Going for a walk around here takes on new meaning.

I headed down to the end of the peninsula the other day with one of my new local buddies, Juan. When he showed up, Juan had these knee-high boots and a machete, and here I was feeling like a real gringo with my flip-flops.

“No problem,” he said, but let me tell you that it won’t be long before I get my own boots and machete.

We headed down the beach, and as I walked, I realized that I’m already becoming accustomed to the sound of monkeys and waves. It made me feel a true Panamanian.
There is an island that sits off the end of the peninsula, and Juan pointed out that it’s home to nesting turtles that come every year to lay their eggs. No one lives on the island and it’s covered in jungle.

You can walk out to the island from the mainland at low tide, and you can see most of the coast of both Panama and Costa Rica, especially the Osa Peninsula. We didn’t visit the island this time, but I want to go back to explore the place soon.

We passed Mono Feliz hotel (translation: happy monkey), which is a small place with open-air rooms. Juan mentioned it’s popular with the surfers and backpackers that have been coming here for years.

It’s a cool hotel, because they feed the monkeys bananas there every day and they draw in the animals from all over the peninsula. Suzie’s going to get a kick out of that.

The tide was high by the time we reached the tip of the peninsula, so we took an awesome trail the rest of the way. Only the locals use it, and not very many. The trail is right on the edge of the jungle but still close to the beach.

I felt pretty good about that, because Juan mentioned possible animals coming from the jungle. “What kind of animals,” I asked, and Ivon just shrugged. “Snakes,” he said, like it was nothing, and he held up his machete. (So that’s what it was for…)

The trail was pretty interesting, and we had to cross a few rivers. Alright, not rivers, exactly, but wading through the knee-deep water in flip-flops sure makes it feel like you’re crossing a river.

One river was sweet as hell, with this 50 foot waterfall pouring into it. That’s something else I want to explore next time I head out. (With better shoes. And a machete.)

There’s an American who has lived out here for a few years now, and we visited him for a while. He opened an animal sanctuary some time back, and he hopes to revitalize the area’s animal population.

He introduced me to his cat, which turned out to be an ocelot that the guy had rescued as a baby. I could go right into the cage with her, and the “cat” jumped on my shoulders right away to be petted.

She wasn’t very happy when she figured out I didn’t have a snack, and the guy said if I wasn’t interested in wrestling with her, I should think about leaving. Fair enough; sounds good.

By the time we made it back to the beach, I realized that the beach has about five different characteristic areas. Big waves to small waves, rocky beach to sand… this place really has it all and there’s something for every taste.

We made it to the border of Panama (and I use the term border loosely, because it’s more like guessing the last farm is in Panama). That’s about the point when I slipped on a rock and broke one of my damned flip-flops.

Great. An hour’s walk from the cabana through all sorts of terrain, and now I had to go back barefoot.

Ha, not so fast, buddy! Juan whipped out his machete, and before I knew it, he’d found a piece of rope, cut it, made this surgical incision into my flip-flop, tied it back together and I was good to go.

Yeah. I need a machete. Big time.