Panama
8:48 PM, Tuesday March 6, 2007.
Umm… 8:39. Whatever. The Hotel Cervantes in David, Panama. My toes are trying to creep out of the holes in my socks sucking for air after the long slog from San Jose.
It's not hot tonight as I hang out the window smoking a cigarette waiting for the sandman. There's no internet connection, and for 21 bucks I don't deserve the internet. I'm guessing at least a week before I can collect my email and twice that until the new place is wired up. I heard Libby is going to be executed on Friday. Hah! Just kidding lefties.
So what can one say about opening a bar in the shadow of a volcano in Panama? Sounds cool anyway. I've got a bunch of crap to hang on the walls for that 'homey' look from the States, and other stuff I collected during the past two years that should be useful. It's all on its way over the mountains as we speak and will arrive at the border tomorrow morning.
La Vieja is there waiting to see what the other half of the bribe is going to be. So far we're well under two hundred bucks, and if all goes well I'll be unloading into my new digs in Boquete around noon tomorrow. Before that I'll be heading over to the mechanic to see how long I'm going to be waiting for my car.
For those of you keeping score it broke down again about three or four weeks ago around five miles from here. If my woman hadn't already driven me to drink this car would definitely be the backbreaking straw. But I'm just going to smile and wave a few hundreds under the mechanic's nose to see if I can wake him out of his stupor. I'm fading, one more smoke and it's the rack.
