Welcome to everyday life in a very, very different place, where kitchen scraps go out the window,
doing the dishes involves snorkeling,
you visit the neigbors or go shopping by boat,
dolphins wake you up,
and you have to teach your puppies how to swim
.
The archipelago of Bocas
del
Toro is located on the
Carribean coast of Panama, close to the border with Costa Rica. After 3
years of working in Silicon Valley, and 4 years of travelling through
Latin America, I have chosen an island in this area one of my homes.
Together with a group of Panamanians, I am running a project to
reforest an
old cattle farm with native hardwood species and fruit
trees. The projects currently supports 5 local families. Over the next
decades, it will bind tens of
thousands of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere. Starting 25 years from now, it will provide an
alternative source of lumber, saving thousands of trees in natural rainforest
from being cut down.
The completely different environment provides a nice balance for my
geeky day job -- software development. Being able to take a quick
creative break by diving off my deck and going for a swim definitely
beats fighting traffic to go to the beach.
Numerous other recreation possibilities,
and fresh seafood and organically grown tropical fruit
keep life
interesting and healthy.
I am hoping to find more like-minded people to share this lifestyle
with - be it for a short visit, as a volunteer on the reforestation
project or the
local elementary
school, to write some code,
or as a permanent neighbor.
For general information on the area, the Red Frog Beach Club
website
has a sales video available for download; another source of information
is the Bocas Marina.
Information from real estate
agents in Bocas del Toro is plentiful on the Web, but should be taken
with a grain of salt.
Life
in