Travel is like an intensified version of normal life. We take ourselves out of our comfort zone to situations where the ups are higher and the downs take us deeper than we have ever been. This is why we often return from travelling feeling like a new person: so much more experienced, wiser and even enlightened.
After a year or so travelling through South America, I’d been confronted by many lows (and many more highs, thankfully). One thing that irritated me was how long things took. I’m pretty chilled out and enjoy taking my time, but on Latin American time things can be excruciatingly slow. The border crossing from Colombia to Panama is one example of this. The whole process of travelling by boat from port towns to port towns took days. I understand that authorities in this Darien Gap region are wise to watch their ports for drug smugglers, but anyone who has spoken to locals knows that the authorities are aware of the traffickers and allow certain offenders to slip through the cracks.
On arriving to Panama, at the tiny village of Puerto Obaldia, the immigration officer sitting inside his sweltering hot cement block informed us that for no particular reason, it would take 4 hours to process our papers. I decided to get my Taoist on and make the most of the situation. A little girl sat outside the office. She was the officer’s daughter. We started chatting and soon two of her friends came to join us. I gave them stickers and showed them through my Panama guide book – they were fascinated to see photos of their country, places they never knew existed. They were adorable and I absolutely had to take their photographs. They loved being in front of the camera and hours later when I needed a break, they didn’t want to stop posing for the camera.
I entered some photos of my amigas into a Unicef Panama photo competition. I was one of the winners and was so happy to see my photo, which was captured thanks to a slow immigration officer, blown up in an exhibition in Panama City, helping raise awareness of children’s issues.
See behind the scenes photos on my Pinterest page
www.pinterest.com/aliciafoxphotog/photo-shoot-behind-the-scenes/
