On wednesday i was hanging out with a friend, Bolivar Andres, very good sponsored free-surfer that lives in Bocas del Toro and he told me we should go the next day (Thursday) to surf at Big Island. I tried to look for someone who could take us and my friend Ricardo "BATMAN" Conte appeared and told me he had a new van and we could go in the van to the caribbean so we had everything set up.
Batman's new VAN
Next morning (4:00 a.m) we take off and call my other friend Ricky Barnett.. who also joined us. We picked up Bolivar and went to the Island. After 2 hours of driving we got there and felt a really strong wind coming from everywhere so we were all kind of down because there weren't waves, but who cares we tried so we called the boat man and he took us to the spot .. we saw a 1ft. white water and a really strong wind .. we were like #$@%^ it sucks ..we wanted to surff!!! So we went back to La Guaira to go back to the city.
Ricky, Bolivar and Batman. Before we went and checked the waves. [7:36a.m]
Bolivar and Batman getting some food. [7:38 a.m.]
We didn't even know what could we do .. we didn't want to be in the #$2%# city so Bolivar came up with the idea of going to the Shelter Bay where he has his sailboat parked. Yes..i forgot to tell you guys.. he was captain of a sailboat called Princess Lauren and lived in his sailboat ("Alegria") since he was 14.
Bolivar's sailboat since he was 14, ALEGRIA
Shelter Bay [10:51 a.m]
We went to this place to check his sailboat. There i could shoot some really sick lifestyle shots of us. So the trip wasn't that bad. After checking his sailboat he invited us for lunch..
After the "shelter bay" we drove to the Causeway in the city to meet some friends of Bolivar that he needed to talk with.
Stormy Causeway [4:05 p.m.]
YES THIS WAS OUR WEEKEND SURF TRIP HAHAHA.. HERE ARE THE SHOTS
My dad invited me to join him for a trip to San Blas, an archipielago of 365 islands off the north coast of the isthmus. I thought about it .. because i wanted to surf but ..bahh .. i asked him if i could take some friends and he accepted so i though it would be nice to go with some friends and have a good time with the mates!
Pedro Pablo Vallejo and Agustin Cabrera joined the trip .. when we got there we saw the beautiful island with beautiful turquoise-colored ocean we were so happy! 5 minutes later it started raining hahaa. that sucked! our campings got wet inside and all our stuff got wet and didn't stop raining till like an hour maybe.. anyways we were having a good time.
The time we spent was cool but the rain sucked.. Here are some shots
When I arrived to PTY the first thing that came to my mind was where should I go for Carnivals? (a long weekend-4 days). My decision was between Fidel's farm (http://www.panamasurfphotos.org), one of the only water shots photographer and the best from Panama or going to BOQUETE and know a new place with my friend Eric De Arriba..an old man who thinks his surfing is veteran.
Finally I chose Chiriqui because Fidel was scared of coconuts falling on my head and anyways..i wanted to meet the waves over there in Chiriqui. We drove for about 7 hours till we got to Dito's house in Boquete which was really nice.
The first day we tried to look for a wave but we were lost and didn't know the directions very well but at the end we got there and surfed a rivermouth beachbreak with left and rights about 3-4 ft.
The next day we were supposed to wake up really early to surf a new wave my friend Eric wanted to go to, but what a surprise he wouldn't wake up in the morning. He was "too tired"..bahh.. and then he talks about him being a veteran .. anyways..groms will rule forever.
We went surfing super late but scored some 3-4 ft. beachbreak wave..we expected more power and size from the wave but it was small.
The next day we surfed for a bit and then went to a river and to the mountains to shoot some skating shots.
Concluding..it was a good trip. I had a good time eventhough this "veteran" never wanted to wake up at time.. I liked the place where we stayed.. meeting new places is cool..Isn't it?
After my long visit to Amman, Jordan (http://fatphotography.blogspot.com/2010/02/amman-jordan.html) I finally had to travel back to the concrete jungle, PTY. I was kind of excited of coming back to see my friends, see the ocean, and surf the waves. I was supposed to arrive to Panama on a Wednesday. My flight was at midnight (Wednesday). We got to the airport and walked around and saw stuff in the Duty Free and sat at Starbucks for some coffee and mental preparation for the long 30 hours trip.
We were sitting in a different terminal from which where we had to be .. so 30 minutes before the flight we started walking to our corresponding gate and in the way we noticed we were super late so we hurried up and started running to get there. Everyone was pissed off with us... what a bad humor haha. Whatever. We were already sitting in the longest plane.. i started with some SUDOKU entertainment and then slept. Later i woke up and they presented a good movie..kind of funny.
We arrived to New York like at 5-6 am.. we could barely see the sun. But we could clearly see snowflakes falling from the sky. Me and my brother were excited of the snow.. we were in Jordan for 3 weeks waiting for snow and didn't see much but here.. it was like WOW! REAL SNOW! After we made immigration and everything we went to a spot where we could get free Wi-Fi. We were in front of a big window where we could see how the snow covered the planes and the floor. I went to grab some breakfast..from Burger King? I though it was too expensive.. about 7 dollars each B-fast combo. After hours of waiting.. i decided to walk around the airport with my brother and we saw on the screens almost all the flights were cancelled we were like OH SHIT! We ran to my mother and told her..and she went to talked with the staff to see what could they do. They re-scheduled our flight for 2 days after. We went to Baggage Claim and talk with the people there to get our luggage back but they already sent it to ATL. We had no clothes for cold weather.. and there was a blizzard storm. Delta Airlines gave us some vouchers we could use for the hotel and food. We arrived to the hotel and didn't go out of the room..just to make calls downstairs.
The next morning we woke up at 4 30 am to go to the airport at 5 am and see what could we do to go to Panama fast. We got to be at a stand-by status for the flight to ATL at 11am. Before the flight departure we had to wait like 6 hours.. Seeing the same stores..same restaurants. After everyone went inside the plane we could notice we weren't the only stand-by guys. There were like 20 more people in stand-by. They started calling and BAM! Fortunately we were the third party they called. We were excited i even jumped when they called our names haha.
Here are some shots i could get in JFK Internation Airport
This was the sunrise that sat next to us on the foodcourt
Zeid superstoked to finally play with snow
Mine is the Atlanta one
This shot i got it @Burger King when i went to get my 7 dollar breakfast
My brother Zeid super stoked because of the snow
This is the view we had in front of our Wi-Fi spot
Amman? Ever heard about this? .. Amman is Jordan's capital. Jordan is a country in the Middle East. Jordan is the place from where my mom comes from and it has been a great part of my life because I lived there when i was little that's where my lovely grandparents live.
I wasn't too excited about the trip, because I just wanted to surf and improve my surfing during the holidays, but it was a family trip. I got excited about it and flew 30 hours. Yes, 30 hours, including the stops (PTY -> ATL -> NY -> JORDAN)
I didn't feel it too heavy because the night before my trip I went to the party and didn't sleep well. And in the longest flight (New York --> Jordan). I walked to the end of the plane and found 3 empty chairs and asked the hostess to let me sleep there so i slept all the flight.. just woke up to eat the miserable food which wasn't exquisite hahaha
Anyways Jordan was amazing. I got used to chat with my friends from Panama over the night for all night long because of the time difference (7 hours) until a.m. sharp .. when the guy in the mosque started praying. I know..kind of weird huh?
At the end.. i really enjoyed the trip i got to spend time with my cousins and took a lot of photos of them and also got to go to one of the 7 new wonders of the world, Petra, yes where Indiana Jones used to run in his movies.
Here are some of the shots I could snap out of the trip...
Teita and Jiddo (Grandma and Grandpa) .. They're so happy together.. so young.. so .. so.. soo.. I LOVE THEM
One of the tombs.. at the right you can see three guys praying.. wow those guys were praying in from of such a beautiful view..
The prayers' view was something like this..maybe better
One of the owners of the Donkeys.. he tried to convince us for about an hour to ride his donkey who was called JACKASSS.. he was so funny and so friendly! As you can see he's wearing a kind of eyeliner .. those guys over there start using eyeliner since they're born. These guys knew how to speak in every language.. because of the tourists of course.
Veryy nice girl who came to us and started telling my mom she was pretty ..didn't even try to sell us what she was selling .. just told my mom she would take my mom's face and replace the moon with my mom's pretty face.. amazing
My mom riding a camel ..nice background mom
Camel .. did you know they have 3 stomachs? and eat from their vomit?
Petra famous monument... this is a treasury.. and the little kid who has his hands up is my brother Zeid.. you can have a little idea of how big this thing is .. I still think it was made by Aliens..it's so perfect
The first view i caught of the treasury from inside the SIQ?
This was where Indiana Jones used to run
Variety of colors and textures
Layers.. all this art is caused because of the wind
The gladiator's shoes.. cozy ones.. Nike ? Adidas ?
He looks intelligent huh? When i was watching this "Gladiator Show" .. with arab actors.. i thought it was one of the worst dramatizations I've ever seen hahahah .. it was interesting
Yeah.. the captain
Me playing with my little cousin..Omar
Ahmad.. aka BATATA (In English.. potato)
Please take a look at his eyes
This is Omar and Ahmad.. the smallest of the family.. they love each other
This photo was taken by my brother.. while i was chatting with my friends..probably at 3am
Yeah.. We have our own Signs with our Handwriting .. whatever i dont understand it
Here you can appreciate some of the architecture.. as you can see.. no buildings and really simple houses ..
A mosque during sunset.. here's where my friend the goodnighter started praying at 5am
