We anchored at Isla Parida and it was hot. We were now in Panama, and proudly waving on our

mast was the huge Panama flag. Alaya was about a half hour away. My parents put the dinghy

down, and went for a short ride to shore. There wasn't much on the island from the view we

had on the boat, there were maybe three houses. I went down and read my book till Alaya got

in. My parents got back and we all jumped into the water. Alaya anchored right next to us.

After a while Chase and Rachel swam by, asking if we wanted to go to shore with them, and we

did. Even though the shore was only about 400 feet away, there was a strong wind and I had

bad goggles on... they leaked. We finally made it and walked along the shore. We found a

couple of shells we liked.

Walking down the beach and turning around to go back to our flippers, four kids ran up to

Chase. Chase looks like he's from Central America. "Hola" Chase said, they repeated the

greeting. "Tiene bolla?" the boy asked. Chase whirled around, "he's asking me if I have a

Bolla. What the heck is a Bolla?" Tara handed Chase a stick. "Ask him to write it down."

"Escriblo por favor" Chase said. The boy looked confused. "Tell him to draw it," I

suggested. "How do you say that?" Chase asked.

My Spanish book from school kicked in...thinking...thinking..."Dibujo" I yelled. "Dibujo," Chase

told the boy. "No intiendo... parito" the boy said. "Parito." Chase repeated. Hmmm. We all

looked at each other hoping someone would remember reading Parito, Bolla, or Intiendo, in a

Spanish book. The awkward silence went on for a minute or two. The boy obviously knew we

were thinking. "Lo siento, No se." (I am sorry, I don't know) Chase said to the boy. We

walked away slowly.

When we got back to our boat I hurriedly ran down stairs and got our Spanish-English

dictionary. I came outside and quickly looked up Bolla. Chase and Rachel were waiting on our

swim step to hear what it meant. I found it and read it "Bolla, means Ball," I said. Chase

deciphered, "so he asked us if we had a ball." I looked up Parito. "Parito means, Match or

soccer game," I said. Tara quickly pointed out the obvious... that he wanted to play a

soccer game with us. Tara yanked the dictionary out of my hand and looked up Intiendo.

"Intiendo means understand" she said. "But he said no intiendo, So he didn't understand."

She looked up proudly at all of us. Chase broke the silence, "well, we've got to go. We'll

see you guys later." They put their flippers on and swam back to Alaya. Tara and I took

showers and then watched a movie.