Adventures of a Tribe

Cycling through Bocas

Posted on November 12, 2015

Tanda Malaikas crew had an eventful day today. Neither Danny nor I slept very well last night. I couldn’t get comfortable with my shoulder and he was restless and uncomfortable with his aching nose, so when morning came we both felt like zombies. The creatures and I decided to go in to Bocas so the boat would be quiet for Danny to sleep a bit longer, so we loaded into the dinghy and motored in to a place to tie up.

Some of you may know that we have an additional family member that has traveled far and wide with us. Today we decided to take ‘him’ on our excursion with us, so Jude rigged up a carrier for ‘him’.

   

The creatures have just started an instagram of the giant pickle and its travels. If you want to follow it, its name is kindofa_bigdill. Jude acquired this giant dill pickle when we lived in Hawaii, and it has been everywhere with us! It’s just part of the Govatos/Willis craziness.

We rented bicycles from Estevan, and set out to see what we could see.

   

Bicycles are one of the main forms of transportation on the island, and are ridden everywhere, but our group, looked like a gang! We past the school, which was in session, and a bunch of kids were having PE out on an asphalt court, and when we past we could see they were playing soccer. Some of them ran to the fence and told us we needed to come play football with them. The creatures laughed it off, but I convinced them that we should go for it. I pulled into the school grounds and the creatures reluctantly followed, telling me I was nuts and that we were going to get into trouble. We walked through a wet grassy area along the side of the school, and were greeted with big smiles and surprised faces by the boys that invited us. They told us 5 people could play, so Skyler and I cheered everyone on from the sidelines.

                        

They pretty much royally kicked our butts, but the creatures had many laughs as they played. What a fun memory they’ll never forget. We wished our new friends farewell and continued on our adventure.

   

We pulled in at a grocery store and got some drinks, placed them in our baskets on the front of our bikes, and continued on.

    

Cemetery’s have always fascinated me, so we rode in to one so I could show the creatures how, when the water table is high, people are buried above ground. Some of the graves had been broken in to, and we could see human remains inside.

We reached a beach and noticed once again how spoiled we have been with the pristine beaches on our island. The beach in Bocas seemed dirty to us, with litter scatted in various places, and lots of debris all about. It was still beautiful though.

    

We continued on and found a section of beach that was in a bit better shape. The pickle agreed.

         

We cycled all the way around to a place that was clear across the bay from where we were anchored.

In the far distance we could see Tanda Malaika nestled in with the rest of the sailboats.

We saw beautiful countryside.

    

              

Along the way, I found a coconut that was begging to join us…so I obliged.

   

If ever you are feeling down and like you’re the poorest person on earth, or like you are deprived, look at these pictures of homes, and count your blessings.

                 

There were many that were in far worse shape than these, and it reminded me of how blessed I have been in my life.

We passed a place that Emma and Skyler decided that they were going to buy together and move into. It was a treeless tree house in the middle of a field, and looked pretty cool.

Out in the middle of no where, we passed a man named Frank, who looked at the pickle on Judes back and asked what it was all about. We told him about it and he wanted a picture with it and his son, Dominique.

Later down the road, and gentleman rode past on his motorbike and yelled to Jude, “nice vegetable!” We passed a really cool wall that had just been built.

Finally we made our way back in to Bocas, where the streets and parks were busy…

    

   

We returned the bikes to our friend and slowly made our way back through town to our home.

   

How do Panamanians fix potholes in the road and holes in the sidewalk? Stuff em with coconuts of course!

We found Danny all rested back at home, and discussed what we needed to still do before returning to Red Frog Marina. He needed a few items from the hardware store, and we decided that perhaps we’d best get a doctor to take a look at his nose just in case. It was hard to tell if it was going to heal up ok, or if it had become infected.

The doctors office was closed, so we made our way to our only other option, which was the hospital.

   

The doctor checked him, gave him a tetanus shot, had the nurse scrub the wound clean and put medicine on it, and gave Danny prescriptions for antibiotics. We made our way around to the Farmacia (pharmacy), and waited an hour since the lady there had run to the bank ‘really quickly.’

   

   

Danny got a lollipop for being such a good boy.

We went back to Tanda Malaika where our Angel creatures were waiting for us, pulled up the anchor and made our way back to the marina.

This evening Danny and I used the gift certificate we’d won at the Halloween party, and went on a dinner date here at Castaways, and Jude prepared dinner for the creatures. Emma baked a delicious carrot cake. Everyone is going to sleep well tonight, after our busy day of peddling.