im in the middle of a marathon bus journey that started in the nick of time in panama city (a city that i LOVE and want to reside in for some time and ill ramble on that below) and this crazy bus station that is like the super-mall with buses that are all painted with amazing air-paint with images ranging from religious superstars -- jesus, the virgin mary and a few others that float the bill down here, cartoon characters, peoples kids, lovers, wives (i still have not seen a female in-city bus driver but i did almost get hit by a woman trucker at the border crossing of nicrargua and costa rica and i said nothing of my displeasure and anger, not even with my eyes, cause i knew i couldnt withstand the beating she would throw-down on me...this im sure), and some of the buses have lights and these deafening soundsystems inside that shake your internal ear and all its workings so when you get off of the bus you tend to lean and stagger cause your balancing mechanisms are all out of whack and fucked and im sure that there are plenty of people that have fallen face down in the streets due to the blowback of such sound systems...some have dvds and films or, in my case, a loop of the same fucking michael bolton-looking singer and his supppppppa cheesy music videos that were funny and very scary at the same time. interesting mix.
anyway, overnight bus to david which is the only town of size in western-norther panama and i froze nearly to death and i was sure that if the cold didnt kill me someone would because my shoes are still wet from the rain forest (research island, center of the panama canal, howler monkeys, big turtles, crocodiles big and small, funny leafs and plants like 'prostitute lips', spiders with crazy points and spikes flying all around off their bodies and a huge penis -- im no scientist but that is all i could go with, truly amazing, my amazing friend andrea that is doing research in this jungle created and exponentially enhanced a slew of experiences for me on the island, getting there -- late night, starry hour boat ride down the panama canal and talking about sexuality and watching orions belt move with the earth and thinking he was taking it off and searching for venus, for this im sure...or maybe it was the continental divide obscuring our view, fuck pragmatism and all that...good wine and sessions of drinks on kitchen floors and morning gillian welch music sessions with good, strong coffee and the neighbor next door to my friend andreas place that has 8 500 dollar roosters...EACH that he uses for cock fights and his wife has left him so i hear that he plays the romantic songs really loud when he gets depressed and or drunk and allows the roosters to be his orchestral accompaniment and i never thought a $500 fried chicken dinner could ever be so justified.
exploring panama city was a treat and in my first day i was strolling with my bag, sweaty as hell from air-conditioned gallery to air-conditioned gallery and saw some great art, great exhibit of boteros work (colombia painter and sculptor with really rotund humans as his trademark...youd know his work if you saw it -- an exhibit on violence in colombia and i got to see it on his birthday, which i thought was fun), conversations about marijuana and laws with a host of cops (one captain) and debunking, in my opinion, some of the hype around the states, getting lost in old panama and finding soccer fields and wishing i spent less time as a kid putting orange slices in my mouth and sitting on the sidelines during soccer games and practice than playing cause that is the international sport, hollah, panama canal museum, drinking a bottle of wine in teh afternoon in a colonial wonderland, strolling the pier-walkways with flowered arches and exceptional views, strolling through the fish market and never being so happy to leave a place but taking it with me via the soles of my flip-flops and finding creative ways to purge the argentinian sandals from their funk, buying my hats and that i have waited five months for and now i feel like im ready cause i got two hats and got a crazy fruit drink in the pause during the decision...fucking brilliant, outdoor barber shops with 10 people lined up and getting fades and shit like the 80s hip-hop work of bobby brown, totally hot, getting a ride to the panama canal right as teh last big, fucking big, yall, boat went through the locks and watching that engineering marvel do its think and floor me and then hitching a ride on a bridge and getting fun stories of panamanians in nyc, cab ride with a guy that lived in nyc for 40 years and drives a cab down here cause hes bored and i though i wanted i didnt ask him if hes heard of the word bosque (forest) cause this land has got some exceptional ones, walking without aim through brick streets at night with blasting music and folks in the streets doing their thing -- what that is i dont know but doing it well and with passion, watching clouds come and go and drop the rain in its path and being here for the start of the rainy season and learning to love that and find the beauty in it...but still having wet-ass, smelly shoes.
going to an art exhibit for cultural rights and seeing these more or less silent films in this bar-gallery and getting giddy about getting back to san francisco. ahhhhhh
okay, the second leg of this journey shall commence in the near and i need to weezle my way into a seat so im off but i will be take some time to talk a bit about m y journey via the thumb to some random beaches and my invitations to cottages and talks with amazing folks and my inability to win a chess match...next installment for those that read -- i love you mom and ill see you tomorrow!
peace
ps - i just realized i havent written anything on panama so ill drop some notes cause i LOVED this place and i reckon you would too...
4.06.2006
bowel momvements -- good, check.
love for costa rica -- no, leaving.
i wes flowing around and darting on buses for a stretch, loved nicaragua and meeting odd folks with fun smiles, climbing crazy volcanoes, cloud forests and feeling like i was in a fairytale, drinking decent coffee, running my hand over petroglifs and watching sunsets with pastels from the coloring book, many nights in hammocks and buying my own the other day on this epic beach in costa rica, samara, a mouth to the sea that invites all, meeting a guy that was attacked by a great white and lived, surfer land, rolling cigarettes and watching time pass very slowly and calmly and finding much love in that, building fires on the beach, late night urination and head turns to find the big dipper, swims at all hours and admiring a family of horses that would just randomly appear on the beach and stand all epic and stoic and admire the surfers grabbing their rails -- and the horses coming to my hammock at night, or close but i like to think they were coming to see me and dropa word or two, or pooh which is always entertaining to find in the morning, being hit on by some random folks, random, drinking a liter of beer and chatting about psychology over a fire with two psychologists from san jose, having a coked out neighbor talk to me about the beauty of harmonics and blending of notes and then singing the absolute WORST version of bob dylan songs that made bobby d sound like he had an angels voice, fucking horrible and then, on top of that, he had a harmonica and tried to use it, no italics here but read ´tried´ in italics, i realized at that point that i had lost one earplug cause i searched to lessen the burden to my tired ears and worn-out mind, coke heads can be rough company around a campfire, this is known but is forever etched into the code of codes -- we parted early and i thanked the horses for not shitting on me and all was closed in the chapter of samara
bus rides from tamarindo which is like a fucking strip of florida with better beaches and more expensive and kids running around trying to get laid and locals sporting smiles but for those that know spanish get a better picture of the situation. i left in 20 hours and had four good swims on secluded beaches, watched a glorious sunset and got tossed into rocks from some wicked waves cause i was trying to bide my time and not disrupt a wedding that only had four folks and i thought maybe i should be a witness but they didnt call out ´can i get a witness!´ so i swam and read james agees a death in the family which is profound in some ways as my grandma just passed and funny how books and the like come into our lives at certain times
as for a funny note, i was on my fourth bus having not showered in four days or so and i smelled bad, this i admit but im not ashamed and i was reminded of a story that this woman told me about being kicked out of a spanish school in antigua cause she smelled too bad and that was rough and next thing i know as im thinking about that story this guy tells me that i smell awful and waves his hand and were in this crowded bus so i start taunting and teasing him a bit in spanish and we get in a ripe ol argument that makes me smile and nice folks around me smile and this fella is about to blow, literally cant hold his shit and i have a shit eatin grin on and he is just livid and so of course i sit across from him and watch his blood pulsate through this massive vein in his neck. great tuesday morning, loved it
lots of other random shit and thoughts and whatnot but right now im in an internet cafe in san jose in this area that is so trying to be european but failing a little bit and there is a nail salon or something and the smell is making me nauscious so im gonna bounce.
hope yall are great
love for costa rica -- no, leaving.
i wes flowing around and darting on buses for a stretch, loved nicaragua and meeting odd folks with fun smiles, climbing crazy volcanoes, cloud forests and feeling like i was in a fairytale, drinking decent coffee, running my hand over petroglifs and watching sunsets with pastels from the coloring book, many nights in hammocks and buying my own the other day on this epic beach in costa rica, samara, a mouth to the sea that invites all, meeting a guy that was attacked by a great white and lived, surfer land, rolling cigarettes and watching time pass very slowly and calmly and finding much love in that, building fires on the beach, late night urination and head turns to find the big dipper, swims at all hours and admiring a family of horses that would just randomly appear on the beach and stand all epic and stoic and admire the surfers grabbing their rails -- and the horses coming to my hammock at night, or close but i like to think they were coming to see me and dropa word or two, or pooh which is always entertaining to find in the morning, being hit on by some random folks, random, drinking a liter of beer and chatting about psychology over a fire with two psychologists from san jose, having a coked out neighbor talk to me about the beauty of harmonics and blending of notes and then singing the absolute WORST version of bob dylan songs that made bobby d sound like he had an angels voice, fucking horrible and then, on top of that, he had a harmonica and tried to use it, no italics here but read ´tried´ in italics, i realized at that point that i had lost one earplug cause i searched to lessen the burden to my tired ears and worn-out mind, coke heads can be rough company around a campfire, this is known but is forever etched into the code of codes -- we parted early and i thanked the horses for not shitting on me and all was closed in the chapter of samara
bus rides from tamarindo which is like a fucking strip of florida with better beaches and more expensive and kids running around trying to get laid and locals sporting smiles but for those that know spanish get a better picture of the situation. i left in 20 hours and had four good swims on secluded beaches, watched a glorious sunset and got tossed into rocks from some wicked waves cause i was trying to bide my time and not disrupt a wedding that only had four folks and i thought maybe i should be a witness but they didnt call out ´can i get a witness!´ so i swam and read james agees a death in the family which is profound in some ways as my grandma just passed and funny how books and the like come into our lives at certain times
as for a funny note, i was on my fourth bus having not showered in four days or so and i smelled bad, this i admit but im not ashamed and i was reminded of a story that this woman told me about being kicked out of a spanish school in antigua cause she smelled too bad and that was rough and next thing i know as im thinking about that story this guy tells me that i smell awful and waves his hand and were in this crowded bus so i start taunting and teasing him a bit in spanish and we get in a ripe ol argument that makes me smile and nice folks around me smile and this fella is about to blow, literally cant hold his shit and i have a shit eatin grin on and he is just livid and so of course i sit across from him and watch his blood pulsate through this massive vein in his neck. great tuesday morning, loved it
lots of other random shit and thoughts and whatnot but right now im in an internet cafe in san jose in this area that is so trying to be european but failing a little bit and there is a nail salon or something and the smell is making me nauscious so im gonna bounce.
hope yall are great
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