Archive for the bocas del toro Category

Everyday is like Rum-day

Posted in Bluff Beach Retreat, bocas del toro, rum with tags , , , on February 20, 2009 by reachdownbetweenmylegs

Trudging slowly over wet sand
Back to the bench where your clothes were stolen
This is the coastal town
That they forgot to close down
Armageddon – come armageddon!
Come, armageddon! come!

Morrissey

 

Sunday we all were tired and a bit sunburned.  We decided to take it easy and do nothing.  Well not exactly nothing.  I declared that Sunday would be Rum-day.  We had the rum, Coca-cola, Canada Dry and ice (a limited supply) that we quickly ran out of.  Two Rums were drank during our stay.  The first being  Ron Abuelo rum a Panamanian rum and Flor de Cana  from Nicaragua (my personal favorite).  Both are smooth delicious rums.  We tried enjoyed the 5 year black label Flor de Cana and the 7 year Grand Reserve.  Abuelo rums enjoyed were the Anejo, 7 year Anos Reserva and the sipping Abuelo 12 year rum.

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Red Right Ankle

Posted in Bluff Beach Retreat, bocas del toro with tags , , , , , , , , , , on February 15, 2009 by reachdownbetweenmylegs

This is the story of your red right ankle
And how it came to meet your leg
And how the muscle, bone, and sinews tangled
And how the skin was softly shed

And how it whispered “Oh, adhere to me
For we are bound by symmetry
And whatever differences our lives have been
We together make a limb.”
This is the story of your red right ankle.

The Decemberists

February 14 2009 was Dave Lloyd’s 60th birthday, Valentine’s Day and our sailboat trip with Bocas Sailing.  Amie, her boyfriend Jonas and her father “Doc”  all arrived Friday afternoon.  They decided to join us for our sailing voyage on Saturday so we were 11 total.  We had called Luis the cab driver ahead of time to meet us at Bluff Beach Retreat.  We piled in two vehicles, several of us had to ride in the back beds of the full cab pickups.  Driver, front seat passenger, three in back seat and three in the back bed standing or sitting.  We got as far as the edge of town and had to call another taxi so we wouldn’t have any people in the back bed.  We all met up at Bocas Sailing.  Chris, originally from Belgium would be our captain.  We sailed to three snorkeling locations and enjoyed a tasty sub-sandwich under a partly cloudy sky.  I did manage to burn the top of my right foot and ankle.  The sun and vitamin D  was nice.  The water was refreshing and fun was had by all.

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It’s Raining Again

Posted in Bluff Beach Retreat, bocas del toro with tags , , , on February 13, 2009 by reachdownbetweenmylegs

Oh, it’s raining again
Oh no, my love’s at an end.
Oh no, it’s raining again
and you know it’s hard to pretend.
Oh no, it’s raining again

Supertramp

The rain came down multiple times early Thursday morning waking me with each rain storm.  I got up in the darkness 630 am.  The  rain settled down as I walked onto the porch and pulled up the screens around the kitchen/bar area and awaited the early arrival of Dave Lloyd.  Catlin and Matt got here Wednesday night in time for dinner.   Ron brought us food from Lili’s Cafe, Caribbean food hummus, spiced chicken, rice and beans and chocolate banana brownies.  Earlier in the week we enjoyed hot chicken wings from Lili’s while we played cards.  I highly recommend Lili’s Cafe.

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Swamp

Posted in bocas del toro with tags , , , , , , , on February 12, 2009 by reachdownbetweenmylegs

Well, you better not go at night.
There’s things out there in the middle of them woods
That make a strong man die from fright.
Things that crawl and things that fly
And things that creep around on the ground.

Charlie Daniels

We had heard about La Piscina, a small cove protected from the waves so you can swim.  The idea was to walk to the “goat farm” pay the little girl at the farm, a dollar per person and then “they will show us the way to the piscina.”  We had Iris pack us some sandwiches and we grabbed 5 liters of water and started off.  The walk to the goat farm took approximately 45 minutes, crossed two creeks and a log crossing in front of the goat farm.

Goat Farm and the Gringo

Goat Farm and the Gringo

We paid our money and nobody came with us.  So we walked another 30 minutes and came to a fork in the path and chose the path that was most travelled.

Behdad Jamshahi

BJ

Trail on the way to La Piscina

Trail on the way to La Piscina

Ocean View

Ocean View

Bates in Fern Gully

Bates in Fern Gully

We later would learn that if you make it to what we called “Fern Gully”,  you missed the trail to La Piscina.

The Debbie

The Debbie

The trail crossed several streams, swampy areas and even a knee deep marsh with horse droppings in it that we waded through.  The trail finally came to an end and we decided that we went the wrong way and headed back.

End of the Trail

End of the Trail

We headed back frustrated and ran into a little boy “Diego” on a horse who informed us we went the wrong way and La Piscina was about 1 hour from where we were .   He then headed out in another direction and told us to head back.  Later, he would come back and pass us. We then found him at the fork in the trail.  He pointed and said “La Piscina”.  I then paid him $5 dollars for his help. (later to learn he was a son of the goat farmer who I paid the initial $5.)

We walked down into another swampy area, where Jason Korn stepped into hip deep mud.  We couldn’t pull him out so he had to reach down and take off his shoe, pull it out and then pull out his leg.

Jason Korn and the Swamp Monster

Jason Korn and the Swamp Monster

We walked about a hundred yards more and voila, La Piscina.  We swam, ate lunch and rested for the trip back.

La Piscina

La Piscina

Too far to go
I- We come to take you home

And when they split those atoms
It’s hotter than the sun
Blood is a special substance
They gonna pray for that man

So wake up young lovers
The whole thing is over
Watch but touch monkeys

Talking Heads

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I Want Candy

Posted in bocas del toro, Green Acres Chocolate Farm with tags , , , , , , on February 10, 2009 by reachdownbetweenmylegs

Candy on the beach, there’s nothing better
But I like candy when it’s wrapped in a sweater
Some day soon I’ll make you mine,
Then I’ll have candy all the time

I want candy, I want candy

BOW WOW WOW

 

We made a 25 minute boat trip to Green Acres Chocolate Farm, stopped along the way to snorkel, have lunch and view dolphins in the bay in front of Green Acres.  Linda and David Cerutti  have owned Green Acres for about 11 years.  The Criollo cacao trees grow under the canopy of the large trees on the farm.  In direct sunlight the cacao trees will not survive.  The pods grow off the branches, ripen turn yellow and hopefully get picked before fungus, birds, squirrels or marsupials invade.  The trees are pollinated by little fly like insects.  The seeds are picked out of the pods (David said he usually starts the process when he knows has about 1000 ripe pods).  Once the seeds from 1000 pods are obtained they are placed into fermentation wooden boxes for 4 days, then placed into a drying bed, raked several times daily to prevent the seeds from molding, the process of drying can take days to weeks depending on the sunlight and humidity.  Once dried the seeds are stored and can be roasted when David and his employees have the time or enough seeds.  The  dried seeds are then roasted in a small propane roaster at 250 degrees for ~30 minutes.  The seeds are then cooled.  The next step involves cracking the seeds “beans” and then pouring the cracked seeds “beans” in front of the fan and letting the shell be blown from the “nibs”.  From David’s Cerrutti Chocolate cookbook gives a definition of nibs “These are the broken roasted cacao beans. They resemble crushed nuts. The taste is rich and dark. Chocolate nibs can be used in place of nuts in most recipes.” The nibs still have the cocoa butter and the cocoa solids. They are then ground in a small grinder 10 times to produce chocolate “liquor”.  The liquid chocolate “liquor” is poured into molds and when cooled are in their solid form. The cocoa powder that we buy in the supermarket is made in an industrial process in which the nibs are ground then pressed under extreme pressure and the cocoa butter is extracted and what is left is cocoa powder.

View of the bay Cerutti Chocolate Farm

View of the bay Cerutti Chocolate Farm

Sailboats in the Bay

Sailboats in the Bay

Cacao Tree in the shade

Cacao Tree in the shade

 

Cacao Pod

Cacao Pod

Drying Rack

Drying Rack

Green acres is the place for me.
Farm livin’ is the life for me.
Land spreadin’ out so far and wide
Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside

Vic Mizzy

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Road to Nowhere

Posted in bocas del toro with tags , , , on February 6, 2009 by reachdownbetweenmylegs

WELL WE KNOW WHERE WE’RE GOIN’
BUT WE DON’T KNOW WHERE WE’VE BEEN
AND WE KNOW WHAT WE’RE KNOWIN’
BUT WE CAN’T SAY WHAT WE’VE SEEN
AND WE’RE NOT LITTLE CHILDREN
AND WE KNOW WHAT WE WANT
AND THE FUTURE IS CERTAIN
GIVE US TIME TO WORK IT OUT

We’re on a road to nowhere
Come on inside
Takin’ that ride to nowhere
We’ll take that ride

Talking Heads

 

We landed in Bocas overcast, tarmac wet with recent rain.  De-planed and found Ron owner of Bluff Beach Retreat.  We waited for our luggage to come but first they loaded the plane with the new luggage as ours sat in the cart and the deluge began.  Rain….  The luggage came through the hole in the wall, a guy pulled each bag through and you give him your tag.  Quickly we carried the bags to Ron’s 4 door pickup and drove to the nearest hardware store and bought a blue tarp.  Now the journey began.  We drove through town, Bates found a restroom and Debbie bought some Ibuprofen.  Ron drove us past the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.  The ride was bumpy, wet and well now you can see.

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