stoked-skeleton-blog

[stoked-skeleton-blog]

daniel talks #1

Hello to all followers of my girlfriend,

So I know Maxi has been blogging for a while now however up until recently I have be unable to read the posts due to them being in German. I am trying to learn Deutsch but my progress is still very much in its infancy. However I have always had a good understanding of what she has been writing about from parts she translated for me and most importantly from experiencing most of the stories first hand.

But now the posts are in English… firstly I have been able to fully appreciate how incredible she is at describing all of these amazing experiences in her very own unique way which for me is the real talent. Secondly we had the idea that I could maybe write a post from my point of view which is equally exciting and kind of daunting.

Arriving back in London from Panama yesterday afternoon after three flights, a long layover and returning to work and squeezing onto the tube during rush hour is never a nice experience but believe me it seems infinitely worse after spending 15 wonderful days, in the most surreal place with my absolute favourite person.  

So here we are… its my turn.

This start of this trip was pretty strange as i would be travelling alone and be meeting Maxi in Panama. The travelling was not a problem, I have done plenty of travelling all over the world for work and pleasure, but the anticipation to get to Panama or more importantly Bocas Del Toro was killing me. My flight from London was early on Friday morning which meant either stay in a hotel for a few hours on my own on Thursday night  or just hang out all night at Heathrow. As I was unlikely to sleep either way i opted for the later.

Landing in Panama City 13 hours later or something I then had another night to kill on my own as it was impossible to get to Bocas that night. Trust me if there was the slightest chance I would have attempted it. I have pulled of many tight connections in the past to get somewhere sooner but having looked into all of the potential options as foolishly optimistic as possible, assuming every flight was perfectly on time, my surfboard bag would be waiting for me as punctual and pristine as if it was a going on a first date with its high school crush as soon as I sailed through immigration then find an ex formula one taxi driver to take me to the next airport in record breaking time where the Panama Air staff were eagerly awaiting my arrival and keeping the airplane doors open as long as reasonably viable, it would still not possible. So I checked into my hotel, took a shower, spoke to Maxi on the phone for a short while before getting some sleep before my alarm went off at 5am the next morning.

By the time I landed at Bocas airport i was beyond excited to meet up with Maxi and begin our adventure. As I walked out of the airport I was immediately offered a taxi which i accepted however the deal fell through somewhere during the 20 metre walk through the airport and the offer was no longer on the table. I was considering trying to walk to where I thought our Airbnb was when another taxi showed up, I showed him the address I had which was met with a clueless expression as if i had asked him to take me to a mythical city, then my phone started ringing, it was Maxi. She told me to go to Panagas (a shop that sells gas cylinders) which was more than enough information for my moronic Conrad even though I was confused as to how that was any less cryptic than the full street address for where I wanted to go but nevertheless we was on our way.

I recognised the area from the Airbnb photos and as we pulled alongside the cabana. There was Maxi swinging in a hammock seat on the front porch, with a huge smile on her face. That moment alone made the last 30 hours of travelling worth it. Reunited again it was time to get the party started and fuck shit up in Panama.

Although it was never discussed i think we were both a little sceptical about the Airbnb when we booked it. It clearly had amazing potential from the photos and description and the reviews were mostly positive but seriously that place was incredible. If I had tried to imagine the perfect place to stay for the two weeks we was going to be in Panama together it would not have been anywhere near what we had. I am not going describe the place as Maxi has already done that but I knew from walking into that place that it was going to be ideal for what I was and am always most looking forward to about these trips which is getting to spend time with my girlfriend.

I started unpacking and said to Maxi that I have to give her a valentines gift early which she protested against initially however I really did have to give it to her so no matter how much she tried convince me to wait it was never an option. I pretended to search through my bag as if to be trying to locate something small and hard to find and then pulled a brand new, custom made, completely plain surfboard from the bag with a huge heart and the words “ Happy Valentines Days” drawn crudely in wax on the top and sat there waiting for the usual freak out whenever I surprise her with stuff like this which normally includes crazy overuse of the word “WHAT!” and calling me a weirdo. However in this instance there was silence and I was a little unsure what to do, it never occurred to me that it might not be obvious that it was in fact the gift. I can’t remember exactly what made the penny drop, it may have been when I took my board out of the bag but that may completely wrong nevertheless as soon as she realised it was in fact her very own surfboard the excitement and appreciation flooded out as originally expected… thank god haha.

Our itinerary for our time in Bocas could not have been more straightforward. It basically consisted of surf as much as possible and find somewhere to watch the super bowl. This is the strange thing about me and Maxi, the idea of compromising for each other so that we both get to do what each other wants doesn’t exist, ever. Not that we wouldn’t if it was necessary, but it never is which I find incredible. It was the same for our trip to Sri Lanka.

I would start the day by waking up at around 6am and getting some juice and heading out to the porch to check my instagram for any overnight updates before cracking on with reaching my daily target on my language app, which as I mentioned earlier I am using to try and learn some German. I would always try and get this finished before Maxi woke up so that I could practise what I had learnt with her as soon as possible as it really helps me remember the new words when I try and use them right away, we would walk from our place into to town to get a water taxi every morning and I would try and form simple sentences about what was going on in an attempt to converse in German which Maxi would always entertain with so much encouragement. I remember the first time she saw me practising on my phone one morning and seemed shocked and genuinely happy that I was trying to learn her native language which was confusing as it certainly was not a secret but nevertheless that was a huge incentive for me to really work at it. So you never know, maybe the next time I write something for this blog it may be in flawless fluent german haha.

If its not already super obvious, me and Maxi both like to surf, a lot. Hence the destinations of our past and future trips. This is what I mean about there being no need to compromise. I absolutely love that we have been and are going to all of these incredible places together, to do what we both want to. When we go surfing together it really is just like that picture perfect image I have always had of being out in the water with my girlfriend, watching each other surf, entertaining each other while waiting for waves. Sometimes it seems to perfect to be real. haha i am sure that line is far too cheesy to make it onto this post but we will see haha.

Predominantly our days consisted of surfing all morning before heading back to the Cabana for lunch and some rest before going surfing again in the afternoon and then back for dinner, alcohol and a movie before going to sleep. AKA the perfect surf trip.

I am a huge fan of napping, as in I take that shit seriously. For the first few days the post surf, midday period involved a nap, even if it wasn’t essential however that got shut down pretty quickly by the unbelievable temperature it would reach inside the cabana. Even with air conditioning a comfortable nap was out of the question even for an experienced napper like myself. I decided to use this time to practise some skateboard tricks while Maxi took photos. This sounds like such a simple thing but it is being able to share moments like this together which makes our relationship so perfect.  

I know that Maxi has posted a few recipes for some of the food she cooked for us which I feel compelled to elaborate on. One of the reasons we chose the Cabana was because it had a kitchen and thank god for that kitchen because this girl can really cook, I mean seriously cook. We would stop by the supermarket at some point during the day to buy the necessary ingredients from an endearingly harsh asian lady in which my role would be pushing the shopping cart around which certainly was not as easy as it sounds trying to navigate the anything but regulation width aisles. Maxi would then cook us the most amazing food in next to no time. It was so good that every time we had something new it would immediately become my favourite. I would try and help as much as possible but aside from boiling the water for the pasta my talents were used for opening cans, throwing out peelings, playing music, pouring drinks, them kind of things which I think you will all agree is equally important when preparing cooking.

So there you have it, I am not going to attempt to describe everything we done together while in Panama as Maxi has already done a far better job at that than I could ever but here is an insight to the experience from my perspective. The most important part of all of this for me which I find impossible to describe how much lucky I feel that I get to have share these experiences and create these memories with Maxi who really is fucking awesome!