Lawyers, Guns and Money

Chester the investor came into town last night. He owns the company for which Walter works. Having made a considerable amount of money in Destin Florida, speculating in Real Estate and running a large restaurant he invested heavily in Bocas del Toro. He bought 130 acres of prime real estate on Isla de Bostimentos, disparagingly referred to as "Jurassic Park" by the residents of Bocas Town. The island has no infrastructure; there are no roads, no electricity, and no fresh water. It does however have pristine jungle teeming with wildlife and spectacular white sandy beaches on crystal clear water.

A young lawyer from Panama City and three of his friends came into town last night and rented a home that Chester has outside of Bocas Town over the water. They rounded up a full complement of women from the Peace Corp at a local bar and invited them to go with us on a boat tour the next day. We drove the shore of Isla de Cristobol.

Start with dickhead and the boat story.

The lots I saw on Cristobol were small and water front, ending in mud and mangrove. The land was flat and every lot I saw but one had at least an inch of water over 80% or more of the lot. You could bring in fill dirt, but your neighbors land was still a swamp. John (last name withheld), a retired pilot out of Destin, FL was an investor in this land. There were two houses, John's a very nice $400K structure built from ??? wood, with granite counter tops in the kitchen and built in dressers in each of the bedrooms. Cristobel is supposed swarming with ??? fleas.

We drove to Salt Creek Where Chester has a ???? in the water in front of a two acre lot. At the back of the lot is a cabina inhabited by the caretaker and his wife, the chef. Chester rents the place out for $150 a night. For this you get delivered to the house via boat from Bocas Town. The food has been purchased in advanced and delivered in a cooler and ??? comes out and cooks for you. What is there to do? Not a lot, other than enjoy the scenery from the back deck. If you bring a cell phone that works out there you could catch a water taxi to one of the surrounding islands. The beach is clean sand. The water is warm and clear, a warm breeze keeps everything near perfect.

We headed back to town showered and headed back to the house the lawyers were renting. Chester cooked a dinner of curried rice, lobster and jack fish and just hung out until midnight.