There is a new re-cycling craze in the Valley. Shipping containers re-used with a little tweaking and transformed into dwellings.
All this really requires is a welder and a little imagination. In Boquete, welding is something lots of people claim to do and a few do well. It is the upwardly mobile job every farm or building laborer wants. Welding is close to the top of the manual labor hierarchy. Welders seem to exert a fair amount of influence around town. Here, everything that could be made of metal, wood or plastic - in Boquete, it will be made of metal. Bottom line, there are lots of people willing to have a go at converting your container.
Sometimes, like in the case of the new Children's Play Grounds made of brightly painted metal, this is a public safety hazard. In the case of my new compost bins it is quite swanky. Oftentimes, welders are not really qualified - I had a guy taken off site last week with red eyes and a bad headache after failing to use his mask properly.
Back to containers: They are starting to appear all over town. Some container dwellings are very fancy and consist of many 40ft containers stuck together. Some are very rustic, just a single container, and a 20ft one at that. A 20ft container in these parts used to be used to ship about 30 very large sacks of coffee. Every now and again, like going up Jaramillo you see a whole field strewn with them, waiting for an occupier, a bit like old sea shells waiting for a hermit crab.
In my opinion, some of the cutest ones are in Valle Escondido where they are used for staff on- site housing. These look like 6 20ft containers, three on the top and three on the bottom, with a nice little metal balcony - all courtesy of the welder.
Today, I had the priviledge of delivering oranges to one of the residents. This is the first time I have ever been invited inside a container. Thank you! I love it and want one or two of my own. It has all the romance of a gypsy caravan combined with good green credentials. It is also mobile, so when you want a change of scene or need to move things around, its easy.
All this really requires is a welder and a little imagination. In Boquete, welding is something lots of people claim to do and a few do well. It is the upwardly mobile job every farm or building laborer wants. Welding is close to the top of the manual labor hierarchy. Welders seem to exert a fair amount of influence around town. Here, everything that could be made of metal, wood or plastic - in Boquete, it will be made of metal. Bottom line, there are lots of people willing to have a go at converting your container.
Sometimes, like in the case of the new Children's Play Grounds made of brightly painted metal, this is a public safety hazard. In the case of my new compost bins it is quite swanky. Oftentimes, welders are not really qualified - I had a guy taken off site last week with red eyes and a bad headache after failing to use his mask properly.
Back to containers: They are starting to appear all over town. Some container dwellings are very fancy and consist of many 40ft containers stuck together. Some are very rustic, just a single container, and a 20ft one at that. A 20ft container in these parts used to be used to ship about 30 very large sacks of coffee. Every now and again, like going up Jaramillo you see a whole field strewn with them, waiting for an occupier, a bit like old sea shells waiting for a hermit crab.
In my opinion, some of the cutest ones are in Valle Escondido where they are used for staff on- site housing. These look like 6 20ft containers, three on the top and three on the bottom, with a nice little metal balcony - all courtesy of the welder.
Today, I had the priviledge of delivering oranges to one of the residents. This is the first time I have ever been invited inside a container. Thank you! I love it and want one or two of my own. It has all the romance of a gypsy caravan combined with good green credentials. It is also mobile, so when you want a change of scene or need to move things around, its easy.
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