Shar's talking to a 3rd grade gal teacher from the Bay area as I type. We shared a boat today with a teacher from France. Is there a reason we have the gig we do?

We arranged a boat to Polo Beach today on the Carribean side of the Island. There are two French families at the hostal, so we worked it out to get a decent rate with them for a boat there. We were told the captain would have to stay all day with us--that's why it would cost 10$ each. When we got there the captain told us he was leaving but his brudder would come back. The captain by the way turned out to be Cody who I met running a bar here last year & who burnt me a copy of his band's, "The Bastimentos Beach Boys," CD. The 2 French couples were very nice. One had a 9 yr.-old girl, & twin 7 year-old girls. They were adorable. I don't think they could swim & when we were in the ocean swells on the little water taxi, I would have been over the side in less than a heartbeat if one of them went in. I noticed only one life jacket on the boat. The other couple had a 16 year-old daughter who didn't seem to be bothered at all by the fact that her role was default child care person for the 3 younger girls. We told Cody we'd like to stay till 4. He said he had to leave but his brudder would come back. Cody showed up shortly after 2. After a while he told me he wanted to get back by 4, because his uncle had died and they were bringing the body. I rounded up the 8 French people. When we got back to town it appeared everyone in the village was in a procession down main street (which is actually a very beat-up sidewalk since there are no vehicles on the island). It was the funeral for Cody's uncle. The guy had 51 grandchildren when he died.

I uploaded 2 pictures from Polo Beach. On the way out there Shar & I noticed construction in an area that involved about 15 houses. One of the other captains told us that it was a development for 500 houses eventually. This is all foreign money doing this. Bocas is a paradise now. I am not sure if I will want to be coming down here in another 5 years.