Tuesday is market day in Boquete and I don’t mean a market like the colorful affairs we have enjoyed elsewhere in Latin America; Antigua Guatemala for instance:
Market day in Boquete is a celebration of what we used to call Farmers’ Markets in the US. I suppose nowadays we might call them community markets where people gather and buy useful foods and less useful dust catchers and trinkets while catching up with friends. You might have visited such places every Saturday during the summer and they have even held them in the Keys, land of no commercial farm products at all.
We first came a few weeks ago and blew our minds over the totally unexpected foodstuffs on display. You can keep the arts and crafts but I’ll take the bagels and eclairs, the fresh yoghurt and hot sweet coffee and I’ll wander at will while Layne seeks out worthy stuff like fruits and vegetables. This guy is American with his own fresh farm products into which Layne dived.
The best kombucha of course but she also fingered some rather nice wooden serving bowls so I suppose with her birthday next week I have an idea what to get…
For locals it’s an opportunity to gather and chat and as this place is normally a brew pub and barbecue restaurant (Look up Tap Out Boquete to check the menu) there is room to sit.
I found a guy fondling a paper cup of coffee so I asked for directions and I found a Panamanian lady grilling arepas on a grill and serving coffee at a dollar apiece. Arepas are Colombian corn cakes grilled and crispy with melted white cheese inside. You can get them at street festivals in Key West. I tried to engage with the seller but she wasn’t having any so I wandered off nibbling my red hot breakfast. It made me look forward to driving Colombia next month more than ever.
The French pastry dude is my favorite seller. He remembered us and enjoys speaking French with me so we get along famously. Not many English speaking travelers speak French so when French people abroad meet me I have an even chance of getting along with them in their native language. Besides this guy makes delicious goat cheese quiches and I got a slice of banoffee (banana-toffee) pie and Layne got herself chocolate mousse in a pot. It’s okay to be envious of us as we’ll be back to Latin American food soon enough…
I took Rusty for a walk before we went to the market and he enjoys this town thanks to the absence of streeet dogs ambushing him. He really likes hanging around at the campground watching backpackers come and go and keeping a sleepy eye on traffic in the street. He wasn’t too excited to have to sit in the van while we went to the market but Layne went on ahead and I had the tack of explaining he would have to wait aboard GANNET2 but he got onto his bed reluctantly.
On the walk to the market I met an American called Chris, about my age living temporarily in Boquete. He is a traveler too and spends time in countries following his whims, latterly Argentina and now for a few months Boquete. I asked him his opinion about Panamanians and he allowed as they are not that friendly to outsiders adding that he thinks it’s because they are fundamentally Colombians, which struck me as odd as we’ve heard nothing but pleasant stuff about Colombia.
Well we shall have time to find out for ourselves in the fullness of time. Our van needs an Anti Locking Brake Module as the factory original has set off a warning light a couple of times and even though it looks fine right now we want to change it while we are in a good spot to do that. We found a replacement through Jerry Ulm the Ram dealer in Tampa where we have had service previously and they heroically shipped it to us at vast expense ($1500). Except instead of using the freight forwarders’ Miami address I carefully supplied they automatically shipped it to me at Cudjoe Key, where we lived the last time we were in for service. 
And this is where our heroic friend Wayne appears and takes charge of recovering the package from our former home and getting it shipped immediately to the Miami freight office that will send it on to our shipping agent in Panama.
What we would have done without Wayne’s on-the-spot help I don’t know. Minutes after UPS uploaded proof of delivery Wayne had the package without the current occupant of the house knowing it was there.
I had texted the occupant and he was unaccountably really angry with me as he still receives junk mail in my name two years after we left. We had our mail forwarded by the post office on our departure for the statutory 18 months but I guess circulars we know nothing about still show up and he blames me. He texted me an angry reply to my initial request to keep an eye out for the package. Considering I’d never met the man or talked with him previously I thought his first words to me were rather peculiar. You be the judge.
I have to say it doesn’t sound as if life on Cudjoe Key is the paradise he might have been expecting when he paid three quarters of a million according to Zillow for the lovely house in need of repairs we used to rent for $1800 a month. I’m glad I’m out of there. And even gladder Wayne got the part whisked away unnoticed and unmolested. Thanks also to Dan and Gary who offered their services. Oh and what I used to do with former tenants junk mail and begging letters was to trash them. It was a short step from the mail box to the recycle bin and no cause for ill tempered rants on my part.
In the meantime we’ve been invited to lunch by our mechanic, a lovely offer, and a ten day flower festival has begun in Boquete with loud music that miraculously fails to keep me awake at night but that is such a local institution the festival has us curious to visit. Meanwhile some Canadian friends traveling by van in Costa Rica want to discuss sharing a flat rack container with us which would reduce our shipping cost to Colombia. This will all take time so we are making plans to do some Panama touring soon before we have the last part installed in GANNET2. Trouble is, cool sunny days and insect free cold nights make this a difficult anchorage to give up. That and the bakeries.
Actual proper bagels are not easy to find in Central America and even if you don’t like Marmite you might be able to appreciate an authentic bagel as a reason to stay put a while longer…in this unusually American town in the highlands of Panama. English has its benefits.
