Homeless By Choice

We await Eladio, the Indian from whom I bought my land in nearby Aguacate to return with my boat.  He took it home with the preservatives for the decking on the dock and my dogs last night.  He saw me cruise by and paddled over in his cayuco then took my boat home.  Sitting on the aft deck, “Scott, this is wonderful coffee.”  “Thanks I grow it myself at 4,500 feet on a finca I own near Boquette and have my workers roast it.  A short discussion on coffee growing and roasting ensued.  Breakfasts of eggs with canned meat by products and beans.

Eladio showed up with my boat and we headed off to inspect the dock.  He indicated that he was 48 posts short.  Apparently he just made and estimate of the length of the mangroves and wasn’t near close.   The posts cost $12.50 each and if sufficiently thick should last around 7 years.  Many of those installed were not sufficiently thick.  The property was to have been cleared but not near enough had been, just a rise and a spot on the top of the first hill.  No way to check out any potential building sites.  We left, I had a hell of a time descending the hill with my gimpy left foot.   It’s getting better, but I am not the guy who climbed Mayan temples with aplomb 18 months ago.   We toured around, went over and viewed the house of“Wild Bill”  the notorious gringo serial killer who went on a rampage for a year starting about three years ago.   We then toured around and returned to Scott’s boat.   Damn it, I wanted this land cleared.  It was with this expectation and agreement that $60 was paid at the time I put a down payment on the property.   Ok, bring out 8 guys tomorrow and tear it up.   I would like to be able to walk through the place.   Eladio was not impressed with having Charlotte participate but I insisted.   Scott is heading to Bocas tomorrow with a couple of buddies, I think I’ll ask if I can tag along.  I don’t feel inclined to sit on this boat by myself.

Scott suggested that I hire Eladio full time.  That’s $90 twice a month.  Eladio indicated he could build a suitable house on the property at a cost of $400 and that he could use the well.  The “well” is a hole in the ground.  I’m not sure but I think it is just an underground plastic tank that catches surface rainwater. I am sure it would be an interesting biology lesson to study all of the life forms that inhabit that water.  No electricity, they sleep on the wooden floors.  Not sure what they would do for toilets.  Keep the land clear, plant banana, avocado, plantain, papaya, yucca, otoy, yellow and white pineapples, limes, lemons, pepino, tomatoes, chickens, maybe a few goats.  I’ll think about it.

Scott was heading off to a local builder’s house, Jeb.  I had brought a shitload of food but the yacht is more than deficient for food preparation.  There is no gas grill, the electric stove is tiny and requires the generator to be running to operate.   Scott called Jeb and got us invited. Then he invited Michelle and Ken , the local who ostensibly can fix damn near anything from generators, boat engines, air conditioning, computers, solar power systems, pumps, anything electrical or mechanical.    We took along 8 large chicken thighs and drumsticks, cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, peppers, onions and garlic that I had bought.  Great!   What am I going to eat for the next three days if we eat all the food I brought?

Scott and Charlotte snorkeled.  Apparently I had damaged my prop on the way out here and Scott told me I needed to get it replaced immediately before I wore out the bearings and seals in my lower unit.  Great, maybe I can catch a ride and buy one in town.  More likely I’ll catch a ride and they won’t have one in town and if they do, it will be the wrong pitch.

Dinner time, packed up a cooler with the food and the gallon of “Salsa Englisa”, Worcestershire sauce and some spices that I had bought before heading out and some adobo all purpose seasoning.   Charlotte was inundated by attention from Jeb and Ken.   For some reason an attractive 21 year old girl garners a great deal of attention from guys in their mid fifties.

Long discussion on provisioning, stock up on everything, propane, gasoline, non perishable foods.  Right after Carnivale the Indians will be blocking the roads in force in protest of mining and damming of rivers in their area for hydroelectric projects.   The last protest, about a week ago left several dead, many police stations were torched, scorched earth.   It only ended with the agreement to release the protesters that had been arrested.  Well, that sure didn’t solve the core issue, so it was certain to raise its ugly head soon.

The alcohol consumption varied from pretty extreme to a pleasant buzz.  I abstained.   Dinner was excellent.  We left with one person passed out on the dock, returned to the boat and went to bed.

I laid there wondering what my future held for me and to what extent my destiny was a place I would drive myself to or fall into.

I tried to borrow money from a friend until I could get an ATM card down here, but with no power the bank was closed and most of the restaurants as without power there was no running water.

On one of my many trips in and out of Casa Verde I ran across a girl who was looking at a poster for a Chocolate Tour.  I gave her an unsolicited thumbs up on the tour, then went into the restaurant to talk with a builder about the price of building a 40′ x 40′ rancho over the water in front of my house.  This lasted many an hour.  We discussed the cost of buying a tree, cutting it down, slicing it into boards, transporting out of the jungle, transport to town, getting it planed, transporting to house.  Similar deal on concrete filled  PVC posts.  I started to build a bill of materials.  This seems to be a lot cheaper than I had anticipated.   After looking at the bill Kilo created I noted that beams and joists had been omitted, a not insignificant cost.   In order to provide water to the rancho I must add water collection, which can readily achieved by building a steel roofed boat house.

The girl, Charlotte was from Belgium and mention her experiences on wwoof.org.   In order to find details of organic farms there is a $20 fee per farm.  After paying for many farms and getting no reply she gave up.   I checked with my friend Michelle who hosts volunteers, but she said she had 10 and couldn’t sustain any more.  I contacted Eladio, the Indian from whom I bought a parcel of land in Aguacate near Loma Partida to see if he could host her for a couple of weeks but neither of us understood his response.   Hmmmm.   I figured if worst came to worst I could put her up on the boat, but when I contacted the boat owner I got this response:

Had my medical treatment not been so urgent for the cost I could have flown to Cuba, spent a luxurious three months, flown back into Tocumen where one gets a free month of health insurance for no cost.   Not really an option anyway as somebody absconded with my driver’s license and passport.   What a pain in the ass.  It will take me about two months to get a replacement driver’s license which I can then use to apply for a replacement passport.   In the mean time I can’t leave this country or travel by plane within it.  I am using a PADI dive card as my ID as it is the only thing I have with my name and picture on it.

Most of the time I can flex my left foot almost an inch and with concentration I can walk up and down stairs and ramps and step up and down off curbs.  This is substantial improvement after 7 days of intense medication and three days of out of hospital on expensive drugs.   Man I hope I fully recover and that this doesn’t take a year.

I am supposed to be off to Volcan today to see what a house looks like that is constructed out of bamboo boards.   A slit is made on one side of the bamboo, lengthwise, it is soaked for a week in water and then flattened out, treated with Penta Green, an insecticide and varnished.   If this works I can have a substantial reduction in one of the most expensive components of these cabins.  I am going to take this computer in today, have them take it apart and use solvent on every part; it is not a big fan of cranberry juice.  God I hope this year gets better in a hurry.

By the way I got out of the hospital yesterday.  The skin is clearing up remarkably.  I can flex my left foot a little bit.  I can now walk up and down stairs and ramps without falling down if I concentrate.  It’s nice to go outside for a walk.  The pace is sufficiently slow that I would be hard pressed to call it exercise.  Jaime, my driver, drove me to a bunch of places today and I priced out some of the materials for the resort.   This is going to be more expensive than I anticipated.  

My wonderful driver, Jaime was a builder in a former life and has a great many ideas on construction and will drive me around David so I can price some of these components.   We are going to draw up a bill of materials for the water catchment system and everything to build my new house in Loma Partida and have  everything shipped at once so we can get through construction.

So here’s the plan, I flatten out a piece of land on the highest ground, may or may not lay a concrete foundation.   Build a chicken coop with a tin roof, add a catchment edge (consider gutter).  It will drain into one tank.  Two other 1,500 gallon tanks will be connected so all tanks will fill to the same height at the same time.  I have to check to see if the height of the second hill is sufficiently higher than the sea side hill that I could feed adequate pressure without a pump.   That would be 80 feet to get 40 PSI, I’m pretty sure that is not the case.

Looks like the most expensive part  of this operation is going to be solar power and refrigerators.

Well, it’s super bowl Sunday.  I am going to try to watch the game by using a proxy to view it from the U.S. sight.   Why do they not want people in other countries to watch? That would increase the audience for the advertisements.

Turns out he used to be a house builder.  He has an unfinished house on Carenero (ran out of cash) wanted to know if I would pay to finish it of then we could be equal partners in a bar there.   I told him there was no way we could compete with the Cosmic Crab as it is very famous and right over the water, why would somebody want to go drink on a porch a hundred feet from the water when you could sit right on the water, facing west and watch the sunset.   Then he wanted to finish off the upstairs, put in four rooms and rent them out for $50.  Jaime at Cosmic Crab for that money you can have a private cabin right over the water.  He looked very disappointed.  This also seems like an extraordinary request on a first meeting.

I told him about my development at Loma Partida.   I wanted simple cabinas to have composting toilets and a water tank.  No point in running PVC hundreds of feet so somebody can use 2 1/2 gallons to wash down a quart of pee. I think I’ll add a urinal for guys too shy to piss outside.

I talked about constructing cabins out of bamboo.  Now things got interesting.   He told me to split it lengthwise through one side, not in two, soak it in water for a week, pound it flat,  treat it with penta green for permanent insect resistance and protect with 660 marine varnish for a beautiful board.   He is going to show me a house he built that way.   Not only would that fill in all the gaps but it would be awesome looking, hell, you’d even use less bamboo, not that bamboo is expensive.   Did you know you have to cut it on a full moon?

I don’t know why he is so hung up on septic systems.   You use water, you have to run the water and when you are done, you have nothing.  

If that project wasn’t big enough I’ve been offered the use of a water concession to build a bar and restaurant in town.   The guy loved my concept of a BBQ.

There are only 2 English TV channels, the CSI non stop and CNN.  Thank god I have the kindle.  Working my way through Tom Sawyer.

Somewhere a doll is feeling needles and IV.  Reverse voodoo.

11 prescriptions for a year.  They are releasing me into the wild tomorrow.  I’m going to stick in David for a bit.

They decided to put me on a daily regimen of calcium and vitamin B12 delivered intravenously.  Ok, let’s go.  I’d like to be able to walk out of here.