Globetrotters

When you toss your trash do you stop to think where the garbage goes? Neither did we until we moved here. Now we know exactly where it ends up….about ½ mile up the road at the local “landfill” a misnomer for the burning field of toxic trash!

Yes that’s right-BURN BABY BURN-Panama’s approach to waste ‘’management’. Of course they burn mostly at night so the noxious fumes aren’t quite as conspicuous. Unless of course you’re a poor Panamanian with no A/C, sleeping with the windows open! Many residents here have reported being sick for a few days after a particularly poisonous night burn-tires, plastic, etc.-all go up in smoke.

I discovered these photos recently on the Reuter wire:
http://lite.alertnet.org/thenews/pictures/PAN04.htm
How sad that they focus on ‘extreme poverty’ when the truth is that extreme pollution will kill residents with carcinogens before starvation does!
We’ve never seen the abject poverty which spawns eating garbage here in Panama….more likely dump ‘divers’ scavenging gringo goodies to re-sell!
Although we live in a rural area, trash disposal fares just as badly in the cities. Right now Panama City struggles with a garbage problem that has heaps of trash lining the streets of certain areas where it’s been collected & dumped.
http://www.thepanamanews.com/pn/v_16/issue_05/editorial.html
Excerpted from the above article:
“The cultural change of ending a throw-away mentality and culture of littering is a longer-term job. Recycling is another important city effort, which must be accompanied by a public education campaign to be effective. We need to reduce the input of solid wastes, which is a job for the national government but should be a cause led by the mayors, who should be demanding deposits on bottles and cans, charges per bag at grocery stores to encourage people to bring their own bags or baskets, incentives or edicts to reduce extra packaging materials that go with retail products. We need to look at regulations that reduce the volume of packaging materials that can neither be reused nor recycled.”
Well said & happily by the Panamanian press itself!
When we first moved here, I approached a Panamanian reporter about my horror at the toxic trash burning. He replied “That’s how we do it here.”

One day Hans & I drove out of Playa Blanca & stared with shock at a Panamanian flag flying proudly over the dump, with clouds of black poisonous smoke rising behind it. What a photo op we missed! National pride in polluting the environment & poisoning their people? It’s good to read another perspective in the Panamanian news for sure!
In my research on the Internet I’ve read about expats’ struggles with trash disposal in all areas of Panama-apparently they haven’t figured out the Panamanian solution of simply burning it all! It’s surprising to us, after reading so much about Panama’s image, touting itself as a modern 1st world country. Burning trash is so 3rd world! It reminds us of traveling through Africa 30 years ago!

But then maybe not? In my searches I discovered this site:
http://www.onepennysheet.com/2010/04/europe-finds-cleaner-energy-source-by-burning-trash/

A great article about an incinerator used in Denmark that burns trash & produces jobs & cheap electricity in the process! What about the pollution? The filters on the plant are so efficient (& constantly monitored) that the air emitted is cleaner than most fireplace fumes! WOW!

Another option is The McMullen Process
http://mpatenergy.com

Roger McMullen states “MPAT absorbs heat and destroys even Dioxin and PCBs. INCINERATION IS EXOTHERMAL ….MPAT IS ENDOTHERMAL “

It’s all Greek to me as far as the chemistry goes BUT rumor has it that he offered his services to Panama City & was refused! What’s up with THAT? How does it reflect on Panama’s commitment to a greener environment? What commitment? We can’t even recycle here, as we’ve done for the past 30 years. We strive to use as little plastic as possible but modern packaging thwarts our efforts. Every time we toss a wrapper, bag or bottle we know we’ll be breathing in the burnt aroma soon-YUCK!

Local officials are working to move the dump away from here, but where to & in what form? Will they simply move the burning fields or will they invest in modern technology & recycling efforts as the Panama News article suggests?

We had heard about the efforts to reforest Panama & rescue the land from eventual desertification while providing a unique investment opportunity.  One group in particular caught our attention-United Nature (www.unitednature.com).

We set up a visit to their plantation in The Darien, close to the border with Columbia. What a WILD day! One of the owners, Robert, picked us up at our hotel in Panama City bright & early at 6:30 AM & off we drove. Hans was happy to be a passenger & enjoy the views.

The plantation grows teak trees & is about 4 hours from the city in the absolute boondocks! When we arrived we switched to driving 4 wheelers & took off into the forest-what a BLAST! It felt several degrees cooler in the trees (HURRAY!) & we even saw troops of howler monkeys & a fruit loop Toucan bird!

Not only is reforestation sustainable agriculture at its best, it also provides social benefits to local communities of indigenous people. “United Nature employs several hundred local residents whose employment opportunities are severely limited due to increasing strain on their natural environment. They understand that if UN is not capable of offering an alternate supply of timber, logging will resume & any hope of preserving their culture will disappear. The native community & UN work together not only for environmental preservation, but for cultural preservation as well.” (Excerpted from UN brochure.) Part of the sales of timber will go towards medical & educational benefits for the locals as well.

We met a man & his son from Venezuela who had invested in the forest & had driven down to check out their piece of the plantation. They left Venezuela because they no longer felt safe in a country where the crime rate has quadrupled in the last few years-EEK! Quite a sad story to hear how fear can grip a nation when murders, kidnappings, robberies & rape are rampant. He moved his entire family lock, stock & barrel to Panama!

We enjoyed a delicious lunch of Panamanian Sancocho soup at the plantation hacienda & saw the new guest house being built. It’s so peaceful & quiet out there, it’d be fun to stay & relax a few days.

We spent the entire day tooling around on the dirt roads, covered with dust & dead bugs-LOL! Robert loaded us into the truck at around 4 & we headed back to town. As he drove I caught sight of a movement across the road & shouted “STOP! A forest creature is crossing the road! You have to turn around & help it!” Most obediently Robert hit the brakes & turned around. To our extreme astonishment & delight we saw a small SLOTH crawling across the road! WOW! Long arms outstretched, it reached forward as its backside came creeping along after it.

We stood within a few feet of the little guy-maybe a year old or so. It showed no fear & stopped to stare up at us. Its strange face markings made it seem like it smiled at us. Then it continued on its way to climb the tree on the other side of the road…why did the sloth cross the road? To eat the termites in the tree!

That was the highlight of the trip for me! Later we saw an anteater splattered flat on the road & I said a prayer for our sloth to stay on that side of the road & keep going into the forest!

For those of you who don’t know us, a bit of background:

Some 30 years ago Hans picked me up hitchhiking in Cameroon, West Africa, for the ride of my life! For the next few years we lived like gypsies out of whatever vehicle we found ourselves in at the time: Hans’ VW through West Africa; a Dodge van through much of Mexico & the southern US; 2 Mercedes 5 ton dump trucks with a Peugeot mounted atop the one I drove serving as sleeping quarters carried us through the Sahara & the Sahel; a Ford pick-up with a camper cab criss crossed the US with us searching for a place to call home.

We landed in Arroyo Grande California where we moved up to live in a 10×50 mobile home for 3 years, while Hans operated a sawmill & I taught Montessori at a nearby school. With our noses pressed to the grindstone for the next 20+ years it’s a wonder we can even still breathe! From California, to Pennsylvania, onto Georgia we worked various jobs in search of the elusive American dream. Finally in Florida Hans’ entrepreneurial endeavors paid off & he found his niche with a retractable screen business. His hard work & my frugal habits have allowed us to semi-retire here in Panama, where we jokingly call ourselves ‘Gringos in Paradise.’

This blog is mainly for friends & family to follow our adventures but if you’ve stumbled upon it by chance-WELCOME! We hope you enjoy the stories! Mostly I hope this blog encourages you to have fun adventures of your own! In the words of Helen Keller:

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.” If a blind & deaf woman can be so bold why not go for it too?

So here we live in a condo in Playa Blanca, Panama. It’s a resort development on the Pacific coast about 1 ½ hours’ drive from Panama City-the boonies! Everyone says you can get by speaking English here….WRONG! Maybe that works in the city but out here it’s Spanish all the way. In a former life I spoke fluent Spanish but at 56 I’m challenged to remember words in English, never mind Spanish! I’m also hard of hearing (geezerism sucks) so our normal ‘conversations’ go like this: Someone speaks to us in rapid fire Spanish, Hans repeats to me what they said in his Swiss accented Spanish, after a few moments of mental translating I attempt a response in Spanish. This little circus delights the locals no end. I think they start talking to us just for the fun of it-LOL! Everyone is so friendly & helpful we don’t really mind providing entertainment. As my mom Rose always said: “Learn to laugh at yourself & you’ll always have a source of amusement in your life.” We’re easily & endlessly amused!

Last week Hans hit 59 so we celebrated by taking a road trip….”ON THE ROAD AGAIN”! We bought a used Toyota Fortuner-a PPV 4 WD, translation: A pick-up passenger vehicle 4 wheel drive. Basically it’s an SUV mounted on the chassis of a Hilux Pick-up truck-sturdy like a tank for driving off road, as we like to do when exploring the countryside.

We headed for the Azuero peninsula, southwest of us. If you look at a map of Panama the Azuero region sticks out into the Pacific & is a mecca for surfers-NOT that we did that! There’s only so much daring adventure I’m willing to engage in & risking my neck is not on the list.

As we bounced over teeth chattering bone clattering rutted roads, Hans beamed at me & yelled “Just like in Africa, Gail!” I smiled back “Not really! Now we have A/C!” Since my body has become an internal combustion engine, I can’t imagine how I traveled through the sweltering heat of Africa with no A/C or even fans, yet remained always cool as a cucumber & never broke a sweat! Ain’t youth grand? But the creature comforts of geezerism aren’t bad either-LOL! The tough traveler of my youth, she who slept out in a sleeping bag on the sands of the Sahara & hitched rides atop trucks exposed to the blazing sun is long gone! I’m a cream puff these days!

So instead of camping on the beach we stayed at a lovely B&B on the beach, with A/C!

Hans & I are of the ‘buzz ass’ school of travel…we don’t do well lounging around the pool. So we had no sooner checked in than we set off on a brisk beach walk. I had thought about staying 2 nights but as we hauled ass down the beach Hans said “What would we do tomorrow? Walk the beach again? I can do that home for free.” Too funny.

The next day we decided to drive home through the interior of the country, rather than return along the coast. What an awesome drive! A bit of a rough road but dazzling landscapes-hills reminding us of California with few trees & rolling grasses. Then up up & away into the mountains! The people there seem quite industrious with most of the land either cultivated with crops like corn & sugar cane or used to graze cattle. We saw ‘cowboys’ riding the range on horseback while chatting on their cell phones. Old fashioned milk containers dotted the roadside for pick up/drop off by big trucks with guys jumping on & off for delivery.

On the way home we stopped at a roadside stand to eat with the locals. Enormous piles of rice, beans, cooked to death meat & fried blobs of dough for just $3! We probably overpaid as gringos too but what the heck. Then we bought about 30 pounds of fruit for $5-amazing! The guys at the stand were laughing their butts off as we drove away-thinking how much we’d paid for their fruit, while we were thrilled with our deal! I hardly bother to bargain anymore-though I was the haggle queen in our travels. Now it seems almost mean to try to pay less for what’s already so cheap!

Next week we cross the border into Costa Rica for a visa renewal trip. I’ll let you know how that goes if you care to keep reading!

Happy trails!