One swell trip

A few pounds lighter and thousands of mosquito bites later, I’m flying home after spending the past 10 days in near jungle-like conditions on the sunny and warm coast of Panama.

Surfing perfect waves and witnessing 30-foot-plus monsters just a few hundred miles west of Panama City, it was like a scene out of another epic big-wave movie.

I stumbled across an outer reef breaking a few hundred yards off the coast and into what used to be a sanctuary channel in which boats anchored, before this monster of a swell hit last Sunday ? the same swell that made its way up the coast to California.

The scene of awe unfolded quickly as these 30-foot-plus lefts began breaking into a 50-foot yacht and seven other fishing boats, as a crowd of spectators gathered on the cliff above.

Down below on the beach, men of the nearby village frantically ? and successfully ? saved the boats that were tied up below by moving them to higher ground.

In all my years of surfing, I have never seen such waves, except once when I was caught in the middle of a category five hurricane. It was later reported that six homes were destroyed in the nearby area. No word if the yacht made it, but I very much doubt it.

If that wasn’t enough, last night was, as we weaved in and out around the scum-filled downtown slums of Panama City in the middle of rush hour, before finally making our way safely into the hotel sector of downtown.

I was tired, bug-bitten and starving.

Checking into a nice hotel seemed like heaven as I finally sat down to my first good meal in more than 10 days.

Ah yes, the thrills and spills of travel.

Peace.