We Love Visitors!

We are happy to announce that we have had 2 sets of visitors!  So exciting!  We were lucky to have the Aguilars and Shane visit for Thanksgiving, then we selfishly crashed Bridget & Jarod’s honeymoon and met them in Bocas del Toro.

Anna, Santiago, and Shane arrived and we were able to have a big Thanksgiving dinner along with some other friends from school.  Alex cooked a delicious meal (duh) but, unfortunately, wasn’t able to eat much of it.  He had gotten really sick (the most sick I’ve ever seen him!) earlier in the week and was still recovering on turkey day.  Luckily, there were plenty of leftovers and he definitely had his fill of tgiving goods.   

We headed out to San Blas for a couple days.  The boat ride to the island was really choppy and wet!  We were happy to arrive to the beautiful oasis and relax in the sun for a couple days. 

 

 

 

We decided to explore a little more of Panama so we headed back to the city.  We then ventured out to the Canal at the Gatun locks.  We were able to see the new locks that are being built and got up close and personal with some ships!

 

 

We then continued on to Portobelo and took a short boat taxi to a little secluded island for the rest of the day.  I was too relaxed to take any pictures at this point.  Sorry :).  Thank you Anna, Santiago, and Shane for your visit!!! So fun!

 

Shortly after the Aguilars, we headed off to meet up with the McCormicks!  They had been honeymooning in Nicaragua and Costa Rica so we decided it would only be natural to meet up in Panama. 

Unfortunately, it rained a lot, but that didn't stop us from riding bikes, taking the boat tour of the islands, snorkeling, searching for sloths, beaching it, having a jalapeño-eating contest (that didn't last long), and cheers-ing many umbrella drinks. 

 

 

 

 

Oh yeah, and Alex and Jarod attempted some body surfing. 

 

 

We had an awesome time with the newlyweds, and we thank them for allowing us to finish out their honeymoon with them, aka Friendmoon :).  You guys are the best!

 

Chiriqui

I started this a while ago and never finished it, so it's a little outdated. Oh well! 

We have officially kicked off the holiday (aka vacation) season!  Longest start to a school year ever, but the next 3 months are going to be awesome.  November is a big month for Panama as it celebrates its independence from Colombia and Spain.  We take a day for our 4^th of July, they take a month.  I’m not complaining at all.

For our first four-day weekend, Alex and I decided to head west.  We ventured out farther than we have been yet since arriving in July.  I had bought a deal off the internet (just like a groupon, but the Panamanian way) for 2 nights at a ranch in Chiriqui called La Isleta Guabala. 

The package included breakfast, unlimited kayaking, and horseback riding.  They even adopted the local crocodile as their pet.  His name is Toto :)

The horseback riding was amazing!  I don’t know that I have ever gone before, maybe when I was little, but I was super nervous to get on that thing.  They showed us some keys things to know and threw us up there.  It took a little bit to get used to, but after maneuvering through the creek, we were good to go. 

We walked along the river for a while, next to a small waterfall, up and down hills, and then headed up one big mountain.  The view from the top of the mountain was breathtaking.  We saw their heard of about 40 cattle below and our guide said something along the lines of, “Let’s go, the horses know what comes next.”  I started following our guide and he starting calling to the cows, “Venga! Venga!” over and over again.  He started to speed up, and so did mine.  We were jogging at this point and I was not ok with it.  I tried to slow him down but when I looked up I saw all the cattle were coming to run with us as well.  That got a little scary for sure.  I had never been so close to so many big animals before.  We went through a gate with the horse and then the guide let all the cattle through as well.  The cows were running so fast! 

 

We were out there for about two hours and it was so awesome.  I didn’t want to stop, but our butts were starting to hurt pretty bad J.  Before we got back to the main area, we trotted through a herd of beautiful Longhorns and the rest of the horses. 

We still had plenty of daytime left after that, so we decided to go kayaking.  The ranch was located on Rio Santiago so we spent some time touring the mangroves and went up and down the river.  I forgot the camera for this part.  Lo siento.  We met some Panamanian friends that came along with us and they were nice enough to let Alex use one of their fishing poles.  The tide was still out so there was a small sand bar where we could get out and throw in the line.  Alex caught a blow fish!  He pulled it out of the water and it got real mad and puffed up, to the point in which I thought it was going to explode.  Alex threw him back in the water and luckily he was still alive and swam away. 

It was an adventure filled day for sure.  Roberto, the owner, has thousands of acres of land and takes advantage of the great things it has to offer.  We were lucky enough to talk with him a lot while hanging out at the restaurant at nights.  All of the meat that he prepares in his kitchen is from his own cattle, as well as all of the vegetables and fruits.  For breakfast, Roberto makes homemade guava and orange jams for his pastries.  He also has wild hearts of palm that he picks and uses for his salads.  So delicious and amazing!  We were spoiled there for sure.  Oh and, of course, he makes his own hot sauce, duh.  He has been approached by many people who want to sell it by the jar in their stores in the city, but he’s not interested.  He says if he sells it in the stores, then there’s nothing left for his customers.  What a great guy! 

It was sad to leave the ranch, but it was time for some beach action.  We headed up there road about 25 minutes and checked in at Las Lajas Beach Resort.  We only stayed here one night and we wished it was longer.  There were more people here, and it definitely didn’t have the small personal feel like the ranch, but Las Lajas was beautiful!  It had the ultimate, “I’m on vacation” feel.  I even had my first fruity drink since arriving in Panama (a piña colada with an umbrella J).  We lounged, swam, and enjoyed the awesome scenery.  We headed back the next morning after a delicious breakfast and a walk on the beach.  I wish it was closer to the city so we could go there more often!

 

  

Cristo Negro & Scuba Portobelo

Last weekend we headed out to Portobelo again to experience the Cristo Negro festival.  It’s a festival in which people thank the black Jesus for a favor that was received, or they ask for a favor.   It’s super weird.  Some people walk from as far as Panama City to Portobelo (about an hour and a half drive) in order give thanks.  Others even crawl on their hands and knees until they reach the church where the Cristo Negro is housed.  So, naturally, a group of us thought it would be a cultural experience to check it out.  The actual festival was not until the Monday of the weekend we went, so we didn’t get to see it in full effect, but we were still able to enjoy seeing people walking into town.  It is also a time for this town to sell a bunch of food and Cristo Negro mementos.  The streets were packed with people, many dressed in purple robes, which are eventually discarded at midnight on steps of the church.  Luckily, we were not there for this.  The town is small, so we walked around for a bit, took some pictures of people crawling, and headed back to our hostel. 

 

 

 

We stayed at Scuba Portobelo, which is a great hostel about a mile before the town of Portobelo.  We rented 2 little cabins right on the water, each with its own hammock on the front porch.  Not surprisingly, Alex ended up sleeping in one, and our friend Kevin passed out in the other one. 

 

 

 

 

On Sunday, we spent some time snorkeling around just in front of the hostel, and then decided to take a boat taxi to an island just across the way.  We were convinced we could just swim to it, but instead, we had to pay $10 each for the round trip.  Bastards.  We were the only people on the small island for a while, which was awesome.  We did some more snorkeling and, unfortunately, got burned a little. 

 

We talked extensively as a group about whether we wanted to go back to the city, or just all call in sick and stay for another night.  Unfortunately, after a few hours out on the island, the responsible ones of the group made the decision to go back L.  We boated it back to the hostel, packed up, and started back on the road to the city, but not before buying some homemade hot sauce from the restaurant first…so delicious!

The problem with living in a tropical vacation-like place, is every Sunday evening is a battle to adjust back to reality.  At home in Seattle, weekends were great, of course, but it wasn’t like you were on vacation.  But here, when we go out of town on the weekends, it definitely feels like we are away on a tropical vacation, because we are!  And that’s awesome.  But it makes it soooo hard to go back to work on Monday.  I know, poor us J.

On our drive out of Portobelo, we saw a ton of people walking in from the next closest town, Sabanitas, and some probably from Panama City as well.  We hit quite a bit of traffic because the people would take up most of one lane on the two-lane highway.  We had just entered Sabanitas, and were almost home free onto the big freeway, when our car decided to overheat.  At this point, we still had about an hour drive until the city.  I got on the phone and called the supposed English-speaking number for the insurance.  Her English was worse than my Spanish, so I opted for Spanish.  That was frustrating.  Three hours later a tow-truck shows up, but they only towed it just down the street for the night because, as the insurance lady says, “No one wants to tow it to the city tonight.”  Whatever.  So, our car stayed in Sabanitas, and thankfully, our friends stuck around and waited for us, so seven of us crammed in the other car and drove back to the city.  Our car was towed to the city the next day and is still in the shop as we speak.  I think Alex and I have decided we are going to sell the POS and look for something else.  We might just put up with being car-less for a while, which would work since many of our friends have cars now, but it wouldn’t be ideal for the weekends, especially when friends come to town. 

Speaking of friends coming to town, our first visitors, Anna, Santiago, and Shane are coming in 5 weeks! Super excited! The weekend after that we are heading to Bocas del Toro to meet up with Bridget and Jarod! Then we have the Demers coming for Christmas and New Years, and the Wood clan coming in January!! We are VERY excited to see some friendly faces, and of course, have some days off!

Panama Traffic

I would like to take a moment to talk about Panama traffic.  We, fortunately, don’t have to deal with too much traffic due our location.  I have easy access to the highway from our place to get to school, and we typically walk everywhere during rush hour or when we go out at night.  We are lucky, however, to have a great view of traffic, and it is pretty comical at times. 

On the first and fifteenth of every month, all of Panama gets paid.  Panamanians tend to live paycheck to paycheck.  This is really awesome for us on the 27^th/28^th-ish and 12^th/13^th-ish because no one (well, just not as many people) is on the road or in the stores, because everyone has run out of money.  Payday, however, is a whole different situation.  The roads and grocery stores are crazy. 

Notice the cars on the right from bottom to top, and also the upper right hand corner....they are all going toward the grocery store and the bank.

It took our friends over an hour to get to our place the other night when they live less than ten minutes away.  You're thinking, "Why didn't they just walk?" That's another story in itself...

 

 

It's great that we can enjoy the view and not have to sit in the terrible traffic full of crazy drivers. 

 

 

We see and/or hear accidents on a daily basis...

 

 

 

The problem with accidents around here is that people are required to stay in the exact spot, no matter the amount of damage, in which the accident occurred, until the insurance agent is contacted...or comes to the scene...not really sure.  All I know is, this happened right as I was coming home from school (we had to maneuver around it up on the curb...totally normal), and this picture was taken about 2 hours later.  I think traffic would be half as bad if people would just get the f*** out of the way. 

 

If I had to deal with this every day, I would totally get to the point of doing this:

 

 



I mean, why would you wait when there are 4 lanes flowing perfectly next to you?  That median means nothing anyway...

 

We drove to Santa Catalina a couple weekends ago.  It was our first three-day weekend so we left at 6:30am Friday morning.  Luckily, we were driving against rush- hour.  There is a four lane highway, two lanes in each direction, that goes over the Bridge of Americas.  Many people come into the city for work, so they like to switch up the lanes during heavy traffic times.

 

 





 

Just a cone or two separate us from oncoming traffic.  Again, totally normal.  And yes, we totally sport a Panamanian flag.  We feel it will help our cause if/when we get pulled over.  Bound to happen sooner or later. 

 

When we first arrived, we noticed people really like their hazard lights here.  They put their hazards on for all kinds of things, but mostly for no apparent reason at all.  It wasn't until we started to get some real legit rain that we realized the importance of the hazards. The only way to see anyone when it rains here is to look for flashing lights.  Sometimes you come across the crappy taxi cabs that don't have any functional lights at all.  That's another time when you just want them to get the f*** off the road. 

 

 

I don't know that Panama traffic is any worse than Seattle or the Bay Area, but it is definitely crazier.  Everything (well, not everything) you wish you could do in the states when you're at the tip of your patience in traffic is typically done here.  Many people follow the rules, but it only takes a few to open the doors to chaos.

 

 





Playa Santa Clara

Our latest beach adventure was Playa Santa Clara last weekend.  We headed out along the Pacific Coast with some friends on Saturday morning and didn't really know where we would end up.  We drove for about an hour and a half and after passing many options, decided to turn off and found Santa Clara.  It turned out to be a great spot!  We asked if they had any rooms available and they took us up to the little cabins.  We were able to rent a 6 person cabin for $86 for the night....not too bad! We unpacked the car and headed to the beach. 

The boats were covered with pelicans.  We watched them fly over the water and dive in for sardines.  Very cool!

 

 

 

These cabanas cost $10 to rent for the day and comes with chairs and the hammocks.  On Sundays, though, they cost $20.  Seems like a total rip off, but it's better than sitting on the super hot sand and getting fried by the sun. 

 

 

 

 

Everyone started packing up and leaving right when the sun started setting.  We didn't understand because it was so beautiful!  We hung out for a bit then decided to grab some dinner at the little restaurant on the beach.  We went back to the beach after dinner and joined in on a bon fire full of Panamanians.  Only one of them spoke English and it was very limited, so we just sat down and started enjoying their fire.  We had also met a big group of Peace Corps people earlier that day, so they came over and joined us as well.  All was great until we ran out of beverages.  It was getting pretty late anyway, so we all decided to go for a night swim and then headed in to bed.  Once we got into our cabin and had some light, we realized we had all been eaten alive by sandflies.  Of course, I was the one who got it the worst, and I mean EATEN alive.  I took a picture but it doesn't even come close to showing the severity of the bites.  My feet and ankles got it the worst, but then also had them all over my legs and arms as well.  You don't ever even seen the little bastards but they live in the sand and come out at night (hence, the reason why all the locals packed up at sunset).  I was pretty miserable the first couple nights when I was trying to sleep, but they are starting to go away now.  Alex had a totally of 5 bites....lame. Definitely a lesson learned!

San Blas Islands

This past weekend Alex and I went on a little getaway to San Blas Islands, which is on the Caribbean side.  It’s about a 3 hour adventure, door to door, so we planned to leave early Saturday morning.  We had a nice dinner party with some friends on Friday night, which led to drinking too much wine, which inevitably led to a late departure.  No worries, we still made it out of our place by 7:15am…pretty impressive I think. It was a pretty easy, straight drive for the first hour, so I decided to sleep and let Alex handle it with our Waze navigation, who we call “Esperanza.” After an hour, things got very windy and full of pot-holes.  After 30 minutes of that (longest 30 minutes ever, considering my physical state at the time), we hit our first checkpoint/road block before entering into the Kuna Yala territory.  All of the San Blas area and islands are owned and operated by the Kuna indigenous Indians, and you are only allowed to visit with permission.  So, we were stopped at the checkpoint and the guy started talking to us.  We had what I thought was a humorous and friendly conversation in what my limited Spanish would allow.  I thought for sure we could get away with not paying the fee to get in, but no.  I guess our convo was not as awesome as I thought.  $9.  Damn. We continued along the road for another 30-40 minutes, and the road became even more windy and steep.  At some point I made Alex stop the car for a moment, but all was good after that.  We reached the second checkpoint and with a quick glance at our faces and passports, we were on our way.  We parked at one of the three dock areas and managed to get on a little boat right away to Franklin Island. Success!

The boat ride was about 40 minutes and it was amazing! San Blas has over 300 islands, ranging in size, and only about 50 of them are inhabited.  On our boat ride we rode past some bigger islands with many houses stacked next to each other and some very small islands with just a tiny sand bar and nothing on it.  Then we rode up to our island for the weekend:

 

 

 

 



This place is total paradise!! It was so beautiful and relaxing.  The island is very small (only took us 5 minutes to walk around the whole thing, including some time to snap some pics) and there were about 30 other people or so.  All of them spoke different languages, some Spanish, Dutch, Arabic, and others I'm sure.  The Kuna staff was pretty friendly and cooked our meals for us.  They have 3 meals offered daily and they tell you when it's ready by blowing the conch shell.  Tours are offered every afternoon as well, and take you to some of the other uninhabited islands, but unfortunately we didn't realize this until after. We managed to enjoy ourselves without the tour :)

 



 This was our cabana, just a bed and a light that didn't work :)
 

 

 

We did some snorkeling, enjoyed the super clear, warm ocean water, and slept on the beach.  Pretty sweet life :)

 

 

  

The island is also covered in coconuts so we decided to have one.  But, you can't just pick one up and break it open.  You have to pay $1 and have the Kuna's open it for you.  Alex didn't like this idea, so after we paid for one, he decided to just try to get our own.  It proved to be worth the dollar....not an easy task to open up those suckers! And, of course, he cut himself :)

 

 

 

 

As you could have guessed, the sunset was amazing.  No explanation needed, really.