A Bad Kayaking Day

This morning I had to get a notarized document sent to the states. I received the document in my email, popped down to Bocas Realty Services and they graciously printed it off for me. A hundred yards later I entered the municipal building for Bocas Town, the capital city of Bocas del Toro, Panama. The sign on the notary's door indicated he is only open on Tuesday and Thursday.

Back to the apartment, drop off my stuff, change into suitable gear, pack camera and various sundries in boat bag and head off for a day of kayaking. On the way I stopped by a smoothie stand, operated out of a small trailer attached to a small sport utility vehicle.

"¿cuánto cuesta un batido?" "Tres Balboa." Three bucks for a smoothie? "¿Grandes?" "Si." Ok, if there big, why not. ""¿Fruites?" "Mixto." Sure, mix it up. Papaya? Yes, Banana? Yes? Mango? "Todo" Give me everything. Typically smoothies are made here by adding fruits to ice, throwing in a little condensed milk and quite a bit of ice. This guy just kept pulling out pre chopped frozen fruits and throwing them in the blender. The industrial blender was filled to the top. He reached over took my bottle of water, "Hey, that's mine!" "Bien." Yeah, he probably has to buy water and picks all the fruit off his property.

He stepped outside the trailer, fired up the tiny generator and blended the smoothie. He poured me an enormous glass, I took a sip and gave a satisfied shit eating grin. He was prepared for this and had whipped out a Nikon SLR digital camera and snapped a picture of another satisfied customer. After I drained my glass, he pushed the pitcher over and indicated that the entire contents were for me. Not only was this the best smoothie I'd ever had, it was enormous.

Next stop, get a kayak. I stopped by a scuba shop that rents "Ocean Kayak" kayaks, a brand I am considering buying. But he only had the low end units, he didn't have the back support seats, I'd have to kayak through the heavy water taxi boat lanes and he was twice the price of the Cosmic Crab. So I grabbed a water taxi to the Cosmic Crab, put my boat bag and the remaining water on the dock, got out, tender a buck to the pilot and saw a whole lot of closed place. Not a person to be found anywhere, no guests, no workers, not the owners who live there. An Indian walked by but indicated he wasn't a worker. I looked across the water that I didn't wan't to kayak through; no way in hell I'm swimming the half mile through that boat traffic. No way to call a water taxi. Now what?

I left a note telling my story on the bar, grabbed my boat bag and helped myself to the kayaks which sit unguarded near the shore and headed out to Playa Buff, where the surfers do what surfers do. One way I approached a green atoll. What a magnificent picture opportunity. I reached behind me, got my boat bag, unrolled the top, which had been rolled over twice more than the recommended three and found a very wet camera bag with a compact digital camera marinating in salt water. I removed the battery immediately. My water? Oh, hell, I left it at the Cosmic Crab, no way to rinse the camera with fresh water now.

Heading back to Bocas Town I pulled up to the dock of a friend and hoisted the kayak to his back porch along with the paddles and knocked on the door. His boat was there but there was no answer. The half deaf poor SOB probably couldn't hear me, he was two rooms away. So I jumped in
the water and made my way to shore. On my way home I picked up yet another bottle of water and a five pound back of rice and made camera casserole.

First I rinsed the camera five times in fresh water, then I wrapped it in a paper towel, half filled a bowl with rice, put the camera on top, covered it with rice and covered the bowl with a sheet of plastic. Only time will tell.

I hope tomorrow turns out better.