Eric's Journal Day 7

One of the bridges along the trail!

Tuesday of the second week, after a good start on the first week it is going to be tough to top that but I will try. Today the full crew showed up full of vim and vigor and grabbed the chain saw and a battery Skil saw of mine and headed up the mountain. Justo and I went back to his house to pick up the roll of barbed wire and then to the china market to get some chicken feet, beans and rice. Justo grabbed a couple of small cans of tomato paste that he said would give the chicken feet some color. The total bill for their lunch was 12 dollars working out to roughly $1 per person - guess that’s pretty good. I had 5 guys head up right away to start splitting palms, 4 started back digging and working on the trails, and Celestino started working on the front dressing it up; working on the walkway to the entrance of PL.

I brought up the food for the guys and had left the wire behind at the gate. Justo told one of them to go down and get it and bring it back up to rework the front entry where the large tree had taken out 20’ of fence. After all were started Justo and I went up and checked how the trails where doing then headed up to see the progress on the cutting of the palms. Even though we had cleared a trail to the top it’s still a long hike straight up so we took our time stopping often and talking about the beauty and how lucky we both were.

When we made it to the top you could just look down through the jungle on the other side and see the men cutting the palms and the others bringing them to the top to be split up there, making it easier. We walked just a short way up the hill towards the top and I looked up and saw the branches in a tree shaking and then an animal with a long tail moving to another limb. I hollered to Justo “ Mono”, (monkey) as he looked up and saw it too. We walked up towards the mono and no longer saw him but headed further up also looking for the missing cows.

When we reached the top of PL it was a really clear day with little humidity and we could see way out in the Chiriqui Bay to the Bocas Islands and the channel - it was breath taking! The trip back was nice and slow as we worked our way back down to the bottom. I was kind of disappointed I didn’t see the sloth again as we walked by where we had seen him before, I mean how far they can go in a week?

Justo the magnificent! Could not do this without him!

After the long trek Justo and I sat down next to what I have coined the phrase of “Laguna de Justo”, which is the small pool where we eat lunch often and watch the fish. I opened up a can of Van Camps Pork and Beans and pulled out some bread - it was only 11 but we where both hungry and deserved to eat like kings. Shortly after we finished and checked on the guys once more. They had eaten and headed back to work. I was really impressed. They ate and took exactly 30 minutes to do it. Typically in Panama there are one hour lunches but these guys grabbed hold of the shorter day concept and are acting like it has always bee that way. Gringo ideas! After that the guys started bringing down the palm and we got the front bridge done and I started the second bridge laying the palm out and nailing it down until I ran out of nails! Oops! Guess I will finish it tomorrow. As I was walking by on one of the trips past the kitchen I had mentioned to Justo to tell Celestino to have his wife clean up the creek next to where she was cooking. There were some limbs down in it and it needed some attention but it didn’t work when I tried yesterday. Finally it did today and she was actually cleaning so it looked a lot better and I tried the best I could with a bunch of thumbs up and muy bueno to convey that, but realized she spoke Noble; an Indian dialect and not even Spanish. I sure hope my smile got across anyway. But after an hour of cleaning she sat down she was done. I was happy for a little progress. The days’ progress was ok and I was happy it was over.

Celestino's wife the cook - relaxing

After Justo’s and my walk I was worn out and asking Justo what time it was. I realized they finally put in a really full day - way to go guys!

After we dropped the 13 Indians off at the bridge we headed to the hardware store to pick up some nails and some spray for termites since I wanted to treat the bamboo posts before we set them in the ground for the rails. At the store the nails seemed kind of high in price at $.90/lb so I asked how much for 50 lbs. and they punched it in the calculator and came up with $45. – gosh, I guess no discount for volume. Justo said we could get them cheaper at Chiriquí Grande so no problem we had to pick up some containers for Diesel fuel to mix with the Penitran anyway. When we got to the hardware store in Chiriquí Grande and checked the price it was $1.30/lb, now it was a different quality but I didn’t need it to last 30 years so after we picked up the containers for fuel and Justo bought his usual 2 cigarettes. We headed back to pick up his wife and then to Punta Pena.

Now all we need to do is shop in the morning for food which Justo suggested that this time we might get the guys fish. He said it’s as cheap as the chicken is so why not. I am looking for some good progress tomorrow hope to have all the palms we need split and installed on the bridges, the trail being worked on , and some of the bamboo we are going to use for rails cut as well. May be a dream but heck I am in Panama working with 13 Indians and a Morse code specialist, and watching monkeys in the trees, pinch me because I think I am dreaming now.

The 3 toed sloth hanging
and scratching