Building bridges

A few months ago we wrote about all the work that has to be done on our property. And slowly but certainly these projects are beginning to get realized. Last month Kees and his father built two bridges over the stream that runs through our property.

Kees had been procrastinating a bit but in the end the project was easier than he thought. De first bridge was ready after two days of hard work. Not that we had to cross large distances, but everything had to be done by hand. We had to carry all the wood to th eright place, dig the trench for the foundations, saw al the wood and screw everything in place. The wood, incidentally, was left over from the construction of the rancho’s.

De Bridge supports are made of Nispero. Nispero is a heavy tropical hard wood that is resistant against rot, insects, water, and anything else you can think of. In Central America nispero has been used a lot in harbour construction. Our supports are 10 by 15 cm and have been dug in 50 cm. So they will probably last forever. The main supports are also made of nispero (10 by 5 cm) and the planks are ‘Espavé’ (wild cashew). The latter do not last quite as long as Nispero, but long enough.

Because of its strength and resistance, nispero is a very popular wood for construction in Panama. But it grows slowly, much slower than it is being harvested. Nispero is therefore slowly going extinct in Panama. The wood we used, is from a natural tree fall, so our ECO-image is still intact. Better still, last month we finally managed to buy 10 nispero seedlings, most of which have been planted already.

But back to the bridges. N the end they look just like Kees had planned them all along. And they are also level, in all directions. And that is quite an achievement when you keep in mind that we used rather basic tools and that the banks of the stream were very uneven. This does give us the courage to tackle the next building project.