I got around to a couple of photos. Forgive me if you're looking for the picture postcard version of Boquete 'cause this ain't it, and that's why you have Google. The big camera has stayed in its bag and we'll get around to some of those eventually. These are more on a personal level.
First up the famous suicide shower:
You can see what an expert electrical job I did. That sucker is coming out when I leave so I don't have the guilty conscience of thinking I may have electrocuted a thrifty Central American family. Were I to be here more than another week or so I'd redo it, for now I'm just careful not to splash around much.
I don't know why but I just get a kick out of the fact that I'm living in a shack with a tin roof.
We're in the main room here looking toward the front of the house. Notice the sunlight trying to creep in through the little spaces between the top of the wall and the corrugated. Below that you'll see that modern convenience 'electricity' intruding into the rustic charm. For the roof panels we run the gamut from zinc coating (bottom of photo) which is ready to give up the ghost, to full on rust, to a paint job in blue which is showing signs of surrender to inevitable oxidation. Surprisingly, I've noticed not one leak throughout the entire structure.
On to Boquete. Here we see the clouds rolling in toward the end of the day over downtown.
We're looking north up the hill, the top of which is obscured at the moment. The trees at the left line the east side of the town square, the town's main road running along the west.
After a couple of days you'll notice the wind more than anything else. Toward sundown it picks up from the north, and hurls tiny little raindrops at your face. Right now we're at the cusp of the dry/wet seasons so more often than not I find myself walking uphill into the wind and rain to post.
To me one of the oddest things about Boquete is that the businesses for the most part haven't figured out that they need a windbreak of some sort for al fresco customers. I tend to smoke like a chimney whilst operating my computational contraption, so outside I am.
The fine and worthwhile La Montaña y el Valle The Coffee Estate Inn (where I stayed on my initial evening some weeks back) includes windbreaks alongside their outstanding cottages. These are a must in my book.
Bringing us to the new joint.
This quirky little place will house the most high falutin' bar this side of Hato de Volcan. It's back to Bartending School for me as I relearn the fine points of Whiskey Sours, Martinis and Manhattans, and Margaritas without that icky green mix.
The inside bottom floor has space for an intimate four or five tables plus the bar (I may do a booth or two), out back is a covered patio (which, of course, needs new covering) which can take six or so more. To the right side of the building (north) is lots of space to expand after the rainy season has passed. This is where the windbreaks will need to be. I'll be residing on the second story.
This is the turn off from the main road that heads into downtown Boquete.
My sign will be just below the one you see on the right hand side of the photo. I'll be needing to run an electric line of about 50 meters or so for illumination after dark, and it's going to be tricky as I'll have to run it under the road in front of my place and over a small bridge. This will take some balls and a bit of nighttime digging over the course of a few days to pull off. No one ever accused me of being right in the head.
This is the sign for the bar of my neighbor and landlady. She has a thing for tigers.
As a matter of fact there are about half a dozen more painted tigers adorning her place inside and out, and a couple of skins on the walls:
Her name for the place is Recuerdos, which means memories or remembrances in a nostalgic sense. I suggested a change to Los Tigres or something along those lines. She was not seeing it.
The place is pretty cool in a Hollywood movie-Mexican cantina kind of way. You'll find all sorts of interesting characters haunting the joint and you can find a fight if you want one; though the bartenders will discourage you. At night it's dark inside and a bottle of beer is 50 cents. I don't recommend asking for mixed drinks. The 'café' noted on the sign means there is a Nescafé automatic coffee machine, not food. And for the record: she is armed.
This guy chewed our ear off for about fifteen minutes one day so I figured I'd make him semi-famous.
I don't remember his name (it was difficult for gringo ears) but he was all excited about the time he won big at the casino in David. I'm pretty sure the money is gone.