La Vida Bocas

Alex & Ajax

my room

obsession.

Monday morning came, the girls set off to cross back into Costa Rica, I started my week at Spanish by the Sea & then moved my backpack over to Isla Carenero to nest myself into a private room at Casa de Alex (which is actually what I tell water taxi drivers to get dropped at the dock in front of the house). This bright beach bungalow sits right on a little stretch of palm tree swarmed sand, the waves lull me to sleep at night, the monkies & roosters chirp me awake in the morning, & when it rains I feel like my little room is floating in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. This place is heaven.

I've started to feel truly at home here in Bocas as I've transitioned into a week of leisurely routine. Bright & early every morning I hail a water taxi to the mainland, walk through a still sleepy town shooing ominous vultures gangs out of my way, swing by my favorite fruit stand right on the way to school, have a few hours of clases de español, & hang around the common area for awhile doing homework & chatting. There are four of us in my class- myself, a Dutch 4th grade teacher named Koos, a fellow 2007 Suffolk grad named Justin, & his girlfriend Mara who reminds me wonderfully of my girlfriends from home. We eased quickly into a helpful dynamic that has me excited to go to school each morning.

The rest of my routine typically includes parking myself at Gran Kahuna to make lunch & flashcards, a stop at the internet where I've been happy to spend time catching up with favorites this week- a luxury not usually afforded when on the move, an occassional intense yoga class with Mara (think headstands & stretching straps), & a run through the pharmacy & grocery stores for everything from snacks to toys before I head back home. Once here I tie up Ajax on the porch, open all the wooden windows, pump up the reggae, & revel in the good life. I lay out on the beach & at the end of the dock, snorkle through the shallow water, bob around on a pool float, read in the hammocks... regular everyday paradise stuff. If Alex is home he's in the garden- every moment of his spare daylit hours are spent with his hanging plants that surround the porch like jungle windchimes. Alex was quite obviously destined to own a hostel as I think his house might be more visited than Kahuna itself. Dinners are always a grand social event- Panamanian food, taco night, pasta when we're lazy (apparently that's a universal cop out), & I even spent one day making chili for a good 5 hours. My favorite visitors are Kleyton & Errol, two beyond endlessly happy rasta Panamanians who have lived in the tightly knit neighborhood of stilted huts that exists behind our house their whole lives. They´re cousins who, when really pushed to hysterical laughter, convert to speaking Gwari Gwari at which point I can only comprehend the breaks of foul language. Kleyton has 12 siblings & an arsenal of stories so funny he can barely ever tell them. We often end up rocking in hammocks, singing along to Reggaeton at the top of our lungs, waiting for coconuts to fall from the trees, & laughing ourselves to tears. When I call them out on their extreme happiness they just say, shaking their heads in agreement, ¨0h yea, you got to be happy.¨ Simple as that.

The community at school is also very inviting when I snap myself out of local mode. The teachers are all young, & there's a big group of students that live right on site- many of them Dutch. It's easy to get all wrapped up with them in conversations about travel & aah my beloved Amsterdam. Last night we had an extremely well stocked & creative BBQ at the school before heading into town to a hookah bar & for a little dancing.

My favorite part of the night was still the ride under the big night sky back home...