Okay. I'm at an Internet cafe in Puerto Viejo and had only enough money for 30 minutes on the Internet. So here's my attempt to recap what we have been up to in the past few weeks. I'll start from our arrival in Puerto Viejo yesterday and then jump back to our last week in Panama.
We arrived in Puerto Viejo from Bocas del Toro at around 11 a.m. yesterday. Easiest border crossing ever. We were supposed to meet a woman who would take us to our house at 1 p.m., so since we had a few hours, we had lunch at an awesome spot called Bread and Chocolate -- BLTs and fresh squeezed lemonade, and most importantly SALAD. Delicious salad. I find it very ironic that we are in a spot that is primed for fresh produce and fruits, yet fresh fruit and salad have been hard to come by. Anyway, we waited around until 1:30 for the woman to meet us, but she never showed up. We decided to take a taxi to our house.
The taxi driver drove us up a muddy dirt road as far as he could go until the road basically turned into a trail. We had to walk the rest of the way up hill. After about 10 minutes we came upon a house with a yard filled with chickens, ducks, and two barking dogs. We asked if they knew the owner of our house, Maria, but they had no clue. Fortunately they did know our neighbor Donna, so they showed us to our house.
We never met Donna, we met a nice man named Jose who showed us around our house.
We are IN the jungle! Our house runs on solar energy, uses rain water, and has nor refrigerator. We also share our new home with our jungle friends: cockroaches, SCORPIONS, and many other insects. Fortunately the place is very clean, so our new rules are keep it clean and keep it closed!
Despite the rustic accomodations, we have a million dollar view of the jungle.
We walked to the rescue where we'll be volunteering -- it's totally close which is good.
So that's it for now. We're in Puerto Viejo with our Norish friends who will be staying with us for a few nights.
Now back to Panama ...
When we last blogged, we were on our way to a hostel called the Lost and Found in the Cloud Forest. To get to the hostel, we had to ask the bus driver to drop us off on the side of the road, and then we had to hike about 3/4 of mile in the forest to get to the place. WOW. What a treat.
The place was absolutely remote and was fully eco-friendly, but also well organized and spotlessly clean. They did have about 20 staff members/volunteers, who didn't do much of anything other than lounge around in hammocks, which was weird, but whatever.
So our first night at L&F we took a night hike with a local guide named Gabriel. Gabriel taught us to appreciate the little things in the jungle. We didn't see any big animals, but he showed us different types of frogs, bugs, and spiders that thrived on the forest floors. Oh, and the STARS, the STARS! We'd never seen night sky like that.
Okay, so back to spiders... Gabriel found a spider and put into a tupperware jar to bring back to the local spider expert to checkout. We hadn't met the spider expert yet... boy, were we in for a treat.
After our hike we went to the hostal bar for our complimentary Cuba Libre. The bar was run by the local spider guy, Ray, AKA, Spider. Spider was a cliche. Seriously, he's a Oxforded-trained scientist who is the leading expert on tarantulas in Panama, Nicaragua, and maybe El Salvador. Ray loves, booze, spiders, chain smoking, seducing older female guests, and watching B horror movies, oh and he loves to terrorize guests with stories of creatures that lurk in the jungle and the pain and suffering these animals can afflict on unsuspecting guests! Awesome! Oh, Ray believed that the spider we had brought back was a new species. Very cool!
The next day we got up early and went on a treasure hunt through the jungle. The best and most fun way to see the entire surrounding jungle. Chris and I took it very seriously and managed figure out every clue, finding many of the clues involved hiking through the jungle down to the river below. It wasn't until we got back to th hostel that we found out this area was teaming with adders and JUMPING vipers. Jeez! You can't catch a break in the forest!
Anyhow, after finding all our clues in the forest we returned to the hostel and found out we had to wait until night fall to find out our last clue. Well, as night time came, we started chatting with a couple from Norway. We became fast friends. Unfortunately, I decided I'd rather drink wine with our new friends than solve the treasure hunt! Chris did a good job and solved it after an hour. We were rewarded with more wine, and our new friends brought out a bottle of Panamanian rum -- who knew Panamanians make good booze?! Another guest from Seattle brought out a cheap bottle of the Panamanian national rum and we had ourselves a little party-- although I almost got into it with Mr. Seattle because he seemed to think it's okay to exterminate all our animal friends that "infringe" on human territory.
Well, we managed to make it to bed and wake up the next morning at 7 a.m. to catch a bus that EVERYONE told us we would never catch. Apparently buses are difficulty to catch on Wednesdays, and since we were in the middle of nowhere, we were even less likely to catch a bus. Spider told us he'd see us later at the bar, and one of the staff said she'd have a bed saved for us. Well, the joke was on them. We caught the FIRST bus that passed by. OH I almost forgot one thing about hostel... they had a rescued Kinkajou... a relative of the raccoon that looks like a bear, monkey, cat, squirrel thing. His name was Rocky and when the sunset and nocturnal Rocky came out, guests were allowed to enter his enclosure and say hello. Rocky climbed all over our heads and grabbed on to Chris's nose -- he didn't bite hard, fortunately. Chris claims he got a Kinkajou virus from Rocky, but I think he was being a baby. I loved our furry friend!
Okay, so back to the bus... we caught the first bus to the bus station in Almarante! It really sucked, actually, but at least we were getting from point A to point B.
Chris and I had to stand in the aisles of the packed bus for an hour. It was so hot and crowded and our bus driver decided to pickup anyone who was waiting on the side of the road. Just when I thought I could not stand it anymore, the bus stopped and a woman got off. Yes! A seat. Fortunately Chris was able to get a seat on the next bus.
Once we got to Bastimentos, it was easy peezy traveling. We hopped a taxi, then got a ferry to the island of Colon and then another ferry to Bastimentos.
Bastimentos startled us when we first arrived. There is no glossy sheen for the sake of tourists. What you see is what you get. Chickens and dogs roam the streets. People sit on the steps of their dilapidated brightly colored homes. Garbage floats on the shore of the shurning water near the harbor. I was not sure I was going to like this place.
We checked into our guest house, Beverlyś Hill and got settled in. The views were nice, but the place was a little rough around the edges. The owner did not seem to care much about the guests. He just gave us our key and was on his way. I was definitely still skeptical about this place.
We had dinner at a popular spot called Roots... very good jerk chicken and ice cold beers. After lunch we headed back to our place for a nap and then we were going to head up the hill to a Thai restaurant... the only Thai restaurant in all of Panama. We had to see what this place was about.
Wow. It took us a while to get there but it was worth the walk... amazing views and even bette food. Maybe the best Thai we had ever had! We understood why it was reservations only!
We went to bed early that night and got up the next morning to explore the island. We had been in Central America for two weeks and still had not seen a beach! We hiked for about 20 minutes and got to Wizard beach, which was cool, but the waves were scary so we did not go in. Chris decided it was a good idea to hike to another beach on the other side of the island. I reluctantly agreed. This hike sucked! Mud, garbage and a dead COW greeted us on the trail. The beach at the end was pretty sweet and so were the $1.50 rum drinks! We hung out until 5 p.m. and then headed back to our place to meet our norwegian friends who were arriving that day.
We met our buddies at Roots... surprise, surprise for beers and made plans to go on a snorkeling tour.
We started our snorkeling tour at 9:30 the next morning. Our guide, Marlo, who had startling canine teeth sharpened to points, was super sweet and took us to a place called dolphin bay where we saw loads of dolphins, and we snorkeled at two sweet spots. We finished the day ready for some grub... back to the Thai restaurant! Our buddies were equally impressed as us. We enjoyed curry, drank magic drinks, watched the sunset and had fire flies greeted us as it turned dark. Nice. Then... back to Roots for a night cap!
Next day we got up and headed out for some awesome coconut pancakes and coffee. We ran into a crazy guy who was living in our guest house. He had some horrible flesh eating virus caused by a sand mite on the island. He had no problem telling us how much pain he was in and all the drugs he was taking. Terrifying!!!!
So we decided to have a mellow day on Saturday. We hiked up to an organic farm and coffee shop where we had homemade lemonade and played Uno with the cutest little boy in the world. As we were leaving he told us to wait. He came running out of his kitchen with a little wood boat with four coconut truffels in it. The truffels were for playing Uno. Aw, could he BE any cuter.
All this hiking about was tiring us out so we decided we needed some sweet beach action. We headed back to Wizard beach where we played coconut bowling and made a sweet castle.
It was our last night soooo ... we went back to Roots for cervezas, cuba libres, and awesome awesome beef that tasted like carne asada.
We came home early and started packing our stuff. I really loved this place. It took a while to grow on us but once it did it left quite an impression. I would love to go back.
All in all I give Panama an A+. Chris and I are Fan-amanians. HAHA. Okay. So that is it. Wish I could be more thorough but I have no time.
We are loving our jungle hut. Our Norwegian buddies are staying with us for a few days which will be great. We start volunteering at 9 a.m. sharp tomorrow. YAY!
Hope to post again soon!!!1
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Chiggers and Making it out of San Jose
Lazy Sunday in Boquete... This is our last full day here. I just woke up from a nap.
Earlier we walked a winding mountain road to get a view of the city -- beautiful. On our way back down we could see a large group of protesters carrying signs and flags as they marched down the main drag of Boquete. We made it down into town in time to see the protesters march through the town center. This mine is serious business. I hope the people fighting against the Man can make a difference. After taking some pictures, we headed back to the hostel. We also found an ice cream parlor that sold cones for 35 cents. Score!
We're going to continue relaxing today and will be going to dinner at a much-recommended restaurant called Macchu Pichu -- we wouldn't miss it, Jerry!
We've really enjoyed our time here. Boquete is beautiful, safe and peaceful.
Here's a recap of what we enjoyed on Friday and Saturday...
Friday started out very mellow. We had our usual breakfast of fresh pineapple, pastries, and Boquete coffee outside of our hostel along side the river. This was going to be our last day at Rio de Refugio and we wanted to soak in it's beauty.
After hanging out on our deck along the river and a quick lunch we headed over to Mamallena to meet up with our buddy Andrew and go for a hike to a waterfall. We ran into our buddy Paul who we'd met the night before. He was supposed to have left early that morning, but he just couldn't pull himself away from this beautiful little hamlet. He'd already hiked to the waterfall but decided to join us anyhow.
The waterfall hike was beautiful. It felt like we were hiking through a prehistoric jungle. We trekked for a couple hours until we hit the falls. We weren't sure what to expect. We were blown away. The waterfall towered hundreds of feet into the cloud forest. Birds swooped in and out of the mist surrounding the falls. The cool wind whipped water in our faces as we stood in away of the towering plume of water.
Paul was brave enough to take a dip in the tiny cold pool of the falls. The rest of us enjoyed the view from a distance.
After taking some great pics and having a snack, we headed back down the trail to catch a shuttle.
While waiting on the side of the road for a shuttle, an American guy, all dressed up in the most expensive hiking gear, walked up, pointed at us, and matter of factly said, "you guys are gonna get chiggers." He pulled up his pant leg to show us horrible red welts that covered his entire leg. "Doesn't matter if you wear pants, bug spray and long socks. You're going to get them and they're going to itch like hell and keep you up all night," he continued.
What? Who was this guy! He then got in his fancy SUV -- with LOTs of extra room that could have easily fit three more people -- and sped back into town! We were now terrified that soon our gams would be taken over by tiny red painful welts and we had to wait another half hour for the shuttle.Well, the jokes on THAT guy because we all came out chigger free. Though, I'm still terrified of getting bit by these nastly bugs -- or whatever the hell they are!
After our hike, we had dinner at a local restaurant called Central Park. Sounds expensive, but we managed to have dinner for four for under $20. Not too shabby. We finished dinner and gussied ourselves up to go out on the town. We went to a place called Zanzibar to enjoy live music and have a few beers with our buddies before they headed out on the road. We had some good laughs and heard some great travel stories. We weren't up for any late night craziness, so we all headed out before midnight. We said our good byes to Andrew and Paul and headed home. We were sad to see them go. Having good travel buddies makes the trip even better.
Saturday was another mellow day. We checked out of the Rio de Refugio and moved over to our new spot at Mamallena. The two places couldn't be more different, but we love them both. At the first hostel we saw maybe three people and the place was silent. At Mamallena people are always coming and going and we're right in the city center.
We met a girl from Quebec in the early afternoon and invited her along on a hike.
We were excited to check a new trail and hoped to get far up into the cloud forest. Unfortunately our hike abruptly ended when the trail that was to go on for miles ended at a fence surrounding farmland. We were disappointed but the scenery was beautiful and the company was good.
We decided to walk the four miles back to town rather than cab it. We built up an appetite on our long stroll and the three of us popped over the American restaurant next door to the hostel for pizza, which was surprisingly delicious -- oh and cheap. I'm seriously turning into Chris - we both love seeing how little money we can spend in a day and still enjoy ourselves, of course.
Chris and I were expecting the hostel to be a party scene on a Saturday night and were pleasantly surprised when we returned to the hostel only to find a handful of people hanging out in the courtyard. We popped open a bottle of wine and talked to our new friend from Quebec. She's been traveling for months and told us some crazy stories about vendors selling old dentures on the streets of Marakessh and camel heads hanging from butcher shops. I love travel stories!
So that about wraps it up for now. I'm still trying to recover from this cold. Ugh! We're looking forward to the Cloud Forest hostel and we're hoping to meet some new friends. Traveling buddies really add to the experience and can also give helpful pointers on cool places to go and places not to go! Oh, almost forgot... apparently, San Jose, C.R. is terrifying! We heard sooo many stories of people getting robbed in the train station and were told to not even walk one block outside of the station! What? Costa Rica is supposed to be such a sweet and friendly place. So, we're trying to avoid San Jose, or will only go there in the early morning. We also got word that our buddy Paul made it out alive, so that's good.
Alright, that's all for now.
Buenos Tardes!
Earlier we walked a winding mountain road to get a view of the city -- beautiful. On our way back down we could see a large group of protesters carrying signs and flags as they marched down the main drag of Boquete. We made it down into town in time to see the protesters march through the town center. This mine is serious business. I hope the people fighting against the Man can make a difference. After taking some pictures, we headed back to the hostel. We also found an ice cream parlor that sold cones for 35 cents. Score!
We're going to continue relaxing today and will be going to dinner at a much-recommended restaurant called Macchu Pichu -- we wouldn't miss it, Jerry!
We've really enjoyed our time here. Boquete is beautiful, safe and peaceful.
Here's a recap of what we enjoyed on Friday and Saturday...
Friday started out very mellow. We had our usual breakfast of fresh pineapple, pastries, and Boquete coffee outside of our hostel along side the river. This was going to be our last day at Rio de Refugio and we wanted to soak in it's beauty.
After hanging out on our deck along the river and a quick lunch we headed over to Mamallena to meet up with our buddy Andrew and go for a hike to a waterfall. We ran into our buddy Paul who we'd met the night before. He was supposed to have left early that morning, but he just couldn't pull himself away from this beautiful little hamlet. He'd already hiked to the waterfall but decided to join us anyhow.
The waterfall hike was beautiful. It felt like we were hiking through a prehistoric jungle. We trekked for a couple hours until we hit the falls. We weren't sure what to expect. We were blown away. The waterfall towered hundreds of feet into the cloud forest. Birds swooped in and out of the mist surrounding the falls. The cool wind whipped water in our faces as we stood in away of the towering plume of water.
Paul was brave enough to take a dip in the tiny cold pool of the falls. The rest of us enjoyed the view from a distance.
After taking some great pics and having a snack, we headed back down the trail to catch a shuttle.
While waiting on the side of the road for a shuttle, an American guy, all dressed up in the most expensive hiking gear, walked up, pointed at us, and matter of factly said, "you guys are gonna get chiggers." He pulled up his pant leg to show us horrible red welts that covered his entire leg. "Doesn't matter if you wear pants, bug spray and long socks. You're going to get them and they're going to itch like hell and keep you up all night," he continued.
What? Who was this guy! He then got in his fancy SUV -- with LOTs of extra room that could have easily fit three more people -- and sped back into town! We were now terrified that soon our gams would be taken over by tiny red painful welts and we had to wait another half hour for the shuttle.Well, the jokes on THAT guy because we all came out chigger free. Though, I'm still terrified of getting bit by these nastly bugs -- or whatever the hell they are!
After our hike, we had dinner at a local restaurant called Central Park. Sounds expensive, but we managed to have dinner for four for under $20. Not too shabby. We finished dinner and gussied ourselves up to go out on the town. We went to a place called Zanzibar to enjoy live music and have a few beers with our buddies before they headed out on the road. We had some good laughs and heard some great travel stories. We weren't up for any late night craziness, so we all headed out before midnight. We said our good byes to Andrew and Paul and headed home. We were sad to see them go. Having good travel buddies makes the trip even better.
Saturday was another mellow day. We checked out of the Rio de Refugio and moved over to our new spot at Mamallena. The two places couldn't be more different, but we love them both. At the first hostel we saw maybe three people and the place was silent. At Mamallena people are always coming and going and we're right in the city center.
We met a girl from Quebec in the early afternoon and invited her along on a hike.
We were excited to check a new trail and hoped to get far up into the cloud forest. Unfortunately our hike abruptly ended when the trail that was to go on for miles ended at a fence surrounding farmland. We were disappointed but the scenery was beautiful and the company was good.
We decided to walk the four miles back to town rather than cab it. We built up an appetite on our long stroll and the three of us popped over the American restaurant next door to the hostel for pizza, which was surprisingly delicious -- oh and cheap. I'm seriously turning into Chris - we both love seeing how little money we can spend in a day and still enjoy ourselves, of course.
Chris and I were expecting the hostel to be a party scene on a Saturday night and were pleasantly surprised when we returned to the hostel only to find a handful of people hanging out in the courtyard. We popped open a bottle of wine and talked to our new friend from Quebec. She's been traveling for months and told us some crazy stories about vendors selling old dentures on the streets of Marakessh and camel heads hanging from butcher shops. I love travel stories!
So that about wraps it up for now. I'm still trying to recover from this cold. Ugh! We're looking forward to the Cloud Forest hostel and we're hoping to meet some new friends. Traveling buddies really add to the experience and can also give helpful pointers on cool places to go and places not to go! Oh, almost forgot... apparently, San Jose, C.R. is terrifying! We heard sooo many stories of people getting robbed in the train station and were told to not even walk one block outside of the station! What? Costa Rica is supposed to be such a sweet and friendly place. So, we're trying to avoid San Jose, or will only go there in the early morning. We also got word that our buddy Paul made it out alive, so that's good.
Alright, that's all for now.
Buenos Tardes!
Gardens, Hot Springs & Cheap Eats
Hi All,
Little Joy is upstairs taking a post pancake breakfast nap. Haha. That leaves me to make you all jealous of our excursions in CA.
Boquete, the little mountain town in the Chiquiri Highlands, is a beautiful place. Extinct volcanoes, covered in thick rainforest, surround the hamlet. After our 14-hour bus ride on the 16th, we awoke on the 17th with an easy day planned - a lovely garden walk (Mi Jardin es su Jardin) in the morning and the healing hot springs in the afternoon.
A short walk away from town, just beyond a coffee plantation run by Cafe Ruiz, sits a several acre garden. Because of the amount of rain that falls in Boquete in the wet & dry season, the garden was landscaped with every sort of plant one could imagine. Im no flower expert, but I recognized hibiscus, peone, snapdragon, marigold. From an observation deck on the property, we were all treated to views of the garden, the volcanoes and the town of Boquete.
We, Joy, Andrew & I, walked back to town around Noon with an eyeball on lunch before jumping in a minibus for a short ride to the hot springs. South of town, a farmer in the rainforest, takes $2 donations from each person to soak in one of his three hot spring pools and enjoy the Rio Caldera. The first pool we entered wasnt that sweet due partly to an extremely loud traveler droning on and on about how Southwest is a crappy airline. WHO CARES, Im trying to soak in a mud pool here! We decided the river might be more fun, and we planned to try the SUPER HOT pool after a dip in the Rio.
The river was awesome. The current was strong, so Andrew and I were doing river pushups while trying not to get swept away. Then the three of us were going feet first over shoots, around rocks, over small waterfalls down, down the river. After an hour of river play, we hoped Southwest had vacated the hot spring area.
Thankfully, she was gone and as we made our way to the hottest of the hot springs a baby monkey started to play with us and other hot springers. Joy posted a bit about this little guy on facebook - he started crawling, swinging and jumping on us. He used Andrew like a jungle gym. Joy was trying to capture the moment and the little cavron made off with our empty camera case. In seconds, he climbed a tree, chattered at us and, after a couple minutes, threw the case back down at us. Pretty funny.
Making sure we had all our possessions, we took a last dip into the hotty, hot spring, and Joy was sure the healing power of the springs would KNOCK out her head cold.
Arriving back in town, Joy and I went back to our hotel before dinner. Can I say again how our hotel in Boquete is the BEST. Our room overlooks a small portion of the Rio Caldera, its perfect to fall asleep to, and could not be a more 180 degree difference from the hubub of our Panama City hostel & Panama City.
After dinner, Andrew, Joy and I added another traveler to our posse in Boquete - Paul De Montpellier, from Lake Tahoe. Total character and he joined us in our exploits for the next day and a half. Ill let Joy regail the waterfall hike tomorrow. For now, we plan our final day in Boquete before leaving for the Lost & Found Hostel, deep in the Cloud Forest of the Chiriqui Highlands. Spooky!
Hasta Luego!
Little Joy is upstairs taking a post pancake breakfast nap. Haha. That leaves me to make you all jealous of our excursions in CA.
Boquete, the little mountain town in the Chiquiri Highlands, is a beautiful place. Extinct volcanoes, covered in thick rainforest, surround the hamlet. After our 14-hour bus ride on the 16th, we awoke on the 17th with an easy day planned - a lovely garden walk (Mi Jardin es su Jardin) in the morning and the healing hot springs in the afternoon.
A short walk away from town, just beyond a coffee plantation run by Cafe Ruiz, sits a several acre garden. Because of the amount of rain that falls in Boquete in the wet & dry season, the garden was landscaped with every sort of plant one could imagine. Im no flower expert, but I recognized hibiscus, peone, snapdragon, marigold. From an observation deck on the property, we were all treated to views of the garden, the volcanoes and the town of Boquete.
We, Joy, Andrew & I, walked back to town around Noon with an eyeball on lunch before jumping in a minibus for a short ride to the hot springs. South of town, a farmer in the rainforest, takes $2 donations from each person to soak in one of his three hot spring pools and enjoy the Rio Caldera. The first pool we entered wasnt that sweet due partly to an extremely loud traveler droning on and on about how Southwest is a crappy airline. WHO CARES, Im trying to soak in a mud pool here! We decided the river might be more fun, and we planned to try the SUPER HOT pool after a dip in the Rio.
The river was awesome. The current was strong, so Andrew and I were doing river pushups while trying not to get swept away. Then the three of us were going feet first over shoots, around rocks, over small waterfalls down, down the river. After an hour of river play, we hoped Southwest had vacated the hot spring area.
Thankfully, she was gone and as we made our way to the hottest of the hot springs a baby monkey started to play with us and other hot springers. Joy posted a bit about this little guy on facebook - he started crawling, swinging and jumping on us. He used Andrew like a jungle gym. Joy was trying to capture the moment and the little cavron made off with our empty camera case. In seconds, he climbed a tree, chattered at us and, after a couple minutes, threw the case back down at us. Pretty funny.
Making sure we had all our possessions, we took a last dip into the hotty, hot spring, and Joy was sure the healing power of the springs would KNOCK out her head cold.
Arriving back in town, Joy and I went back to our hotel before dinner. Can I say again how our hotel in Boquete is the BEST. Our room overlooks a small portion of the Rio Caldera, its perfect to fall asleep to, and could not be a more 180 degree difference from the hubub of our Panama City hostel & Panama City.
After dinner, Andrew, Joy and I added another traveler to our posse in Boquete - Paul De Montpellier, from Lake Tahoe. Total character and he joined us in our exploits for the next day and a half. Ill let Joy regail the waterfall hike tomorrow. For now, we plan our final day in Boquete before leaving for the Lost & Found Hostel, deep in the Cloud Forest of the Chiriqui Highlands. Spooky!
Hasta Luego!
Friday, February 18, 2011
Two very different days
We´re on day six of our trip and time has flown, but we´ve experienced so much in such a short time it feels like we´ve been here much longer.
Wednesday and Thursday could not have been more different. I really wanted to make Chris write about Wednesday because I think I´ll have a hard time explaining our experience. But I´ll give it a go...
We got up early Wednesday morning and caught a bus from Panama City in route to David and then on to Boquete. Our buddy Andrew was with us, which was great. He speaks fluent spanish and has really helped us get around. Because of his Spanish, and the fact the girl at the bus station counter had a crush on him, the three of us got the first three seats on the bus.
Our bus left promptly at 8 a.m. and we planned on getting to David at around 2:30 and then were to catch another bus to Boquete.
At 11:30 we stopped for a 30-minute break in a little town called Santiago. We headed out at noon and were on schedule to get to David at 2:30. Not 15-20 minutes from Santiago our bus came to a screeching hault. A group of people holding banners were blocking the road.
It was shocking to see protesters blocking a major roadway. We literally missed passing by the road block by about 1 minute.
Surely the authorities would be there in a matter of minutes to make the protesters leave the road. No way could traffic be stopped by a small group of people holding banners. We treated the incident as a bit of a novelity. We got out took some pictures and then got back on the bus expecting to leave in a matter of minutes.
One car decided it had enough and attempted to drive around the protesters by going through a ditch on the side of the ride. They failed miserably. The people surrounded the car and pummeled it with rocks and sticks. The car turned around and went back to its spot in the road.
An hour passed and the people gave no indication that they were going to stop protesting. No other cars dared to try and pass -- this said, the protesters were not violent, they never approached cars or threatened people who were taking pictures.
Andrew asked the woman next to him exactly what was going on. Turns out it was an entire town protesting the exploitation of workers in a local copper and gold mine. Apparently the mining company and/or the government was forcing the workers to work in unsafe conditions, was not paying fair wages, and as the mine grew the town´s farm land was decreasing.
These were people fighting for equal rights and they wanted results immediately. I don´t think we´d see something like this in the states -- at least not in this day and age.
We learned that the protests were going to end between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. I´m not sure who came up with this time frame, but we were really hoping for 3 p.m. Enduring sitting in a cramped bus for more than six hours seemed like a nightmare.
To add to the fun, I had woken up that morning with a horrible head cold. I haven´t had a cold in years, and I couldn´t believe my body decided to give out on that day.
Honestly, though, I was never angry. None of us were. How could we be angry about losing a few hours in a day of traveling when an entire town was fighting just to be treated fairly.
Three o´clock rolled around and the protesters seemed to be gaining momentum. They had even created a new, and bigger banner. Towns people formed a line and performed a dance as they beat on a small drum.
I guess it was only a matter of time before a tourist decided he´d had enough and thought he could talk his way the protest barricade. A tall blond-haired man swaggered up to the crowd confidently. He got into the face of several protesters and was immediately doused in the face with homemade pepper spray. He turned back to his car, humiliated.
What an idiot. His antics only made the town´s people more angry.
Four o´clock rolled around. My head was pounding and I couldn´t breathe through my nose. A kind older woman next to me saw how miserable I was and gave me some kind of pill. I don´t know what it was, but it helped!
When six o´clock arrived, we anxiously awaited to see if the protesters would roll up their signs and make way for the winding rows of traffic to pass through.
This was not to be. Finally people stuck in traffic snapped. Semi-truck drivers and buses blew their horns, cars tried to move forward hoping the protesters would move.
Still the protests continued.
Chris decided he might as well grab snacks and drinks for us, considering we might be there awhile-- and yes they had two snack stands, oddly enough.
While Chris was in the snack line, and Andrew and I were back on the bus, the dynamic of the protest changed. In the distance, on the other side of the barricade ONE police truck approached. The protesters grabbed rocks, tires, and branches that they´d spread on the road to prevent vehicles from passing by. They tossed the debris on to our side of the road. Andrew jumped out the bus to look for Chris. Fortunately, Chris was close by with snacks and we made it back to our seats safely.
Things escalated quickly. Earlier I mentioned that the girl who had the hots for Andrew had given us front row seats on the bus. Now our front row seats afforded us the view of the protesters last ditch efforts to make their voices heard.
They doused the heaping pile of wood and rubber with gasoline and set it a fire. The town´s people moved to the side of the road and finally let traffic pass.
We drove on as the fire blazed behind us and hundreds of cars, trucks and buses made there way through the incredible scene.
We didn´t say much as we headed toward David. We´d spent more than 6 1/2 hours on a crammed bus and had witnessed an incident that affected us deeply. We also were exhausted, thirsty and hungry AND we still had to catch another bus to Boquete.
Well, the buses to Boquete had stopped running and there was no way we were staying in the shithole that is David. We decided to take a cab. Andrew negotiated a fairly decent rate, and we hoped the cabby wasn´t going to rob us.
We made it to our hostel within minutes of the door closing at 11 p.m. I was almost deliriously sick and wanted to sleep for an entire day.
We crashed, having not eaten for almost an entire day, dirty and sweaty but at least we were in Boquete and we were lulled to sleep by the bubbling river outside our hostel.
The next morning, I was feeling better, and as my Dad would say, we had a new lease on life.
Boquete is magical and I think our experience on Wednesday has made it that much sweeter. Thursday treated us to thieving monkeys, steaming hot springs, and a gently rolling river perfect for frolicking. I´ll talk about this in the next post.
Wednesday and Thursday could not have been more different. I really wanted to make Chris write about Wednesday because I think I´ll have a hard time explaining our experience. But I´ll give it a go...
We got up early Wednesday morning and caught a bus from Panama City in route to David and then on to Boquete. Our buddy Andrew was with us, which was great. He speaks fluent spanish and has really helped us get around. Because of his Spanish, and the fact the girl at the bus station counter had a crush on him, the three of us got the first three seats on the bus.
Our bus left promptly at 8 a.m. and we planned on getting to David at around 2:30 and then were to catch another bus to Boquete.
At 11:30 we stopped for a 30-minute break in a little town called Santiago. We headed out at noon and were on schedule to get to David at 2:30. Not 15-20 minutes from Santiago our bus came to a screeching hault. A group of people holding banners were blocking the road.
It was shocking to see protesters blocking a major roadway. We literally missed passing by the road block by about 1 minute.
Surely the authorities would be there in a matter of minutes to make the protesters leave the road. No way could traffic be stopped by a small group of people holding banners. We treated the incident as a bit of a novelity. We got out took some pictures and then got back on the bus expecting to leave in a matter of minutes.
One car decided it had enough and attempted to drive around the protesters by going through a ditch on the side of the ride. They failed miserably. The people surrounded the car and pummeled it with rocks and sticks. The car turned around and went back to its spot in the road.
An hour passed and the people gave no indication that they were going to stop protesting. No other cars dared to try and pass -- this said, the protesters were not violent, they never approached cars or threatened people who were taking pictures.
Andrew asked the woman next to him exactly what was going on. Turns out it was an entire town protesting the exploitation of workers in a local copper and gold mine. Apparently the mining company and/or the government was forcing the workers to work in unsafe conditions, was not paying fair wages, and as the mine grew the town´s farm land was decreasing.
These were people fighting for equal rights and they wanted results immediately. I don´t think we´d see something like this in the states -- at least not in this day and age.
We learned that the protests were going to end between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. I´m not sure who came up with this time frame, but we were really hoping for 3 p.m. Enduring sitting in a cramped bus for more than six hours seemed like a nightmare.
To add to the fun, I had woken up that morning with a horrible head cold. I haven´t had a cold in years, and I couldn´t believe my body decided to give out on that day.
Honestly, though, I was never angry. None of us were. How could we be angry about losing a few hours in a day of traveling when an entire town was fighting just to be treated fairly.
Three o´clock rolled around and the protesters seemed to be gaining momentum. They had even created a new, and bigger banner. Towns people formed a line and performed a dance as they beat on a small drum.
I guess it was only a matter of time before a tourist decided he´d had enough and thought he could talk his way the protest barricade. A tall blond-haired man swaggered up to the crowd confidently. He got into the face of several protesters and was immediately doused in the face with homemade pepper spray. He turned back to his car, humiliated.
What an idiot. His antics only made the town´s people more angry.
Four o´clock rolled around. My head was pounding and I couldn´t breathe through my nose. A kind older woman next to me saw how miserable I was and gave me some kind of pill. I don´t know what it was, but it helped!
When six o´clock arrived, we anxiously awaited to see if the protesters would roll up their signs and make way for the winding rows of traffic to pass through.
This was not to be. Finally people stuck in traffic snapped. Semi-truck drivers and buses blew their horns, cars tried to move forward hoping the protesters would move.
Still the protests continued.
Chris decided he might as well grab snacks and drinks for us, considering we might be there awhile-- and yes they had two snack stands, oddly enough.
While Chris was in the snack line, and Andrew and I were back on the bus, the dynamic of the protest changed. In the distance, on the other side of the barricade ONE police truck approached. The protesters grabbed rocks, tires, and branches that they´d spread on the road to prevent vehicles from passing by. They tossed the debris on to our side of the road. Andrew jumped out the bus to look for Chris. Fortunately, Chris was close by with snacks and we made it back to our seats safely.
Things escalated quickly. Earlier I mentioned that the girl who had the hots for Andrew had given us front row seats on the bus. Now our front row seats afforded us the view of the protesters last ditch efforts to make their voices heard.
They doused the heaping pile of wood and rubber with gasoline and set it a fire. The town´s people moved to the side of the road and finally let traffic pass.
We drove on as the fire blazed behind us and hundreds of cars, trucks and buses made there way through the incredible scene.
We didn´t say much as we headed toward David. We´d spent more than 6 1/2 hours on a crammed bus and had witnessed an incident that affected us deeply. We also were exhausted, thirsty and hungry AND we still had to catch another bus to Boquete.
Well, the buses to Boquete had stopped running and there was no way we were staying in the shithole that is David. We decided to take a cab. Andrew negotiated a fairly decent rate, and we hoped the cabby wasn´t going to rob us.
We made it to our hostel within minutes of the door closing at 11 p.m. I was almost deliriously sick and wanted to sleep for an entire day.
We crashed, having not eaten for almost an entire day, dirty and sweaty but at least we were in Boquete and we were lulled to sleep by the bubbling river outside our hostel.
The next morning, I was feeling better, and as my Dad would say, we had a new lease on life.
Boquete is magical and I think our experience on Wednesday has made it that much sweeter. Thursday treated us to thieving monkeys, steaming hot springs, and a gently rolling river perfect for frolicking. I´ll talk about this in the next post.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Crema de Gringo
Hola Kids,
My turn to write the blog tonight. Joys reading the kindle, fan blowing, and its very close to bedtime. Early morning tomorrow as we head to Boquete, 5 hours north of Panama.
Its always the way when traveling - once seeing a couple great spots in your host city, host town, host neighborhood, host park, host restaurant, host bar, whatever - you want to see more, more, more.
A rundown - we woke up the 14th and headed out to Parque Natcional Metropolitano. The park sits 2 miles from our hotel and remains the largest national park located within a citys limits in all of Central America. Mucho Animales y muy bueno miradores (views) of Panama City. We walked every hiking trail in that bad boy, practicar Espanol with the parque guard and took a taxi from its enterance to a neighborhood we were dying to visit Casco Viejo.
Casco Viejo is Colonial Panama. Looking a lot like New Oreleans, with its narrow streets, mulit-colored buildings, museums, anitquated & new architecuture and monuments, the area is prime for us lookyloos & camera bugs AND...El Presidante! He lives there. Whats better - gigante platos of chicken, rice & lentils for $5.50. Now thems prices I can get down with. Me, Joy and el Presidante. Upon leaving we vowed to come back the next day.
After a brief rest at the hotel & another rain shower, the rains are very much like Colorados 4:15 summer storms, we left for an Itlian restaurant in El Cangrejo, a neighborhood just south of our hotel. El Cangrejo is nothing like our hostels neighborhood or the aforementioned Casco Viejo. Its like a mini Times Square mixed with a bit of Vegas. Large hotels, casinos (Dad, Fathers Day Panama this year), strip clubs and nice restaurants and bars. After thriftily spending $5 on lunch we splurged on $30 dinner. A special Valentines Day for me lady. I mean, shes worth it, right!
This morning we woke up and took a 35-cent bus ride to the Panama Canal with our new buddy Andrew from Halifax. He speaks fluent Spanish, French and English, loves to travel & explore and is an all around great guy. Hes awesome to practice Spanish with, as there is not much judging our horrible butchery of the language. Big bonus.
Side note - some dudes are heading to the casinos now! Bro & Dad youd be in trouble here. Haha.
After sharing a 40-person, Blue Bird School bus with roughly 80 mormon missionaries & 40 working-stiff Panamanians, we walked the 10 minutes to the first set of locks on the canal - the Mira Flores locks. I will not do the explanation or recreation of the engineering marvel that is the canal within this blog, so I would advise consulting the Internet for a detailed description. Very cool and there were many big boats passing through a very tight, long canal. Get your minds out of the ditch, canal, gutter, whatever. Ha.
Joy, Andrew & I went back to the hotel and prepared for a waltz down to the fish market for ceviche. Not before, however, Joy caught a horrid glimpse of something all backpackers must deal with in such a confined, dorm-like living/space sharing scenario. The glimpse, you ask. The magic of a rotund, bald, eastern european man with cream all over his bulbous head, stomach and legs while wearing a speedo. Can you say Crema de Gringo. Not sure heading to the fish market would do much for our stomachs after that, but we risked it. A beautiful walk down the boardwalk, adjacent to the Pacific, with a view backwards into the banking district of Panama, and we were eating fresh fish, shrimp and langostino ceviche. Yummy!
We walked back into the Casco Viejo neighborhood for a second helping of sights & sounds and helped ourselves to some Gelato for dessert.
Full day, right. From here it was cheap eats for dinner in the worst Chinese restaurant this side of San Diego. But we were within our price point of under $7 for two which allowed us to choke it down.
I need a good transition here, and my journalism teacher would frown, but after "dinner" we went to a bar that boasted traditional Panamaian folk dancing. Our cab driver found the place (cabs are about $2 for any ride in the city), we were seated at the "mafia" table up close to the stage, watched one dance and were told that it would be a minimum of $17 per person to watch the show and drink! What! Do we look like touristas! We are on a budget, people, so we took in the rest of the show at the bar instead, paid $9 bucks for three beers and called it a night. By the way, Andrew, our new buddy, almost died.
Ill leave you with that and save the story for later. A bit exaggereated cuz hes not dead and more funny than scary. Dont worry, Mom!!
Bedtime yall. Met some great people, who we will, no doubt, see more of along our trail...lots of kids do this (joy and i are among the elders now) and will have more tails to spin.
Hasta Luego!
My turn to write the blog tonight. Joys reading the kindle, fan blowing, and its very close to bedtime. Early morning tomorrow as we head to Boquete, 5 hours north of Panama.
Its always the way when traveling - once seeing a couple great spots in your host city, host town, host neighborhood, host park, host restaurant, host bar, whatever - you want to see more, more, more.
A rundown - we woke up the 14th and headed out to Parque Natcional Metropolitano. The park sits 2 miles from our hotel and remains the largest national park located within a citys limits in all of Central America. Mucho Animales y muy bueno miradores (views) of Panama City. We walked every hiking trail in that bad boy, practicar Espanol with the parque guard and took a taxi from its enterance to a neighborhood we were dying to visit Casco Viejo.
Casco Viejo is Colonial Panama. Looking a lot like New Oreleans, with its narrow streets, mulit-colored buildings, museums, anitquated & new architecuture and monuments, the area is prime for us lookyloos & camera bugs AND...El Presidante! He lives there. Whats better - gigante platos of chicken, rice & lentils for $5.50. Now thems prices I can get down with. Me, Joy and el Presidante. Upon leaving we vowed to come back the next day.
After a brief rest at the hotel & another rain shower, the rains are very much like Colorados 4:15 summer storms, we left for an Itlian restaurant in El Cangrejo, a neighborhood just south of our hotel. El Cangrejo is nothing like our hostels neighborhood or the aforementioned Casco Viejo. Its like a mini Times Square mixed with a bit of Vegas. Large hotels, casinos (Dad, Fathers Day Panama this year), strip clubs and nice restaurants and bars. After thriftily spending $5 on lunch we splurged on $30 dinner. A special Valentines Day for me lady. I mean, shes worth it, right!
This morning we woke up and took a 35-cent bus ride to the Panama Canal with our new buddy Andrew from Halifax. He speaks fluent Spanish, French and English, loves to travel & explore and is an all around great guy. Hes awesome to practice Spanish with, as there is not much judging our horrible butchery of the language. Big bonus.
Side note - some dudes are heading to the casinos now! Bro & Dad youd be in trouble here. Haha.
After sharing a 40-person, Blue Bird School bus with roughly 80 mormon missionaries & 40 working-stiff Panamanians, we walked the 10 minutes to the first set of locks on the canal - the Mira Flores locks. I will not do the explanation or recreation of the engineering marvel that is the canal within this blog, so I would advise consulting the Internet for a detailed description. Very cool and there were many big boats passing through a very tight, long canal. Get your minds out of the ditch, canal, gutter, whatever. Ha.
Joy, Andrew & I went back to the hotel and prepared for a waltz down to the fish market for ceviche. Not before, however, Joy caught a horrid glimpse of something all backpackers must deal with in such a confined, dorm-like living/space sharing scenario. The glimpse, you ask. The magic of a rotund, bald, eastern european man with cream all over his bulbous head, stomach and legs while wearing a speedo. Can you say Crema de Gringo. Not sure heading to the fish market would do much for our stomachs after that, but we risked it. A beautiful walk down the boardwalk, adjacent to the Pacific, with a view backwards into the banking district of Panama, and we were eating fresh fish, shrimp and langostino ceviche. Yummy!
We walked back into the Casco Viejo neighborhood for a second helping of sights & sounds and helped ourselves to some Gelato for dessert.
Full day, right. From here it was cheap eats for dinner in the worst Chinese restaurant this side of San Diego. But we were within our price point of under $7 for two which allowed us to choke it down.
I need a good transition here, and my journalism teacher would frown, but after "dinner" we went to a bar that boasted traditional Panamaian folk dancing. Our cab driver found the place (cabs are about $2 for any ride in the city), we were seated at the "mafia" table up close to the stage, watched one dance and were told that it would be a minimum of $17 per person to watch the show and drink! What! Do we look like touristas! We are on a budget, people, so we took in the rest of the show at the bar instead, paid $9 bucks for three beers and called it a night. By the way, Andrew, our new buddy, almost died.
Ill leave you with that and save the story for later. A bit exaggereated cuz hes not dead and more funny than scary. Dont worry, Mom!!
Bedtime yall. Met some great people, who we will, no doubt, see more of along our trail...lots of kids do this (joy and i are among the elders now) and will have more tails to spin.
Hasta Luego!
Monday, February 14, 2011
Panama City
Well, we made it! We got to our hostel in the city yesterday at around 2 p.m. after a very interesting ride in a diablo rojo, an old American school bus painted like a county fair carnival ride packed full of locals. It was a great way to experience how locals get around and to see the city-- the ride took about an 1 1/2 hours! Our hostel is great for $25... our room is a little cave like and has no frills, but it works. After settling into our little room, and having an arrival beer, we decided to explore.
We walked about 1 mile down to a boardwalk along the Pacific... great views... the City center to the left and the old city, Casco Viejo to the right. We walked around for a couple hours and we were really impressed by the city. Very clean and beautiful and the area where we were was very safe -- I did get yelled at by a tourist police officer because I crossed the white line from the pedestretian path to the bike path! I think we need tourism police in San Diego!
After walking around for a couple hours, we headed back to our room and took a much needed nap. When I woke up from our nap I was greeted by a rash on my arm and my upper lip looked like someone had socked me! I guess my sensitive Gringo skin needs to get used to the tropics!
I rallied, swollen lip and rash aside, and we went out for round two of exploring.
Unfortunately, unbenounced to us, the entire city shuts down on Sundays, especially at night. No restaurants were open other than a fastfood chicken place called Pio Pio. I did NOT want my first meal in Panama City to be a chicken sandwich (unless it was Chick fila. I would totally eat Chick Fila).
Anyway, we were SOL for eating dinner at a restaurant. We decided to settle on snacks from the market by our hostel. When we were at the market earlier, I noticed a case at the counter that contained what looked like Dim Sum. Apparentely, there is a large Chinese population in Panama City, so it was indeed Dim sum! We ordered a BBQ bun, some kind of meat wrapped in a noodle, and a sausage that tasted and looked like a fat slim jim. The bun and noodle thing were amazing!! The sausage? Not so much. The best part? the Total cost, including a bottle of soda, $2.50!
Finding food like Dim Sum in a tiny market on a random street in Panama is one of the best parts of traveling. In a million years I would have never guessed my first meal in Central America would be Chinese food. Oh, and have I mentioned our second meal was pancakes!? But those are free, and I will never turn down free pancakes.
Well, now we are off to see the beautiful national park in the middle of the city. There are sloths, monkeys, little deer, tons of birds, and reptiles, all within a five minute ride from the city center. We will spend a couple hours at the park and then we are heading to the old city, Casco Viejo, for mojitos and cigars, and a romantic dinner!
That is all for now. Oh, one more thing, I am still trying to figure out this weird keyboard. There is not an apostrophe, so I cannot use contractions. LOL.
Happy Valentines Day, all. Wish me look on staving off additional rashes, bug bites, and allergies!!
We walked about 1 mile down to a boardwalk along the Pacific... great views... the City center to the left and the old city, Casco Viejo to the right. We walked around for a couple hours and we were really impressed by the city. Very clean and beautiful and the area where we were was very safe -- I did get yelled at by a tourist police officer because I crossed the white line from the pedestretian path to the bike path! I think we need tourism police in San Diego!
After walking around for a couple hours, we headed back to our room and took a much needed nap. When I woke up from our nap I was greeted by a rash on my arm and my upper lip looked like someone had socked me! I guess my sensitive Gringo skin needs to get used to the tropics!
I rallied, swollen lip and rash aside, and we went out for round two of exploring.
Unfortunately, unbenounced to us, the entire city shuts down on Sundays, especially at night. No restaurants were open other than a fastfood chicken place called Pio Pio. I did NOT want my first meal in Panama City to be a chicken sandwich (unless it was Chick fila. I would totally eat Chick Fila).
Anyway, we were SOL for eating dinner at a restaurant. We decided to settle on snacks from the market by our hostel. When we were at the market earlier, I noticed a case at the counter that contained what looked like Dim Sum. Apparentely, there is a large Chinese population in Panama City, so it was indeed Dim sum! We ordered a BBQ bun, some kind of meat wrapped in a noodle, and a sausage that tasted and looked like a fat slim jim. The bun and noodle thing were amazing!! The sausage? Not so much. The best part? the Total cost, including a bottle of soda, $2.50!
Finding food like Dim Sum in a tiny market on a random street in Panama is one of the best parts of traveling. In a million years I would have never guessed my first meal in Central America would be Chinese food. Oh, and have I mentioned our second meal was pancakes!? But those are free, and I will never turn down free pancakes.
Well, now we are off to see the beautiful national park in the middle of the city. There are sloths, monkeys, little deer, tons of birds, and reptiles, all within a five minute ride from the city center. We will spend a couple hours at the park and then we are heading to the old city, Casco Viejo, for mojitos and cigars, and a romantic dinner!
That is all for now. Oh, one more thing, I am still trying to figure out this weird keyboard. There is not an apostrophe, so I cannot use contractions. LOL.
Happy Valentines Day, all. Wish me look on staving off additional rashes, bug bites, and allergies!!
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