ACROSS THE BORDER AND OVER THE MOUNTAINS

From the town of David, Panama,           Tuesday Morning, November 10th

Silly name for a town, but I had nothing to do with that. I arrived at the border with all my tranquillity still intact.  Little did I know, I had left the docking device for my camera in my room in Coast Rica. I will try to call them, and get them to send it to me in the states.  For now, I can't download any more pictures or even charge the battery in my camera. It was fully charged,so I got some good pictures yesterday. The border crossing was four hours, but I didn't let it bother me.

Later,I saw a road sign that said Punta Robalo.  As some of you fishermen know Robalo means Snook, a very nice game-fish.  Well, I decide, I better go find out what that's all about.  As you may have guessed by now, the thing I love most about this kind of trip is hamming it up with the locals. I never feel lonely. Yesterday was to be no exception.

Punta Robalo is a little fishing village on the Laguna of Chiriqui, an estuary maybe the size of Cheasapeake Bay, maybe smaller, but very big.  I approached some of the locals. At first they didn't look too friendly.  I turned around and was about to drive back the way I came.  There was this very gringa-ish loooking lady, distinguished with grey hair walking in sort of the same direction I was going . "Do you live here?" I asked in English.  She turned to me, smiled broadly, and said ""Yes, I do. I'm here with the Peace Corps. My name is Christie."     "Wow, my name is Guy. I'm a tourist just passing through. I saw the sign and came down to see if there were any Robalo around.""      "Well, I don't know too much about fishing, but there´s a little dock over there that passes for a local hangout. I'll show you where it is. You can get a beer or a soft drink and I'll go find you a fisherman.

Sounds great.  She showed me where the hangout was, the guy there stuck a beer in my hand, and I sat down to wait.  It wasn't long till she came back with Manuel, obviously a fisherman.  Manuel explained that at certain times of the year, the Robalo  school up in  the river (there are several rivers that dump into the estuary) The fish comeProbably to spawn.  Hence the name Punta Robalo. He said he would take me fishing if I came back in the morning. I wanted to come back, but didn't want  to use up a whole day.

He took me to see part of the day's cacth. A snapper and a grouper, a few mackeral and a Barracuda.  Not great by Brent Oatley standards, but it was fun and I got some pictures.  On the way back to the hangout, we stumbled across Christie again. She was teaching an English Class to some local ladies. They were in a building with no windows or doors, so I walked in and said Hi to everyone. I decided I should be a guest teacher  since the subject was English.  So, I worked on a few phrases with them.  they were giggling and happy. I think they had been making jokes about Christie and me because we were about the same age.

So. I left, a happy camper, and felt like I had brought a few smiles. I got a few good shots of my classroom experience and of a few of the locals. It was lotsa of fun. I planned to stay at a town called Chiriqui Grande, but it looked pretty bad there, just not a place you'd want to stay.  It was only about 4:30, so I decided to cross the mountains. In hindsight, that was a poor decision, but all the roads had been good up to that point.  The crossing route is highway 4 on the map, and there is absolutely nothing between the estuary(on the Carribean) and the Pacific Highway. The road was under repair in some places but not unmanageable. The problem was that it got foggy. So foggy, I couldn't see the road very well. Oh dear, what to do?

I started to just pull off the road and stay the night, but it was too early, only 6:30.  Then I got my break. Two mini-busses, like comfotable ones for tourists passed me up. They were travelling a little two fast for the conditions, but the lead bus had a flashing green strobe light on the top.  "These guys must know the road. ", though I wished they would slow down a little." I'm with them."   I followed them all the way to where  the terrain flattened and the fog was no longer a problem. ( maybe 80 kilometers) A strobe light is easy to follow, even in fog.

I arrived here in David  about 9:00 PM at a nice hotel in a not so nice part of town.  It was what I could find.  It's about another 250 kilometers to Panama city from here.

Guy