A short walk, get out of an all-inclusive, and wild animals (part 1)
Christmas 2012, the first holiday season following the death of my mother, in the previous June. To break the sadness of the habit, my father had decided that the three of us - him, my brother and I - would go to an all-inclusive in Panama.
So, on the first day, my brother and I rent a double kayak to “go explore the ocean”. After signing the usage sheet that we would not have left for more than thirty minutes and that we would not pass a rope located a stone's throw from the beach, because it's too dangerous, here we are on our way to an island that appears to us at least to be Japan.
On our return, against the tide, at the approach of a thunderstorm, and six hours later, we have what appears to be the health and safety committee, including the hotel manager! on the beach, and here we are literally banned for the week, my brother and I, from any other activity. Which in itself is not a huge punishment considering that we had just done the only activity in the place. The only other way to move in this place was to take the stairs instead of the elevator, but as we quickly realized, this privilege too had been taken from us.
That same evening, looking for an alternative solution, I noticed that the hotel where we were is located about twenty kilometers from downtown Panama. So I have a plan the next day to take a taxi and go to areas not visited on my last visit to this city.
Ready to go, my protectors in the hotel lobby tell me, apparently taking a local taxi is also too dangerous. This is why the hotel refuses its access to them, and instead offers a VIP shuttle service ... at a cost 15 times higher. Refusing the scam, I am therefore left to walk in the direction of the city, on an old road in the middle of the jungle.
After a few kilometers, when I was already fully sweaty, an old multicolored automobile stopped at my level. It has the windshield cracked from edge to edge and spinners (wheel caps that keep turning even when the car stops). The driver, a guy about my age, asks me where I'm going and if I want him to take me there. ¿Adónde vas, mi hermano?
Children inspire confidence.
I myself do not know where I am going and I will still have to find a solution to cross the Bridge of the Americas, which overlooks the Panama Canal. It is impossible to cross on foot from North America to South America by this bridge, guarded on either side by soldiers, apparently in order to curb the popularity of suicide there. Looking at the guy, and seeing two kids in the back seat, I decide I can trust him, and tell him to take me to a place where I won't see any daytime tourists.
No tourists on the horizon that day.
After a few small detours to show me the landscape, Gabriel drops me off on a commercial artery and asks me what time I want to come back. There is no point in resisting, ¡No problema, mi hermano! We meet again at the end of the afternoon to take the way back.
Still refusing my money, Gabriel then asks me if I am in a hurry to return to the hotel. Obviously the answer is no. Thirty kilometers later, we thus disembark at his mother's house.
The rest, including wild animals, in part 2.
