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Time and the hour, going thru the same thing again, in your actual Panama City, right by your actual Canal...and trying to take the mind back to where the little note book says I last blogged...scrambled notes from odd opportunities along the road, when passions were high, death just a shot away, all the senses attuned to the present, head full of ideas, heart full of fear, love, scent of roses..whatever...now trying to interpret not only the writing but the sense also...<br />So, out of Domenical and just drifting without any rush, south towards the end of Costa Rico...dense, green impenetrable jungle to the left, towering giants, draped in lianas and creepers, brilliant flowers, masses of insects, butterflies, birds and sure as sure, deep inside, the animals whose calls indicate many, very sharp teeth...on the right side the rugged coastline occasionally glimpsed thru the palms...some BIG developments going on here as well, extensive properties, the gated estates, the mega private properties...same old, same old...

Which Canal?

Bill Shum
2006-03-24 22:01:42

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then onward, another 40 kms of roughness, and more rain, then the swollen creek, I love that expression 'swollen' in regards to rivers, just so evocative of the roiling waters, currents twisting, eddies swallowing great gulps of water, froth and foam and all the crapola of the jungle washing down, threatening to burst out of the banks and flood the whole area...anyway, we waited for a while then had to go back, and thats a long way, and its getting darker!...
Luckily we took a wrong turn, found a pretty smooth gravel road...dusty even!...some weird rain shadow? or magic?..anyway, then potholy bitumen again, then more rain, the darkness, no idea where we are...pull into a servo and find we're at the frontier!
Find a dodgey hotel with lock up for the bikes and not so bad room upstairs over the street. I wake about 1am, a small puppy is yapping across the street, the family downstairs is watching tv, I can hear another 4 or 5 tvs in the other rooms, people walking past, one guy has the best belly laugh, I can hear him coming from 100 metres and then passing the same, I've got to smile its so infectious, other groups of drunks, slurring their yelling like all drunks, hawking and spitting, a dog is scratching and barking trying to get in, or out of somewhere, trucks rumble past, working their way thru the 18 gears or stopping and idling , loads on smaller trucks rattle and crash thru the potholes, out in the distance the flatulent roar of trucks engine brakes slowing for the frontier, water noises from the dunny leaking, people showering, leaking pipes, drains gurgling, the guy in the next room comes home accompanied by clattering high heels...an hour later, door slams, high heels clatters off downstairs and back to work.... the huge steel sliding gate that protects the car park, screetches open and shut as more vehicles arrive...this room is like an experimental sound booth for testing new, weird sounds, the window opens over the street ...