Friday, April 20, 2012

Mamá y Papá en Bocas


Just like the last blog post, this one is long overdue, because my parents visited in February. Honestly, I couldn’t have asked for a better visit. Between beach time and community time, I introduced my parents to Bocas del Toro, the tropical paradise that plays host both to tourists and indigenous alike. Just to remind you, my Peace Corps site is about a 20-minute boat ride to Bocas del Toro, the town, on Isla Colon. This small city is the main hub for the second largest tourist destination in Panama, the Bocas del Toro Archipelago. Did I win the Peace Corps lottery, or what?
            For the first time since arriving at my site in October, I was a tourist in Bocas del Toro. Up until my parents’ arrival, my sole purpose to go to Bocas was to use internet, charge every battery that I own, and to shop for groceries. Unfortunately for my parents, I could only recommend the $2.50 cheap eats, but also fortunately for my parents a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) had recommended that they stay in Lula’s B&B. With the owners’ help, I can now be an excellent tour guide in Bocas. Hint, hint to all my family and friends…Visits are welcome!
            I just want to a give a brief overview of their visit and the wonderful experiences we had inside and outside of my community. Isla Colon has two beaches to offer within a bike or bus ride, while all other beaches require a boat ride to another island. So, our first stops included Playa Bluff (Bluff Beach) by bike and Playa Estrella (Starfish Beach) by bus. Playa Bluff is much quieter and the bike ride is fairly easy, minus the sand beach part of the trail. But who can complain when you sit down to a delicious fish sandwich after an hour bike ride? Then, Playa Estrella will forever live in infamy for my dad. Only he would be able to sit down at a table on a Panamanian beach and find a Spaniard that could talk about his beloved Benavente, a small town that has a Purina mill where my dad worked in the ’70s. On the other hand, I think my mom and I appreciated the crystal clear water through which you could numerous large starfish. So they weren’t kidding when they named the beach!
            Probably my favorite day of the trip was brining my parents to my community, Valle Escondido, for the first time. We visited several families, and a few of the women showed my parents how they were making the traditional Ngabe bags (what my community calls mochilas, but the Comarca calls chacras). Another woman showed them how they moler (spin the fibers into threads) the natural fiber that comes from kiga (I have no idea what the translation could be from Ngabe to English) in their fincas (farm land). We also climbed the hill to have one of the best views of the community, the Caribbean, and Bocas in the distance. The day culminated in a community-wide meeting to introduce my parents. As is necessary in an Ngabe meeting, we did some dinamicas (the energizing icebreaker activities I’ve talked about previously). And, each person in attendance had the option to say a few words to my parents while I translated for my mom. They’re words were heartwarming as they reassured my parents that the community was looking out for me and as they wished my parents safe travels. At the same time, they told my parents they should stay here in Valle Escondido forever as well. One of the elder leaders, Charlie, who feels more comfortable speaking in Ngabere, got up and announced that even though he felt nervous he wanted to give my parents his well wishes.
            Returning to Bocas, we also visited some of the beaches that required boat transfer. Wizard Beach on Isla Bastimentos is known for its surf, but I loved it for the fact that even during the high season we had this white sand beach practically to ourselves. Additionally, we went on a daylong tour with a boat driver from my community. First, we stopped at Dolphin Bay, where we did not see dolphins. Instead, we saw dolphins on our way to the next stop, Cayo Coral (Coral Caye). This was our snorkeling spot. While very shallow, this area had many brightly colored fish and because of the shallow waters, the coral showed its vibrant colors. After lunch we continued on to Cayo Zapatillas, which consists of two very small islands that are halfway between Bocas and Peninsula Valiente, on which many PCVs live. One side of Zapatillas faces the open sea, while the other faces the more protected waters within the archipelago. Unfortunately, the open sea had brought in trash from everywhere to Zapatillas. I don’t know if we caught it on a bad day, or what happened, because every Panamanian says it’s the most beautiful beach in the Bocas area. Plus, each visitor has to pay $5 at least to just step foot on the islands because it is protected by Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente (ANAM). I guess I will have to give it another chance.
            My parents visited my site two more times and I put them to work. On the first of the two visits my dad and I accompanied the Water Operator, my first host dad, Rogelio, to the water source. The water source consists of three springs that have a few rocks around them to pool the water and a pipe sticking into that pool of water. Each spring is simply covered by banana leaves. Let’s just say that it could be better protected, especially because when it rains heavily for a few days a lot of sediment enters the aqueduct such that the water coming out of my tap has a high turbidity with an opaque yellow color. Mainly, my dad wanted to check it out because he will be coming back with three students from the University of Nevada-Reno and my uncle at the end of May to survey the water system. As a side note, they will also be constructing a composting latrine.
For my parents’ third and final visit to my site, we started constructing a composting latrine. Using some of the materials left over from the previous Volunteers’ composting latrine work, we laid the bottom layer of the box-like base. I certainly gained a re-newed respect for the physical strength of both the men and women of my community when I realize I can only carry a half-full cubo (5 gallon bucket) of water, sand, rocks, or cement. My counterpart, on the other hand, is approximately 5 feet tall and maybe 110 pounds, but his physical strength astounds me. If nothing else, I now know that I serve as a better weight to stabilize wood while someone is sawing through it. When my counterpart stands on the wood to stabilize it, he jokes that he is using his “toilet paper-like” weight.
Overall, I just can’t express enough how good it felt to see my parents. I could go on for ages about the excellent meals we had in Bocas, but I’m sure a conversation with my mom or dad would do it better justice. Otherwise, do I need to mention anything more than fresh seafood and waterfront dining? I also do not want to underplay how great Lula’s B&B was. Interestingly enough, at the hotel we met the man who started Spill the Beans, a coffee and ice cream shop in Clemson and Greenville, SC, both of which I had visited with Brad. Those six months was the longest period I had gone without seeing them. To sum everything up, my community loved meeting my parents. Despite being the third PCV in Valle Escondido, I was the first to bring her parents to the community. My community shared in my excitement, and now they always ask me, “When are your parents coming back?”
Ok, so maybe that wasn’t such a “brief” overview as I had hoped, but I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope it was a decent marketing pitch for a visit to Bocas within the next year and a half.

1 comment:

  1. so happy to hear you had a nice visit with your parents! you and they deserve it :) - emily

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