Disembarking from the plane at Tocuman in Panama City I scurried off the plane, cleared Passport Control in three minutes, grabbed my backpack in a couple of minutes and cleared customs in a minute. I headed down to the bus stop, but couldn't find it in the dark. To hell with it. A taxi came by and I talked him down to $20 and asked him to take me to La Jungla. He didn't know where it was, so I gave him the intersection. He still couldn't find it with the address so I told him where to turn.
Exhausted, I took the elevator rather than labor up five flights of stairs fully laden. I got my usual room, the attendant tried to overcharge me. I told him to call the owner in Boquette. I got the room for $30. After a very necessary shower I changed into clean clothes and headed out to the deck. A couple of strange guys were there, whose name I don't recall, it doesn't matter they were insignificant in the mayhem to follow.
A group of four people from Montana were well into their second bottle of seco, a cane sugar liquor that is a short cut to extreme inebriation. Tanner, a 29 year old, was in an advanced state of insobriety and spent hours telling us that he was an athlete and a famous skateboarder. He travels with a backpack designed to hold a skateboard. He showed me that he was famous, why just yesterday his friend had posted a picture of him on SkateMontana.com. All righty, then. Tanner and his girlfriend Misty live in San Diego. Tanner met Misty when she cared for him after he sustained a severe head injury while performing a stunt on a skateboard while being pulled by a car. Misty is devoted to this visitor from a parallel universe. Neither of them engage in any productive activity and support themselves on a small inheritance that Misty recently received. While Tanner boasted of his $2,000 Nike's and lamented that as a result of the $480,000 treatment for the fist sized blood clot he incurred in his brain all of his assets were seized and he has to surrender 25% of his earnings to pay off the medical bills. 25% of nothing is nothing.
Nico was a classmate of Tanner and lives in Montana, supporting himself as a professional photographer and videographer. Nico is a good looking, buff guy who enjoys a wide range of activities including surfing. Despite being a surfer he is very articulate and not self absorbed.
The staff at La Jungla had completely turned over. This is the first time that Raymond, cousin of the owner was no longer there. Usually everybody else is new when I arrive. The preceding Thursday the place had been held up at gun point, the robbers must have passed the front door which requires a buzz in, unless somebody tailgates, up and through the open front door. One of the girls, no longer there, had claimed that she had just withdrawn $8,000 from an ATM. Uh, huh.
Tanner wanted cigarettes so I showed him the way to the store, past the guard who slept very fitfully on a chair and could not be awakened.
We returned and three from Montana were seriously inebriated, a fourth person joined them in a Montana discussion in which everybody talks non stop and nobody listens.
I agreed to show them to and around Bocas, going to bed at five we agreed to meet at nine. I had been awake 55 hours at this point.
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