Boca Chica House

Four friends from New York booked a vacation house in Boca Chica, about a 7 hour drive from Panama City towards Costa Rica. The drive itself was pretty nice and without any hitches, save the one cop we had to pay to avoid getting a ticket. I think he was lying that we were even speeding and just saw easy targets in us gringos, but still a fairly nice guy considering the circumstances. We made it to the house by the afternoon and were all just blown away by the entire idea of spending a whole week there. The house is located on a lot of about 15 acres, 180 meters above sea level on a bluff with views of islands to one direction and the mountains, along with the highest volcano in Panama, in the other direction. We also had our own private cove. There was a small 'house' building that consisted of the kitchen and living room, then a huge deck with tables, chairs and hammocks. There was a small pathway off the deck to the bedroom cabin, with full large bathrooms and balconies to enjoy the view. That first night was blissful as we drank beer, cooked dinner, and I even took my first hot shower since arriving in Panama in December. It was shaping out to be a very relaxing, luxurious week.


I woke up Monday morning to my friend Josh telling me the water was out and we needed to call the owner. No showers, no flushing toilets, no running water to wash your hands or cook with. We were told that by later that afternoon a truck with water would be coming to fill our cisterns, if not then, by the next day. All fine. We spent time at the beach, hanging out on our deck, doing noting in particular. No water that afternoon. The property manager came out the next morning to check things out, the 3,000 that was 'supposed' to be there had mysteriously disappeared. He assured us we would have water by that or the next day. Long story short, we went all week with no water. Each morning we made a trek to the beach to fill empty jugs with seawater to flush the toilets. We had to drive to the small town to buy gallons and gallons of water to drink and cook with. We carried our dirty dishes down the hill to the beach and washed them in there. I went the entire week without taking a shower. Despite our beautiful accommodations, it was basically primitive living the entire week. Although I will say that we all did a very good job at laughing it off and keeping good spirits even though we all smelled like dirty hobos.

Other than the water situation, it was an amazing week. There were bats living in our shed that came out every night to eat the bugs. One night a bat got into the living room and flew around the house all freaked out. The surrounding forests were full of howler monkeys, yelling and screaming at all times of the day. We actually didn't see any until the last day, when we were swimming in our cove and heard some in the trees nearby. So we started howling back at them. We spent about 3 hours that day howling at the monkeys, who would howl back and throw their food at us. The variety of bugs and butterflies was staggering. It was rare to see the same kind of bug twice, from types of beetles, moths, spiders, praying mantises, wasps, and a plethora of unidentifiable creepers and crawlers.