The point in Santa Catalina

I must admit “surfing is like nothing else”. Wave after wave, none are the same. It brings you to the edge of all emotions, depending on the day, it sucks, it pulls, till you are drained, but it fills you up with all of that again, even better and more. "Surfing is being local yet still searching.” Surfing draws many parallels with life itself. In the swarm of the “maybe generation” of our time and in my life, something I never learned really good, making decisions, is unforgiving while in the surf. You have to make up your mind, will you go, or wont you, but second thoughts and decisions rarely bear good and end up in a wipeout.

There is something meditative and of enormous joy while getting back to the sea again, each day, cause there the overstimulated psyche can recover in the presence of that infinite peace and spaciousness. And so an ideal po-tentiality of life has become reality. 

Simplicity and compelling silence, especially at sunset when the ocean is alone and awaits the starry sky, and the coconuts are looking over it shoulder. So what can a man say here. One looks out in silence, surrendering all self-importance, left with thoughts and the mind. They say the sea is like music, it has all the dreams of the soul within itself and sounds them over.

So here are the pics..

Santa Catalina is an cute little village, which till now escaped the big boom of development but plans are on its way and who knows how long it will stay like this. I stayed in an amazing hostel Villa Vento Surf with the best people I could have. What I liked the most is the walk after a long day of surfing, the sunset, barefoot, exhausted, drained, but awaiting the deserved Snickers and beer from the shop. A daily routine of nothing and everything.

It is a good place to learn surfing, especially at the beach Estero but also to surf really good waves at the pointbreak at the Point. :)

Little friends..

Bigger friends..

At least the fruits and vegetables are readily available..watch out for the fruit truck..

Daily routine at the Point, low tide, rum, beers and mates.

And a good place to watch the sunset.

Evangelists, a Pentecostal church. These churches are everywhere here in this part of Panama. Pentecostal is a term used within Christianity to denote those Christians who place a primary emphasis on the "gifts of the Holy Spirit". It is a bit "crazy" when it starts. I have been a couple of times and one sees people falling over, entering trans states, screaming, crying, yelling, speaking in other tongues etc. But the music inside are drums so you can enter the dancing mood really easy except you will know all songs as this is happening almost every day.

Jungle skate ramp. :)

A coconut costs almost a dollar, but a machete 2.50..so... :)

Matt Middleton on a good day at the Point.

The jellyfish can be sometimes a "pain in the ass". I hope you wont get them literally in the ass.

In the end, literally across the bay, couple of hours with the boat, there's Playa Morrillo which has only one hostel, the Villa Vento Surf Nr. 2 and hosts a good wave, some coconuts, and luminous plankton for the late night skinny dipping.  

Cat pic by Freddy Coleridge.