Paradise Found

John Milton may have written that Paradise has been lost, well I am sure that I have just found it.

The Carribbean coast of Panama is lined with several island chains that are full of postcard worthy beaches. Many of these have been discovered, settled, and sold to gringos who in turn develop them into luxury hotels that try and seperate you from the environment. The island I visited is still untouched.

Mike and Amanda Smith, two of my friends and fellow Peace Corps volunteers met Rogelio, a man in their town that has 25 acres of coastal property on an island called Escudo de Veraguas. Rogelio runs a small fishing business from Escudo and has a couple small houses he uses for his employees while they are working. After talking to Rogelio for a while he mentioned that he could take Mike and Amanda out to spend a couple of nights on the island. Nobody lives there permanently! A couple of houses for people that fish or hunt lobster but they are only there a couple of months out of the year. Mike and Amanda asked if they could bring some friends and Gretchen and I were lucky enough to be included along with Brandon and Jacey two of Mike and Amanda´s friends from the states that were visiting.

Three hours on a dug out wood boat with a 40hp motor and we arrived to our own little paradise. Aside from three of his workers, there wives and children we were the only people on an island that is over 225 acres. We arrived and were instantly in aww, green everywhere, torquoise blue water with coral and fish. We swam all day the first day and found little hidden beaches to relax on. Some of which I am sure very few peaopl have ever enjoyed. One Beach you actually had to swim through a little cave to get to. AMAZING. We finished the day with some wine and a freshly caught and prepared fish dinner. He literaly caught the fish in the front yard and cooked it for dinner.

Day two he gave us a complete island tour. We saw sloths, birds, and plenty of fish. We would occasionaly stop`at one of the countless beautiful beaches to enjoy a little time in the water but after a while we could choose because there were literaly too many. After a walk on a long beach and a good sun burn we were all ready for a little nap and chose our repective locations under a nice tree to dose off for an hour or two. While the others were a bit sunned out I took Rogelio up on an offer to go fishing. I went with two of his workers, Auriel and Chicho to go trawling for some fish. I caught three Benito before we filleted one and went after something bigger. It wasn´t too long before we had a 30 pound wahoo on the line and it took all three of us to get him in the boat. While a 30 pound wahoo doesn´t sound like it would be too much of a fight try to imagine that we were doing all of this with line in hand. We didn´t use any fishing poles the whole time and all three of us sustained some type of injury before I successfully knocked it over the head with a peace of wood and we could get him in the boat. We called it a successful trip after that and returned back to the house for another fresh cooked fish dinner and wine by the fire.

Amazing. Gorgeous. Pristine. THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACE I HAVE EVER BEEN TO

Don´t worry I took a lot of pictures and will be sure to share the beauty with all of you.