WWOOFing in Lago Bay
We were WWOOfing for 18 days from February 24, 2016 at Lago Bay in Panama. Lago Bay is a community with several lots, two beautiful lakes with wildlife, and organic plantations of coconut, avocados, plantains, bananas, papaya, moringa, cashew fruit, and other fruit trees. It is located right on the Pacific coast of Panama. The property is about 7 miles from the town of Santa Catalina. The land and project are owned and managed by Brett, from the United States. When we volunteered at Lago Bay two retirement houses were being built under the supervision of the architect Itzaris, who is also Brett’s girlfriend. While we were there, we also had regular contact with Jason, Brett’s high school friend from the US, that works on the property, Jason’s four-year-old daughter, Alejandra, Johanis, a local woman that also works in the property, and the three dogs, Porky, Rosa, and Risa. There were also multiple construction workers working on the property on a daily basis.
During our days in Lago Bay, we worked from 7 am to 12 pm, Monday to Saturday. We lived in a very comfortable two-story duplex with our own kitchen and groceries to prepare breakfast and most dinners. The duplex also had a rooftop area with a bar to enjoy the view during the evenings. All the food was provided by our host and lunches was served at 12 pm after ending each work shift. Most of our meals were vegetarian and we were fortunate to enjoy some local fresh seafood at times. We felt very welcomed and appreciated at Lago Bay. Brett is a great host. He is hard working, accessible, generous, easy going, and a fantastic cook. His “concha pasta” and “portobello sandwiches” are world famous! We really admire Brett’s well-balanced vision and proactive approach to life.
During our volunteer experience, Sal spent most of his time with the construction projects, either manual work with the construction crew or offering his expertise as a structural engineer. Sal reviewed the construction plans and provided calculations to solve some architect questions. It was a nice opportunity to dust off his skills and put them into practice. Gisela spent most of her time gardening, working side by side with Johanis, helping out with cooking lunch, and taking care of Alejandra the days she was at Lago Bay. Gisela’s tasks in the gardens varied from raking, watering, trimming, planting tomato, eggplant, cilantro, and bell peppers seeds, and further transplanting them. She loved seeing the seeds germinate, grow, and bloom.
The main project we accomplished while being at Lago Bay was to transfer the aquaponics system into a different location. We built a roof for cover and to serve as a nursery with some additional soil beds for vegetables. We were excited to learn about aquaponics, a system of rock beds for planting where water circulates from a fish tank. The water is rich in ammonia and fish excrement that is a great source of nutrients for vegetable plants like tomatoes, lettuce, and basil. The system is interesting because the water is recycled from the fish tank into the rock beds and resent back to the fish tank. In the case of this particular system, the variety of fish used was tilapia. Sal designed the new nursery roof using bamboo, steel, concrete, and a plastic material for the roofing. At the end, the nursery looked great and we felt proud and excited for the use it could be given!
Sunday was our day off at Lago Bay and during our volunteering experience we enjoyed three of them. The first Sunday, we visited Santa Catalina, which is relatively close to Lago Bay. The town is known as a surf beach and has a low-key tourist development with some restaurants catering for foreigners as well as some scuba diving centers. The second Sunday, we walked to the beach at Lago Bay in the morning. This is a gorgeous, long stretch of black sand full of beautiful seashells with some mud at low tide and great mountain scenery in the background. We were really surprised by the soft mud. Gisela really enjoyed walking on it.
Our last resting day was devoted to travel planning, resting, and preparing to continue our journey. Overall during our time off in Lago Bay we both read a lot. Sal was entertained with the travel guide for Cuba, learning about their history and planning for our next adventures. Gisela kept herself busy with a very revealing book about world economics: The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. Sal also loved looking for cashew fruit amongst the trees and then devouring them. Although it was not the season yet, some ripe fruit were starting to appear. Gisela found great pleasure in cooking, since it had been a while that we had a sense of privacy and the joy that comes with having a kitchen to be creative. Our breakfast and dinner menu varied: French toast, arepas with sausage, oatmeal, hard boil eggs, pancakes, fresh papaya with lime, tacos, coconut milk curry, chow mein, pasta, Salvadorian empanadas, and etc.
It was nice to have a sense of home, the ability to prepare our own meals, and being at the same place for several days to build a routine. We will miss Lago Bay and the new friendship we established there. We will miss seeing the nursery project further unfold with the plants that grow daily and to be able to taste the fruits of our labor. We will miss the view of the giant orange sun over the horizon through our windows at breakfast time and the sound of the numerous groups of birds flying above us right after sunset. We will continue to cherish the happiness of those moments and appreciate all the joy and wonders that is placed along our path.
