So things are coming together for the Cartagena trip. I’d rounded up a good group of people for passengers, and a new buddy Joe tells me he thinks he’s up for crewing. With all this coming together, I made a last-minute decision to fly up to Guatemala next weekend for a GC Gang wedding I’d been invited. Rosi, one of the esteemed GC Gang elite, is tying the knot on the 10th. Mitzy, and Moni (from Utila) will be there as well.
I figured I can put off the departure a few days to make the gig. So what the hell, I say. It helps that Mitzy used her major travel industry contacts, scoring me a cheap airfare, and a four-star hotel in Guatemala City (I dig the bathrobes). So after touching base with the potential passengers, I went ahead and made arrangements with Mitzy to make the trip.
It was a holiday weekend in Bocas, yet again. Seems like Panama likes to celebrate like three different kinds of independence days. There’s “National Day” on the 2nd, which incidentally means, there’s no alcohol served or sold until midnight. Then there’s Independence day from Colombia on the 5th, but there’s two more major holidays coming up later in the month as well.
Needless to say, there’s a festive spirit in town.
I’ve been doing my best to participate, but it hasn’t always gone well. I got thrown out of Barco Hundido, a local dance spot, because I raised a ruckus about being charged a bloated cover charge at something like 2:30 AM. One of the bouncers decided I was being disrespectful, and I was told to leave, and given my three dollars back. I was laughing in disbelief, I can’t remember the last time I was thrown out of a bar. I guess I was due.
Then, to add to the irony, I went back in to Barco Hundido with some friends a couple nights later. Follow me on this one. Apparently I wasn’t permanently banned from the place, because they let me right in this time. It was pretty crowded on account of the holiday weekend, even though it was a Sunday. I ran into Sabrina, a Cali chica I know, and decided we’d do some salsa.
Now, I’m not a trained dancer by any means, but I sure can fake it when it comes to salsa and merengue. I guess spending 3+ years in Mexico and Central America will do that to you. I’ve actually come to like it, and I get complemented on my fake salsa and merengue dancing all the time. So Sabrina and I were just dancing along on the crowded dance floor, doing pretty well, minding our business. I usually don’t take my flip flops off during dancing, but this time I did. The floor was a bit too damp, and they tended to stick a bit.
A few minutes into our third or so dance, I gave Sabrina another twirl (I find most of the faking can be done by just twirling the girl a lot, accentuated by dipping). When she snapped back, I felt a crack under my foot. That second, the whole floorboard, which was obviously rotted, gave way. Sending my left foot and shin right through it. I was now caught into the crack up to just below the knee. It happened so fast, Sabrina didn’t even notice. I looked up at her, now feeling the sudden jolt of pain from my knee being wedged into the hole. Everyone else just kept dancing around me, it was unbelievable.
Sabrina noticed a few seconds later, and helped pull me out. I limped off the floor, and checked out my leg. It hurt. I felt a bump below my knee, but I was otherwise ok. I went over to my friend Nathalie who tends bar there, and she hooked me up with some ice. I iced down the injury, and it started feeling better right away. But I was done dancing for the night.
I limped back to the boat shortly afterwards to nurse my knee back on Andiamo. The next day, it was a bit swollen, but otherwise ok, I took some ibuprofen and went about the rest of the day. I ran into Sabrina that afternoon and even laughed about the incident. I was just glad that she didn’t go through the floor too. I just hope my knee heals up ok, and fast. I really want to head out to Cartagena early next week.
So tomorrow, I head to Guatemala City for the big wedding gig, should be interesting, fun, and too put it mildly, festive.
