Enchanted by Mother Ocean

It is late at night, I am in a foreign country, by myself, tired from a three day dive trip, the car is loaded with all my gear, no drivers license, and I am heading back to Panama City at 100 km/hr to be there in the morning to close the deal on a house, and everything is cool- EXCEPT---

I am traveling SIDEWAYS down the highway, totally out of control, skidding toward a 500 lb cow standing broadside in the fast lane. I turn into the slide, the back end snaps around the other way as I miss one cow and then I am sliding sideways toward another cow, also broadside but in the slow lane. In panic I totally overcorrect again, miss the cow by inches, loose control and go off the road into the drainage ditch separating the two lanes of traffic on either side. I am shaking but not hurt, the car is high centered, the back three feet of the car is sticking out into the fast lane, it is dark and we are on a curve. I leap out of the car and my first thought is: If someone going 100 km/hr hits the stranded car—what will happen to my spear gun? Automatic prioritizing of a spear diver’s brain. I rush up the road a hundred yards or so and start flagging the cars to move over and slow down. I was so hyped that my movements told them this was not a practice. Eventually guys started stopping to help and while one controlled the traffic, ten guys got in front of my car and pushed it out of the ditch. The front end was a bit tweaked but unbelievably everything still worked, even the A/C. Edgy, but on the road again I started to think about “What If” and the ramifications were so frightening that I could not continue to consider it. Gratitude worked better. The big lesson that I got very, very clearly was that, here, as in most lesser developed countries, night driving will invite many unwelcome demons and unknown dangers into your life. Cows foraging at night can turn your perfect dive trip into an absolute and total disaster in five seconds or less. Another lurking calamity here are the big slow trucks with no tail lights or reflectors, but they are not a problem and easy to avoid if you stay with the day, and take a moment to think about the “What If” scenario.

This four day trip itself had been super and though unable to find a dive buddy, I found the change enjoyable, and having the panga driver tending just me was pretty awesome. He had plenty of time to open my coconuts and clean my fish. I try to drink at least two or three cocos a day to keep hydrated and keep up the electrolytes in my battery. They work great and are like Gatorade bottles growing on trees, plus they are free! You can even throw the biodegradable container back in the ocean. Cool!

One highlight of this trip was that Saturday was the first Five Star Day that I think that I have ever had. A Five Star Day is when I get to shoot and land five different kinds of major game in one day. I hesitate to describe it because everyone will think that this is the norm here and then if they come down they will be very disappointed. I assure you that this is not the typical experience but it just happened that all the planets were in line or something magical happened. I shot dorado on the surface, wahoo ten feet down, rooster fish from a school in midwater, amberjack coming up to check my fins and pargo trying to escape me near the bottom. Nothing gigantic, but to cap off the five star day, a sail stayed around me for five minutes, just out of range lifting and lowering his sail. Imagine a six star day! Is it possible?

The pez gallo or rooster is still new to me so it was really fun watching them come in like a school of fighter planes. They are all biz, show little curiosity about the intruder, are very sensitive to spear guns moving toward them, and usually don’t return for a second look. When you pull the trigger on one and he cuts in his booster, be ready to get jerked out of your fins.

The dorado were sparkling and beautiful and a big surprise because they are not seen in this area or this time of year. They are being long lined so heavily that it is amazing that any at all escape the miles of baited hooks.

The wahoo were there but not large and seemed to be more skittish than usual. Edwin Fabrega gave me an idea for a disposable flasher to replace my spinner spoons and helicopter knives. My first throw of a penny wrapped in tinfoil, foiled the radar of a nice wahoo and the mistake cost him his life. Now I need a simple, easy way to carry a handful of these flashers, these coins wrapped in tinfoil with wings, when I am in wahoo territory. Any ideas?

The bohala’ or amberjack are beautiful creatures to encounter on a dive. The first one I saw on this day was chasing my speared wahoo back and forth in the water just below me. The speed of the amberjack was astonishing as he stayed with the wahoo. I could not tell for sure if he was trying to eat the wahoo or if the amberjack was just excited by the wahoo’s movements thinking he was feeding. Unfortunately he did not stick around long enough for me to reload. At another place where I had never seen Bohala’, I was visited by a powerful fish that brazenly presented the prefect stone shot. I could not turn it down.

The pargo, here, in my experience are usually deep fish and don’t come up very far off of the bottom. For me this usually means I can see them but I can’t reach them. But on this day I found a new shallow spot that is so cool that I don’t even want the boat driver to know about it. It looked like no one had ever commercially fished this place. So it was --- eny, meny, miny, mo ---- death star spears another par- go. ---BAM--- One is enough to make my Five Star Day. I just hope the pargeros don’t anchor up on the spot overnight and clean it out. My boat driver told me when he used to commercially fish pargo at night with four or five other guys (pargeros) they would anchor up and use a generator to power several 100 watt bulbs hung over the side. With hand lines, on a new place, fishing from 6 PM to 6 AM they could EACH catch 1000 lbs of fish, for a total of 5 - 6000 lbs of fish in one night. It is more fished out now, but Spear are not the problem.

For those divers with comfort as a higher priority than adventure, they will not be happy doing low budget trips in Panama. Another new place I went this time was great, but hardly live- aboard level. The long road to get there looked like a bombed airstrip from WWII. Arrangements cannot be made by telephone in advance so you never know if a room and a boat will be available. When I arrived there was no working boat but one came from another nearby village. If the fishing is good, no one wants to take you out because they make more money fishing. In the room I rented, one of two available, the entire ceiling was being devoured by termites. It seemed as if I could hear them munching as the constant rain of digested wood fell in my face all night. The cook could work miracles with the fresh fish I brought back when I returned with a big appetite after diving all day. With her culinary magic only she could take a fresh fish fillet and turn it into a solid piece of board that tasted like old pork. Amazing! Some fresh oil and a little training program next time should solve the problem.

Though one of my desires was to shoot a 65 lb fish this trip, my real goal always is to keep the channel open with gratitude so that whatever gifts are to be given can flow through. Then the unexpected wonders materialize. On one drop I froze when I saw a big shape come up from the bottom. As I continued to slowly fall without movement, the big turtle came up directly at me to within two feet. Only when I blinked because I was afraid he would run into me, did he turn and flee. A small, strange looking whale materialized close by, unexpected and unplanned. A bright, sparkling rainbow was presented that led me to a big fish instead on a pot of gold. Before daylight, I even took time to give thanks and celebrate my Five Star Day with an offering of balls of fire, shot over the ocean from my roman candles. So even though my goal had been to shoot a 65 lb. fish, that was far surpassed and exceeded with other gifts from Mother Ocean and the maravilla (marvel) and wonder of my first Five Star Dive Day. The awesomely mysterious Mother Ocean continues to enchant me as every new experience opens up new dreams and opportunities. May we all continue to live under her magic spell.

Dix Roper
    December, 2003
    dixroper@earthlink.net