Roman Sainz

The Circle of Life.

2007-05-11T00:14:00.000-05:00

I have been thinking about it for a while.

I thought I used this blog to write about me, my life, some of my adventures.

But, I have come to *realize* that I actually used it to *brag* a little bit about my life.

As time passes, I less and less feel the need to tell people who I am or what I do.

Maybe I am getting older, maybe I am getting wiser, or maybe I have a clog in my brain.

I feel it is time to let go, and maybe create some vacuum that I would fill with something else.

This blog was born on a random date. It is also dying on a random one.

Meanwhile, try reaching me on my [ Flick ] or my [ Hi5. ]

-Roman.

Barcelona-Santander.

2007-03-25T15:17:00.000-05:00

The weather is killing me.
My face hurts and it is as irritated, as the time I splashed a 60cm jelifish with it.

Not even when hiking tru Phoenix in July I got my skin so irritated. And I can not hide it, so I go around the airports creeping people out.

My flight to Santander was actually booked for tomorrow, however due to new information (knowledge of my cousins being there today) I came to the airport to try take it today [no, I did not make it over the phone, and no I did not tried over the net, I Paid 20 euros for a taxi to the Airport, and attempted the switch directly here]. When at the Iberia counter, the clerk was suspicions, as my ticket is a *negotiated one*, but when pulling it on the screen it did not showed up any restrictions [I guess having too many influences can be suspicious].

After more than half an hour (it seemed like the guy was typing a letter using only the letters "S,D,K,Z,N,>,ALT,Tab, Enter, Space, / ", I got to check my luggage and got a boarding pass.

Taking off from Dusseldorf.

2007-03-23T15:59:00.000-05:00

Another traveling day.
Today, at the Dusseldorf airport, I tried to pass the airplane gate without a boarding pass. The gatekeeper lady only speaks German (and I do not). It was not until a waiting passenger on the line asked *should't you have checked your luggage?* that I realized how silly I was. No wonder I did not had a boarding pass.

Later on...
As I was passing the security scanners, I took off from me everything I usually take off including my belt. Yet the pants I am wearing today have a nice metal buton, so it beeped big time on me.

As I was manually scanned, the guy asked *raise one foot*, then *raise the other foot*, *now raise both*, I screamed *WHAT!?* they totally broke my pattern. The guy was cool.

My sister picked us up at the Barcelona's Airport. On the way out, I thought [knowing her] we are going to take a cab. But now, she said, we are going to ride a Bus. And so we did (with all our luggages). We got off at the España Plaza stop. It was a beautiful stop, as we arrived right at sunset, and an orange cast of light showered the monuments.

With all the luggage, and because my parents still had to catch a train to Villafranca, we rushed to our first stop, my sisters apartment (ant that was like a two miles hike carring our luggajes). I thought, no problem, I am still going to be here until Monday, I can come again un Sunday to take some shots (and I do not mean drinks, altought, who knows).

Last day on Koln

2007-03-22T23:49:00.000-05:00

Today I was wondering, what would it be to move and live here in Germany. There are so many *features* that I like about this place. One of them is all the walking. The public transportation system works so well, that it completely takes the guessing and the anxiety of waiting for a train to show up. There are light signs on every stop, indicating in how many minutes the train will show up. And the measurement is quite accurate.

The population, in the four days I have been here, I have not seen a single fat German. And I have been eating what they eat and it definitely has more calories and fat than the American food.

But the walking must be making wonders for them. I who am not a German, have been waking at least 10 km each time I get out of the hotel.

And the girls, I am still looking, trying to find out the ugly ones.
On the other hand, I would have to leave behind probably all my hobbies. Going out to the beach in the middle of the week, and maybe at midnight might not be possible without a car.

Additionally going to do rappel on public land, or waterfalls might not be possible either.

Yet, I do not miss those activities, they have been easily replaced (I guess I am not a man of attachments).

I had the alarm clock setup to wake me up at 6am today.
Last night I had planned to go to Netherlands, it is only 200km away, and on the ICE train that is less than two hours. I could have gone round trip in a single day.

Yet, when I woke up, it was raining hard, I heard the pieces of ice hitting the windows of the room. And I thought, Netherlands is further north, it is going to be worst over there.
So I bailed out from the plan.

Later, during the day, I was kind of butchering myself, thinking I should have gone.anyways.
Because of that, Netherlands that was not originally on my list of countries I want to visit, is now on. I already did the numbers, a round trip from Panama in August would be around $1600.00. If I could save $200.00 every month, for two years I can make it happen. It would easily cover the cost of the trip and tourism expenses. What an exciting idea. Maybe it was better that I could not go today. Now I have another burning desire inside (on the down side, it is making it a little bit hard for me to sleep tonight).

20070321_2

2007-03-21T23:41:00.000-05:00

Until today, I have been *hanging out* with my parents everywhere we went.
Sometimes I would *hint* them on the direction, as I am the one with the hand-held gps, however they are the ones that have been making the decisions of where are we going, when and to do what.

Today, when we went to the congress there was a clear sky. So I felt the need to split from them, and get out.

So I went geocaching. I had a few caches on my GPS already, and I had a geoicon and a travel bug that I wanted to drop somewhere.

Getting out on my own was exciting. On one side is way more difficult to communicate, as my mom is the one who speaks German (asking for lunch on a restaurant on a non-turistic area was a real challenge). On the other hand, reading the German signs, the metro maps, even using a dictionary to translate a few words at the restaurant was so much fun. It gives a great sensation of confidence.

Later on, at night, my parents where invited to a fancy restaurant. My parents have been here in Koln four times and my mom actually speak fluent German, yet, I was the guide guy to get there. [I use a Garmin GPS map60cx and a tinny compass].

After doping them, I thought about taking a train, any train and go until the end of the line, see where would that take me. Well, I didn not made it to the end of the line, I stopped a few stops earlier. On a lonely residential area, went across the street, and took the same ride back. That was creepy.

20070321

2007-03-21T23:39:00.000-05:00

Days are starting earlier and ending later, leaving me someday with a little bit more than 3 hours to sleep. Because of that, my end of the day blogging is lagging behind, and obviously with the constant stream of new experiences, previous days ones details would have to be left unwritten in order to accommodate time for the upcoming ones.

Last night, as I was *clubbing* with my parents, I had an invitation to go to Australia to dive with the sharks. Obviously I do not know how to take that seriously, cause we where all a little bit loaded on drinks, I guess they meant it would be *cool* if I joined their trip.

It is disturbing my sleep, I keep thinking about *how* could I make something like this possible. Since I was 17 I have been desiring to go to Australia.
There is a place called *The twelve apostles*, is a beach with gigant rocks pulling out of the water.I have pictured myself setting up a camping tent there, seeing the sunset spending the night and seeing the sunrise.
Yes, thats my dream, simple. And every time I think of it, I get anxious, and for a while it will be there bugging my thoughts, but even better, pushing me forward to find the ways to make it happen.

IDS Congress- Day 1

2007-03-20T23:21:00.000-05:00

The exhibition's hall was huge. A lot bigger than expected.
When arriving, one could feel the magnitude of what we where getting into by just looking at the reception area. Over twenty counters (that seemed like an airport) where receiving people to sell the entrance tickets. There where two kinds of tickets, by day and by *season* (which are 4 days tickets). The season ones where 22euros each (about $35.00). I have no idea about the price of the dayly ones.

After getting the tickets, we would pass an electronic gate keeper, where a laser scanner would read the ticket code and unlock the gate bar. Right after that, a team will supply us with a protective sleeve for the ticket, and an around the neck trap band to hang it.

The whole process is streamlined *the German way* [mostly with German girls].

Franfurt to Colonge

2007-03-19T14:56:00.000-05:00

Today is another travel day.
We had the now *mastered* morning rutine (barely on ours second day in Germany).

Today the toaster did not fooled me, I knew exactly how to pull the bread out on will.

A quick comeback to the room to brush my teeth and grab my lugage, and we where on the way to the train station.

Today we bought a 3 Passanger ticket to Koln.
At the station there where some square old fashion looking trains, however ours, the "ICE" has an aerodynamic shape. On the outside of the train cart, next to the doors, there are monitor screens displaying the train name, code and destination. Once inside the cart, it is obvious that this is a fancy cart. The floor is fully carpeted on all areas, the hall ways where the bathrooms are have wood designs with soft curves on them.

The divisions between the carts are class automatic doors that open on approach.
The seats all have an european 220v plug between each of them (thats where I am plug right now).

They announced the "food service" over the speakers, obviously I did not get it, but now I can see it as the lady with a airplane like cart travels along the train selling snaks and bier.

The train ride is very smooth, as a mater of fact, sometimes is hard to know if it is moving without looking out of the window. I can not tell what speed it goes, as apparently all the windows are shielded, and I can not get GPS signal at all.

There is only one downside I can think of, and has nothing to do with the train itself, but rather a cultural phenomena. [or a poorly made seat decision] The smokers, I am not a fan of the cigarrete smoke. I can feel my lungs contracting already (I am actually quite asmatic).

Traveling by train might not seem as quick as doing so by plane, yet has some interesting advantages. On one side, we pretty much bought the ticket 10 minutes before the train arrived, boarded it, and it left 5 minutes later. No one hour waiting for check in, no wondering "where is my luggage?", but most interesting, it gives you something to see on the way.

We stop at a station, I look outside of the window and I see it says "Bonn". The GPS is not locking up, so I launch the notebook version of the software and search for it.
We are only 20km away from Koln now. This train must been traveling fast (and I better pack my stuff now, or else I might not get off on time).

The hotel in Klnon has no bathroom in the room.
That detail caught my parents off guard, as for me, I knew about it, it was specified on the confirmation email. This kind of room brings colorful memories of the times when I was studding in Zaragoza (over 15 years ago). However at that time it was actually a hassle for me to walk the corridor to get to the bathroom. Today, I find it kind of fun.

Franfurt Day 1

2007-03-18T22:46:00.000-05:00

During the first night, an important discovery was made.

Dad!, you snore loud!

I was so tempted to blow the whistle [traveling is like camping with class, so I sleep with a wissle/compass/led light around my neck].

Today the weather was less favorable than last night, It was colder, windier and rainy.

We had walked less than a block away from the Hotel, when my dad decided to turn around, and go back to add more layers of clothing.

Me, on the other hand, I was joking that *I am from Bilbao* so I do not need extra clothing.
With my $16.00 dollars Stevens jacket, and the Adidas wind breaker, I was doing fine.
Except from my face, my hands and my feet (I guess that my extremely ventilated mesh design hiking shoes that I bought in Arizona are not really the optimum choice for cold, raining and windy 8 degrees Celsius of Germany).

Well actually it did bother me a little bit that the wind kept blowing my hair in my face, so I thought getting a sports hat. Yet, when I found a few for sale, I did not like them. They seemed so crappy. So I went for the wool German hat.

With great efforts of fighting wind, rain and the unfamiliarities of the German street names (meaning we did a wide *touristic* route) we made it to the Rathaus Romer Frankfurt Am Main.

There we took a break, and had some drinks (more beer). Sitting there, waiting for the elderies to recover their strengths (Dad I love you anyways), I got a little bit chill (all right, more than a little bit, I was shaking, my hands where red, and I was unable to articulate any recognizable words).

Fortunately once we got back on track, and because I was doing zig-zags on the pedestrian streets (to see both sides of them), I quickly recover my traditional *I am from Bilabo* body heat.

Looking for a place to have lunch, we bumped into a Dominican restaurant. The entrance where some stairs that went underground, with a peculiar design of curvy shapes on the walls, and curved cave style ceilings.

Once we where in *the cave*, we were welcomed with Merengue music, ultraviolet lights, a disco type mirrors ceiling ball, a picture of Maria with a candle on it, flags of some centro american countries on the walls (including the Panama flag), and a Latino Spanish speaking waitress.

The food menu was in Spanish (but with German price level). I asked for what I miss the most, chicken, white rice, patacones and porotos.

The serving size was latino style, a decent amount of chiken, not to many patacones (I guess it is pricy to import them), a generousous portion of rice, a small salad and porotos.

Although I was not too convinced of the *antro* where we where eating, I quickly changed my mind after pouring the porotos on top of the rice and tasting it. It was just like home.
I left nothing on the plate.

For desert we where offered a digestive drink (a ginebra like cherish shot glass). Not bad.
We (well, actually dad) tipped the guy with 5Euros (that is $8.30).
The guy was grateful, and explaining us what kind of environment they are looking to create. I think we where the only customers to stop by in a long time.

After a generousous nap at the warm an fuzzy hotel, we took a hike back (on the sex street) to the Hauptbahnhof train station.

The magnitude of the iron dome, the coming and going of travelers, the constant announcement and last minute calls for high speed trains on the speakers, gave me a sensation of *fast lane* excitement. For a moment I wished I could just take a backpack and leave somewhere. I guess the traveling phenomena is contagious.

After finding the information for the Kholn train, we took off. There where plenty of small restaurants and shops at the station, however we where looking for a more *traditional* place to eat. We ended up in a tabern style place, and ordered the traditional golashsupe, a thick meat and spicy wich I learned that is also a Russian traditional one.

There was a rokola kind music station, and there was always someone coming to it to add some coins, and put some great music. Most of the time it was American music, however they also played some German titles as well.

The people where, I guess, I little bit happy, as they where dancing to the rithim (from within their seats) others would stand up momentarily to enfatize the movement of the electric guitar.
A guy in particular I saw talking tru his shoe. I guess that one was way loaded on bier.

Here, at the Bier-Bregel I learned two important words.
1. Kleine shnap [yup, I had two shots]
2. Rechnung bitte.[and asked for the bill].

Made it back to the Hotel by almost midnight.

Today was a good day.

The arrival.

2007-03-17T19:31:00.000-05:00

The plane from Madrid to Frankfurt was like a box of matches.
Thankfully it was not that full, so I got relocated to a better position, way on the back of the plane, where I took trhee seats in a row, and sat (slept) sideways.

Once we arrived to Frankfurt, the real fun began.
As soon as we departed the plane into the terminal, I found myself lost.
I mean if it was'nt for the icons of the signs, I would not know wish way to go.

It was a combination of *Fuck I feel lost* and *How cool, let's find out if I can make it ti the hotel without asking for help*. A real trill.

Unfortunaly when traveling in group, and specially with the parents, it is aint easy to go with such adventurous decisions, so we asked and asked....Still, it was a little adventure, as we took several stairs to go way underground, and find a train terminal right under the airport.

And there we took a train. And no, we did not paid for it.

The hike from the Hauptbahnhof Central Station to the Hotel was not so bad, even thought we made it with all our lugages (and mine has no wheels, yea real old fashion).

Now, the Hotel was pick up vía internet, and in fact is quite clean and *quiet*, however is in an *erotic* area. All I have to do is cross the street to go to one of the many cabarets, strip clubs, table dance shows, *suppliers stores*, etc... It spices the atmosphere.

After lucnh, I split from my parents.
No, I did not went to any cabaret, I just took off to the park, and across the *Main River*.
The weather was kind of cool, but enjoyable, however after one our, and specially when I was on the pedestrian brindge over the river (at 10:00pm), it drop below my comfort temperature, so even when I was not tired, I cut back home [Gezz when I made it to the hotel I could not feel any of my twenty fingers].

Hopefully, tomorrow with the sunlight, there will be a more comfortable weather.

Taking off.

2007-03-16T23:20:00.000-05:00

Friday the 16.

Today is the day, it is flight day.

Yet, as much as I would have liked to just relax and wait for *the time*, I was faced with a few *inportant* office situations. Fortunaly for me, I was able to resolv them using the phone, and VPNing into the office (yea, one of thouse times where technology actually works to solve problems).

By 10am, I went into looking for a portable computer. A new one to take on this flight. Yes, I am leaving tonight, so why not, the very best time to go and aquire a new notebook is today.

With that out of the way, and after I finished creating the HP restore DVDs (yea HP is skiming on the costs by not providing the in instalation CDs, but by rather forcing the user to burn them on first boot).

It was time for a nap, and even with all the anxiety I had, I was able to sleep three quarters of an hour. Oviosly I stetted up two alarm clocks.

The internal clock must have kicked in, cause I woke up four minutes before any of the alarm clocks went off.

A quick energizing (fattening?) lunch at McDonalds, and it is time to go out to buy some shoes. Yes, at 5:30pm I am driving to MultiPlaza to get me the shoes I intent to use while out of the country (I have to admit, I kind of liked the rush feeling).

I could not find any shoes I like (ejem, actually I could not find any shoes MY SIZE, I guess there is not a high demand for size 14). But nevertheless the visit to the mall was fun, there was a Models Pasarela fashion show off, and it was kind of cool to chill out there for a while.

Back at home, by 6:20, I decide that I really want to take the shirt that I am wearing, but it is to sweated for traveling now (I mean, there are 14 hours of flight, I think I prefer to start them with a clean shirt). So in a snap I decide to do laundry. This is a tight desision, as the driver is scheduled to come pick me up at 7:10pm.

Usually when I am just hanging around, the short cycle really seems short, however I found it quite longer today. By 6:55pm, I was pulling the shirt out of the washing machine.

I found a strange relaxation moment as I was ironing (to dry) my shirt.
I was actually sort of a sense of confidence, a feeling that events will go fine.

Thhe neck area was quite tricky to get dry, but as for the rest, this has to be the best ironed shirt I ever had.

Once at the airport, time seemed to slow down again.

The ONE POUND Ginger Snaps.

2007-03-11T23:40:00.001-05:00

It is about 9:20, and I decide to go out shopping to the supermarket. I pick El Rey on Calle 50, cause it is continently close to where I live (uhum, now you have an idea where I live).

Anyways, I quickly transverse tru the corridors of products, taking from the shells whatever I need. I am not into looking at new products tonight.

In less than 10 minutes, my shopping is done, I have everything I went for, everything but two products; My favorite cookies, the Lil' Dutch Maid Ginger Snaps ones. They do not bring too many of these. I guess not so many buyers like them, sometimes I even think I am the only one who buy them.

And a MasMovil $10.00 card (yes, I am a proud user of the pre paid network).

So I am back at home, writing on my white board the *things* that I am going to do tomorrow(yes dad, that includes looking out for your new computer), when I realize, I really have a craving for my ginger cookies.

I lightly decide that I am going to El Rey at Albrook to get them. As I drive there, I notice how I am enjoying the ride.I realize that I could have picked up the one at Via España, but the Avenida Balboa at night is much prettier.

So I make it to El Rey, and they have four packs of my favorite cookies, but I only want one.At the cahier, I ask for the MasMovil card, and no she does not have a $10.00 one, only a bunch of $5.00 ones (thouse are useless to me, I want to a 30 days card).

I pay my cookies ($1.59) and approach the other cashiers on adjacent lines to ask "do any of you have $10.00 MasMovil cards?" they all say no, but then one of them says, *let me find one for you*. She closes the line, logs out of the cash register, and goes upstairs.

After a while, I do not know, a couple of minutes, she comes back with a stack of $10.00 MasMovil cards. Re-opens the cash line and ask *How many do you want?*.

So I got back on the road, but not after thanking her for a great service.

And I wonder, if it is just that I am a lucky guy?

Or maybe I am so handsome, and the cashiers just can not resist to serve me.

Yea I like that.

I do not know, but in any case, I think the results are great.

I also think is great to have the freedom to be able to do as I wish.

I like living here in Panama.

-Roman.

PD: Yes, I am eating ginger cookies as I write this post.

Follow it tru.

2007-02-25T01:07:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I was talking about how simple life is. Just a matter of taking decisions.

Well, I had my good set of decisions for today (nothing too extreme).

The day went pretty much like this;

Shave. CHECK
Shower CHECK
Dress (clean) CHECK
Set the miracle machine to do some washing CHECK
Breakfast CHECK
Wet-sand the first layer of paint on the balcony metal bar CHECK
Scratch the paint on the balcony wall. CHECK
Paint a second layer on the balcony metal bar CHECK
Shower again CHECK
Dress again (clean again). CHECK
Do the laundry hanging thing CHECK
Go out to eat. CHECK
Visit my parents (and pick up the mail) CHECK
Go shopping (new leather gloves, paint, metal brush, nine bricks, 48 pounds of concrete, a sack of sand) CHECK
Window shopping at Lumicentro CHECK
Unload the vehicle CHECK
Clean all the dirt from the stairs (the bricks released sand when I drop them there) CHECK
Shower (third time) CHECK
Dress (clean underwear again ) CHECK
Remove the sofa from the studio CHECK
Scratch the studio ceiling paint CHECK
Pour some paint and mix it with 25% of water CHECK
Dip the humongous $1.00 paint roller I bought last week CHECK
Answer the cell phone, and decline an invitation to Cerro Azul, cause I am painting, and I have plans to go biking later. CHECK
Get fashion with the European style *body highlights* as I painted the ceiling. CHECK
Clean everything (took for ever on that paint roller) CHECK
Prepare my dinner NOT DONE.
Procrastinate like a master for two hours CHECK
Get upset (I guess with myself) for not following tru. CHECK

Decide not to go biking (cause I like to procrastinate on things I like to do). CHECK
Shower (fifth time), no wonder why I have to do laundry every day. CHECK
Dinner from Mc Donalds, at 9:30pm CHECK

Drive back from McDonalds, and think *Fuck it, I am going to stick to the plan*. CHECK

Eat (or actually stuff the food down my troat) CHECK
Brush my teeth. CHECK

Grab the bike and frozen water bottles from the fridge CHECK
Get to the Causeway at 10:30pm CHECK

Ride 25km CHECK
Drive back home CHECK
Shower (sixth time) CHECK
Post this blog entry. CHECK

Today was a good day.
Started good, evolved good, and ended good.
Yet, it was close to end bad.

Making the plan is essay. The tricky part is to follow it tru.

And by the way, if you see a shiny silver and black bike, with a red blinking tail light, a white frontal led light, and a tall handsome guy on it, it is probably me.

Greet me.

Feel happy with myself. CHECK

Good night Internet.

Life is full of challenges.

2007-02-23T08:49:00.000-05:00

Sometimes challenges might be simple things, like keeping up with our personal do-list.
But then comes the law of inevitability, and some tasks will not make it. [ie, the posts for January and February]

They might lag behind waiting to one day be done, or until we rule them out.

Then it becomes a matter of choosing which ones will and which ones will not.

We get to rule in our lives.
But different than a king, we where not *elected* to follow the general desire, but just our own.

What a great sense of freedom can it be to choose and rule the direction of our decisions and life.

Humm, I have just reduced all the the complexity of life, to an endless stream of decitions.
I should get a Nobel Prize or something for that.

And to introduce some paradox here, I am just going to decide to do nothing for the rest of the day.

Life is good.

Full moon walk.

2006-12-07T18:53:00.000-05:00

Tuesday December 07, today I had such a weird day.

Traffic has been heavy and slow since the beginning of this month (it is all about the Christmas shopping madness), however today it reached levels that I have never seen (not even when driving in LA at rush hour).

And together with all the weirdeness I already had for today, made me "flip".

I had two meetings for tonight at the same time, but as usual, none of them really thrilled me. I was searching in my mind for relaxing ideas, maybe I could go ride my bike tonight at the Causeway, or go swim a few laps (pool is open up to 9pm). But even those things felt like a hassle.

Then I remembered, that last night as I came out of the office, I saw this humongous full moon. And in that second, I pictured myself on a beach walking barefoot on sand, next to the crashing waves.

A friend was on the chat, and she could not understand how I preferred to drive alone to the beach at 8pm rather than hang out with my friends. But then again, I do not expect to be understood.

I closed the laptop, took a quick shower, packed the swimsuit, and extra sweeter, two granola packs, three half litters bottles of water, $20.00 in my wallet, turned off the mobile phone, wrote a quick note on my blog (I know my family and friends read it), and left.

=============================================
Full moon walk.
Weird day.

Hay luna llena esta noche y mañana libre.

Voy saliendo (a las 7:30pm) pa la playa a darme una caminata por la arena.

No se que playa, ni donde voy a dormir.

Regreso mañana.

Ciao.

-Román.

=============================================

The deal with spontaneous decisions, is that they depend a lot on available resources. In this case, I made my first stop at KFC Calle 50, I had my dinner, and I also had two additional big rice and chicken bowl to go. They will serve well for breakfast tomorrow, and probably another second dinner tonight (yes, I eat a lot, and yet I have only 12% body fat).
I took off from the KFC with no hurry, there was no itinerary, I do not even know which beach I am going to (I will decide that on the road), or where I would sleep (probably in the car). My only tinny concern, is that I just had a biggy combo meal, and all that liquid (64oz of cafeinated cola) will want to get out probably sooner that I would be ready for. But then again, I am sure I would be able to handle that.

By 8:48, I make it to the *Autopista* fee gate. I am not bursting yet, but I decide to stop on the side, and ask for the bathroom anyways. Better safe than sorry.

I continue my driving. As long as I am not sleepy, in a traffic jam, or in a hurry, I enjoy long range driving. For me is like watching fire, or the ocean. It is such a simple thing, and yet it is always different.YES, I enjoy watching the yellow segmented lines coming forward to me, and the cat-eyes reflections on them.
This provides me with an excellent opportunity to relax, to let go, to re-live the daily situations in a sort of third person view, and get a different perspective of them.

I also do a lot of problem solving when I am swimming my laps, but that story belongs to another post.

Anyways, is is around 9:50pm when I make it to "El Refugio". I have still not decided if it is here where I will spend the night, so when I park my car, I get out straight to the beach for my moon night walk, without stopping first to do the "socialities".

The bright full moon, reflecting it's splendor on the dark ocean, the wet sand massaging the bottom of my feet, the cold water brushing up to my ankles, the sound of the ocean waves crashing, I was instantly relief. [as I write this, and remember/re-live the experience in my mind, I feel like going back there]. I spent about 40 minutes playing on the shore, taking creepy pictures (altought point and shoot digital cameras are rarely good for long exposure shots).

Then I decided. I needed not to drive any more. This is the place.
Back at El Refugio, I noticed all the lights on, the doors open, but nobody around.

Cautiously as a ninja, I went into the property, ready to jump back and set myself into the combat position, yet that was not necessary. Russell came out and greeted me, Roman!, welcome. I asked if they had a BunkBed they could rent me for the night. He said, "you are part of the family, you stay for free". "Hey everybody, Roman is here, I am giving him a free bed".

Did I mention I am an extremely lucky guy?

I am in gratitude of a lot of people, and the guys at El Refugio, in El Palmar have just joined the list.

If you need a place to stay, on a beach close to the city, El Refugio is the place you need.

Give them a call at '64978651 Russell Slough' or '64978632 Phil Van Houten' and if you decide to show up, send them greetings from me.

Tavidal

2006-12-03T17:24:00.000-05:00

I was the night of the 2, I had just finished cleaning all the mud from my bike, tuning it, oiling it and even patching a tire.

It was almost midnight, and I had not decided what I was going to do on Sunday (or if I was going to do anything at all).

I had pre thought a couple of choices, Taboga, Cerro Azul, Metropolitan park, Playa Blanca, San Carlos, but nothing seemed to be particularly exciting. Then as I was just sitting on my desk, I realized it has been a month since I went on a medium adventure (Isla Iguana).

Immediately I knew what I wanted to do. I had "heard" of a place called Tavidal that had a beautiful waterfall. Took a look at my cartographical map, and found a Tavidal Arriba in Penonome.

It was almost midnight, but the decision was made. Tomorrow I am going to the Tavidal Waterfall.

I spent another half an hour preparing a cache (geocaching.com to learn more). The alarm was set for clock for 8:00am.

A friend was on the chat, and he thought I was nuts, I was going to have to drive at least eight hours on a single day, plus whatever time I was going to be there. It seemed like too much.

I woke up at 5:24am, two hours before the scheduled time. I knew I had not rested enough, yet the thirst for adventure made me jump out of the bed, took a quick shower, packed my camelback with some gatorade, a couple bars of granola, insect repellent and a tinny medikit.
Stuffed $40.00 in my wallet and took off.

It was really a pleasure driving in the city that early. First stop was at the gast station. I knew I was going to drive at least 400km round trip, so I did a full vehicle inspection, added some oil to the engine and filled up the tank.

Took off.

Second stop was at Coronado. It was time for a second breakfast (first one was a pity granola bar). I bought six chicken empanadas and tree ice tea packs, and even tough I pushed the empanadas down my troat as quick as possible, I still managed to loose twenty minutes there.

At 7:49am I was back on the road. By 8:30am I was feeling tired. Reality was catching up, I did not slept enough las night. But then I saw the Penonomé waypoint flag on my gps (I have it attached to my windshield), and knowing that I was close woke me up.

Five minutes later, I stopt at a gas station in Penonome. Went in, and asked for the lube.
Then I went back into the tinny grocery store, bought a watter bottle, and asked the cashier "where is the Tavidal Waterfall" (That is part of the adventure, driving all the way to Penonome, without knowing the exact directions).

She did not knew, neither her working pal. They have never heard of it. I had a strange cold feeling, but suddenly the guy behind me on the line says "I own the waterfall".

I was like, what? How can you own that? Is it even possible to own a waterfall?
Well, he explained he owns all the land that surrounds the waterfall, and even the Hotel/Spa called "La Posada". He says that the waterfall and the lands around belong to the Panama Network of Private Natural Parks. Entrance fee is $1.00 and asked me about "how many" we are on my group.

He finds hard to believe that I have come alone from the city, just to see the waterfall and leave. I explain him that I like visiting places, learning about them, so I can later come with a group of people and show them.

Anyhow, Alfonso has something to do, but we agree to meet at La Posada.
We part on different directions (I goofed and started driving on the wrong road), but quickly fond the road that goes to "Chiriquita Grande".

So I made it to "La Posada", and I was truly surprised. I thought it was going to be a crappy hostel. It happen to be quite a nice place. It has 17 rooms (and I am not getting any fees for this marketing...yet), all of them with beautiful views of the forest. It had a nice and confi social room with tv and pool and ping pong table.

Soledad, the lady that works there, even gave me a tour to the rooms, so I was able to (paparazi style) take pictures of the inside of them.

Then she walked me into the spa and introduced me to Isac.
He tells me about there used to be many frogs, monkey, lazy bears, iguanas, but each year with the constant human invasion, thouse animals run deeper into the forest.

On the trails, if one is lucky, might see some animals. Birds are visible all day long, specially in the morning.

On the matter of snakes, all of the area snakes with the exception of the "ratonera" and the "iguanera". However as long as the trails are clean and open, there is no problem.

That was ok, but what Isac real expertise is as a professional therapist. He and his wife work providing a wide range of therapist experiences, ranging from soft massages with natural secnences aroma and music, then there is chiropractic for back problems. And even more extreme, there is Tailandes therapy, that one is hard (on the floor) using his knees hard on you. (I did not asked for a demonstration).

There was also a massage with medical mud, sauna, cold therapy and yoga.

For chiropractic and tailandes a special consultation has to be arranged (that is no joke my fellow readers).

Alfonso has arrived, and we meet again, we talk from a diverse kind of topics, ranging from personal sports like water polo to Natural Conservation. He is the founder of the Panamanian Natural Private Reserves.

We sit down, for some coffee and to talk business. I'll spare you from the details.

Anyways, I got interested into knowing more about the project named "Fe y Alegria", whose objective is to promote the production of organic products. They train the locals and help them get the international Organic Certification. Currently there are five locals with an international certification of organic products, and twelve more that are already recognized, and working on the paperwork to get their official certification.

Moving on, Alfonso guided me on the way to the Tavidad Waterfall. The road now was quite rocky. I would not dare to drive it without a 4x4. The Spa has some cabins near the waterfall as well, and they offer mule rides ($20.00 a person) to get there.

My measurements indicate that we drove for 3.4km (and lost up to 142 meters in the first 1.5km). After that short (but fun) drive, we got out of our vehicles, and started a beautiful 1km hike.

We made it to the cabins. There are tree of them. There is one in particular I liked so much. It has a clear view of the waterfall. That one has four single beds and two bunk-bed ones for a total of 8 sleeping spaces (I asked for the toilet as a pity excuse to get into the cabin).

Everywhere I look, I noticed clean cut grass, not a single snack paper wrap on sight, even on the trails. It was really neat. So neat that I actually was fearing for the cache that I had with me, and wanted to plant near the waterfall. So proceeded to explain Alfonso about it. I illustrated him about what is geocaching, I told him that I had one with me that I intended to plant here, and showed him the container, with all the goodies inside.

Alfosno was fascinated with the idea, and more than agreed for me to place a cache here.
We also meet with Valerio who is the guy in charge of cleaning, repairing and giving general maintenance to the trails. We found him at the base of the waterfall *cleaning it*, he was removing some dirt, branches and leaves.

The waterfall itself was splendid. The water falls from such high altitude, that it disintegrates into mist giving the waterfall a ghosty look, and providing a fresh environment all around. On top of that, since this waterfall is sort of secluded in the forest, there where beautiful sun ray designs as the sun light passed tru the forest and reflected on the ambience mist.

I planted the cache GCZMZ0, and so my mission here was complete.

Now we take off, hike back to the vehicles, and drive to an area called Vaquilla (that is 7km more into mud and rocks). The locals know Alfonso (they call him *abuelo* [grandpa] ), and so everyone he drives into will greet him. On the other hand, they look kind of weird at me, I guess not too many other vehicles drive tru this areas.
By noon we make it to *Fe y Alegria* (gezz this adventure is really on a roll), we do a quick stop, to deploy some supplies, mostly organic fertilizer.

Alfonso invited me to his house *Finca el Remiendo*, I accept. More fun driving.

Here he only brings his family, some close friends and sometimes scientific's that are in the working on. I feel privileged.

My brain is like a sponge absorbing knowledge, and Alfonso has quite a repertory of histories to please me with. And all this over a just made lunch is even better.

After lunch we take a quick nap on the hammocks, and after that we take a short hike to the river. Alfonso has a long stick that he uses to keep the goose away.

Once on the river, I get a guided tour, with explanations about the plants on the trail.
I have to say that most of the information I had forgotten, however I keep the experience, I remember how I felt being taken care.

We made it to Alfonso's favorite spot. There we sat and rest. And after a few minutes I comment that I have the *urge* to jump into the water. He says that he was waiting for me to say that. So I jump in. (ahhh the wonders of lycra underwear, they serve well as a swimsuit and they get dry quickly). Alfonso, on the other hand lives there, and was therefore prepared (thank God!).

Anyways, the river was great. On this particular area is where a wide flow converges into a small one, so the currents are quite strong (if you manage to stay there). I enjoyed a lot holding tight into the rocks with my hands, and let the water pull me and stretch me (altought I keep bending my knees, just in case the lycra decided to slip). It was a great massage.
I got out of the water hypothermic. I was shaking. Quickly got dress and we went now to see other much older plantations. These ones he got from Costa Rica. And finally back home.

Where one more time, Alfonso cooked for us (did I mention that I am in great gratitude?).
And he is by the way, a great chef. And after some cheese and a bottle of wine we eat.

When I finally touched the bed, I fell asleep instantly. It has been a great day.
I did woke up at 4am, and started thinking about the tours, how would I do it, what would be included, the logistics, and .... well that was the end of my sleeping.

So I got off, showered, dressed (with the same clothes again) had two granola snacks (4 bars), and some gatorade. Outside was windy, I was using a towel to cover myself. Yes I get chilly easy.

Sunrise was good, it had an unusual combination of pink and purple colors. But because of the forest, and the clouds I never really got to see where exactly was the sun.

Guess what?, Alfonso did the breakfast too. And it was good.

Shortly after that, I departed, not without shaking his hand and letting him know It had been a great experience.

On my way home, I could not stop feeling extremely lucky.
When I departed home yesterday, I was expecting getting lost, maybe not finding the waterfall, driving late, being hungry even sleeping somewhere in the car (it would not be the first time).

Yet, I was presented with an exciting wonderful pleasant and friendly experience.

Life is good.

Fort San Lorenzo.

2006-11-26T23:26:00.000-05:00

It was build way long time ago, by the spanish guys (my roots), well probably only directed by them, and slaved some indians into the job, so we could have our traditional two hours nap after lunch.

Anyways, it is build on the entrance of the Chagres river and it was meant to be the fist line of protection against *the bad guys* like Henry Morgan, that kept coming with angry faces shooting cannonballs and wanting to get the gold that was in Panama.

Well, that fort is no longer needed, all the gold is gone (yea blame me). But because of the isolated location it makes a pretty ride to do.

So on the 26 of November I went with my BOA pals to ride the trail that gets to it.
Well it is not actually a trail, there is an excellent road that goes from the Gatun locks to the entrance of the Fort Sherman [one of the Gringos military bases].

After that, is where the fun begins. A quick stop at the Anam gatekeeper (to pay for the park entrance) and there we go on a mud and rocks road that a regular car could take slowly if it wasan't for the constant confrontation with fallen trees.

The round trip from the Gatun locks is about 46 km and an amateur as I am did it in 3 hours.

Yea, for some this might be discouraging, but I'll tell you, it is rewarding to bike the trail under the tree foliage and get to the magnificent view of the Chagres river entrance (this is the river we use to get the Panama Canal going).

On the way back we even encountered some howler monkeys on the trees. And we stopt to take a look at them (or for them to take a look at us).

Then the goup separated, mos of them took home, I decided to go to Portobelo and plant another cache there. [Check cache GCZHFT and GCZ9KDplanted during this trip].

With nothing else to say, let's take a look at the pictures.

Pulling the Plug

2006-11-25T23:07:00.000-05:00

Last week. I was "realizing" that maybe I invest (spent) too much time and energy surfing the net. Ahh the great modern times.

Then I thought, how would my life be like, if I did not had the modern commodities?
In an spontaneous decision (impulsive?) I disconnected plugs.
I set myself ¨free" from the cell phone, land line, and Internet.
[I kept the electricity, otherwise the meat in the fridge would go raw].
[I do not have a TV, so one plug less to pull].

Now what?
At first, I thought I was going to go insane. I mean, I have a very active mind, I am always thinking about something (aren't we all?) I needed to direct that energy somewhere.

Anxiety, anxiety and more anxiety.

I guess I am really an addicted, and I was feeling the cut-off effects.

By Wednesday I had the situation "controlled".
I felt perfectly ok about not having Internet, a computer, or telephony services.
I actually had a general sensation of well being.
I had forgotten about the "society", I was once again doing whatever I wanted, without the concerns or expectations of the world.
I get that a lot, whenever I get alone. [And it tends to creep out some people].

Then on Tuesday as I was "reading" an old book, I came across a paragraph that basically said that "It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after out own; but the great man is who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude" - The Essential Writings; Ralph Waldo Emerson.

And although I realized I belong to the segment that is influenced by the society, it came as a strange relief, knowing that I was not the only one having that kind of issues.

How is this "new information" (the book was written in 1841) will affect me?, I do not know.
Time will tell.

Then I came back "online", and realized I did not miss much.

Tree Climbing.

2006-11-19T22:57:00.000-05:00

Supposedly we where going to go to Cerro Gaital this weekend, however a tree climbing opportunity showed up, and the plans changed in a snap.

So we made it to the Metropolitan park, we had a special permission to get to a Ceiba tree (which is in an area not permitted to the general public).
We had Milton and Jorge, expert tree climbers of Panama Tree Climber.

Harold, Lizbeth, two ladies from the Metropolitan park office, another one, not bad looking, cousin of the manager, a couple of kids, Jelix and I.

I liked Milton's style, he is very clear on the instructions and procedures, keeping everything safe, without making it boring.

It was a great experience, I was glad I went.

The Gamboa Resort

2006-11-11T22:54:00.000-05:00

I have never been to a resort, and I haver really been interested in them.
Yet, this was once in a lifetime family occasion, and I decided to take the invitation (what a difficult life I have, right?).

I arrived on my own wheels and behaved like a total tourist. I walked upright into the hall and took pictures of anything I could think of.

Then I went to the pool area, and guess what? I took even more pictures, including myself in some of them.

After finding my syster and parents, we made it to the restaruant. My dad was not impressed by the meal, but for me it was wonderful. I guess it depends on your point of view. For me it meant not having to cook, not having to do the dishes, having more than one kind of product on my plate and not having to pay for anything.

Well, after the meal (which by the way filled my up) we took a lake ride.
For once, I was a passenger on toured guide. [I sometimes work doing a lake tour in Colon].
It was kind of fun, picking on the tour guide, asking him weird questions.
[some of them, completely unrelated to the tour].
But then later, I would laugh, and let him know I was just busting him a little.
He did ok.

Nobody was trown out of the boat or feed to the cocodriles, and we returned to the marina.
The family made it all together to the rooms (which where like a mile away).

Being in the same room with my sister, felt actually kind of good.
It reminded me of when we where kids, and we all traveled together tru the world, and my parents made us sleep on the same room (even thought at that time, I strongly disliked it).

And then it happened, something I would have never thought of doing.
I ordered room service (did I mention this was once in a life time family event?).

And then we ordered desert (by now it is guaranteed this is the last time we get invited to a hotel).

Now for breakfast I did got out of the room (showered before that).
It was a good buffet, and I "stole" the mini-marmalade jars that where on our table (so next time I go camping, I can have toasts with marmalade on it, like a total snob).

By 10am I had nothing else to do [the kayaks where not available].
I had called Harold, to check if the Pipeline road hike was on, but it wasn't.
So I had to sacrifice myself to just lie on a hammock and relax.
It was kind of cool that I could hear the howler monkeys screaming far away.
I like thouse creatures.
So in summary, even tough I am not a fan of the resorts, I had a great time.

Thumbs up Mom for paying for everything :-P.

IslaIguana III

2006-11-05T20:23:00.000-05:00

Last year as I left, I promised myself I would come again, one more time.

I had been thinking about it, for as much as a month before the date.
This year, I was taking in consideration the moon, so a varied the date a little bit, so I would go on full moon (and technically there should be more fish in the water).

Anyways, I told a couple of my friends what I had in mind, but they did not seemed to thrilled by the idea.

Last minute, I made a call to congratulate Madeleine on her birthday, and as we chit-chated a little bit, she jumped right away into the idea of the trip. I pretty much had no time to finish saying what I was going to do.

I left home with a loaded car, but then again, Madeleine and Mariel do not have “anything” for camping, so I was packing two camping tents, three inflatable mattresses, a big first aid kit an air pump and a lot more stuff that I usually do not carry [at least not all at the same time].

Oh, I also invited Victor, a friend of Mariel I had meet before, once.
We stop at Subway's Chorrera, for a breakfast.

Not even 20 minutes into the 5 hours drive, and Mariel was sleeping, what a great co-pilot.

After a brief stop in Coronado, we continued our journey to Las Tablas.
There we met with Pier, a friend's of Madeleine, who joined us.

We made it to Las Tablas.
People kept joining, we picked up Josefina somewhere here.

This year, we assaulted one of the boats in the water, pirate style and boarded it.
Just kidding, a friend of “our captain” gave us a ride to his panga.

There where funny things wandering around.

Sunset was pretty, as usual.
Isn't sunset always a pretty thing?

So we watched it. This is what I call High Definition.

Made got all spiritual, or something. Yiaiks.

The show included people playing ball on the sand, birds flying high, the sound of waves crashing and rainbow of colors that slowly turned from blue to red.

The night came. And with that, a massive deploy of crabs.
But even more important, sauces and baked potatoes camping style.

The next morning, well refreshed from a good sleep (except from the brief interruption at 3am, when the shore water got to the tent door), it is suntan and diving time.

Isn't that a pretty beach?

This year I noticed some sea hare creatures. I have never seen a creature like this, somehow it reminded me of Shrek. (And when I came back home, I read more about them, yiaks they have inside skeleton).

I almost forgot to mention, this year I planted a “cache” on the island.
It is close to this place. GCZ5JH Come and get it.

And then it was time to leave.

On the bright side, we stop at El Palmar, to have dinner, and it was quite good. No more sauces, I though.

The next morning Madeleine had the opportunity to practice her boogie skills.

And then SAUCES again, NOOOO, I want to go home !!!

Back at “the city”, Madeleine and Mariel invited me for dinner. I guess they liked the trip.
No, I did not ordered sauces.

-The End.

Tommy Guardia

2006-11-01T17:12:00.000-05:00

I went to the infamous Tommy Guardia institute.

From the outdoors community, I had never heard anything good about these guys.

They have a work shcedule that goes from 7am to 3pm.

I wen on the 31 of the month, with a pay day and Hallowen holiday, and at 2:51pm.

As I went tru the door, I was greeted. I did not stop for chat, and went straight to the Maps section (there is a big “maps” sign).

There, there was a lady on the computer, another guy at the cashier and a guy hanging around with maps.

I knew what I wanted, I had the Nad27 coordinates with me, yet I did not need them. They had a general map of Panama with a grid of the available maps.

Pointing out what I needed was quick and easy.

As soon as I selected my maps, the guy went and get it for me.
He even tried to locate my coordinates on the map (however I did not had my GPS on MGRS at the moment, so it did not matched the grid).

I was just gona pay for my maps ($8.00 each) and leave, but the guy say, no, let me get you a ruberband to hold them rolled up. He even shacked my hand on the way out.

I do not know about what others have found, but I have the impression of a great service. I felt very well served.

On the way out, the lady near the door, smiled at me and say good by.

After that, I left happy, and went to my dad Office, Dad, dad, check out the maps I got.
Together we found the waypoint I had on my gps unit....

And that was the last time I saw the paper map...

[Tommy Guardia's place]

[My maps, and the selecting grid]

[Daddy checking out the maps]

[The last time I saw them]

A lousy day.

2006-10-23T11:57:00.000-05:00

I woke up feeling a little bit lousy today.

I checked my mail, and I had three emails from friends, with all kind of cool stuff and invitations to go hang out and play console games.

I get a call from Eduardo, we have a quick conversation about VPNs, proxies and catchup on other stuff, like his upcoming birthday.

Then I noticed I had a message on my answer machine, It was Dix, saying hello and seeing if I could give him a hand with the ADSL installation.

I was still feeling lousy, but I call him back. I get the his answer machine. I leave a message saying I'll be at the pool, and that maybe later I could give him a hand.

As I drive to the pool, I am feeling very angry and frustrated. I have the urge to scream aloud, but I do so only inside of me.

When I am near the old market, I am remembering some of the adventure ideas I had, like doing a rappel event from a chopper. I never found out the costs for that. I procrastinated.

I get to the pool, and I see Walter with a tie. It is such an unusual sight. I have always knew him as the pool lifeguard, so it is kind of odd for me seeing him all “formal”. We joke a little bit (about him).

I paid my pool fees it quarters, Ruth was looking odd at me for doing so. I bust her balls, telling her how nonconformist she is, “if I pay in dollars, you want coins for the soda machine, now I pay in coins, and you want bills?”.

I have not finished saying so, when a lady comes with a busted dollar bill, asking for change...

I go and change. The ambient temperature is quite low, and the sky is clouded. I keep thinking that the water is going to be cold. Quite the opposite, the water is very warm. So warm I notice it.

I start to swim, today I do not care about laps or timing. I just want to swim and dive.
Half way on the lane I see Dix, he says aloud “Hey Roman!”. I briefly lift my hand from the water, but I continue swimming.

After two laps, Dix is at the beginning of the pool, so I stop there. As I am removing my mask, he is already giving me his hand, all exited to see me. I shake his hand, and he introduces me to another guy that I have never seen before, ” hey this is Kalh, he flies helicopters”. I shake Kalh hand, but I am speechless.

So I let Dix do the talking. He is talking about his passion, spearfishing. After a couple of minutes, I go on on my swimming, and as I do so, I can not stop thinking “I should have taken the opportunity to ask about how much does it cost to rent an helicopter”.

A couple of laps, and I stop again to listen to their conversation. Now Dix ask's “how much does it cost to fly an helicopter”. It is as he had read my mind. So Kalh goes on with the hourly policy, the types of helicopters available in Panama, and so on. I now have all the information I wanted to know.

O well, they take off, and I stay.

I had to go out of the pool a few times (diving too much gets your pee bag loaded).

And every time I came back into the pool, somebody else greeted me. Like “Hey I have not seen you in a while”. I do not even know the names of some of the guys.

On one occasion I went to the changing room, to apply more defogging agent (tooth paste) to my mask, and there was an old man changing. I have never spoke to him, and I have never seen him speak to anybody. But he exclamate “are you done now?” I say, NO!, I still want to extract more juice out of my two dollars pool fee. He laughs.

Eventually I decide to leave the pool (after only two hours). My hands look like dry raisins already.

As I was showering, I was thinking.
I should get organized and get on a medium outdoors adventure once a month. I as thinking that being so long on the concrete jungle is what has me so fed up.

I change quickly and quietly. But as I am leaving the changing room, Gae sees me, and greets me, “Hey Roman, how are you doing man!”. I just answer (surprised) “Cool, cool.”, and leave.

I am hungry, no, I am starving. I drive to the Nikos. As I enter the place, I noticed my mood had changed. I actually greet people (people I do not know) on my way in.

As I get to the cashier, the girl even initiated a conversation with me. She is curious of why she only sees me at night, she has been paying attention. Quick chat, and I take off to enjoy my meal.

I get home, and just after I hang my wet clothes, brush my theet and log down my pool time on my exercises book, I land on my bed like a rock.

I barely hear the phone away far far away as I am falling asleep. It is a wireless headset, so I think I must have left it someplace else, like the living room.

Two and a half hours later, I wake up. I am thirsty, and as I drink two liters of water I let the computer check my mail.

More mail. Apart from the usual spam, there is a message from a Panamanian girl living in the USA. I do not know her, she is intrigued with my adventurous life style, and curious on how do I manage to constantly go on such adventures so often, and take the pictures I do.

I look around, and I see the phone headset on the desk next to my bed. Oh my good, I was really sleepy when I thought this thing was in the living room.

I check the answer machine, and it is Abdiel. Out of the blue he is calling from Benigans to invite me to join on lunch.

It is almost mid night now, and as I look in retrospective onto today's day, I can not help to feel a strange sensation.

I mean, if all these social network events happen withing a week, I would not be surprised.
When they happen all on the same day, I find it bizarre.
When they happen all on the day that I was feeling lousy, I find it to be beyond bizarre.

I told nobody I was feeling lousy, and yet the world seems to have orchestrated in some way to kick me out of it.

Referendum.

2006-10-22T07:27:00.000-05:00

Ya voté.

No se que me asombra más, que las mesas de votacion abrieran puntuales a las 7:00am, o que yo haya madrugado un Domingo.

Elephants Dream

2006-10-11T05:23:00.000-05:00

I was up late, “working” on a project.

And all the suddent, I realize that I have no idea how to organize myself using the Open Office suite.

So I decided to try to seek on the web for an GPL kind of project management software (yea, GPL is my friend).

Anyways, jumping from site to site, I stumbled upon an Open Made movie!

Yes, an animated movie created only with open source programs (you see, I am not the only GPL fan outhere).

Elephants Dream is the world’s first open movie, made entirely with open source graphics software such as Blender, and with all production files freely available to use however you please, under a Creative Commons license.

Tec Studio

2006-09-30T22:51:00.000-05:00

It was about a year ago, that the Let's Camp store opened, and it became a place to meet and get to know other outdoors people.

It was there where I met Harold and Carlos. And altought I got to knew that Harold was a webmaster and Carlos an architect, I never really deepened into that subject.
Our general conversations where more about what we had in common, trips, camping, rappel, in general passion for adventure.

Anyways, today I was with my sister discussing the possibility of building a beach house, yet we had no idea who to call for this. So I call Carlos, just to test the waters.

I was thinking, this guy works alone, it is probably a small thing, I mean, he never brags about his work, it must be really a thing just to eat.

So he shows up today to my place, with a CD of pictures of a few things he has done.

Before

After

Needless to say that I am impress.

And yes Carlos, I had to blog it, I just had to.

BTW;
Carlos Amaya
Club x, Calle 9
Tel/fax: 261-2081
Cel: 6618-3508
carlos@tecstudio.net

The Door Lock.

2006-09-25T23:49:00.001-05:00

Today I was shopping for a new door lock.

I was looking for something a little bit more secure than a crappy $10.00 door knob.

I found a Panamanian distributor with some very robust locks for about a hundred dollars (~$100).

I actually tested how the key would fit in my pocket, it was a little bit to big.

1st flu of 2006

2006-09-19T12:51:00.000-05:00

It is official, I have a flu.

This is the first flu of the year. Not bad.

But more surprising, is when I think back in time, and I see myself swimming on a lake in Canada, not finding a place to sleep in the Grand Canyon, that night I thought I was going to freeze to death (and I was wearing short pants).
Sleeping barely five hours a day as I was on my road trip tru USA. Probably not eating well enough (I lost over 20 pounds), sleeping on a bench (cold aluminum bench) in the middle of nowhere [hitch hiking] and yet, in all that time, I never got sick.

[Yea this is the trip I never wrote about. ]

So it is obviously not an environmental thing, cause I have been to more extreme situations with no problem.
It is not a food issue, cause I am eating a lot more healthy back in Panama.
It is not a exposure issue, cause in the states, I made over 8k miles on trains, hike, car, buses and planes. I had plenty of opportunities to catch a flu [and in some buses I was riding with the homeless].

So, all I can think of, is that is a psychological flu (way to go Roman, always being out of the box).
And if that is the case, I know exactly why. I know what new business I am starting, that is stealing my calm.

But, we all know who is going to be the winer on this war... the flu will die...

Four days on a panga with Dix Roper.

2006-09-13T16:26:00.000-05:00

Sweet adventures opportunities keep pooping up.

This time, Dix Roper, and experienced spearfisher invited me to join one of his trips.

In a nutshell on this trip I saw the dolphins swim next to the boat, and then I joined them in the water.
They where really close to me, I'll say 3 meters.

I swam as fast as I could with my flips, and managed to keep a decent observation distance and see them (four of them) swim in sort of zigzag in front of me. However, apparently dolphins are better swimmers...

On the matter of whales, they are huge (and have such a small eyes).
On a couple of my dives, I actually tough they where under me. Their sing was so clear.
Yet, I raised my head from the water, and saw their splash at least 15 km away.

Driving at 20 nuts with eagle sharp sight on the horizon to detect any chunks of wood (to avoid breaking the boat propeller or to dive around).
Maneuvering the boat, to pickup the divers, sometimes on wild sea conditions.

Working the anchor up, when it got stuck. That is what anchors do, right?

The sight of spectacular islands in the Las Perlas Archipelago.

Resting at the end of a log day, with tha friends, enjoying a meal together.

What an awesome trip.
Is good to be alive.

UPDATE: Here is the article written by Dix Roper.

Creepy Shot.

2006-08-12T23:55:00.000-05:00

Supposedly I was going out to take some pictures of the Perseids meteor shower .

That is why I even borrowed a nice digital camera (an EOS 350D/Rebel XT) from a friend.

Yet, as I was driving out of the city, I stopt on the way a few times, to test the equipment (I should have asked for the camera before, so I could better learn how to use it, instead of a few hours before dark).

This is one creepy shot I took.

It is a 30 seconds shot on ISO 1600.
I keep thinking about coming back to shoot it on ISO 100, however I need a better (steadier) tripod, as my hand on bulb will shake the one I have.

Once in Gamboa, I had the “opportunity” to enrich my folklore with even more creepy stories from the locals.

I have no idea how would I react if the white dress lady suddenly takes a ride with my on that dark road back to the city. [I did not see her tonight].

Other shots for the night.

Fortune messages.

2006-08-12T09:00:00.000-05:00

Last night, as I was pulling out a credit card from my wallet, a fortune message slided out.

.

These two I picked up in a restaurant in LA Chinatown (where I stayed for two nights).
I had forgotten I still had them in my wallet.
It was such a simple thing, yet it stamped a smile on my face. I felt happy.

Then as I handled the card to the cashier, she screamed “discount”, I asked why, and she said BancoUno cards get 15% discount. Now I feel lucky.

Life is good.

My new dad.

2006-07-30T21:01:00.000-05:00

Today our differences did not matter. We forgot about all that.

Altought the “destination” of the day was just to check out some piece of land, the “path” became a fun experience. As far as I can remember, it is the first time I go hiking with my dad.

And he is not in bad shape, for his age (let's be honest here, he was beating me hard on the trail).

Anyways, we got to share a few hours of common interests. Later we even went target shooting (with a pellets rifle).

Bonding with the family is always a good plus in life.

Making space for new things.

2006-07-25T15:13:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I told somebody, that “you have to let go of your old things, to make space for the new ones”.

Today, that thought came and bit me in the ass. I just realized I have a lot of things I could get rid of.

So I started with a tinny collection of empty boxes...

Trip 2006

2006-07-24T13:02:00.000-05:00

I should have done this as it was happening, and that is the whole ide of why I took the notebook with me. But I did not.

Most of the unique daily events and experiences are fading away from my mind.

This trip was about seeing places.
And as beautiful as that was, I found something else in the process.
Something I thought I had lost.
Something that has nothing to do with places.
It was inside of me.
It was good to re-meet with my path making side.
It was good to walk in the unknown, and make my way, the way I wanted.
It was good to see how my personal limits are a bit farther away, than what I remembered.

It was good to stand in my two feet, in the middle of nowhere, and feel confident.

Arrowhead Park

2006-05-28T09:23:00.000-05:00

Getting the "sense" of Canada outdoors.

.

Treasure Hunting.

2006-05-23T22:33:00.000-05:00

I went Treasure Hunting ( Geocaching.com ).
Something I wanted to do for the longest time.

Amaazing, I had to travel more than 3000km from my home land, to get this.

Reading the little notepad with logs of all the people that have been before, in that secluded spot.

Sudently all the forest arround mw became very special.

[Sitting next to the cache, looking up]

So I liked so much, that I went for another one.

This one is ID: GCHFBR

Here I found Fat Firefighter Fred [travel bug id: TBMZ4Q], whose current goal is: To travel the world reminding all of the importance of forest fire prevention.

So I took it out, took it home, showed it to the kids, and will re-place him on another cache.... soon...

Benares

2006-05-21T11:38:00.000-05:00

A glimpse into the past.

More pictures

Niagara Falls.

2006-05-20T21:14:00.000-05:00

[ujum, I was there too].

Other pictures for this day

Toronto.

2006-05-19T22:48:00.000-05:00

[Yes, I was there]

Other pictures I took today

Mississauga Day 1

2006-05-17T21:29:00.000-05:00

This is a nice backyard trail that runs all across the city.

Map

The Trip.

2006-05-16T21:53:00.000-05:00

NashVille, 2am.

Magic Springs

2006-05-15T00:01:00.000-05:00

Day 23 The Arkansas & Missouri Rail Road

2006-05-05T15:48:00.000-05:00

I was lost in town, looking for the post office.

And I am glad I was.

I found this squirl eating nuts un top of a stop sign.

I finally found the US Post Office.

I liked this house, by the trees.

As I passed by the train station, I noticed lots of kids.

So I stopped by...

More kids!

It is 10:55am, it will be a 3 hour ride, so went to Cottage Cafe across the street for a quick lunch.

Boarding up!

I got upgraded to the Parlot wagon (the advantages of being handsome).

[Proof that I was there]

"The house of Screams" wagon...[Therwhere 120 kids]

I had to resist temptation.

The train ride was nice.
I would like to say that I met two wonderful souls.

On one side there was Patty Lentz, she was the hostess on the Van Buren to Winslow train ride, quite a character. It is not common to find someone willing to take a good laught at himself. But on top of that, quite charming and with an excelent sense of humor. I had a great time with her.

O the other side, there was Stacia, one of the train pasangers.
A lady in the late forties, that as was driving to Roseville, saw a sign on the highway promoting the A&M Express, and quickly decided to get out of the high way, and try it out. It is great to see people that preserve their joung spirit all their lifes.

After 3 hours, the 70 mile trip was over (Van Buren to Windslow and backwards).
We all part on our own paths. Patty will probalbly continue to virtual travel, as she meets people from all over the country (or the world) on her train runs.

Stacia, will get her way to Rosewell, and hike the Grand Canion sometime withing the next couple of weekes. Good luck with that Stacia.

And I, whell who knows, stay tuned!

Man against nature

2006-05-04T07:39:00.001-05:00

Last night I made my mind to go on a road trip to a near state, Dallas, TX.

I tought, I could wake up at 7am, be ready by 8, and be there by lunch time.
And so I did the tremendous sacrifice of getting up early in the morning.
It was not easy. "I am on vacation".

Well, as stubborn as I am, I am not going to fight nature.
There is a huge tunderstorm outhere... The weather channel has a "severe weather" flag for this area.

Ahhh... what a great excuse for stayin in bed all day...

Day 21

2006-05-03T14:34:00.000-05:00

Last night I dream I was running

Like all my dreams, it was very realistic.
I could se myself doing it wrong, being unable to coordinate the breathing, stoping and restaring multiple times.

It was exausting, I sweated cold, way before I was even properly warm up.
I was overdoing.

But it was just a dream.

Today, as I woke up, I noticed that my legs hurt.

Agustín is bothering me, we should launch this new product “Excersice while you sleep”.

It is going to be a hit!

Day 17

2006-04-29T10:57:00.000-05:00

Day 15

2006-04-27T16:38:00.000-05:00

[The morning after]

[and this is where I went for luch after camping]

Day 14

2006-04-26T16:20:00.000-05:00

[Ujum, I was there].

[Proof that I was there]

[the day before]

Day 13

2006-04-25T16:54:00.000-05:00

I went shopping.
I can not help it.
I just had to...

..

Day 11

2006-04-23T10:13:00.000-05:00

Day 8

2006-04-20T23:06:00.000-05:00

Day 7

2006-04-19T14:01:00.000-05:00

Day 6

2006-04-18T06:44:00.000-05:00

Day 5

2006-04-17T00:35:00.000-05:00

Day4

2006-04-16T22:04:00.000-05:00

Day 3

2006-04-15T22:10:00.000-05:00

Day 2

2006-04-14T20:54:00.000-05:00

Day 1

2006-04-13T23:35:00.000-05:00

STRI

2006-04-03T09:38:00.000-05:00

Yellow boom

2006-03-31T18:31:00.000-05:00

I do not know how tree's coordinate, but somehow they do.

Or they all come to the same conclution.

The point is that, they all decided to boom out today.

It was a really distracting experience.

Adrenaline Line

2006-03-26T10:03:00.000-05:00

March 26.
This weekend, I went with some friends (and some unknown ones) to Colon.
The place, The Adrenaline Line.

The meeting point was Let's Camp store.
From there, a bunch of people got pack into my car, and we left to Nikos El Dorado [for an ojaldres and meat breakfast].

[Breef demonstration]

[Hook up time]

[We were hook up to something at all times]

[Big tree. We came back to this one later, for a tree rappel]

[People traveling tru the line. The gps recorded a max speed of 40km/h]

[Monkeys ? ... maybe the Missing Link?]

[Lunch time]

CPC trip 4

2006-03-23T00:05:00.000-05:00

I feel kind of lazy (YES LAZY ) to write and post pictures.

So, temporaly here is a link for the pictures I took on the Sunday Wet rappel adventure.

http://www.sainz.net/Pictures/20060319

Enjoy.

What are you doing?

2006-03-15T13:21:00.000-05:00

I was asked that today.

Sometimes I am "in the zone", and find it easy to multitask myself.
And yes, it burns me quickly, however sometimes I enjoy taking some intense mental work.

.

Weight seek.

2006-03-07T15:06:00.000-05:00

Most people I know, are obsesed with loosing weight.
They look for fat free or light products.

On the ohter hand, I have the luxury of a quite acelerated metabolism.
When I do my groceries shop, I look for the products with the most calories and fat.

And still, I am loosing weight... [I am sure that the 1500 meters swiming I do four times a week have something to do with it].
But I do not want to cut on my swiming, I love it.

So.... in the *desperate* seek of alternatives...

Suposedly I have to drink this in five days.
[The shape of the cointener must have a subliminal message]

Drinking night...

2006-03-02T21:33:00.000-05:00

Yea... I heard drinking helps dilute the problems.

Carnival Tuesday 2006

2006-02-28T10:31:00.000-05:00

An excelent day, to get going with some pendings.

That engine seal has been asking for replacement for quite some time.

Well, today is the day.

.........

CPC Strike 3 ... OUT?

2006-02-26T22:01:00.000-05:00

CPC goes to Cerro Azul...

Objective: The usual, have a good time. And Rappel the Romeo and Julieta waterfalls.
CPC members: Carlos, Shyara, Chema and I.
CPC guests: Ingrid.

[Intelectual hour]

[Nachi2]

[Patent pending.]

At this point the camera batery died.
And no, I had no spares...

From Carlo's camera, "Julitea".
I would say, 10 meters that is me, and I am 2meters tall).

"Romeo".
We did not had time to rappel this one.

Back at home, watching the video.
[Feel the urge to laugh?]

CPC Strikes Again.

2006-02-19T19:56:00.000-05:00

[Carlos]

[The view, half way down]

[The view from all the way down] (well, actually 2 meters above the ground).

[Proof that I was there?]

[things I saw down there]

Valentine present?

2006-02-14T22:09:00.000-05:00

Simple things are the best ones.

THANKS!!! [you know who]

The Toad Jump

2006-02-12T21:14:00.000-05:00

This was a trip plagued with obstacles to sort.

Ivan “inspired us” with the trip a week ago.
And I, “coordinated” a team for him to take (my friends).

However I was unable to contact him again, until the night of the Saturday 11, when I discover the trip has been canceled.

First things first.
I got to call everybody to let them know (maybe they still have a chance to go somewhere on their weekend).

But later, I guess the “entrepreneur” personality in me, decided otherwise.
So I started a revolution (at 10pm), made calls and asked for favors.... but no go.

Finally, I generously convinced Jose Manuel, to open the Let's Camp Store for me, on a Sunday at 6am.

After I got that, then another rush of phone calls to all my friends was made, to let them know the trip was on.

By 1:00am we where still exchanging calls, and SMS messages.
(There is a lot of room for improvement on the organization area).

Sunday, 5:45am, I get a Call from Jose Manuel, the guy is up and ready to go to the store.

I say cool, I´ll meet you there at 6am.

Yes, For the first time, Let's Camp store opened on a Sunday (and at 6am).

That is what I call service. Thanks Let's Camp.

[additionally I made a personal call to the owner, around 6:45am, for him to lend me his anchoring straps].

After more turns forward and backwards, we made it to the Crater Valley Hotel, in El Valle.

Here I was “hopping” to find Kathryn or someone who could point me to the rappel spot.

Yes, I had acquired over $400.00 dollars in rappel equipment, dragged my friends all the way to El Valle, and I still do not know where is the rappel spot.
(Did I mention there is a lot of room for improvement on the organization area?)

Anyways, I met Kathryn, whom I had only heard of. And she was a cool lady.
She kindly gave me directions (and a quick map) to get to the rappel site.

BTW, the Crater Valley Hotel is a beautiful place [http://www.crater-valley.com/].
[And no, I am not on commission for recommending the hotel.]

We made it to the rappel spot!!!

This mighty water fall is called "The Toad Jump" and it was just what we needed (for such newies as we are)

Another shortcoming.
Shyara left her running shoes in her car, back at Coronado.

Lucky for her, I was carrying my trusty duct tape.
[Duct tape reef's here]

Team 2 getting ready for action.
[proof that I was there?]

Shyara showing off.

Hanging out at Let's Camp [again]

2006-02-10T23:40:00.000-05:00

[Safety personel for the kids] [ME!]

[Roderik, lovely kid]

20060208

2006-02-08T19:27:00.000-05:00

8:19 am the [Insert ship name here] is on sight. But where is the Coral Princess? Humm, more waiting for me.

Acampemos 2006

2006-02-05T17:00:00.000-05:00

This event was organized my Let's Camp Today store [ URL].
It was an iniciative to promote camping activities.

The Tree's Ass

[there are more pictures, I´ll pust them later... maybe].

Adiction

2006-01-30T12:21:00.000-05:00

Chocolate, my great adiction.

Xmas Presents

2006-01-27T21:03:00.000-05:00

I remember being a kid, and being unwilling (or unable) to wait until midnight of the 24 to open my presents. Many times I would have opened already, played with them, and re-wraped them in colorfull paper again.

Thouse days seem to be over. Well, maybe not for the being a kid part.

Even thought I still deeply apreciate getting gifts, I do not feel the rush to unwrap them.
I get calls on the 25 from friends, asking me “did you like it?”.
I feel it disapoints them a little whan I say, I have not opened it.
Well, today seems like a good day to open them. [Yes, today, Friday 27 of January 2006].
Let's find out what we got.

Coating.

2006-01-25T23:42:00.000-05:00

Uhum, they are coating "my" street today.

It looks like a tick layer.

Hanging out at Let's Camp

2006-01-24T13:38:00.000-05:00

Outdoors First Aid Trainning.

2006-01-22T10:32:00.000-05:00

Abdiel Ivan Batista is a cool guy.
On this occasion we where here for an Outdoors First Aid Training. And literally he took the class outdoors.

Later, we practiced some rappel, and the girls (Carmela and Johan practiced a rescue operation).

It was so cool.

Retina scan.

2006-01-17T16:44:00.000-05:00

Mmm, maybe I need a job.

Post in progress

2006-01-15T22:11:00.000-05:00

[text goes here]

Getting wet.

2006-01-06T23:30:00.000-05:00

Back from Chiriqui, cut and bruces. But happy.

The camera adaptor had som design flaws.
1) I did not tested it with the camera inside. That was a major one.
The pvc bag is not flat when a box like body is inside, so the velcro on the back does not work as espected.

Lucky for me, I carry my duct tape everywhere...

2) The angle of view was not adecuated (it was pointing downwoards, and I have lots of pictures of my feet in the boat).

3) There was condensation inside the bag. I should have applied something to prevent this.

Anyways, there where a few acceptable shots.

This is Ilse Castillo with the plane that took us to Chiriqui.
[No, the blur effect is not here to protect the privacy, I actually goofed on taking this picture.]

What a beautiful shut of the rope.
[I was in the water, trying to get into the boat]

The choices we make dictate the life we live.

2006-01-05T12:26:00.000-05:00

Here it comes, the first weekend of the year.

I have a list of possible activities;

1)Camping in Cerro Azul.
2)A trip with some friends to San Blas island.
3)A “Mardi-grass” stile party (this sounds wild).
4)Hiking and rappel at Campana.
5)Camping and rappel at the Chagres waterfalls.
6)Trip to beach El Palmar.

I would say I was not short of appealing choices.

However, they all seemed like things others wanted me to be part of.
[Thank you all for the offerings].

So I embarked into the expedition of searching withing myself what I wanted.
It was not an easy ride, as it was plagued with creatures, some of them quite ugly, that would try to make me fail on my quest.

Nevertheless, the expedition was a success, and I found what I really wanted this weekend.
And it was simple.

To relax...

And there is nothing better to rest, than to be a little bit tired.

A few phone calls later, and we (Jelix and I) had tickets for a flight to Chiriqui tomorrow, and arregments to be pick up at the airport by the Chiriqui Rafting dudes.

I have a great digital camera and a plastic Acuapak bag to protect it.
However when padling is kind of triky to shoot pictures.
So I came up with the idea of building an “adapter” to hold the camera (in the pvc bag) to my helmet.
[Yes all this I wanted it ready for tomorrow]

I finished the prototype at 3:30pm. And I thought, this is HUGE.
So I got out to acquire a smaller helmet(there is nothing like a tiny bit of pressure to get things moving).

Tomorrow will tell if this invention works or not.

The first ride of the year 2006

2006-01-04T00:45:00.000-05:00

After all the major festivities had passed by, last night I felt the desire to go out on my bike.

There was nothing special about it. Well, I did expected to find more people, as many would make new year resolutions to go out and do more excersice. Maybe I will find these people on later days.

Anyways, so I did my ride. The first ride of the year.
And then I came home, and recorded the information on my log book (yes, I keep track of my biking and running events).

The first that caught my eye, was that the traveled distance was 26.62 km. Here there are, matematical secuences are always poping up on me.

Then, I started to browse the notebook. This one I started it on january 2005.
And oops, it has the first record on january 3 2005, at 21:20 (9:20pm). Exactly the same day and time as this year. Except that it was Monday, and last night was Tuesday.

Makes me wonder. If my life is also a cycle.

Old friends.

2006-01-02T10:41:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I was chatting on the messenger with Agustin.
He is one of my childhood friends, and even thought he now lives in the USA, our 20 years+ of childhood let us keep a strong link.

Anyways, we were talking about him comming to Panama for xmas. Specifically the 24 at 10pm [what a xmas gift].

Even tought I was entusiastic about the idea, I would not say I was euforic. I guess the Internet contact does serves me well.

On the ohter hand, there is my other childhod friend, Jorge.
He took of on a diferent route in life, and now he lives in Tenerife, Spain. (well actually he lives on many places of Spain, it all depends of what he is studing at the moment).
Jorge is not really a messenger fan (neither I am a fan of whatever other IM technologies he may use).
So we keep a quite sporadic comunication.

It was december 14 the last time I chated with him (and the only time in the whole month of December). It was a brief conversation, and he did not told me what he was “cooking”.

The day passed, I either did not see hem online, or was busy taking care of my own life...

The 18, as I was driving back from a trip (see previous post), when I get a call on my cell phone.
Jorge is in Panama. Gezz, I have not had an accident in 10 years, but the emotions from the news, almost get me into one (see guys, do not talk on the cell phone while driving).

As for Agustin, he arrived the expected night, the 24. The plane did delayed an hour, so he made it home by just about x-mas.

This is us, all three together again (at Agustin's house).
[From left to right, me, Jorge and Agustin]

December 30, we were hanging around...and ended up for lunch at the Crepes and Waffles at the Multi Plaza Pacific
Jorge is the is still the more specialized photographer, he always had an SLR type camera.

[The shot Jorge took.]

Then we went to visit my sister. This is the lobby.
[I do not know who opened the main door, as I buzzed a bunch of buttons]

Shayna who is not visible on any of the pictures that I took, also came to Panama.
She was kind of cool, she invited us (Agustin and I) to the movies.

Tour guy.

2005-12-31T21:09:00.000-05:00

I was out with my friend Agustin. We ended up having lunch at Fridays at the Causeway.

When leaving, I thought I saw someone familiar.
I was just going to ignore him, what I usually do when I do not remember their names.
But I do not know why, I went ahead and said “Do I know you?”

He said, Yea! I am James, from Campana, remember?

Quick chat, I gave him my cellphone number and left.

So next day I was verifying the rafting adventure I have been dreaming about for three weeks. And when I call the airline, I find out they are suddenly out of space. My reservation is gone.

All frustrated I heard the phone ring, but I decided not to pick it up.
I just do not feel like talking.

After a while, I have digested my frustration, and I check the voice mail. It is a message from James. “Roman I need a favor, please call me”.

I was like dam! What is wrong with this guy! I have not seen him in months and now just calls for favors? I was definitely not in the mood to call. But then again, something strange withing myself made me call back.

So we speak, and he asks me 3 questions. 1) Do you speak English? (ejem, he does this in English). 2) Are you ok talking with people? 3)

Huge Rocks

2005-12-18T17:48:00.000-05:00

Saturday 17, there was a get together at Campana.
We where supposed to get there by 4pm, so we could all share a sunset, some wine and some cheese.

By 5pm, I was still at the city. And I had not picked up Mayte yet.
O well, we were so late fot the Club EcoAventura Wine and Cheese Afternoon, that I decided that it would not harm to stop on the way to eat something (Chilly Hot Dog's).

When I got to the park entrance, I got of my car to get a good satellite reading and mark the waypoint.
[8.427 North ,79.528 West, 194 Meters hight], is when I realized how windy was the night, and that being there just wearing my short pants might not have been the best idea.

Takes a little wile to get to the actual park view sight..
It is a road that goes up and down, but by the end we had gained 444 meters (1456 feet).
[And just for reference that is at 8.41413 North, 79.54643 West, 638 Meters hight.]

The French baguettes where a bit softy now, so I place them in the engine area of my car (without the engine running) [the big and hot diesel engine makes a good oven].

Anyways, I went upstairs with my friends, and attempted to get the fondue going.
It melted, to the point where I could dip some bread in it. However, not as hot as I like it.

After a while, I gave up. The constant wind blowing at 19 C (66F) made us all decide it was not worth it. So we all left.

I sent Mayte home (like a package) on someone else's car, and begun driving myself onto my next adventure.

I drove, and drove, and I was not sure where I was. I thought I had arrived, but no, it was Anton.
So I drove some more. By 10pm approx, I got to the Guayacanes Hotel. I had not made a reservation, and I was surprised to find out that the hotel was full.

I left the place with a creepy feeling. So, into the next hotel, 2 Continentes, and it was practically full too. They had available a double queen beds room. Gezz, I took it.

The Hotel was Ok. The corridors where clean with sofas. The room, altought had no decoration, was spacious and neat.
And the best, the unexpected, ahhhh, there was hot water (very hot).

Next morning, even thought I did not slept that much, I woke up early, and energetic. Desire is something that always provides me with more energy than caffeine.

So I head up for Ichi's house. Well I really do not know where he lives, but thanks to celular technologies that becomes a piece of cake (however I did got lost for 30 minutes before I actually decided to make the call).

Even thought I had burned over half an our touring around the town, I was still the first to arrive. So I had the opportunity to talk a little bit with Ichi's father. A bird watcher expert.

A couple of minutes more, and almost simultaneously arrived Harold and his girlfriend Lizi (that had drove that morning all the way from Panama city). And Ichi with a Canadian couple (whose names I can not remember now).

We pack our stuff (backpacks, rappel ropes, more rope, helmets, cooler, harnesses, more stuff, gps, people, gezz it looks like we are leaving for a week), and left.

On the route, we picked up a girl named Kenia (I believe) and her mother, and then straight to ... the supermarket! to get even more supplies (water, Gatorade, snacks)...

The Canadian guy paid for it. (He was a generous guy). I feel kind of bad that I can not remember his name.

All right, now for real, we are leaving. We are going to a place called "Los Chorros de Olá".

And so we got there, after a brief hike.
And then we hiked some more, to get further close to the origin of the river.
Until we could not hike (safely) any longer.

Obviously (and specially me) we stop many times on the way, to feel a cold splash of water (I did most of my hiking tru the river).

On the way back, the group split, Ichi Harold and I left tru a different route. We wanted to do a rappel on one of the water falls.
However the conditions where not adequate, and we had to retrieve.

Back at Ichi's house, I we were welcomed with great hostpitality. There is nothing like a good "sancocho" [a Panamanian soup] and chicken with rice, home made, to regain the depeled energy. Followed by a 45 minutes rest on a hamok.

And then I had to say good by, and leave.
It was time to come back home.

It was a great weekend.

I almost forgot to add (actually I did, and I am editing the post), this adventure was possible thanks to Ichi and his wife Ivy. They lead a club named “Coclé Aventuras”, and provide an unique personalized experience that is imposible to find on larger groups. If you feel the need to contact them, just drop them a line at cocleaventuras@yahoo.com. (They are bilingual).

[Hotel room number]

[Here I was lost]

[The Fellowship]

The Fast Food Race.

2005-12-12T03:38:00.000-05:00

Now just for the fun of it, let's find out what kind of fast food habits do I have.

Yes I keep all my recipts, and no, I am not an accountant.

Anyways, here are the results.

The winner for the most visited fast food restaurant is Wendy's, with a total of 43 meals.

Wendy's	43
Subway	24
McDonalds	22
KFC	19
Don Lee	7
Niko's	7
Gas stations	6
Athens Pizza	4
Quiznos Sub	2
Hard Rock Cafe	2
El Rey (supermarket)	2
Fridays	1
Crepes & Waffles	1
Bennigans	1
Deli-Gourmet	2
Don Pascual	1
Chalet Suisse	1
El Prado	2

The adventure shop.

2005-12-10T11:13:00.000-05:00

A friend recently opened up an adventure shop in Panama.

It is the first adventure shop over here.
So far adventurous people had to order stuff tru internet from US or elswere.

When the store was open, although I assisted to the inauguration, I was not very enthusiastic about buying anything.

However, I think that the old saying "dog that barks do not bit" may apply to me, but in reverse.

Every time I set a step on the store, I walk away with something on my hands (and less cash on my wallet).

Amusing readings

2005-12-09T00:22:00.000-05:00

So I had a friend dealing with some overheat issues on a server machine, and he had made some changes to the chassis and cpu heat sink and fan to attempt to remedy them.

As I read tru the changes, everything seemed pretty ok, as today cpu fans come with easy specs like "for p4 3.0ghz".

But then I remembered reading some time in the past an article about thermal resistance, however all I could say is that lower numbers means better heat transition.

Anyways, I got curious (I guess I am a curious person) and did a little research on the web for such topic.

I do not know, maybe I was lucky, but I landed on a site with articles for a guy named Tony Kordyban regarding Cooling Electronics.

And I was hook. I mean, most of the articles included more math than I was willing to read, however the relaxed writing style, and the spicy sense of humor kept me reading article after article.

I would have to say, that the lecture was truly inspiring. I mean I was even at times laughing at what I was reading. Come on, some of the articles where deep in formulas and *serious* stuff, nevertheless, amusing. Not to be misinterpreted as goofy, as his writings ,altought lacked of any bragging, gave him a feeling of extremely knoledgeable.

Anyways here is the link for the readings [scroll down for Tony Kordyban]. And I have also found out he wrote a book.
Hot Air Rises and Heat Sinks: Everything You Know About Cooling Electronics Is Wrong

Isla Iguana II

2005-11-28T23:21:00.000-05:00

This is part two of the last year trip.

I was undecided on whatever I wanted to go or not.
By the time I had made up my mind, the trip was full.
Odly enought it was then when I realized how much I wanted to go.

So, I figured out that by sharing the expenses with a couple of friends, I could make the trip on a reasonable cost.

Mayte Jelix and I left on my vehicle at 5:00pm.

The sunset was beautifull today.

[Yea we all know about the dangers of talking on the cell phone while driving...so I was not talking on the cell phone while shooting this one. OK!]

Mayte and Jelix waiting at the "El Arenal" beach, for the boat guy to arrive...

Last time I was here, I climbed half wey of the light house, but the deteriorated stair conditions scared my out from going all the way up.

For this ocation, I was prepared, I had a climbing harnes, ropes and carabiners, that allowed me to clip myself to the structure before and after every step.

Additionally I had in my fanny pack my trusty Petzl Tikka Plus headlamp, cell phone, my camera and a pocket knife.

The sunset spectacle has begun.

Oh look!, it is me at the top of the world.
[I am not covering the view, I am the view.]
[I am wearing my Abc Student Harness]

The view is getting prettier by the minute.

Dinner time.

Next day.

The underwater creatures persecution has begun.
[The Aquapac camera case was a total success]

A strange creature washed up on the shore...

Home sweet home.

2005-11-20T04:15:00.000-05:00

My camping history started with a $20.00 tent that broke on the first use, even before I got in.
That night I slept in my car (not very comfortable).

I kept using that broken tent (patched it), or borrowed one when I could.

Then I got myself a tunnel design tent. This one is extremely strong, I have seen it withstand wind and survive without a scratch, where others (more expensive ones) broke.

But it is hot as hell, it is like a portable sauna (no wonder I am so skinny).
Additionally it requires to be spiked on to the ground over 22 points, otherwise it will not stand up at all. This represents an issue when camping on sand soft terrain.

So, I went out for early x-mas...

Today I went with the classy one (expensive one).Columbia McKenzie Pass Tent

I guess I was tired of the feeling of having crappy tents.
Maybe marketing is getting to me, or maybe I am starting to become pickier about my life standards.

Anyways, here is my big new home.
[And yes, tonight I am surfing and writing this blog from withing it]
[And yes, I feel like a kid again]

Ness Monster

2005-11-19T21:27:00.000-05:00

Expectations are high, as the 27 and 28 of November get closer.

There is a camping on an Island trip scheduled for that weekend (I know, 28 is Monday, however it is a holiday over here).

Last time nature gave me the opportunity to take some pictures of it's wonders.

This time I want to attempt to take some under water ones.

For this, I have acquired an Acuapac PVC case for my digital camera (Aquapac Compact Camera Case - 410).

That was yesterday, and tonight I just had to test it. I just had to...

This me, a 3 led Cateye waterproof light is attached to my diving mask.
Also a Underwater Kinetics Dive Light is providing additional help to iluminate me (meaning, I was making myself blind pointing that light at my face)

As seen here, the little camera flash does help.
It does not reflect that much on the pvc (plastic like) bag.

However it quickly becomes dirty... and under ocean water I would probably encounter a lot more particles than on a swiming pool.

Yes, I went to the swimming pool with a 25 pounds dumbbell.

It would be ideal to have a scuba weights belt, however I do not think I will acquire one just for one trip. So I guess at the ocean I would probably improvise by anchoring myself to the corals, or by holding a huge rock.

Sorting shapes

2005-11-14T19:38:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I feel like a kid playing with a shape sorter, trying to stick a square shape into a round hole.

It takes so much effort, and it never seems to fit quite right.

For over thirty years society have *helped* me figure out where the shapes go.

But what if society is mistaken?
What if because of some sort of stereotype I am being seeing as a different shape that I am actually?

Worst, what if I am being seeing as a shape that society wants me to be.

30 years of this kind of psychological training can be convincing.

Lately I truly wonder *who am I?*.

I took the path of a programmer and logical guy. But what if I am more of an artistic guy, or maybe even a social one?

The thought of leaving all my life as I know it, to jump into the unknown is definitely a frighting one.

I wonder if I will ever make the jump.

The blanket.

2005-11-08T21:23:00.000-05:00

There I was, sitting at the balcony.
The sky is covered by think clouds, that cover all the stars and planets, letting only pass a blur of the moon.

There is a chilling breeze just a little bit to cold for me. So I go in the house looking for a blanket.
I have no blankets, so I improvise with a big and tick towel.

Ahhh, warm again.
But then I realize there is a strange additional comfort here.

There is feeling of being protected, just ba wrapping myself with a towel.

Studently I feel like a kid again, and even make myself a small house, by covering my head and leaving me inside with my headlamp and my notebook.

I feel amazed that such a silly act as wrapping myself, and transport me to my childhood.

Then other ideas bump into my head. I visualize images of people being rescued from fires or other catastrophes, and they are always being covered with a blanket. That never made sense to me, until now.

It is nice to find comfort in such a simple act.

Too proud.

2005-11-03T15:55:00.000-05:00

So pride is my weakness...

Test provided by Tickle

Roman, you're less sinful than the average person.

Still, your sinful tendencies are running just below the surface and could start to affect your choices in life. For example, if you aren't careful, your drive to excel at all costs may ultimately be your downfall. Feeling good about your successes might be a gratifying way to acknowledge your work and position in life. Still, you, in particular, should beware of prioritizing your achievements above other things and using them as a way to feel superior to others.

Though you're less sinful than others, this, and the sins you scored highest on can still jeopardize the things that are most important to you. Don't let them.

To Cry

2005-11-03T14:00:00.000-05:00

Last time I cried, was at least two years ago.

I clearly remember that night.
There I was, lying on my bed, vividly imagining how it would be my future in 5, 10, 15, 20 years and so on, if I kept living my life the way it was.

That was a transcendental night for me, the beginning of a personal life revolution.

Today, two years later, a mix of deep frustrations and anger, I once again experiment the liberating sensation of crying.

At the beginning I was ashamed of it, however when I stopt, I felt good.

I actually feel proud of that crying.

Yes, I cry.

Dogs

2005-10-30T17:52:00.000-05:00

Some neighborhood left the door open, and his dogs went around for a ride.
Beautiful dogs.

Home made candles.

2005-10-16T14:27:00.000-05:00

I love fire, but it bothers me that when I blow a candle, it smokes a nasty odor.
I just wish I could put a cap on them and leave the smoke trapped.

So with some candle leftovers and Gerber recipients, I initiated a candle building experiment.

I do not know where to get wick, so I used a birthday tiny candle for it.

Here are the pieces of wax, crushed in.

Now comes the "wick".

Melting time.

The wax got soft first on the outside, making the inner wax to float and wander around.
So the wick is not really in the middle, not even straight (learning experience).

For the following attempts, I am just melting the wax, and letting it cool without a wick.

On the left, grape juice, warm and ready to be drinked. Not really, it is hot melted wax.

Tada!!!

Testing 1 2 3

Madden bike ride (with BOA friends).

2005-10-09T08:01:00.000-05:00

At approximately 11:01 a.m. today, a suspicious individual was spotted near the Madden Power Plant instalations.

ACP autorities on a near command post promptly arrived to the area, to repriment the invader.

There whas no blod fight or imprisonment for this incident. The suspect was released with a warning.

All right, now for real. The pictures of the weekend.

I got to the meeting pint I mean point a bit early.
So I wandered arround, saw a construction site and shooted a few pictures.

All right, we are on our way...

Build in 1934 for the third set of locks.
Wao, this issue has been revolving for quite a while.

Friends, Bryant and Dayron

BOA PANAMA is a group of cyclists who share and enjoy mountain biking.

Lava [take 2]

2005-10-08T19:53:00.000-05:00

Uhum, yep.
More fire.
Do I hear pyromaniac? o well... Can I have a flame thrower for my birthday?
[BTW, there is kerosene in a paper towel roll]