Day Four and Starting to Settle Into a Rhythm

Day 4

I had the regular crew show up with out a hitch, Justo had his camouflage on and when I pulled up I didn’t even see him. Even after he spoke he had to move before I saw him. Sure hope the Indians don’t figure that one out or will never find them up there again. Justo and I went exploring for more potential paths and found a beauty. There is this huge tree with a wide root base (the name I still do not know) that I have always wanted to make the path go by it. Its hard to even describe so will take some pictures tomorrow and hope you can see the magnificence of it then. While I was checking on the guys’ progress I got distracted by a orange butterfly, I got it to land on my finger and was holding it up for the guys to see and then even pretended to talk to it. I then put it on one of the guys hats and they all got a laugh.

With all the climbing around in the rubber boots up the steep hills and through the creeks I got a blister - it was bound to happen but I held tough. After 5 hours I told them I had to go check on some prices of supplies since I also just made a deal with the Indian boss to have 5 more Indians come on Monday to start cutting palms. What I decided to do is use crushed palms like the Indians use for the walls and floors of their homes and this type of palm is so strong that they use it for supports of homes out over the water and to support homes on land. In these conditions it lasts 8 to 10 years and we have lots of it on PL so why not!!! At 3:30 I went to the entrance of PL and met Justo and the Indians as they came down I shook all of their hands telling them what a good job they are doing and how happy I am. Then Celistino, the Indian leader, asked if I would drive them 3/10 of a km to the suspension bridge that goes over the Rio Wabo River and from there they walk 45 minutes to their village I answered sure why not. On the way to the bridge Justo told me that he and Celistino had a talk. When we started PL and talked to Celistino he wanted more than the other Indians since he was in charge and was able to get them so we agreed that instead of $1 per hour we would pay him $1.10 and he agreed happily. Well now things have changed and he wants to get more than $1.10. Talking to Justo we both kind of laughed because when I had made the deal with him that he wanted more we both could not believe that he accepted .10 more so I will give him $1.25 because he is doing a really good job. The truth of the matter is he is doing a great job and seems to be taking personal interest in the job which makes me smile a lot.

Photo: (Celestino deep in thought)

He has even talked to Justo about bringing some plants from home to plant on PL. Now life is good!! Justo and I went to the local china market after work to get him some boots. I told him the guy in charge of PL at least has to have a good pair of boots. His have a hole in them and he told me he has to pry his feet in them in the morning since they are too small. He wears a size 12! We may have to go to David to get them for him since they were no where to be found near Punta Pena. So we continued n to Chiriquí Grande to check out a hardware store there and price some axes we needed for the guys to cut and split the palms on Monday. When we got there we found the axes and also the large cast aluminum pots for cooking up to 14 pounds of rice and some other pots and pans as well. $105 dollars letter with Justo getting me a discount we were going to head back when he said excuse him for a sec he needed to go to the store. When he returned he had one cigarette and lit it up and said he was trying to quit and the best way was to buy them one at a time. I agreed. Then we started to head out as soon as he called his wife to see if she wanted a ride home too. Well she (a school administrator for the Indian schools) had just gotten 3 sets of teachers who had come in on boats from various islands around the area and was busy with them but gave Justo a shopping list. On the way home almost in front of Justo’s home we stopped at another china market ( did I tell you all the stores are owned by the Chinese and everyone calls each one the china market - confusing eh?) When he returned he had a bag with some buns and then he opened it up and showed me 2 pounds of chicken feet. He said this is what you need to get the workers for lunch and its only .50 a pound. He said his wife loves them and chicken necks too. I laughed and said I was going to let him do the shopping for the Indians.

Photo: (Celestino's wife, Justo and Celestino's sister in law - she comes for cooking lessons.)

On another note Ernesto a chain saw man that almost has arms as big as my waist is going to show up tomorrow and cut some wood for me. It’s going to cost me .20/ft but I know him and he is a good man so have no hesitation on giving him the work. The wood his is going to cut is like no other I have ever seen. It’s called almandro it’s one of the hardest woods and is totally resistant to insects. The wood he is gong to be cutting on PL has been down for almost 15 years and is just as good as it was when it was standing. This is what I am going to use as the posts for the hand rails with bamboo on top nailed with a 5” to 6” spike. I am hoping it is not so hard I will have to drill each post.

Photo: Morning Mist

Well, change of plan again as I was talking to Mario about cutting the almandro for the posts and how hard it was and asked him why can’t you use bamboo? Does it rot in the ground or the bugs eat it? He told me the termites eat it I started talking to him about what if we took and cut the posts and soaked them in Penitrol a termite agent. He thought for a minute and said that would be a great idea. So I canceled Ernesto for tomorrow and am going to next week cut bamboo posts and start soaking them. The top rail is going to be bamboo and will just have to keep an eye on it and see if it needs to be sprayed too. Don’t like using insecticide but in this environment you just don’t have a choice.

More soon...............