delicious with green.

In Soma right now, about an hour out of Santa Catalina. Here to do some webbing and seek out Maria´s. Nutella just isn´t the same without her.


Surf trip hasn´t been so much surf as we anticipated. Santa Catalina has (I think) five breaks in the area, we have found two. Point break is super rocky and sucks to walk out to. Morgan and I paddled out during a lower tide, when it was coming in, and it was sketch. Nobody else was out so we spent most of the time looking out for rocks under the water. Paddle in was a little difficult too, since the tide was coming in we couldn´t tell exactly where we had put in, but we made it.

Then we found out about the beach break, which was of course an easier in but also more of the type of wave we wanted to see. Long, even breaks. A little closed out but not bad. Could have used more push for sure. Every wave we went for was barely there and even with my nose pointing down I couldn´t get up. They weren´t too big, maybe 3´. The other obstacle was trying to use my camera. Hard to balance on a waterlogged 6´4 with a wave coming at you, while trying to position yourself down the line in just the right place where your friend may or may not be dropping.


Santa Catalina sounded like this total surf town in our books and from what we´ve heard. It´s definitely got the surf but not the surf-town feel that I was expecting. My experience has been mainly Sayulita, where most of the town surfs and the break is right there and there are surf shops everywhere. Not so much here. You don´t have to drive to the point or beach break but it sure makes life easier. Don´t get me wrong, there are locals that surf and the water does draw a crowd. It´s just different, that´s all.

Saturday we boated off to the mainland, I forget the name. It was a small, dirty town though and I was happy when we unanimously decided to hop a bus to David, where we would find a rental car and go. Bus ride was nearly five hours of hot stickyness and ipod time. We get into David, find a Hertz and are back on the road. I think we have an x-terra and it´s $280 for three days, including a drop off fee so we can leave it at Chitré.

Staying in Santiago was a hoot. There are no "nice" hotels, the most expensive one is I think where we ended up staying and it was I think $45 total for two dbl beds. We went into two or three other hotels (which were our only option) and they all smelled like cat piss or mildew stank. The first one we thought we could deal with but it was pretty nasty. I didn´t even want to take my shoes off, I´m pretty sure the cat that pissed in it was loitering outside as well. Morgan went up to the front desk to ask for another key, told the guy we didn´t want that room because it smelled like gato and he didn´t even flinch, just handed us another key. That room smelled strongly of cheap cleansing agents. While the three of us are in the catpiss room discussing our options, some other hotel worker comes in with this can of Lysol and starts spraying it, like that will solve the issue. I have a huge aversion to Lysol so I leave the room. We go back to the front desk and explain we want our money back. Guy nods, gets out the credit machine to refund the card. Even he knew how bad it was. After that we seriously debated sleeping in the car but for the sake of a shower we found a place that smelled like musty wood but was for the most part better than the first.


We survive Saturday night and hit the road, Santa Catalina as our destination. It was a pretty drive. Lots of cows and trees, some rain here but not too heavy.

Santa Catalina is tiny. I don´t know how they survive off the two small stores, basically two or three restaurants and the guy by the side of the road that grills up a different dish each day. Yesterday it was sopa de pollo but the day before it was grilled pollo with an offering of platacones, or fried banana. They are like french fries only a million times better. Served ém up with katsup and call me done.

I think today we are going to drive back up to Santiago, over to Chitré and drop off the car. Probably bus up to Panama where we hope to find flights (today?) to San Blas, where we´ll spend the rest of vacation before getting back to Panama on Friday for our Saturday flight home.

How quickly that breaks down the trip. Just like that, poof! No more Panama, back to the sitting at the desk and the scarves and American pace of life.

I´d be a liar if I didn´t say I´m pretty bummed on the lack of surf. That´s pretty much all I wanted to focus on, fitting in the culture and foods around it. Still having an awesome time - how can I not - but it´s strange being in a hot, tropical place and not spending more time in the water. Or even near the water, for that point.

Going to hit the road now. Well, after I get my hands on Maria, that is.