Third World Living

Bocas del Toro offers you a unique insight into third world living. The contradiction between the tourist hotels and the homes where the workers live is profound. Things we take for granted are rare commodities here. Things like electricity and water are costly. For example, we have to take military style showers. That means, turn water on (only cold water as there is no water heater), get wet, turn water off, soap up, turn water on, rinse off, turn water off. We have to do this because the amount of water we have is dependent upon the amount of rain we receive. There is one water line that runs from town to the other end of the island where we are. Our house is equipped with a large water tank to help minimize the effect a prolonged dry spell would have. As for electricity, we have none. There is a gasoline generator that we turn on after dark for about 4 hours. During this time we will charge our equipment, our cameras, and our computers. We take turns charging personal items as there are a very limited number of plugs. This generator also can power some bright overhead lights in the lab so we can do lab work in the evening. There is a small solar panel the charges two batteries that power the water pump, allowing us to have running water through the day. However, this is unreliable as there are days where it will be raining for multiple days and thus no sun. When that happens we must use the generator to run the pump and charge the batteries.
Bocas town has more resources then we do on this side of the island. There are several bars and hotels that provide for an ever growing tourism industry. There are two internet cafes in town; both have a limited number of old computers making it difficult to work on them. There is one place with wireless internet and it is the stereotypical American hangout bar (one of the few places where English is readily spoken).
Living here really points out the difference between necessity and luxury. I can see the appeal of living here. This detachment from reality is very inviting. I do miss the luxuries back home, but life here isn’t bad (I am typing this on my laptop while sitting on the private beach (aka the backyard) while drinking a beer).