Last night I dreamt I was back in Panama.
The dream was so real that I could smell the aroma of fresh Café Duran brewing. Yes, everything was clear as a bell and as I scurried around town in a taxi with the Driver imitating Mario Andretti I had to pinch myself to see if I was really awake.
The driver was making small talk and he asked, “Tio are you from here?”
I answered with a great deal of pride, “Si, hermano… Yo soy de aqui!”
The driver hit his brakes and Zig and Zagged to avoid a hitting a chiva that was pulling away from the curb. Then he also hit his musical horn with a burst of “The Lone Ranger Theme” or as we better know it as the “William Tell Overture.”
Yes, we missed the chiva by inches as I caught my breath in my throat and said, “Aye Caramba casi… Casi quedamos alli.” The driver then replied, “No problema Senor… everything is under control. He again hit his horn and accelerated like a banshee on the plains of Kilimanjaro.”
I started to feel a bit squeamish as the gas fumes from the firewall attacked my senses and I was about to lose that delicious kielbasa with I had at the corner Kisco en el Supermercado near Salsipuedes before hailing this taxi for a quick trip to Tivoli Hotel. “What you say? No Tivoli Hotel!” I reply with, “You got to be kidding this is my dream…Mon. The Nuevo Tivoli Hotel is on the exact spot as the old one. It is bigger and better and look Mom, no termites!”
I can see the Tivoli in the distance as the taxi driver hits the gas pedal and we hit a small rise, which propels our yellow taxi to faster speeds without a single tire on the pavement. Yes, my friends we are now airborne as I make the sign of the cross, “Oh, my God… please make this a dream!”
Just then the alarm clock goes off and I am no longer in Panama… no but as I tumble out of bed tangled up in the bed sheets and sweating to beat the band, I say who turned off the air conditioning or could it have been that “Mamma llena I had before turning in… You know that delicious bread pudding that taste so good you can’t stop with only one piece.”
Aye Caramba… what a dream and to believe it all began after reading the following passage in a magazine of walking on a silvery beach in San Carlos, “…. As sugary sand squeezed between your toes…and the gentle lullaby of incoming waves kissed the enchanting shore… I thought this is really living…. Si, come to the land of countless tropical delights… Come to Panama.”
Then some how the Dream Coordinator pushed the wrong sequence of buttons and there I was in Salsipuedes hailing a taxi… but that is where we all came in…so, that is all folks…Hasta la vista.