I told you so

I have often told myself that I am one of those rare individuals who is not tethered to their smartphones.  I could easily go hours if not days without looking at the silly thing and I have looked down on people who go out to a lovely dinner to sit silently across each other deeply engrossed in a conversation with their phone. Before I go into any further thoughts about my relationship with my phone, let me tell you about Las Perlas islands in the Panamas, as it is forever connected with my Samsung S8.

We left Panama city in a small puddle jumper that took us to Isla Contadora which is a tiny island in the Las Perlas Archipelago off the Panamanian coast. It was once a source of pearls including the famous La Peregrina pearl. Its claim to fame, aside from its lovely landscape, is that the Shah of Iran lived here briefly during his exile.  The plane held roughly ten assorted people, of which only I and Sunil were to disembark at Contadora.  It was an interesting flight as any of you who has taken such a flight will attest to.  We took off and landed in about 20 minutes on a small strip of runway that cut right across the island. As we were landing, we got a good aerial view of the World ARC flotilla, about 30 boats or so anchored in the bay. 

Joe and Cobin were there to meet us in a little golf cart to transport us to the beach where a dinghy would take us to the Catamaran. All that was accomplished very efficiently even though Sunil and I had enough luggage to sink the dinghy.

Lara, and the kids greeted us on the boat and we met Ruth, the other most experienced sailor on-board. Ruth is from the UK and has raced a Clipper boat around the world in 2015. See this link about her and the Clipper Boat Race.  A golf cart tour of the island with 4 adults and 3 children wedged in between was a bumpy but interesting ride on rolling pavement, and the occasional dirt road. Boughs of heavy pink and white bougainvillea draped over tall walls on either side of the road beyond which were grand vacation homes.  There are many beautiful white sandy beaches and the water around the island is crystal clear. There is a small fresh water lagoon with several houses around it. We drove through an old abandoned resort on our way to a pristine beach and could imagine Isla Bonita playing as long-gone vacationers lay by the poolside sipping their mojitos.

Once back on the boat we put away our stuff in our cabin which was in the aft starboard hull. Joe asked us to inspect the bottom of the catamaran which he had recently cleaned in preparation for the Galapagos boat inspection (More on this in another post). This meant diving in with our snorkels and a Brillo pad and inspecting the hull for algae or other objectionable growth that might get us into trouble in the Galapagos.

Now coming back to my Samsung. Over the course of several weeks before the trip, Sunil had repeatedly asked me to put my phone in a waterproof case, as I am occasionally known to bounce the thing off the pavement for fun. I scoffed at the idea and refused to give credence to his fastidious behavior. I deftly put the phone in my back pocket as I prepared to board the dinghy in the evening for a beach party. A horrifying kerplunk sound greeted me from behind, as the phone dislodged from my pocket and disappeared into the depths of the sea. We were all silent for a minute, and then Joe offered to dive in and recover it from the bottom.  I did a quick mental calculation and it took me only a few minutes to decide that this was a futile endeavor.  I bid adieu to my smartphone as we sped towards the beach.

At the beach party we met several of the other crew members of the flotilla. The children raced around with other kids from the various boats. There were a lot of them! I was cool and affected indifference to the loss of my phone. 

I must admit now that I was already on stage one of the five stages of grief at the loss of my phone- i.e. Denial. I was denying my deep distress at the loss of this valuable piece of technology that would have seen me through the weeks of travel ahead.  This was followed by Anger-at Sunil for not noticing the phone loosely placed in my pocket- He was right behind me and could have prevented this disaster. He could have insisted that I place it in a waterproof case and carry it around my neck instead. Perfectly reasonable anger of course! The next stage was Bargaining -with myself, I would treat my phone with respect and love should it magically reappear. I would stare at it in adoration, during conversations with people, and use it for selfies that I would post regularly on social media. When this did not happen over the next few days, I sank into a quiet Depression since I had learned that this is what one is expected to do next.  I have still not reached the last stage of my grieving process- Acceptance. Will I ever accept that my casual shallow relationship with this device was the cause of the breakup? Will I ever accept that Sunil was right and I should have taken better care of my Samsung.  He has not said those 4 dreadful words, but I have seen that eyeroll.

P.S. There is a freedom in not having a phone on a vacation that I highly recommend (without tossing your phone in the sea). You can enjoy your surroundings without reaching into your back pocket or your waterproof case for a quick selfie. Meals can be challenging though, if you have to carry on a conversation for too long without this distraction.

P.P.S My new phone is an Iphone 7 bought on ebay.