Rodeos and Banana Plantations in Panama

An adventure into the countryside of Central America

I was toting my pack down the narrow lane to the river. I was exhausted and hurting for a place to stay. It would be a nice sound to fall asleep to, the river.

I saw a mother and her kids slipping onto the lane from under a barbed wire fence. While, where does this go? I wondered and scooted under the bottom wire the way they had come once they were gone.

It led into a pasture with tall grass, a few trees, and a faint path pointing downhill. I followed it for a bit and saw smoke that I assumed was a riverside celebration of some kind so I walked toward it.

I jumped the creek at the bottom of the hill and landed on dry land on the opposite side. I had left the path a while ago in favor of following the smoke. It was a brush pile and no one was tending it. The heap was all smoke and no flame. I dropped my pack and walked down the hill toward the only two people I could see.

It was a farmer and his wife, both of them older folks. She was operating the rake and he had the handles of a whe…