Panama

December 2nd, Day ? - Being busy all day and away from civilization can actually make the days pass quite quickly. Work with las3palmeras has been crazy. There is no such thing as a normal day here. Yesterday was a typical day which involved organizing a truck to go to the jungle, pulling out 300 pieces of palma real (like palm leaves but twice the size), going back to the beach sitting on the roof of the van since it was packed with leaves, unloading, going back to shovel gravel so the workers can begin working on our basketball court/parking lot, then breaking down on the highway. Another fun evening involved rushing our closest neighbor (1km away) to the emergency room, another breakdown, then finding our thatch cutter at the cockfighting ring to organize for the next day.

All in all, I've never worked this hard in my life. In the past few weeks, we've managed to complete a cabaña, start 2 others, finish the kitchen, 4 bathrooms, a deposit with an employee house above, a bar, a restaurant, and unique type of accommodation we call parachute houses, and a hammock area. I can't believe I've been sleeping in a tent for over a month but after a hard day of work, I'm sleeping like a baby.

We expect the first wave of tourists to start arriving in the next two weeks, leaving us with a huge task of organizing our New Years party. We have a DJ flying in from Germany and we've gotten Panama Beers and Carta Vieja, the two largest alcohol companies, to sponsor us. Red Bull may also be doing a kite surfing project but it's yet to be finalized.

I'm off to the beach again tomorrow to start the "crunch time". As always, I'll do my best to keep you all updated.

October 28th, Day 83 - Well, it's funny how things can change very quickly on such trips. Last week, I made it to a beach near David called Las Lajas. I knew of a beach place called las3palmeras that was opening up so I went to check it out. Before I knew it, I was helping to open the establishment and am now in the process of becoming a partner in the company.

And so, it seems I may be here for a few months getting everything ready for the season that begins in December. I can honestly say that this place sits on one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen. It seems like it goes on forever disappearing into the horizon. For me, it's like a piece of Heaven.

If you have a moment, you can check out my dedicated las3 page here. As for me, I'll probably be busy for a while getting things organized but I'll try to keep in touch as much a possible.

October 19th, Day 74 - I can only hope that the nightmarish border crossing I had today will not be an example of my time in Panama. First, it was pissing down rain. In the standard efficient Central American way, I had to cross 2 muddy streets from where I got my entry stamp to where I purchased my tourist card. Then, I had to return to the first window 2 streets away. Beyond that, the border agent was asking me for my outbound ticket leaving Panama. Many countries require this but few actually ask for it. Anyway, I was chatting him up in the hopes that I could just pay him off. It looked like I was getting somewhere. He started looking around to see who was paying attention, but I guess he then decided it was too risky. I figured instead of risking Panamanian prison, I'd just go ahead and buy the $12.50 ticket back to Costa Rica.

I then made to the town of David which is not a bad place, just not worth staying in for an extended amount of time.