day one of 10

Day one started at the bright and early hour of 4:40am as I raced down the empty highways of Tampa headed to the airport parking area. Car parked, shuttle to the airport, short line which was nice and through security with an hour to spare! Move forward an hour and I am now in Miami waiting on the LONG OVERDUE flight to Panama. I cannot believe it's been 18 months! The best part was the plane was on time and I got moved up to the cabin divider or first row of coach class! We touched down amid scattered thunder storms at the Tocumen International Airport just a tad before noon nearly 10 minutes early!

There's no replacing the feeling of walking up the jet way as the air has now changed from Florida's warmish 70's to Panama's steamy 90's. I love it!!

I actually went through immigration and got my bag and through customs and into my rental car in under 35 minutes total!! That was very nice!!

Now with the tocumen toll road (cuota) in front of me and Panama cities (Manhattan like) structures waiting beyond that I jumped right into defensive, no signal using, Frogger like driving in Panama traffic...It's like a video game and for those who know me...it fits me well..lol

There is a new "bypass" called via ducto that takes you around the stoplights of balboa ave in downtown to the ave de martires and onto the puentas de americas (or point of the americas bridge)...the giant bridge that spans the entrance to the Panama Canal system. It always amazes me when driving over this bridge the marine traffic jam of very large cargo and oil tankers patiently waiting their turn to squeeze through what is truly one of the 7 wonders of the world..the locks of the Panama Canal. It's also a bit crazy to realize that the average tanker pays nearly 245K for passage ONE WAY...

After crossing the puente de America's the scenery drastically changes from bustling city life and traffic to farming and endless kilometers of small towns and rolling hills butted up against towering mountains. There seems to be a river flowing out of the mountains towards the sea about every 10 minutes on the drive...I often ponder what type of fishing could be done in these rivers given the time...trout maybe?

I still had an old Panamanian cell phone, but did not have a charger for it so I stopped in Santiago to buy a new cell phone....lets see...LG cell phone for $15.00 and comes with $5 phone card...Then I purchased another $10 phone card to add to it. I called my wife and spoke with her for about 25 minutes and that only cost me about $2.40...why anyone pays international $2.00 a minute for phone calls in Panama to the states is beyond me.

Fast forward about 4 hours and I am getting really close to the turnoff where everything takes on a new perspective for me.....only thing was the jubia (rain) came down in biblical amounts for about 30 minutes reducing my normal 65mph or so to about 30mph with visibility reduced to mere feet....The power of the tropics and the energy in it is what brings me back over and over again.

Finally at the old CA-1 road heading towards our good friend Kevin's house I noticed that many of the Captains that Chad uses were cleaning up the boats and gearing up for the next day of fishing. I stopped off and was offered a cold Balboa and gladly accepted...Of course!

After 20 minutes of chatter about the days fishing and "where the heck have you been Gringo Loquero'?" I said manana and headed further into Cuebrada De Piedra and up to Paradise Lodge to say hello to Chad and his workers. Paradise Lodge is a world class fishing resort in a world class fishing location..simply put!

The progress Chad has made is incredible in the last 18 months...3 new hotel rooms built, a 1500 meter concrete pier for the boats, a huge new dining and kitchen area, amazing!

It was a bit sad to hear that Maggie, Chads faithful Golden Retriever had passed away a few months ago...bummer. However, with each loss of life there seems to be new life as well and that held true as his two Rottweilers had just given birth to 2 beautiful puppies...there second litter in 18 months! Now there are Rottweilers running around all over the place from 4 weeks old to 3 years old...Chad calls the little ones his future security squad and judging by the boy down at his pier they take there job seriously....Chombo is his name and he will eat you for going on that pier without approval...lol

After a nice cubre libra' at Chads I headed down the last 2 miles of dirt/gravel road to Kevin's House. It was nice to see an old friend and to have dinner and drink wine....lots of wine while catching up on the progress of their project. Kevin's project is called Vida Nueva and his 1100 acre project surrounds our land. It's a great thing for us as we have very legitimate, serious, well funded neighbors who will provide an exceptional social clientele that will fit the area perfectly. Our area is not a Waikiki, it's more of a sportsman's paradise...fishing, surfing, kayaking, diving, spearfishing, etc.

Day one finished in grand fashion after being up nearly 21 hours and piling through nearly 4 bottles of excellent Chilean red wine.......Kevin and I have a habit of doing this when we are together...Hey Kevin...it's ALL YOUR FAULT!