which I have been welcomed. It is a really happy atmosphere all the time and even the work is relaxed and slow. You have breakfast in the morning, chill for a bit then work 3 hours at a leisurely pace. This is now time for lunch which is followed by more relaxing time for an hour or so, and then back to work for maybe 3 hours. There are jobs that need doing every day and you nominate yourself for these. These consist of feeding the pigs, ducks and dogs, cleaning and recycling, and all the cooking duties. If you don’t have one of the necessary duties, then you may have another random task given to you or you can work on your personal project. The good thing about the majority of the people here being Argentinian is that everything is in Spanish. My Spanish has got worse lately so I need to improve it. Here is perfect for that and I can also help the others with their English.

After a couple of days at Pachamama, the owner needed lots of volunteers to help at his other property on Lago Bayano. The majority of us headed off to the lake the next day which involves driving 30 mins to the port where the boat arrives. Then you wind your way through the islands that inhabit the lake for about 40 mins and you arrive at the property, situated on a big Island. The place is basically 4-5 hectares of very fertile land and a house. The house has solar panels which provide power for lights, and power to a USB port so you can charge your phone. That is the only electric that is here so the place is very remote and cut off from the world. The idea is that the lake property will be a food bank for the other property because the soil is so fertile.

 

The lake is huge and has many dead trees scattered across it. These trees are slowly rotting and therefore providing nutrients into the surrounding land. It also means that the water is not the cleanest to swim in and can cause infections because of the bacteria. The view from the property was amazing. You could see the lake in front with the mountains in the distance on the other side of the lake. Pretty much every night, there would be a thunderstorm above these mountains creating a spectacular visual effect. I slept in my hammock under the roof in front of the house and would wake up with the sun every morning. It was also nice to take a kayak out into the lake and witness the sunrise from there.

As everyone started to head back to the other property, I wanted to stay at the lake. Most volunteers stay at the lake for only a week as it is not an easy life. You have to find your food and if the trees and plants are not providing, then you may have to catch your food from the lake. There was nowhere to buy food and the boat was only available for transport to and from the port, and for fishing. There was a copious amount of Tilapia living in the near the banks of the lake and this was the fish we wanted. On a good day, we could cast the net and when we returned later there could be 6 or 7 Tilapia. I learned to fish with the two brothers who worked there as well as learning many other things. Nelson, 22, and Nestor, 17, were brothers of Juan who worked at Pachamama before it even existed and he helped build the place. They are from the remote parts of Chiriquí and although they are from Panama, they are from a tribe called Ngobe-Bugle and speak a different language completely.

These guys work hard and with power, especially when using their tool for everything, the machete. A lot of the work at the lake involved cutting grass but with no electricity, there is no mechanical aid. The grass was also too tough for machinery to cut so it had to be chopped with a machete. Once you cut it, it grows back within 2-3 weeks because of the soil’s fertility, so it is a continuous process. The work generally involves physical labour and a machete but it is not too strenuous. It is very hot and hard to work in that heat so you tend to take a lot of water breaks and work very relaxed. In the evening, you generally are pretty tired and there is not a lot to do other than prepare food.

If the food is a little scarce and the Tilapia aren’t swimming into the net, you can go hunt Cayman in the lake. I am not sure if they are actually Cayman Crocodiles or it is just what they call it here. The technique is to go in pairs in the double kayak. It has to be at night as they are more active then, and it is easier to spot them. With a head torch, you look out for the reflection of the red eyes of the Cayman. After practice, I can more or less tell the size of the Cayman by the reflection of the light in their eyes, but it is not exact. When we find one big enough to supply meat for us all, but not too big to have wasted meat, the person at the back paddles and directs the kayak towards the Cayman. Very slowly you approach the Cayman and then stop paddling and just drift towards it. If the Cayman does not submerge or decide to leave, you can drift right next to it. This is what you want and when you are next to it, you can see its full size and know if it’s good enough to kill. If all is good, then the person at the front swings the machete with force to the back of the Caymans head and kills it.

I tried 3 or 4 times but was unable to catch one. I swung for one but either didn’t have enough force or it submerged before I could make contact, and then it was gone. The French dude I was with was certifiably nuts. He thought it might be below the water, injured or dead, so he decided to jump in and look for it. When we couldn’t find it we went looking for more. I saw a gargantuan Cayman running across the land in front of us, so we went to look a little closer. Pierre the crazy French man thought it was a good idea to leave the kayak and with the machete, go looking for it on the land. This Cayman was huge and it ran into 3-4 metre high grass, but that didn’t deter Pierre. He went in to look for the Caymans house and unfortunately (or fortunately) only came back with all his limbs intact. Since I left, Nestor managed to catch one and they sent me the photo’s to rub it in.

 

I had to leave the lake after a couple of weeks to recover from a zombie-making, flesh-eating bacteria that was going around. I had to go to the capital to find medication as all natural remedies had failed. The city was horrible and hell compared to the lake, the complete opposite in fact. I returned to Pachamama to recover whilst I was unable to walk for a week. At the next opportunity I headed back to the lake because although Pachamama is nice, it is a business that has volunteers as clients. They push the party vibe a bit to get people drinking and spending more, which I would rather not do. So I headed back to the tranquil paradise of Lago Bayano. I loved it so much there that I decided to stay on a few more months, possibly until the New Year.

I asked if I could work there rather than volunteer as I was going to be there longer. The owner said no originally but then in the following days, he offered me some work. This was where my paradise turned into a hell. I had to return to Pachamama and would work as the manager, helping out the girlfriend of the owner whilst he was away for 3 months. Sparing the details and being bitchy, the mood and atmosphere of the place changed and I was no longer made to feel welcome there. I also found out more things which I morally didn’t agree with and with that, the paradise was no more. I think I lasted a week working there and left one evening because I couldn’t bear to be there anymore. It was a very sad moment as it was a place that meant so much to me and I was heartbroken and left feeling sick. I had been such a happy person and for reasons I don’t know, I was left miserable and angry.

 

I needed to be happy again so I walked almost 3km down the road before a car gave me a lift. I was heading to a farm in the same jungle just further down the road. This farm was owned by a Panamanian with one worker, another Ngobe-Bugle from Chiriqui. There are 300 hectares of jungle in this farm and he only uses 30 hectares of it for his cows and horses. The farm has no electricity and is very basic. This may sound bad but it is exactly what I want. For me, there is no point being in the jungle if you are surrounded by technology and mechanical noises. It takes away the good things that a jungle provides like the orchestra of animals and insects throughout the day and night.

I helped him out for a couple of days and then got a ride to the city so I could surf again. I needed to be relaxing again before I started to work a bit. So I returned to Playa Venao because I have friends there and know the place and waves well. I also managed to buy my first surfboard, which happened to be the same one I was using before. The friend who lent me his board before sold it to a surf shop. I went to the surf shop knowing how much they bought it for and every detail necessary to barter myself a good price, which I got. I started at $70 and she wanted $100, and $100 is cheap for this board. I managed to get it for $75 and will probably be able to sell it for $100 when I don’t need it anymore. So that is where I am now, relaxing and surfing and much happier than before. In a few weeks, I will head back to Costa Rica for a couple of days to renew my Visa for Panama. After that, I will return to the farm in the jungle to work for a few months and then eventually get my boat trip to Colombia, but in the New Year.

Other than a few hiccups along the way and recent events, the year on the road has been an amazing year. I have learned so much in that time and I am keen to keep on learning. Whether it be new skills, life hacks or things about myself, I am constantly learning every day. I look forward to the next year and what it has to offer me. The only plan I have is to see all of the countries in South America and get to Patagonia. Other than that, I take every day as it comes. Hopefully, I will be able to reach Patagonia but I will need to find ways to make some dollar along the way. Maybe street performing with card tricks or other skills I am learning, maybe selling food in the street or maybe something else will come up. It is not something that bothers me as I feel that when I desperately need to find some cash, something will turn up. Worrying only causes you stress and then you are not happy. Here’s a little song I wrote, you might want to sing it note for note. Don’t worry, be happy. In every life we have some trouble, when you worry you make it double. Don’t worry, be happy. Ok so that was actually the lyrics to a Bobby McFerrin song but it makes perfect sense and is how my mind works.

If I continue to write, it will no longer be a year travelling today, it will be yesterday. So with that a bid you farewell and apologise for taking so long to keep you updated with what’s been happening. You also probably won’t hear from me until the New Year as I will head back to the jungle to live without electricity. So Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and lots of love to you all x