Made a lengthy trek (3 buses, 2 taxis) to Santa Catalina, meeting a friendly painter on the way, who lived in Sona and got the bus every day to Santiago to sell his paintings.
The 2 Swiss-Germans that i met in Pavones, Simon and Evelyn, happened to be in the same hostel, so it was with them that I spent most of my time here. We went surfing at Playa Estero everyday, with waves soemtimes reaching 1.5m (although Simon reckoned 2m). Here we met Sean-Paul, a nice kid at first, who showed us where to surf (although he was only 8 he was certainly in the know, being as this beach was his back-garden). However, his insistence on mindless violence (in an 8 yr old kind of way) got a little grating, and he got especially annoyed when I called him a cucaracha or a niña traviesa.
Also met 3 American guys who exactly represented all bad things you might have heard about American tourists. They talked to the locals as if to someone fluent in english, and as if they were their boss. They were very loud, shouting both late at night and at 7 in the morning, literally waking up everybody in the hostel. They were bigoted ("You know you guys should just throw each and every Muslim out of your country. Mass-murdering fucks"). They were Bush supporters - would you believe? In this day and age! Needless to say I didn´t share with them my views on patriotism (see August 25). They were constantly boasting about the Colombian prostitutes they had just had in Panama City (prostitution is legal here). Guys, it´s not something to be proud of if you had to pay them to do it.
I also met Jaime, an interesting guy technically from America, grew up in Puerto Rico, and who had lived in various places in his time. He identified, within 30 seconds of meeting the yanks, the excellent quality of their character. That evening, my last in Santa Catalina, was spent with him, Simon and Evelyn and 2 guys from Barcelona with who I reminisced about Sonar. Most of the conversation was in Spanish - too hard for me to follow, but it´s fun and useful trying.
