Reunited And It Feels So Good

Okay, where was I.  I think the last time I wrote, I was up to Bocas del Toro waiting to see if my English friend was going to show up.  She did.  (I have no photos for the next few days except for a few I took from my hotel room balcony and some pictures of beer, so that’s what you get.)

I got up around eight in the morning, grabbed some coffee and worked on my blogs for a little while.  I was debating taking a water taxi into town and then there was a knock on my door.  She made it.  She had a harrowing experience getting from Panama City to Bocas de Toro.  I could go into detail here, but she could write her own blog if she wanted to do so.  Anyway, she finally got there and she was soaking wet since it had started raining while she was on the water taxi to Bastimentos.  I greeted her with some jerk chicken that was left over from the night before and I think all of her ills were cured.  Well, many of them, anyway.

Some other folks stopped by our room to say hello to my English friend.  A small group of us went back to Roots for lunch and some $1 Panamanian beers.  I really wasn’t in shape for conversation, but somehow, I managed.  After lunch, we went back to the room and chillaxed until we went into town to schedule some dives (not for me) for the next day and hung around for dinner and a few drinks.  We also got some provisions that we brought back to Bastimentos.  The rest of the night was spent drinking and stuff with us and a few other friends.  Actually, the night ended up ending kind of early.

The next day, I took a water taxi into Bocas del Toro to meet up with the people diving.  We went out to lunch and then a few of us went to a local bar with a pool table for some more $1 beers.  Before too long, it was down to me and my English friend sitting there for a few hours continuing to drink.  Ah . . . just like old times.  Afterwards, we walked around Bocas looking for anybody we might know.  We didn’t find anyone, so we grabbed some wine and hopped a water taxi to Bastimentos.  As soon as we got to our hotel, another boat pulled up beside us.  Everybody else was heading into town for dinner, so we just jumped from one boat into another and went back into town.

After dinner, we went back to the pool bar that we were at earlier.  My English friend, who still had the bottle of wine that she had bought earlier, stole a corkscrew and we ended up splitting her bottle of wine outside, talking with a few others who would occasionally come out to join us.  Our Quebecois friend made friends with the Quebecois owner of the bar and he gave us a round of shots at the end of the night.  If you’ve been following the blog at all, you could probably see what’s coming next.  God knows I saw it coming.  As soon as my English friend took the shot, I could see her mouth beginning to water.  I practically carried her to the balcony so she could throw up in a bush instead of on our fellow travelers.

 

Soon thereafter, after my English friend tried to get some jerk chicken from a homeless guy who refused to accept a kiss from her, we hopped a water taxi and returned to the hotel.  We had a nightcap and that was the end of the night.  In the morning, I was taking off for Boquete and my English friend was staying behind, so I had to say goodbye all over again.  It was good to be reunited for a few days during the last leg of the trip but it was over and it was time to move on to the final week of the trip.  We’ll continue on that note in the next entry.