Coiba

Good morning, afternoon, evening, night, whatever it might be, folks !!

Here is the excitedly-expected article about my life in Panamá. I was about to use "trip to Panamá", but, as a matter of fact, this is not a "trip". But ! I'm traveling when I can, and when I do, I also write articles about it. I don't have that much of oportunities of neither of both, but luckily enough, the weather outside is so amazingly stormy that I took the time to tell my beloved followers a bit about my last destination : Coiba.

Coiba is here :



On the southern side of Central America, the Panamá-belonging island is bathed by the Pacific ocean and hence is beautiful, warm, humid, sunny, rainy, white-sanded-beached and turquoise-watered-looking.

The trip was planned to celebrate the 3 birthdays of the weekend : 26th, 27th and 28th of september. We were 31 people. Here is how the trip was :
- 2am, bus to Santa Catalina, the "port" where you can take a lancha to the island
- 8am, we arrived there, and started loading food, sound system and stuff on the boats
- 9am, we embarked on the lancha
- 11am, we stepped on Coiba's rivers and started to enjoy the place.

Don't worry, I'm not going to describe everything par le menu because I assume you don't give a duck about it, so... here are the pictures !! Enjoy !


First arrived, first served ! Hamacs is an awesome combo with white sand beaches... And coconut trees. And exhausting 8hr-trip.

 

Typical...

 


Take care of coconuts. A friend of mine who lived a few months in Thaiti told me that there were more deaths because of coconuts than sharks. If you plan to touristize a coconutted place, don't ever sleep under a tree. The 5+ meters fall of a coconut over your sleepy head can be deadly. I saw a few of them falling and ... I think it must hurt a fricking lot.

 
Vultures. Kind of.

 

 
Badass bird, I can tell you that. Chasing each others, wings wide opened, screaming.


Red bird.

 
Red bird reloaded.



Red bird revolutions.

 

 Comparing those birds, vultures and red ones, I realize how strange it must be, to see someone from the same kind of yours, but a few dozen times bigger. I mean, they're not the same species, but well, they both fly, have feathers and a beak. One is 1m wide and the other 20cm. That's all.

 

 
How many people ate on this animal ?

 
Aaaah, the famous lancha... Imagine 1h30 trip on this !!!

 
Some beautiful nature morte, dead coral on the beach... The same former thaitian friend taught me that since they're on the beach, they're dead. Makes sense...

 
Ah. The Captain Crabs. A looooooot of them. Like, "a lot".







They seem to enjoy crackers. With the light I had there, it really looked like a ball of fire, or something about to explode. Look :

 









The day after the birthday party (no pictures, what happens in Coiba stays in Coiba. And of Facebook, I guess we have to deal with it... :-]

So we took another lancha and headed to another island I forgot the name of. We had some snorkeling fun there, seeing underwater rugs of living corals, waterturtles (I touched one of theeeem !! and then gave her a medusa-looking plastic bag to eat).

Here are a few pictures of the arrival on this second island :

 

 

 

 

The weather was not THAT amazing. To be honest it rained like hell. So to protect ourselves from the cold, we dived in the see, which was far warmer than the rain. Strange and unenjoyable experience, the heavy rain without shelter... You juste can't do nothing but wait for it to stop. In bathing suit. Duh.

 

Among all the animals we saw, we had some lizards. Not that afraid of the human proximity, they wandered here and there, looking for food, fruits, ankles. Cutie-cutiiiie !! 

 

 

 

 

F*ck it, it's another damn white-skinned-pictures-food-less-taking tourist, I'm gone.
 

And spiders. Just for you to know, the second after I took the picture, this bitch jumped on my camera. Chasing spiders, don't mess with'em.

 
I don't know what happened to this herb. Must have been ageing... 
 

This is all for today people !!!
I have another trip to tell you about, but it will wait for the next weekend. Now I have to celebrate Thanksgiving with my neighbour. Yay !!

Casco Viejo : fish market & nightlife

First off : no picture in this article :) Sorry folks, I keep on negating as much as possible my tourist status. So I'm still reluctant to take my camera out and take pictures of these lads' life, lads I don't know anything about, soit dit en passant. When I do this, I feel like I'm giving them the feeling they are considered as pets in a zoo. "Oh mummy ! Mummy ! Look ! Local people living with less than 1$ a day !!". I'm not saying it's true. This is just how I feel when I take picture of people living in humility.

For those who are interested in my words, here it is.

A picture for your thoughts : 2 lovers sitting frente al mar

This saturday morning, I've been invited by a friend of mine to go to the Mercado de Mariscos, the fish market. Panameños on the contrary of Argentinians, eat a lot of fish. I mean, a lot. They have a long tradition of eating fruits of the sea : shrimps, octopus, sea-bass, crab, anything pulled out of the sea. And it's not that expensive, man... A 2-lbs grilled fish costs 15USD. 12€ more or less. I mean, the whole fricking fish :-o Excellent. Not that subtle taste, but very good. They also eat a lot of "ceviche" (french people : pronounce it like "c'est vite chié", which can be the case if you do not let your organism get used to the local micro-fauna before trying the said ceviche). It's a mix of fishes, shrimps, octopusses, etc., cooked and marinated it vinegar and onions, stored in big jars stuck in ice. A bit like Rollmops. It doesn't cost a lot and is very good. You eat this with a few crisps and a plastic spoon, in a polystyren glass, sitting under a bamboo roof supported by roughly moulded wood pillars, listening to a crackling radio singing salsa, your elbows on a sticky table or leaning against a peeling blue painted wall, watching in the distance the relentless dance of boats and diving pélicans.

Incredible moment, you are just in. In a movie, in a book, in a culture, among the people. Your face and cloths are screaming "tourist, tourist, tourist !!" but you don't hear it. You're the only one not hearing it, though. But well, people accept you as you are, they don't look at you with envy, disdain, mockery of hatred. You don't belong to this place, which belongs to them, but you can be here. Well, that's how I feel it, and maybe the reason why I could not decently take my 1 month salary costing camera to take a picture of their place, their home, their face. I didn't want to act as the tourist i nevertheless know I am.

Enough of that :)
Apart from this, of course, you have the air conditioned market itself, where fishermen sell their first quality and fresh loot. It reminds of the fishmarkets around the world, but less touristized. Panamá is not that popular (yet) in occidentals' mind, hence is the place "preserved". Which means also kept away from pickpockets. I went to a sicilian fishmarket once, and you really feel like what I described above : guilty for having that much money, invasive, zooing locals, dominant though not wanting it, and then incredibly vulnerable. Hamburg fischmarkt was also different : everybody's happy to see anybody. At 6am, drunk partygoers meet early birdies coming here to share the same thing : lager beer and Fischbrot. So you feel like anybody here, in a different country, but at ease. ANYWAY ! I didn't take pictures because it would have altered the moment, a least the way I felt it, which is a good enough reason not to do it :) Next time, maybe...

During the night, we went to the same district, but a bit further. Called Casco Viejo (the old helm), this is -I believe- the oldest part of Panamá City. It looks like Barcelona, but 30 years ago. A lot of buildings, ruined, and/or being restaurated and/or painted and/or inhabited and/or not. The walls there are all enlighted by orange-yellowish street lamps, giving them an incredible ocre colour. I tried to take a picture, but it didn't work. So, no pictures here neither. Different situation, same output :p Later, later... So yeah, many different buildings, in very different state of decay or renovation, sometimes both at the same time. Brand new balconies, made of raw wood and freshly varnished, while the building next door or across the street is litterally tumbling. I know, the right typo is "literally", but it was a poetic-licenced pun on "litter". Because I'm French. The sky is very dark in this city. Given the level of humidity here, the sky is always veiled with a thinck (☺) layer of vapor, making the stars literally invisible. The term of pollution lumineuse doesn't make any sense yet, here. So, no stars, and in comparison with the light bathing the streets, the sky seems dark. Except from, in the distance, an apparently neverlasting storm above the Pacific, enlightning the sky and the roofs in a total silence. When you wait enough time to see one, you sometimes see a 2" lightning enlighting the sky, veeeery far in the distance, with no other noise than the waves' one. Of this neither could I take a picture (eh... was that grammatically right ?).

On the way back home, we went through darker streets, poorer too, I guess, where the doors, often missing, are either replaced by plastic-pearled curtains (as the ones in the Oracle in Matrix... sorry), or utterly absent. You sometimes just can't avoid a glance at the inside : an undescriptible mix of ... things I could not recognize in a glance, but as far as I remember (and my imagination completed), it was a table crumbling under an old sewing machine, babioles, trinkets, candelabrum, around it, chairs, a carpet, boxes, papers. From the ceiling dangled a dull bulb giving an eery glow of light to this galimatias. Amidst of it, an old couple dressed in the plainest cloth you ever saw, wearing old and thick glasses, bent towards a... flat screen TV. Ouch. It felt so bad... I mean, they don't have the same standard of comfort as I do, so I understand that their house is nice and comfortable enough, so this flat screen is a legitimate investment because they don't need anything else. So, who am I to think that instead of spending 1'000$ in a TV screen, they should buy a door or a stronger bulb ? Nobody. The only objective thought I have it this one : they probably had to get a loan to get this. This is, according to a taxi driver friend I had a long talk with, very common. The consumption society is working so well here that people live in shit (his words) in order to/whereas they buy Porsches, 4x4, and sport cars. Well, this is my point : I felt bad for the abusive power the mercantile society has on this part of the city, its people, its houses.

This is it for today. In the next article, I might be posting pictures of my appartment. In 1h20 I get the keys, soooo... expect pictures on monday or tuesday !

Thanks for reading !

Panamá City : Episode One

Good something everyone !!
 
Here is a bit more information about the trip. Let's be honest, I hardly told anything about my trip yesterday, and rather described the hows of this project.
 
So, here we go.
I left my hometown at 5:30am, and landed in Panamá at 22:30. I went through Atlanta and a few turbulences. I barely slept during the flight, and i didn't know we were landing when we landed in Panamá City. It was a strange surprise, being awaken by what you believe is a turbulence, but a lot more noisy and shaking. I thought we had lost a wing or hurt another plane before I realized my neighbor was folding her newspaper smiling.
 
Picking up my luggage, I realized one of them was missing. Meh... I made a reclamación, and the guy told me : "debe estar entre Charles de Gaulle y Atlanta, vamos a verificar". Oh thanks, very much obliged. Well, they're still looking for it, and they'll bring it to me to the hotel when they find it. I've been told by a receptionist that this kind of issue was quite common for passengers coming from Europe, Russia, China, Japan etc. I don't know why. But well : nothing dramatic.
 
My taxi brought me to the Hotel, located in the "bar y discotecas" area of the city. Indeed, pretty much movement here. Too tired for anything like hanging out, I went to the bar of the Hotel to drink my Complementary Drink though. I went for a Pisco Sour and drank it on the roof terrace of the Hotel. The place looks great by night but I didn't have my camera with me. So have a look, this is how it looks during day.
 

I know...

 

Then I went to bed. Something you have to know in modern tropical countries : they put the air conditioning at full power in order to avoid dampness issues [Phys.: water is more soluble in warm air, then if you make sure the air is cold, the latter can't transport humidity and the rooms, though cold, remain dry, avoiding molding problems for instance]. 70°F seems to be a good match humidity / coldness. [Phys.: in order to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius, you apply this stupid rate : (°F-32)*5/9 = °C... Let's keep it simple : if you have a temperature in °C, multiply it by 2 and add 32 and you get Fahrenheit. Why ? Why !!? Because. Because this is imperial system, and as it is self-explained, imperial-ness sometimes comes along with imperious-ness]. Let's do it together : how many °C are 70°F ? Highlight the following answer to know if you did good => (70-32)*5/9 = 21.11°C. If you found 6.88, this is because you took 32 AFTER applying the 5/9 rate ; if you find -810°C it is because your forgot the parenthesis. Well, enough of that ! You're not here for a maths lesson !! By serendipity, I guess some of you might have been interested. What is serendipity ? Well, enough of that ! You're not here for an English lesson !!

 

Funny enough, I -still- do not suffer that much from jet lag. Maybe sleeping 3h in 2 days helps.

Maybe Modiodal helps too (legal médicine, legally obtained).

Maybe excitation from this new environment helps.

Maybe I'm surhuman.

Maybe you shouldn't laugh. ☺

 

So, yesterday I had my first stroll in town. Here are, en vrac, the main pictures I took.

 

 Yeah I know

 

 

 The Cinta Costera, a nice place to jog along the beach. Quite secure.

 

 Nice treeees !!

 

 Marksman photograph !!

 

 Same with rocks.

 

 An impressive rusty iron sculpture of a port.

 

The usual "this is me there" picture.

 

 

 

This is it for today ! ... as far as pictures are concerned ;)

 

What else ? The taxi driver who brought me to the airport was a very interesting person, who lived the last 15 years of economic transformation that followed late 90's (1989 to be honest, and for maths addicts, yes, I know, it's more than 15 years but the evolution really started in late 90's). Before, the country was rather poor, attracted no tourists and no company. But the last 15 years brought deep economic transformation, modernization and growth. Very interesting 1h talk with the guy, really.  

I also had lunch in a lovely spanish restaurant (lomo de pata negra, jamón serrano, papas salteadas, salsa con queso), where I spoke German with the owner. Yeah, German. We talked (in Spanish this time) about french economy, Panamean tax, housing prices, employment, etc.

I speak a lot with many people, and that is great. Impressive, how people here are easy-going. No matter which is the reason why, I just enjoy it, talking with waiters, receptionists, bartenders, taxis, etc. I feel a great experience starting now. I hope it will go on and on, and I'll do anything to make this happen.

 

Today, sunday 30th June 2013, is my last vacation day. Exactly 9 months, jour pour jour, after my last day in my previous company, I'm starting work again. Tomorrow. Waoh. Perfect place, perfect company, perfect job. It's more than I could have ever dreamt of. I guess I have been lucky in a way, but well, as Pasteur once said, "le hasard ne favorise que les esprits préparés". Even if this applies, originally, only to the observation field, I believe looking for a job is a scientific operation process.

 

Let's keep in touch !!

 

Thanks again for reading,

Sincerely yours,

 

☻



Panamá !

Good morning, afternoon or night, ladies and gents !!
 
Here I am, back on track, abroad again, a foreigner enjoying being elsewhere. For frenchies, a friend of mine once told me : "Mais tu sais mieux que moi ce qu’être vraiment voyageur veut dire : peut-être appartenir à un ailleurs lorsqu’on est encore quelque part."
 
So, what's up ? I finally found some work here, in Panamá, thanks to a friend of mine who had already worked a few years in Latinamérica. Younglings, listen to ol'Tyl : network is DA way to get in business. Whichever business it is. Without it, you'll struggle a lot. With it, you'll go faster, further and better. Mark my words : it's in terms of statistics, of course. Nul n'est à l'abri d'un miracle. But getting along well with people you have or might work some day saves your ace. And if it doesn't... Well. At least you'll have been nice to someone at some point ☺ So here it is : do not neglect your peers, mates, colleagues, and other human beings around you, first because you might be thanked at some point, and you'll find more hands to help you, more shoulders to rely on and more hearts to listen to you ; and second : because being benevolent is the future of this world.

This is it. Enough of moralistic stuff, you're not here for this, are you ? Oh, are you ? Well a last thing then : do not machiavelize the development of your network. Do not expect a fair "return on investment" because it's about human beings and not maths. People you're nice with will be more eager to be nice to you if they have the chance to. And once again, they will probably not do your work instead of you, but more likely unlock doors, point at a direction, lighten a path. The rest of the effort is yours. And don't forget to be much obliged. Win-win !!!

This time I'm done. I'm only my age old, and I might be not the best advice ever. But this is how I feel right now : thankful and grateful. I chose a path that this friend showed me and helped me put a foot on, and the rest of the walk was mine. Without her, I wouldn't be here. Without myself neither. This path meant a lot of sacrifice. By all means, as we say in Spain "Vivir es Elegir" (living is chosing), and the essence of a choice is sacrifice. Sacrifice because chosing a path means leaving the one you were on. More, you chose not to take the other one. It's a double mourn to make. Thus, yes it was a sacrifice. I am happy now, I am proud to be where I am, and thankful to all the people who helped me through. Nevertheless, I still feel what I lost, what I put aside for some time,  and I am aware of the things this choice took. Vivir es Elegir.

Well. Now I'm done I swear. You wanted pictures, didn't you ? Sorry to disappoint, but I haven't any. Yet. Because I arrived at midnight yesterday, having slept 3h on a plane, in 2 days and 14h trip, and one of my luggage haven't arrived yet. Sooo, taking my camera with me and start shooting an unknown place wasn't the first thing I had in mind.

OK, OK, I admit, I took a couple of pictures, here you go.

My corridor 

My bathroom 

My bedroom

Yes I know, you all wish I had shown pictures of white beach and blue sky, of smiling people and strange animals, exotic flowers and tropical trees and stuff. Not yet. The time will come ☺

Anyway ; I'm always very happy to see you here, don't hesitate to leave a comment, a correction, a question, or whatever comes through your mind !

Yours,

New-York, last bordelic pictures.

Chicks'n Guys : last pictures, last article for NYC !

Well, no special program, just a few ones, taken here and there... 

This first serie was taken near the Ground Zero, at the end of a very nice day, awrm and sunny, and where I bought my santiags. Oh yeah. Of course, the World is not ready yet for them to be shown as much as they would like. 

We had a very nice sunset behind the American Eiffel Tower, and a few touristic boats passed in front of us, full of people waving at us to be taken on my world wide famous pictures. Nice ☺

Yeah mate, get santiag'd.

We went then to Central Park. Didn't enjoy that much : on the last day, I was getting tired, the weather was a bit cold and grey, a bit of rain... bref, not that enjoyable. A few pic's, though !

Doggy Bag :)

In the cab going to Central Park. Soooooo "taken out of a movie". Loved it : the black taxi driver bent on his door, stuck in traffic jam. Awesome.

Thanks for understanding my "cereal" sounding name... Ah là là...

Should stay in the MoMA........

The sunset I was talking about at the beginning... Sweet as.

And here we go... Back to France. Very enjoyable trip. A place stayable 2 weeks to really discover the 25 blocks I surrounded. 3 months for the whole city, I guess :D Haha very interesting and culturally changing. 

I don't have many other things to say on this. Still under jet lag, after 1 week... Gettin' oooold.