Ojo de Agua, Panama

One of my favorite places to visit in all of Panama is the Caribbean island paradise of Bocas del Toro. In Bocas life revolves around the sea. It is common for a local to own two or three boats and no cars.

I have not traveled there in more than five years, which is a shame since it is only seven hours away by car from Ojo de Agua. I had the pleasure of returning there a couple of months back with Pucha while she shot photos for her 2012 bikini calendar. It was a first class all expense paid vacation for me, thanks to my girls calendar sponsor’s.

Normally I do the behind the scenes video for her to use at her calendar premiere party, but this year she had Bolivar Andres handle the filming. Bolivar is a multi talented young ecuadorian native practically born and raised on a sailboat who has lived in Bocas for the last six years. He is an amazing surfer, experienced boat captain and a very creative video producer. I cant wait to see the final edit of the behind the scenes video he is making, I know it is going to make my previous videos look sloppy.

This time around I was planning to kick back and enjoy the show. But, the photographer Federico Galbraith, the best in his field in Panama, was short an assistant so I volunteered to help. Professional photographers travel with a lot of gear – generator, lights, cameras, sand bags, cooler, tripods, batteries, umbrellas and on and on. Add in the make-up and stylist personnel and all their accessories being lifted from dinghies to sail boats and on and off docks and beaches, it becomes a good bit of work. So much for sitting back and watching the show. I ended up working my butt off. I was down right soar after a couple of days of pitching in.

Pucha contacted Bolivar looking for local help in contacts for lodging and locations for photo shoots. She definitely contacted the right guy. He is captain of one of the most beautiful sailboats in Bocas del Toro, a classic nearly 100 foot wooden yacht named the Patron. The Patron is owned by a young hospitable Austrian named Lucas who is converting the boat into a Panama surf touring machine. The Patron will be touring the Bocas area during their wave season, than crossing through the Panama Canal and into the Pacific Ocean for the south swell season during the remainder of the year. Anyone interested in catching some waves while passing time on a beautiful boat with a great captain and crew should contact them at http://www.panamas-treasures.com/. Lucas volunteered his boat and crew and we could have not been more fortunate, the Patron and her crew really made the trip something special.

While not sailing on the Patron to and from different shoot locations the entire photo entourage stayed at the beautiful Hotel Limbo By The Sea located waterfront in Bocas town. Another Bolivar contact. The Limbo has nice comfortable rooms, friendly owners and staff and a great restaurant. It’s definitely worth going back.

The highlight of the trip was on the last day. The final shoot was finished in the afternoon so Bolivar took Pucha and I to one of the surf breaks in Bocas named Paunch. The waves were not spectacular but they were small, clean and fun. One of the Patron’s engineers, a friendly South African named Jerome Mosetic, came along to take some surfing water shots. Jerome is a globe trotting talented surf photographer. He snapped some great water shots that Pucha will be able to use for her calendar and maybe for more marketing materials. He also got a couple of shots of me that I will enjoy having in my collection.

All in all it was an amazing trip. Pucha got photos for her 2012 calendar, we had the opportunity to hang out on a lovely sailboat cruising the crystal clear Caribbean waters enjoying the beautiful scenery and we got to score some waves.

Now I just have to figure out away to convince Lucas and Bolivar to take me on one of their surf tours so I can get some offshore island barrels. Anyone considering a visit to Panama has to pass through Bocas del Toro and if you are a surfer make sure it is during their wave season December through February, around Christmas and New Years is the best. Hope to see you in the water there next year.

Panama is known for it’s abundant food production. Over half of the three million plus population live in or near Panama City. The rest of the small country is very sparsely populated other than the cities of Colon at the caribbean entrance of the canal and David in Chiriqui province near the Costa Rican border. The low density of the nations geography allows for plenty of land to be used for agriculture. Almost everywhere you look their are food sources. Cows are nearly everywhere. Corn and rice are predominate crops nearly all over the country. Chiriqui is known as the bread basket of Panama. In Chiriqui people grow everything from international award winning coffee to incredibly delicious fruits and vegetables like strawberries, pineapples and broccoli. If I were not a surfer and addicted to the ocean I would want to live in the chilly, abundantly agriculturally rich and stunningly beautiful Chiriqui highlands.
Here in Los Santos Province where Ojo de Agua is located it is rare to see a yard with out food growing in it or chickens running around. Panamanians eat a lot of poultry. They make a chicken soup called Sancocho. It is cooked up almost every sunday and Panamanians love to serve it at almost every special occasion.
I am doing my best to follow the locals lead by planting crops anywhere I have space. I have already planted corn, yuca, platanos, bananas, pigeon pea or guandu, pineapple, peppers, cucumbers and melons to go along with all the fruit trees planted back in 2007 such as papaya, oranges, limes, mango’s, healing noni fruit, star fruit, guava, tropical cherries, and of course coconut palms.
My plan is to always have many different crops growing for my consumption and for future neighbors to propagate.
One thing is for sure here in Panama, one will never go hungry, food is always growing or grazing somewhere nearby.
Here are a few photos of some of the food producing at the moment, plus a photo of the local church in Canas with it’s new paint job.
Enjoy,

Dexter and I were fortunate enough to be visited by a young architect interning for the Kalu Yala development project located near Panama city. Bradley Luna Wilson came out to the interior and spent two days with us. We toured him around my project in Ojo de Agua, the Super Camp near Pedasi and finished the first day visiting Seth, one of our best friends here near Pedasi that is building his own unique post and beam home. The second day Bradley worked with us on site and listened to our perspectives on trying to build custom wooden post and beam homes here on the Azuero Peninsula. Read our new friends perspective about the area and our work at his blog post at the Kalu Yala website.

Bradley Wilson’s Post on Kalu Yala Website

I must thank my friend Jimmy Stice at Kalu Yala for allowing Brad to visit us, we enjoyed his company and his help working with us, he is a great person and a pleasure to have around. I hope his experience with us here can help the Kalu Yala development become a success.

A few months back while spending a sunday afternoon at our local beach, Playa Venao, Pucha and I were interviewed by an american couple, Brian and Leela Gill, working on a trailer for a television series about expat’s relocating to foreign lands such as Panama.

If it were not for Pucha they probably would have not been interested in me, I do not have much star power, unlike my girl.

You can watch the video trailer for the upcoming television series with a short section of our interview below.

They recently returned for a more in-depth interview for the Panama show. They interviewed Pucha at her house and store in Pedasi, me at the project in Ojo de Agua and all of us together at the beach. This time I think they got some better shots of us surfing. It will be interesting to see what the final show looks like.

Expats Paradise – Panama – v2 from Brian Gill on Vimeo.

Unfortunately, looks like this is the final Update for the Super Camp.

Although the project is not completed it is close. Dexter had to part ways with the architect in charge of the project. Another crew must takeover from where we left off. I do not want to get into details, pointing fingers and naming names, for the reason why everyone is parting ways. Although I would like to, it would make me feel better, but it would be very unprofessional. I will just say agreements were made, work was completed and money is owed. Until further payment, we had to go!

Anyways, the finish work for the project will be finished by some one else. The hard part is all completed so they should not have much trouble, I wish them the best.

Things work out for reasons, now I can finish my house in Ojo de Agua.

Adios Super Camp! It’s been real interesting.

Here in Ojo de Agua my nearest neighbor is the Salvador Acosta Sanchez family. Sr. Salvador is a seventy something year old Panamanian gentleman. Him, his wife Elvira and their youngest son Jose Maria live half way up the drive to my property. It was one of Salvador’s other sons Enrique that sold me the property. Jose Maria is my full time employee and one of the most responsible hardest working people I have ever known. I rarely have to tell him what to do around the farm, he just does it. He takes care of the property as if it was still part of his family’s.
Salvador and his family treat me as though I am one of their own. It is a rare day, while working in Ojo de Agua that they do not invite me for lunch or afternoon coffee. They love to see if I will eat their local foods, some a little exotic for the typical american. I think I have surprised them with my stomach. Those of you that know me know that I like to eat. Iguanas, armadillo, turtle, different cow organs, cow hoof soup, various forest dwelling animals I do not know the english name for – yes I have tried everything they have put in front of me and like a good southern boy, accepted seconds of nearly all of it.
The other day Salva and family were cooking up pork from a pig they had raised and slaughtered, yes they personally slaughter all their animals, not far from the kitchen either. They use nearly every part of the animal, very little goes to waste. They even boil down the fat and then fry the meat in it. Oh it’s greasy, but it’s good. Here are some photos from their cook out and some other pictures of my wonderful second family here in Ojo de Agua.
The Acosta’s are an amazing family, they watch over my land, take note of every car that comes up the drive and steer me away from any potential local problems that may arise through my foreigner ignorance. Thank youfor all the love you have shown me, I greatly appreciate it.

Here are some photos of me from a few weeks back taken by a friend named Fidel. Fidel takes amazing professional water shots here in Panama. Check out his site.
Fidel Surf Photography
The one photo with the wave peeling in the distance with the palm tree is one I took from an afternoon session at a reef break in the Pedasi area. The quality is nothing compared to Fidel’s but I had to throw it in.

Progress! I no longer need to use the generator to fill the tanks when the spring can not keep up. Yippee! Although the spring can keep the nearly 4000 gallons of reserve tanks filled all year. Here towards the end of the dry season, with all the plant and tree irrigation and concrete work going on, the spring just can’t do it alone. This is the first time this dry season that I have had to fire up the well to fill the tanks. How nice it is to switch a switch and nothing more. First time the power has had to be used. Electricity is good.

I do not know if it is the attraction of the maturing trees from our intensive reforestation program implemented a few years ago or just that I am spending more time on the property, but the animal sightings are becoming a daily event. The other night while taking a full moon walk I came face to face with a ant eater. I had my flashlight focused on the ground in front of me, when all of the sudden I ran head on into a four legged creature coming up the road. We both stopped, he stood up on his back legs, we looked at each other for a few minutes and then he turned away and slowly walked over to the ditch and disappeared into the night.
A few mornings back their were Toucans and Howler monkeys near the home construction. Luckily I had my video camera and was able to record for a few minutes before they took off back into the forest. See the link below.
Bird-watching has now become a new selling point. Almost every morning I see fowl that I have not noticed before on the property. I imagine it will only become more wildlife active as the trees fill in. Can’t wait!

Toucans and Monkeys Video

Nothing is as tropical as a coconut palm tree.

Though it is not natural for coconuts to grow in the hills of Ojo de Agua, we have been vigorously planting them on the property over the last few years. It will take a few more years for them to start producing fruit but, I look forward to the day when I have plenty of chilled refreshing coconut water in the fridge. Can you say Piña Colada? Yummy.

One of the investors here asked me to plant two large palm trees at the entrance to their property. Lucky for them I have plenty of palms that I originally planted to close together, perfect for transplanting. I pruned and dug out two three year old palms growing near the well house. It is not easy digging out a tree that has spent years “putting down roots.” It took some time, but they eventually succumbed to my pick, shovel and elbow grease. Once removed, I walked down to one of only two mature palms I have on the property and grabbed two young sprouting coconuts to plant in the place where their elders once grew. Thank heavens they were much easier to remove from their habitat. We transplanted the large palms in their new location with some of the dirt from their old home. The dirt was rich in pieces of roots, leaves and other quality organic material. They’re going to need all the nutrients they can get since their new spot is basically compacted road surface. We staked them to make sure they stay in one place and put a hose on trickle to rotate between the two, this will keep them watered throughout the dry season. I usually do not plant much this time of year due to the lack of rainfall, but since I have spring and well water at my disposal they have a good chance of surviving. Below are some photos of the transplanting process.