Last weekend we were given a day off from work (for a complicated mess of miscommunication reasons that don’t really need to be delved into at this time)! And, as a general rule of thumb, we have decided that when your “boss” for your volunteer job tells you to take a day off and go to the beach (most likely so he can nurse his hangovers in peace rather than be pestered with things like buying paint or busy volunteers) you go ahead and just tell him “thank you, we’ll take three!”
And we did indeed head straight to the beach the next day, which was a Sunday (we now know first hand that it is indeed bad luck to start a trip on a Sunday). Turns out, transport in Panama, which is unreliable to begin with, becomes more of a guessing game on Sundays compared to the rest of the week. If the guy who drives the route feels like it (which is often heavily influenced by how close the fiestas happened to be to his home that weekend) there will be a bus which passes by. If not, well you may get somewhere at some point and by some means of transportation.
Lucky for us, we did happen to get all the way to our destination; it only took a ridiculously hot and long wait, a bus transfer which dropped us off at the wrong bus station, missing the only bus that day to our destination because Panamanian Spanish is like trying to understand someone underwater and the “son las doce menos veinte” came to be understood as simply “doce, veinte” (which caught us quite off guard when the bus we were waiting for passed by at 11:40 as we were enjoying a banana smoothie in Pedasi), and then some fancy hitchhiking that earned us pity points with a local.
Things we learned from this little Sunday trip: I am not allowed to gather information on my own, because I’m really no good with details; expect to walk 30 km and someone will likely give you a ride at some point; Pedasi is one of the cutest little towns we’ve seen; and Panama is really too hot for it’s own good, even in the “rainy season”.
We ended up riding with this awesome guy from Alabama, and he even showed us around “town” (you must use this term loosely when talking of Playa Venao), and even took us straight to the least expensive lodging around (excluding camping directly on the beach, which is free and legal anywhere in Panama, but since they cut down all their trees it’s also unbearably hot during the day time). Gordy became our unofficial guide, we ate dinner with him each night, he talked us into a few future tiling jobs in the area, and he even loaned H his surf board!
We stayed at Eco Venao, a hip little hostel-compound that starts at the beach and winds up the hill into their forest. Camping was reasonably inexpensive (comparable to Costa Rican standards), and they have a little Cascada and a lot of hiking to enjoy. There is really not a lot in town, so learning things like how to wait for the weekly veggie truck at the bar/hotel and how to wait until after the weekend to buy anything (after everyone goes back to Panama City to work) was really helpful!
We camped for two nights, enjoyed the cooler ocean breezes and the great company. The waves were good, a nice beach break for H, and we have some work lined up for this coming week. I know, people are actually going to pay us to come and tile, let us camp on their property and cook meals in their kitchen, take us on surfing breaks during the day, provide us with beer and groceries, and did I mention PAY us?!? Madness! Turns out it’s fantastic F taught us how to tile all those years ago!
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Rule #2: Don't Die. 
Sounds like a great day off…surfing, new friend, and a new job! How does it get any better than that?? Miss you chicas!
Traci!! Are you loving Aussie land? When are you coming back to the Americas?!