Weekend Warriors

Our first weekend is now over, with the last of the weekend warriors headed back home to Santiago and the surrounding areas, leaving Santa Catalina a sleepy beach town once again. For two days, cars full of youth and of young families would line the shorline, bringing surfboards or boogie boards, some with lawn chairs and toys for the kids to spend the day playing in the waves. Others though, the flash young adults of the big city would stay behind at their cars, open all the doors, the boot, the hood even! and have a tailgate party, attempting to win over their neighbour by playing their terrible reggaeton noise louder than the next. All day for 2 days did we hear nothing but this cheesy obnoxious music. (I like to think of it as the Latino version of Bollywood music but even then I think I like Bollywood better) They would drink their beers, and stand around looking for people to admire them. The music drove me absolutely mental. It was so loud that escaping it was impossible. A couple of the houses around us even started in on it and finally we had to get out of here, so we grabbed a couple bikes and headed into town.


Quaint little eateries offer simple dishes of seafood and fresh licuados or batidos (fruit juices or smoothies)



Santa Catalina has no ATM’s, no grocery shops...the only amenities consist of restaurants, hostels, a few dive centers, plenty of surf rentals, (mostly attached to the various accommodation or restaurants) a police station outfitted only with ATV’s, one lawyer, a small school, a teeny little library and finally one American-owned lodging offering massage and yoga a few times a week. But no groceries anywhere. There is one poor excuse for a corner store that sells a few cans of sardines and packs of rice and beans, with a fridge stocked of a handful of juices and single serve tetra packs of milk. I’m not really sure what the point is of them existing to be honest.


Lazing away the afternoon heat, enjoying the company


We need to find more affordable long term accommodation. Our spot at Surf Point is absolutely perfect, being 5 steps down to the sandy beach, perfect for the mornings to wake up and head straight for the waves or to a shady spot for some yoga. However, there are no kitchen facilities here, but a wonderful restaurant called Mama Ines. The whole place is run by a Panamanian family of 4 brothers and their sister who is married to a frenchman named Yann. He’s the one we deal with mostly, as he runs the front of house serving our meals, keeps track of rent and can speak the broken english needed for those travelers who don’t yet have a handle of their spanish. I love it because I can speak french with him, and his english is pretty limited so we find ourselves using a great mix of french & spanish. However, the food is still costing us a lot. Even though beers are only a dollar and our average meal is about five bucks each, it’s adding up very quickly. We figure we can find a small house or cabana around town for $250/month, and shop every week or so in Santiago for groceries.
We made it our mission this morning to ask around town and gather some options. Not much luck being a Sunday, the middle of the afternoon (read: siesta time) and supposedly a big surf competition going on in the next town, assuming a lot of locals from here went to attend. So we’ll try our luck again tomorrow.
The music was still pumping when we got back from town, so we plopped ourselves down in the hammocks for a much needed rest, I with my iPod to ignore the surrounding noise, and Jaime promptly falling asleep.


Jaime heads out into the sunset for a late surf


The best part of the day was heading out for a sunset surf, water still warm, our faces aglow with hues of pink and purple. We were the last out of the water by a long shot, the hunger in our bellies finally drawing us out and heading in for dinner on the balcony overlooking the beach. A barefoot after-dinner walk meandering the quiet road into town under a black night sky, watching for shooting stars and enjoying the peace and quiet of the night....