Semana Santa

After Alex´s friends departed we have had some time to ourselves until Alex´s grandmother arrives on April 11. A long-awaited return!

We spent Semana Santa (the days leading up to Easter) back in the Azuero at Playa Venao. We went with José and his friends Andy and Pedro La Vaca. Brandy also went with her friend Eduardo. It was much more crowded this time than the last time Alex and I were there- holidays on the beach are popular here! The waves were also a lot larger than last time; we estimated the early morning waves to be as high as 7 or 8 feet at times. Great for the surfers, not as great for us swimmers.

José, Brandy, me, and Alex

Los Amigos de Alex Nos Visitaron

This past week, Alex’s two best friends since middle school, Matt and Austin, and their girlfriends, Jennifer and Alex, came to visit. The week was planned down the second thanks to Alex and his iCalendar.

We rented a minivan to pick them up from the airport when they arrived Monday evening. On Tuesday we got up early and drove to Isla Grande, on the Caribbean side where Alex and I had gone with José and his brother in January. Since we went on a weekday this time it was much less crowded and we enjoyed sitting in the water, chatting and drinking beers.

We drove back to Panama City that evening, stopping at Portobelo along the way to see the old fort.
For their second day we took them on the same tour as my brother’s first day: Panama Viejo, the Peatonal, and then Casco Antiguo. They also enjoyed raspados, but alas, no brochetas.

We then flew 20 minutes on the Pacific side, still within the Bay of Panama, to Isla Contadora in the Islas Perlas. This was the former “counting” island when the Spanish were here, and what they counted were pearls found in the island chain. We stayed in little studios, Cabañas de Contadora, a few minutes from several of the best of the island’s 12 beaches.
The first day we were there we stayed close to home and went to Playa Cacique. The water out there was COLD! Much colder than any other beach we’ve been to so far in Panama. Still, it was hot under the sun so we swam anyway (and it was still less cold than when I went to the beach in CA in September with Alex).
The second day we ventured further, first to Playa Larga, a long, sandy beach with warmer water than Playa Cacique, probably because Larga faces the coast while Cacique faces the ocean.
After cooling down with a swim we went to Playa de las Suecas, the only beach in the country where you can legally sunbathe nude. It was rockier, so we thought the snorkeling would be pretty good, and it was. Near some large rocks we saw a huge manta ray, probably almost two feet across. It was a little scary, but cool to see something so big. We also snorkeled at Playa Larga, which was excellent. Tons of colorful fish were swarming around us in the rocks. Alex and Austin also an even bigger manta ray and a poisonous rock fish. On the beach we found a blue jellyfish that had washed up on shore and died.

We returned to Panama City and Alex’s friends had one last day with us before leaving. We rented a car and took them to the zoo, the mall, and the Causeway, and then ended their visit with dinner at a sushi restaurant (Panamanian sushi is a little weird, and many of the rolls contain things like plantains, chicken, or cheese)

Resting and Mangos

After Kevin left Alex and I had a week’s respite before some of his friends came to visit. On Saturday we went with Jose and his family to Costa Esmeralda an hour outside Panama City. We spent some time at the beach, and ate tamarindo directly off the tree- so good.

Speaking of eating fruits off trees, mangos are finally in season here. Alex hasn’t stopped talking about mangos since we arrived (which was right after mango season ended, to his chagrin). There are mango trees all over the city, and the first fruits are finally turning orange and red. You can buy a bag of about 10 mangos for $1 on the street (in the US, one mango usually costs close to a dollar). So our lives are now mango-filled and that will doubtless continue until our departure.

Kevin Comes to Panamá

After returning from Santa Catalina Alex and I had about a week to settle back into life in Panama City, and then my brother Kevin came to visit. His ticket out here was a Christmas gift from me so I had been waiting a long time for his visit and was excited when he finally arrived!

Kevin arrived Sunday evening and José took us to go pick him up. Since it was a long day of traveling for Kev we didn’t do much that night, just hung out and caught up.

The next morning we boarded a diablo rojo (the bus) and visited Panama Viejo. We shopped a little in the artesania there and then walked the length of the old ruins. We then hopped on another diablo and rode to the opposite side of the city, to the Peatonal or pedestrian shopping street. There, Kevin had his first taste of raspados- sweet treats sold by street vendors. They are my favorite on hot days (meaning every day), and Alex is sick of hearing “where is the raspado man??” from me. The raspado man has a big block of ice on his cart, from which he scrapes ice chips into a paper cone. He pours in fresh fruit juice (maracuyá- passion fruit- is the best) and then tops it off with a drizzle of condensed milk. And all for only a quarter! Kevin was skeptical and didn’t get one at first, but then he tried (consumed most of) mine and had to have his own.

We walked down the Peatonal and then through Casco Antiguo at the end. It was a long day of walking! Especially for my brother, who normally drives everywhere. We ended at a street café for some beers and snacks. Turns out this place has amazing brochetas de carne (beef on a stick)- seriously the best I’ve had in my life. Kevin insisted that we return again before he had to leave.

Tuesday we went for a short hike in Parque Natural Metropolitano, which is the only rainforest located within the city limits. At first it wasn’t too impressive, but as we hiked up further we found an awesome view of the city and even saw some wildlife- most likely a tapir (looks like a gerbil the size of a cat). Kevin and Alex also took the opportunity to try to swing on some vines, Tarzan-style. The first few vines broke (or seemed like a break was imminent), but finally they found a large enough one to use to swing to another. Kevin has the photos of all this, so ask him to see.

The next day started the crown jewel of Kevin’s visit here: a trip to San Blas, a group of around 365 Caribbean islands (one for each day of the year) located in the Comarca Kuna Yala. The Kuna are the best-known indigenous group in Panama (remember Alex and I volunteered with another indigenous group, the Ngöbe). The Kuna are completely autonomous, controlling the laws, tourism, and real estate within their comarca (unlike other indigenous groups who have to fight with the national government for the same rights).

Our flight departed from Panama City at 6:30am and here is the view of the city from the air (well part of the city):
We stayed on Isla Narganá, where the grandmother of one of Jose’s friends runs a guesthouse. This is one the more modern islands in San Blas; it has the comarca’s only bank, one of few public phones, and other services. Most of the houses are made of concrete, and the guesthouse where we stayed was very comfortable and nice. Narganá is connected by a (Kevin would say rickety) bridge to Corazón de Jesus, a neighboring island.

Our flight arrived around 7:00 in the morning, so after settling into our rooms and having some breakfast we set out early for our first beach day. From Narganá we could see at least ten other islands nearby, the majority of which were deserted. In San Blas only a few islands are inhabited (maybe 20 out of the nearly 400). The rest of the islands are communally owned, and individuals can only legally own the coconut trees on an island. Pipas (young coconuts) are one of the major cash crops for the Kunas, and prices are set by a council each year to prevent competition.

We were taken to our own personal island for the day, where we swam, snorkeled and relaxed.
While snorkeling we found this starfish.
And Kevin climbed a palm tree to retrieve pipas.
And here’s Alex enjoying the pipa water.
The next day we visited a more traditional Kuna island, Isla Tigre, about half an hour away from Narganá. Here all the houses are made of bamboo and palm leaves and women sell molas from their doorways. Molas are hand-stitched, multi-layered textiles made by Kuna women, usually depicting sea animals and fish. Some are really intricate and beautiful.
After shopping a little, we went fishing from the boat with two locals. The Kuna use only a line with a hook, with which Alex successfully caught a decent-sized fish. He happily exclaimed “dinner!”, at which our hosts laughed. They then proceeded to cut up the fish Alex caught to use as bait for the real fish. It didn’t take long before they were pulling a 15-pound barracuda into the boat. It fought for quite awhile and one of the guys had to beat it over the head with one of the benches from the boat before it stopped flopping around. They quickly caught a second one and then we headed home. Here is Alex holding the first one (yep, his finger and thumb are shoved right into the eye sockets. Strangely, once he removed his hand the eyes popped back into place).
We feasted that night and the following night on our barracuda. It is one delicious fish!

For our last day we decided just to hang out at the beach again, but this time on a different private island. This one was larger than the first, with more vegetation and a big sandy area in front. The water in San Blas is amazingly clear, great for snorkeling.
We were sad to leave San Blas the next morning, but we were particularly sad because we woke up an hour earlier than necessary- thanks to Alex and his fancy automatic time adjustment watch that switched to daylight savings that weekend. Unfortunately Panama doesn’t have daylight savings, so when we thought we were arriving at 6am to catch the boat to the airport, it was really 5am. We started to worry about missing the flight, but finally the confusion was cleared up and we looked like fools to our hosts. At least we didn’t miss the flight back though.

We got back to the city early and decided to rent a car for the day so Kevin could see a few more sights before departing early the next morning. I decided to try my hand at driving a manual car since it is cheaper than automatic. Disastrous. Well not completely, but Panama City is difficult enough to drive in with all the traffic and crazy drivers, so it is not the ideal to place to learn how to drive stick. After much amusement for Kevin and Alex we traded it in for an automatic and then finally got on our way.

Our first stop was Summit Zoo and Botanical Gardens, located about 20 minutes outside the city. It is impressive in how many animals it has for only $0.25 admission, but it is depressing in that all the animals are overweight and given food by Panamanian children (and adults actually). Nevertheless, we saw the jaguar, monkeys, a variety of colorful birds, and the Harpy Eagle, Panama’s national bird. It’s the largest eagle in the world and is now only found in Panama. It has enormous talons and a sharp beak, and it hunts mainly perezosos (sloths). It can carry up to twice its own weight in one talon while flying. Of course, the ones in the zoo were a little less impressive since they have chunks of raw meat provided to them on a little platter so they just seem to sit around all day.

After the zoo we took a short drive over the Puente de las Americas so Kevin could see the Canal, and then we returned to Casco Antiguo for more brochetas, as well as some fried ceviche and langostinos. Delicious!
The next morning I saw Kevin off at the airport around 4:30am. I was sad to see him go, but luckily it won’t be long before I see him again since Alex and I are returning to the U.S. on May 5th. We need to get summer jobs and save up, since both of us have been accepted to graduate school! I will be attending the Women’s Studies MA program at the University of Arizona on a full scholarship this fall. Alex will be at UCLA doing a dual Master’s degree in Urban Planning and Latin American Studies. Congratulations to us both!

Azuero Peninsula

After a week of rest from Carnavales Alex and I rented a car and returned to the Azuero peninsula, the location of Chitre and Las Tablas, for a tour of Panama’s beaches.

Day 1: Tuesday, Feb. 27
We got a nice early start from Panama City in our rental car, which I had to drive the entire time since Alex lost his license during the Carnaval revelry. We drove about three hours to Chitré, with a stop in La Arena, a town well-known for its ceramics. We also stopped at a dulceria there and bought cocadas- my new favorite candy consisting of coconut and sugar. And Dulceria La Arena has some secret ingredient that makes the cocadas slightly creamy tasting. It sounds weird but they are so good. Anyway, we continued just past Chitré to our first beach, El Aguillito. It was a little disappointing, because the tide was out so it was a giant mud flat with the ocean starting very far out. We did have a good fish lunch though.

In the afternoon we drove a little further and left the province of Herrera to go to the province of Los Santos, and the town of Villa de Los Santos. Here we visited Playas Monagre and Rompio, one of which we planned to camp out at for the night. After scoping them out and choosing a spot we decided we had to return to La Arena for more cocadas before putting up the tent. So we drove about half an hour back, and then half an hour again back to the beach just before dark. As we pulled up, we realized we had foolishly left the tent back in Panama City. Disaster! Our options were to either pay for hotels or sleep in the car for the rest of the week and keep going or drive back about 4 hours to the city. We chose to drive back so we would be able to stick to our original plan of not paying for hotels and camping out on beaches. We arrived back at the apartment around 11 and promptly fell asleep.

Day 2
We again packed up the car and got an even earlier start from the city, around 7am. We drove straight through Chitré and Los Santos to Las Tablas and then Pedasí further down the peninsula. We stopped for a cake break at Dulceria Yely, the bakery where the President of Panama orders his cakes. Very good, and cheap- $0.30 for a delicious slice.

Just before Pedasí we took a turn off for Playa La Garita, which the Lonely Planet claimed was a good beach for swimming. Unfortunately we disagreed, due to all the rocks. It was still nice, but we were hot and ready for a sandy beach.

A little ways past Pedasí we found ourselves at Playa Destiladeros, which would have been a deserted beach if not for the construction workers building nearby beach houses. It was still really beautiful though, and the water was cool and refreshing. After an hour or so there, we were ready to make our way to our final beach for the day, Playa Venao. Venao is a popular surfing beach in Panama, and often has many surfers camped out. We arrived just in time for the sunset.

Unfortunately we chose a party night to camp out at Venao, and we inadvertently set up our tent too near to the bonfire to get very much sleep.

Day 3
We woke early for breakfast and a swim, and then we packed up to check out another couple of beaches before returning to Venao to camp out again. We drove through some beautiful countryside that included spotting monkeys while crossing a bridge, and then we came to Playa Cambutal. It was rocky, but with large flat rocks that formed big tide pools that were great for swimming.

We returned back to Venao to get to sleep early to prepare for what would be our longest day of driving.

Day 4
On this day we drove back up the Azuero peninsula to Santiago (on the Interamerican highway) and then down again on the other side of the Golfo de Montijo to Playa Santa Catalina, a world-famous surfing beach and the site of many competitions.

We drove back through Tonosí to Macaracas, on a pot hole-filled road surrounded by tiny communities and greenery. In Macaracas we wanted to take a road to Ocú; unfortunately the roads out of town were not marked, and while we thought we chose correctly, after an hour we realized we were back in Chitré yet again. This added about an hour to our trip that day.

Finally we made it to Ocú, where we planned to visit an artesania half an hour outside of town. It was a little out of our way, but our Lonely Planet book said that they sold many traditional Panamanian crafts, such as polleras (dresses) and masks. We drove through the little town of San José once and didn’t see anything so we drove back through again. Finally we stopped and asked someone and found that it was at the far end of town from which we had just returned. So drove back again, down a dirt road and finally saw it- an abandoned building that had clearly not been entered for at least a year or two. So after this needless detour we were back on our way to Santa Catalina again, sans souvenirs.

We drove through Santiago and then south again, through Soná and finally on to Santa Catalina. This beach is filled with little cabañas for surfers so we checked out a few before finding a guy who let us camp out for only $5 for the night, which included letting us use his facilities. He turned out to be from New Mexico and is now living in Santa Catalina, renting out cabañas and building a library for the town as there are no books (including in the schools) until you reach Soná an hour away.

All in all, we (I) drove almost 9 hours that day, unfortunately due to the many needless detours. Still, we got to see a lot of Panama that even many of Alex’s family here has not visited so it wasn’t so bad.

Day 5
We spent most of this day hanging out on the beach in Santa Catalina. In the morning we snorkeled in some large rocky tide pools where we saw a blue and orange striped starfish, a little swordfish, and some large fish hidden in the rocks. Then we body surfed in the waves and swam around.

We departed from Santa Catalina early that evening and drove 6 hours back to Panama, arriving around midnight. Overall it was a great trip, lots of driving and lots of beaches, and now there are only a few areas of Panama that we have yet to see.

La Vida Gitana

After our time in Soloy Alex and I found ourselves back in David for a few brief hours- after enduring our last horrible Soloy bus ride! The “bus” between David and Soloy is really a converted Land Rover, with the back seats torn out and replaced by two benches along the sides. Each bench could comfortably seat 4 people, but instead there are usually six people crammed on each- six, not counting the children in laps or crouched in the center. Two more people are squeezed up front with the bus driver and then all the luggage and bags are piled high on top. It’s amazing to see all the people coming out, much like a clown car. Too much so when you are one of the clowns. Compounding the discomfort of the extreme crowding is the heat and humidity, dust flying in the windows, and the length of the ride. From David to the Soloy exit off the Interamerican highway is about 45 minutes, and not too bad since they can go relatively quickly and a breeze comes in. But for the remaining 2+ hours the road is VERY bad and the bus cannot breach 15mph, and is often doing far less than that. The road is up and down, dirt and rock. Not just small rocks, but decent-sized little boulders that the Land Rover somehow climbs over. So we were quite happy to debark from the bus in David in time for breakfast with Alex’s Tia Ivette and Tio Servio.

That breakfast was so amazing! After a month of oatmeal, rice and guandu, and chicken, having eggs and sausage seemed like the greatest thing ever. Unfortunately we had to depart after a short while to venture into Costa Rica for a few days so we could renew our Panama visas. At this point Tio Servio aptly called us gitanos- gypsies- for all of our moving around, and as we traveled to Costa Rica we realized how true it was…

COSTA RICA, part 2
After our second short (far shorter than the last time) stint in Costa Rica, Alex and I have determined that we hope never to return to this country. Its popularity is FAR overrated: it is too expensive, has poorer infrastructure than Panama, has crappy money that consists of a lot of large coins, and is filled with gringo backpackers that are catered to in even the smallest town. I didn’t feel like I was even in Central America, I could have been in Florida for all the white people and English-language signs, menus, everything everywhere.

Our first problem in Costa Rica was that we took money out of the ATM in Panama thinking we would just change some of it while crossing the border. But alas, it was Saturday and the banks were closed until Monday so there would be no changing of the money. So we had the equivalent of a dollar, just enough to take the bus to Rio Claro where we tried to go the ATM again only to find it would not work with our cards. Luckily we found a hotel that accepted credit cards, and had air conditioning (it is also much hotter in Costa Rica than Panama for some reason) and we relaxed and watched Sister Act in Spanish.

The next day we took the bus with our remaining coins to Golfito, where very luckily we found an ATM and finally had some money. We then boarded a ferry to cross the Golfo Dulce to Puerto Jimenez, the closest town to Parque Corcovado, a national park where we intended to hike and camp for two nights. As we got off the ferry in Jimenez an old man hippy approached us and told us he drove a bus to the entrance of the park. He seemed a little weird, so we got the information and then said we would think about it. He waited on the dock to tell other tourists and we continued into town. We talked to a tour operator who told us that to hike the park would take at least three days, more time than we wanted to spend there. So we thought maybe we would just camp near the entrance where there was a beach and we went to see about the bus. As we were walking, we saw the old man hippy with another young gringo couple who was on the boat, except the old man was stumbling as though high or drunk and suddenly he fell down, sprawled out on the sidewalk. We stared in shock as the other couple dragged him to his feet and sat him on a bench. After that spectacle it wasn’t too difficult to make the decision of NOT EVER getting in any vehicle this guy was driving. So we decided just to stay in Jimenez for the night and go to the beach in town. Horrible idea. The beach, on the Golfo Dulce, was anything but sweet. The water was as warm as bathwater and when we got out we were somehow stickier than when we were covered with sweat before swimming. And to top everything off, all restaurants in Costa Rica have a 13% tax and a mandatory 10% services charge, adding almost 25% more to the cost of every meal. We quickly ran out of our money and began eating peanut butter and jelly to save the rest for the bus ride home.

The trip home only confirmed my hatred of Costa Rica, but before I get to that, we did at least see a little wildlife while were in Jimenez. Giant red macaws fly through the marañon trees eating the seeds (cashews).

And as we waited at the dock for the ferry we also saw a huge iguana.

As we waited in the ferry for it to fill and leave there were yellow and blue striped fish swimming around us.

But before we even boarded that ferry, we waited 3.5 hours, because the lady at our hotel mistakenly told us there was a ferry at 9. We got to the dock at 8:30 and the ferry did not depart until just after noon. When we got to Golfito we were hungry but could only eat somewhere that would take a credit card. Alex said he saw some places when he went to the ATM the day before and that was where the buses started out so we would be able to get on first and get seats. I agreed, since we didn’t know when the bus to the border would come and I didn’t want to stand for the hour and a half ride. Two minutes into our bus ride away from the border toward the food, a bus to the border passed us. We get to the row of restaurants and they were all closed, which didn’t matter since none of them accepted credit cards anyway. So we got back on the bus we had ridden there since it was going to Ciudad Neily, 20 minutes from the border where we could just get a second bus the rest of the way. A minute after re-boarding that bus, another bus to the border passed us. I was in a horrible mood at this point, hot and sweaty and hungry, and just wanting to get back to Panama where everything was familiar and good. But my misery only increased. A lady came on the bus selling platanitos (plantain chips) and helados (ice cream). We decided we had just enough for an ice cream each, which turned out to be milk mixed with strawberry powder and frozen in a little baggie. I bit the corner of mine to open it and strawberry milk immediately sprayed me in the eye and went all over my face.

That fake ice cream was the last straw for Costa Rica.

So we returned to David a day earlier than planned and decided to try to salvage our time by going on a hike, the Sendero de los Quetzales, from Cerro Punta to Boquete through the mountains. It was about a 13km walk and very beautiful. As we went we could see the change in vegetation with the altitude, from mountain trees to jungle. By the end I thought I would collapse, but it was well worth it, and we are hoping to start doing more hiking soon.

A tropical flower in the rainforest.

CARNAVALES
We continued la vida gitana by coming back to Panama City for a night and then promptly leaving on Alex’s birthday for Chitré, in the Azuero Peninsula, about a three-hour drive. The Azuero supposedly has some of the best Carnaval celebrations, so we went with José and a few of his friends. We had a slight hitch, though, when José’s car broke down an hour into the drive. We waited at the side of the road for four hours before José and his friends went to one of their beach houses nearby for the night and Alex and I got picked up by Brandy, who was on her way to Chitré with another friend.

Carnaval is a four-day celebration, always starting on a Saturday, but there is a unofficial start on Friday night, called the Pechagon where everyone assembles in the streets to start the drinking and the culecos. Culecos are big street parties dominated by fire hoses soaking everyone in water. It’s great during the day when it’s super hot, but at night it cools down enough that it is freezing if you are all wet- unless you’re too drunk to care like most of the people there. Alex and I were not drunk enough, and luckily avoided the water.

We went home to bed and woke late the next morning when José and his friends finally made it. After a quick breakfast we headed back to the culecos, armed with a cooler to fill with cervezas. Before even arriving at the culecos, while buying the beer, I learned that it doesn’t matter where you are, Carnaval is everywhere during these days and it is open season for pouring water on people. The worst is the people with ice water, but it is always a little shocking regardless when a stranger runs up and pours a bucket of water down your back.

After an afternoon of too much water, too much sun, and too much booze, we returned to the house where we were staying to nap and eat. Then it’s back up to go out for the night- the whole night- to PH, Pub Herrerano, a huge outdoor nightclub sponsored by Seco Herrerano, a brand of the national alcohol, Seco, here. Each Latin American country seems to have its own alcohol: Seco in Panama, Aguardiente in Colombia, flor de caña in Nicaragua, tequila in Mexico, and that’s the end of my experience, but I have no doubt there are others.

Then, Sunday, it was time to repeat it all over again. Monday and Tuesday also, but we did not last that long. Sunday night we went to PH in Las Tablas, which is where the craziest Carnaval parties are, and I can believe it. The PH was much larger than in Chitré and it was filled to the brim with people. ¡Qué locura!

On Monday Alex and I returned to Panama City for a much-needed rest, and Tuesday we went to our last culecos on Transistmica. It was a fun couple of days, but I don`t know if I could survive a second time!

Farewell to Soloy

We ended our month in Soloy last week, gladly in some ways but sad in others. Alex and I both really enjoyed our time there, and felt that we helped with very worthwhile projects and also felt very appreciated. The Ngöbe people of Soloy and Gevay are super friendly and treated us very well. We enjoyed teaching English more than we originally thought we would, as the students were all very eager to learn and happy to participate. It was sad to have to say good-bye to the friends we made though.

Here is a picture from our children’s class.

And here is Alex presenting our top adult student, Amado, with his prize for winning the star chart contest (stars were given for coming to class on time, participation, and answering questions only in English).
During our second week Alex and I finally got to see the entire coffee-making process- very exciting since we thought we would see that in Costa Rica, but instead we only picked the coffee. There was a Japanese volunteer living in the Centro de Desarollo with us, and he is organizing a coffee cooperative for Ngöbe farmers. So once a month the APRANBE farmers come down the mountains (from as far as a 9 hour walk), carrying their dried out coffee beans to prepare for sale at our house. First they separate the beans according to quality- top quality are the largest and roundest, going down to fourth quality, which are pretty small and misshapen.
Then they roast the beans in enormous cauldrons over an open fire. It looks like it would be easy to mix that around, but Alex had a pretty hard time and gave up after spilling coffee beans on the ground.
The roasted beans are left to cool on sheets or big wooden trays.
The cooled beans are then ground up by hand.

And finally the ground coffee is packaged and ready for sale. A 12 pack (each little pack has enough coffee for about 3 cups) costs $0.90. Unfortunately APRANBE can only sell their coffee within the comarca, because they cannot yet afford to obtain all the proper health certifications to sell commercially in Panama.

We continued our tradition of river bathing (mainly because we were too scared to use the shower in the bathroom- very dark, dirty, and creepy). The rivers in Soloy are cool and refreshing- but I was very happy to finally take a real shower without clothes on when we left! This is me in my “bathing outfit” of a t-shirt and rolled-up pajama pants.

Ngöbe women all bath in their dresses, so out of cultural respect female volunteers are asked to wear clothes in the water as well. Alex, meanwhile, would traipse about happily in his swimsuit.

The last weekend we spent in Soloy we rode horses up a nearby mountain. It was about a three-hour ride, some through jungle, but mostly through sort of deforested areas. It was nice, but a little disappointing that it wasn’t very lush. And by the end of the second day (6 hours on the horse total) we were all pretty sore. We did have an amazing view of the lights of David and the sunset from the mountain though. We also somehow managed to eat about 5 pounds of rice between 6 of us- Alex and I are ready to swear off rice and guandu (peas) for about a year now. That was served with every meal every day in Soloy.

On our last night our students gave us a farewell party- it was very well-planned and touching. Alejandro started by welcoming everyone and then Anabella said a prayer for us, followed by some words from Adan (the Medo Coordinator) and some of our other students. Then we played a guessing game where Alex and I, and some of our students, each received a card with an animal on it (I had sapo- toad- and Alex had gallo- rooster). Then each person had to act out their animal and find their mate- ie Alex had to figure out which of us girls was the gallina (chicken). Very hilarious, and followed by more hilarity in a game of Bochinches (literally means gossip, but it is the same as telephone). Alex was the first one to hear the message, and not properly understanding the game, he immediately changed it on purpose rather than repeating what he heard. Needless to say, by the end the message had devolved from “Yo me baño todos los días, pero hoy no” (I bathe myself every day, but not today) to “Yo me baño todos los días, pero hoy no, y uele feo” (Alex added and it smells bad) to something about a dog when it got to me halfway through to only unintelligible mumbles at the end.

The night was capped off by a delicious meal and chicha made by all of our students. Well it was almost capped off- then we took turns taking pictures with nearly every student. See some of our favorites below.

Some girls in our class: Onelina, Maritza, Luisa, Tamara, Mileika, and Yesika. A group shot. Me, Esteban (one of our favorite students), and Alex.

Finally, I thought I would include some pictures of the lovely roommates Alex and I had. First the giant spider (post-mortem): Then Mr. Peepers, the giant cockroach: One of the four bats: And one of the many toads:

Finally, our home for the month, the Centro de Desarollo:

Shortly after leaving from Soloy we embarked on further adventures that will be coming soon. We arrived back in Panama City yesterday, but leave again tomorrow for a hard core weekend+ of partying at Carnavales... hopefully I´ll make it back in one piece!

Soloy, Distrito de Besiko, Comarca de Ngöbe-Buglé

Alex and I have been living in Soloy for about a week and a half now. We are actually living in the town of Gevay, but most people call this area Soloy, which is the neighboring town. Both of these little towns are in the District of Besiko, within the Ngöbe-Buglé comarca, which is basically the Panamanian equivalent of a reservation. We are enjoying ourselves so far, although there are many challenges as well.

Some background about the Ngöbe-Buglé: the government didn`t grant the Ngöbe-Buglé their comarca until the late 1980`s (whereas, another indigenous group, the Kuna, received their comarca status in the 1930`s I believe). Although the comarca is supposed to be Ngöbe-Buglé land, the goverment passed a law to maintain control over tourism and natural resources, therefore stripping the Ngöbe-Buglé of much of their supposed autonomy. A major problem is copper mining, whereby the Panamanian government allows foreign mining companies into the comarca to pretty much destroy the environment and remove all profitable natural resources. There is also very little government assistance here for things that are provided to all other Panamanians. In Gevay and Soloy there are some schools, but further into the comarca, the area is deemed too remote to send certified teachers, so many of the children have only an intermittent education when they are able to find a volunteer teacher willing to live there and work for almost nothing.

While we are here, we are taking part in a number of volunteer projects, the main one being our English classes. We teach children for an hour each morning and adults for two hours each evening. Our students are very enthusiastic about learning English- for the adults, it can help them find better seasonal jobs outside of the comarca, and for the children, it will help them in their English classes in school. We hope, anyway. Until you try teaching English, you don`t really realize how little you know about grammar rules. We both know how things should sound, or if something is incorrect, but it is a lot more difficult to explain why something is wrong or describe different verb tenses that combine two Spanish verb tenses. But I think that we are helping them, as the last English teacher didn`t speak any Spanish so she couldn`t answer questions or translate confusing material to make it more clear. The children`s class is starting to exhaust us though. Luckily Alex`s cousin, Brandy, decided to join us here for two weeks, so having an additional teacher for the 25+ kids that show up each day is helpful. Unfortunately, it is hard to keep their attention all the time, and they also come to class 45 minutes early and some stay for up to an hour afterwards, stretching the hour-long class into nearly 3 hours of us trying to keep order.

Other projects we are working on:

Alex is working in the botanical garden that has recently been set up in Soloy. It is a project with many goals: attracting eco-tourism to the region, preserving native plant life, and identifying and cataloging plants and trees in the comarca.

I am also working on charlas (chats) with the women`s group, on topics relating to health and nutrition. The diet here is primarily white rice, beans, chicken, and some fruits and vegetables, so today I talked about the importance of a more varied diet that includes whole grains, dairy and more fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately there are many obstacles to healthy eating in Soloy. The majority of the people here live on around $100 per year, so they do not have extra money to spend on healthier foods for their families. The closest grocery store is in David, which is a three hour (longer in the rainy season) bus ride away that costs $3.30 each way. Almost no one has electricity, so there are no refridgerators for products that most be kept cold, like milk and yogurt. So, as you can imagine, planning for the talk was difficult, and I`m not sure if it was very helpful. We are trying to work out ways to obtain these foods at a lower cost, such as planting vegetable gardens or requesting the stores here to start stocking more nutritious brown rice instead of just white. It is also hard because I also don`t want to impose Western ways of thinking and doing things on people who have persevered through a Spanish conquest and then continuing discrimination by the Panamanian government.

Alex and I are also trying to help Medo, the volunteer organization, find grants and craft grant proposals. There are number of people interested in volunteering here, but Medo has only one room with a bunk bed where volunteers can stay. They are hoping to raise funds to build their own volunteer center, with more rooms for volunteers to stay and where the English classes can be held inside where there are less distractions. Currently, we are staying in the Development Center, which rents the room and allows us to hold the English classes on the porch outside. It is a cement building with solar electricity, so we are some of the lucky few in this area with lights at night and a refridgerator. We are also lucky to share the Development Center with a number of interesting roommates, including a family of bats, toads, HUGE spiders, HUGE cockroaches (imagine the size of your hand- except, believe me, until you see it yourself you can`t really imagine it), and geckos. It makes for very exciting evenings, with the bats swooping around our heads and the toads popping up out of nowhere.

So this is what we have been up to lately. I will write more later, but for now I am off to go bathe- in the river.

December in the city

We had a rather uneventful December- Spanish classes almost every day, homework, and hanging around the city relaxing. Our Spanish has really improved and we are excited for our upcoming volunteering where fewer people will be able to speak to us in English so we can practice more.

We did a few day trips nearby in between classes. We walked up the Peatonal, a street closed off from traffic (mostly) and lined with shops for pedestrians. There were many colorful sights, sounds, and smells as we wandered past street vendors selling brochetas (meat kebabs), chorizos, hamburguesas, and chichas (fresh fruit drinks); stores with Panamanian and international wares; and radios and TV’s blaring with small groups of people crowded around watching and listening. At the end of the Peatonal we arrived at Casco Antiguo, the second oldest neighborhood in Panama (after Panama Viejo). Casco Antiguo has narrow streets lined with charming little buildings, many unfortunately very run-down looking, cafés, and old churches. The Iglesia de San Jose has the only remaining item of value after Henry Morgan sacked the city in 1671. According to legend, its famous Altar de Oro (Golden Altar) was painted black by the priest when he realized the pirate was coming. He convinced Morgan that other pirates had already stolen the altar, and even managed to get a donation from Morgan for a new one. It is very large and impressive with its golden sheen. We ended our evening in Casco Antiguo in one of its many squares, having drinks at a sidewalk café.

Unfortunately, this is about the time that my digital camera stopped working. It had been a little off and on for awhile, and then it completely quit on me. My Christmas gift to myself was a new camera, with many more features than the old one, so I am excited to take more photos with it.

On Christmas Eve, Alex and I went for dinner to his Tio Temi’s house, where we enjoyed a huge turkey with him, his son Emanuel, and many of Tio Temi’s friends. Delicious! After dinner Alex, Tio Temi, Emanuel, and I went first to Alex’s Tia Deborah’s house, where we spent some time with many more aunts, uncles, and cousins. Then we went to his Tia Zulay and Tio Yeti’s house, for yet more food, drinks, and family. We finally returned to our apartment around 1am, tired and full. The next day we just relaxed- went to see a movie (Casino Royale) and out to eat at a Lebanese restaurant.

For New Year’s Alex and I bought tickets to Hotel El Panama, where my favorite Panamanian band, Los Rabanes, played, along with Nando Boom (reggae), and a lot of salsa and merengue. Our tickets included “open botella” so we polished off a bottle of Johnny Walker together, and returned home at 5 in the morning reeking of smoke- sounds lovely doesn’t it? It was a fun time, other than everyone else`s cigarette smoke worsened my cold and I am still trying to get rid of this cough!

This past weekend Alex, Jose, Vasco (Jose’s younger brother), and I made our way over to the Caribbean side to Isla Grande for a night. It was about a 3 hour drive from the city, and only that long because the only road there is filled with potholes, especially for the last 20 km. It was worth the effort though; the island was beautiful, with clear blue water, white sand beaches, and a cute little town with colorful Caribbean-style buildings. The first photo is the beach in front of our hotel- great for swimming, and a little ways to the left was a coral reef for snorkeling. My cold kept me from snorkeling very much, but I hear from Alex and Vasco that there were many fish.

This photo is Alex trying to climb a palm tree to bring down a coconut. He didn’t make it up very far, but at least he tried!

This photo is the sunset that night, before we retired to our room for a game of Risk.

It was a very nice and relaxing few days after being in the city for a month, taking classes and finishing grad school applications… speaking of which, I am almost done with those! I’ve turned in my applications to the University of Arizona and the University of British Columbia, so I only have George Washington University left, and that is not due until April. Alex has already been finished for awhile, so it’s been tough sitting down to write essays. Very big relief to have the end in sight!

Last night we went to a baseball game at the Rod Carew Estadio (stadium). It was Panama Metro (the city’s team) versus Chiriqui (the province where Jose and his family are from). The Chiricanos are fanatics about anything having to do with their province, and probably half the people there were sporting Chiriqui shirts, hats, and flags. Jose made sure we were all Chiricanos for the night, as you can see.

And now Alex and I are packing up our stuff for a month in the mountains of the comarca of the Ngobe-Bugle, one of Panama’s indigenous groups. We will be volunteering with Medo, a non-profit organization for Ngobe development. Medo helps match international volunteers with different projects going on in and around the town of Soloy. Alex is going to help work on their botanical garden, which has a goal of trying to preserve species native to the area. I will be working in the health center with children under 5, doing art therapy to help improve their motor skills. We are both excited about this opportunity, as it will give us a chance to work with the native population on projects that interest each of us. In addition, very few people in Soloy speak English, so it will be very good Spanish practice for us. We will leave Soloy right before Carnaval starts in the middle of February.

Alex would like me to add that we have been watching all the San Diego Chargers games lately, and that although he is not home in SD, he is still rooting for them to win the Super Bowl this year. Cross your fingers!