Panama rocks! Here's how it is going so far. I cannot believe it has already been a week...
The trip down was uneventful which is a good thing - i cannot find parentheses on this keyboard and it is killing me... Anyway. I noticed the woman in the customs line ahead of me had a very similar backpack to mine. Good thing I noticed because she was in my collectivo from the airport and got out first and I was second to last and when I got to the back of the va, there was her bag and mine was gone. She looked like she had much nicer stuff than I anyway, but she was a little small so probably would not have fit. Anyway, the incredibly nice- everyone in Panama I have met is incredibly nice- driver took me back to the other hotel to make the switch and then back to my hostel and was not even going to charge me more! I tipped him well. Stayed in Panama City at Luna'a Castle in Casco Viejo. Great little hostel with terrific views across the water of downtown Panama City. Sunday I decided to hit the Panama Canal Mraflores Locks like a local with the local buses. So what I could have done in 30 minutes took me 4.5 hours and got me completely lost in Panama City as well as 10 km past my stop from the longer bus. But I got to practice Spanish and people watch and talk to locals so I didn't really mind.
The locks were really interesting. I now know all sorts of fun facts like 40 boats a day go through. Bigger ones go during daylight hours and smaller ones at night. In the morning it runs from Atlantic to Pacific (up the locks) and in the afternoon, the opposite. I watched three huge tankers go through and get lowered 26 meters. Pretty impressive. I also learned a lot about the history in the museum. And the fact that is keeping me up at night that I got from the museum is that there are over 6000 species of cockroaches in the world. Ick!
After the canal I walked around Casco Viejo and stumbled onto a festival with lots of drums and trumpets. Kind of like what is going on outside my hostel right now- it is an independence festival this weekend (apparently they have a lot of them- and hey, I found the parentheses!). I also had awesome ceviclhe from the fish market for $1.25. Sunday night I hung out in the hostel with some travelers from Ireland, Slovenia, England and Norway. Then it was time to move on.
Monday I made the long trip to Santa Catalina (bus to Sona, then bus to Sta Catalina) a beach town in the south. It is the gateway to Coiba which was my must do of the trip. I checked into Cabanas Rolo and my dorm room was only three beds and my roommate a really nice girl from Alabama named Brelyn who is studying in Panama. There was another group next door from the US and Canada so I had a ready made group of partners in crime upon arrival. Tuesday I hit both beaches and wadered around and read in the hammocks. Then I hung out with the crew in the evening including some new arrivals from Canada, Austria, and the US.
Wednesday was the big Coiba trip. It was me and the next door crew (Jennifer, Leigh, Ava, and Levi) as well as another Canadian named Carrie. We got on a lil speedboat with our captain, Tomato, and our guide, Midget (I swear, that is what they call themselves, in Spanish of course. I will call the guild lil man to be PC). It took two hours to get to the biggest island and on the way we saw flying fish and some dolphins (I heart dolphins!). We did a short hike on the island and saw a monkey and heard howler monkeys. Then we went to Isla Granita del Oro to snorkel. Coiba is 20 km off Panama and is made up of 30 islets and 18 islands. The biggest used to be a penal colony but now it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
First snorkel of the day we saw 5 white tipped sharks. Lil Man actually went down and grabbed the dorsal fin of two to get them to move. Dangerous, but effective. We also saw a huge hornbill turtle and countless fish. There were thousands of hermit crabs on the beach where we had lunch. Wildlife abounds in Coiba!
The next snorkel spot was a little less exciting and then Lil Man raised his head to hear what Tomato was shouting. I figured it was time to head back until Lil Man shouted excitedly "tiburon ballena!!"- whale shark. So we hauled back to the boat and went to a deeper place in the ocean where there was just a small rock outcropping. Two dolphins swam in front of the boat to greet us. We got in the water and 30 seconds later there it was- a whale shark. Totally a bucket list thing. We spent the next 20 minutes following it around and it would dive down so we couldn't see it and then come up feeding with that huge white mouth opening and closing right under us. Diving down I got within an arm's length of it! So incredible.
The ride back was wet and cold as we got hit with a downpour but we didn't care. That night the group from next door made a Thanksgiving feast a day early complete with stuffing and mashed potatoes and pumkin pie and shared it with the rest of us. Then we hang out and played cards and kicked it. Awesome awesome day!
OK, it is two days later and I am in Boquete, but I feel like this is tres long and the band is starting up outside and I want to see what goes down with the festival.
Ciao for now. I'll add more next week sometime when I have internet again.
The trip down was uneventful which is a good thing - i cannot find parentheses on this keyboard and it is killing me... Anyway. I noticed the woman in the customs line ahead of me had a very similar backpack to mine. Good thing I noticed because she was in my collectivo from the airport and got out first and I was second to last and when I got to the back of the va, there was her bag and mine was gone. She looked like she had much nicer stuff than I anyway, but she was a little small so probably would not have fit. Anyway, the incredibly nice- everyone in Panama I have met is incredibly nice- driver took me back to the other hotel to make the switch and then back to my hostel and was not even going to charge me more! I tipped him well. Stayed in Panama City at Luna'a Castle in Casco Viejo. Great little hostel with terrific views across the water of downtown Panama City. Sunday I decided to hit the Panama Canal Mraflores Locks like a local with the local buses. So what I could have done in 30 minutes took me 4.5 hours and got me completely lost in Panama City as well as 10 km past my stop from the longer bus. But I got to practice Spanish and people watch and talk to locals so I didn't really mind.
The locks were really interesting. I now know all sorts of fun facts like 40 boats a day go through. Bigger ones go during daylight hours and smaller ones at night. In the morning it runs from Atlantic to Pacific (up the locks) and in the afternoon, the opposite. I watched three huge tankers go through and get lowered 26 meters. Pretty impressive. I also learned a lot about the history in the museum. And the fact that is keeping me up at night that I got from the museum is that there are over 6000 species of cockroaches in the world. Ick!
After the canal I walked around Casco Viejo and stumbled onto a festival with lots of drums and trumpets. Kind of like what is going on outside my hostel right now- it is an independence festival this weekend (apparently they have a lot of them- and hey, I found the parentheses!). I also had awesome ceviclhe from the fish market for $1.25. Sunday night I hung out in the hostel with some travelers from Ireland, Slovenia, England and Norway. Then it was time to move on.
Monday I made the long trip to Santa Catalina (bus to Sona, then bus to Sta Catalina) a beach town in the south. It is the gateway to Coiba which was my must do of the trip. I checked into Cabanas Rolo and my dorm room was only three beds and my roommate a really nice girl from Alabama named Brelyn who is studying in Panama. There was another group next door from the US and Canada so I had a ready made group of partners in crime upon arrival. Tuesday I hit both beaches and wadered around and read in the hammocks. Then I hung out with the crew in the evening including some new arrivals from Canada, Austria, and the US.
Wednesday was the big Coiba trip. It was me and the next door crew (Jennifer, Leigh, Ava, and Levi) as well as another Canadian named Carrie. We got on a lil speedboat with our captain, Tomato, and our guide, Midget (I swear, that is what they call themselves, in Spanish of course. I will call the guild lil man to be PC). It took two hours to get to the biggest island and on the way we saw flying fish and some dolphins (I heart dolphins!). We did a short hike on the island and saw a monkey and heard howler monkeys. Then we went to Isla Granita del Oro to snorkel. Coiba is 20 km off Panama and is made up of 30 islets and 18 islands. The biggest used to be a penal colony but now it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
First snorkel of the day we saw 5 white tipped sharks. Lil Man actually went down and grabbed the dorsal fin of two to get them to move. Dangerous, but effective. We also saw a huge hornbill turtle and countless fish. There were thousands of hermit crabs on the beach where we had lunch. Wildlife abounds in Coiba!
The next snorkel spot was a little less exciting and then Lil Man raised his head to hear what Tomato was shouting. I figured it was time to head back until Lil Man shouted excitedly "tiburon ballena!!"- whale shark. So we hauled back to the boat and went to a deeper place in the ocean where there was just a small rock outcropping. Two dolphins swam in front of the boat to greet us. We got in the water and 30 seconds later there it was- a whale shark. Totally a bucket list thing. We spent the next 20 minutes following it around and it would dive down so we couldn't see it and then come up feeding with that huge white mouth opening and closing right under us. Diving down I got within an arm's length of it! So incredible.
The ride back was wet and cold as we got hit with a downpour but we didn't care. That night the group from next door made a Thanksgiving feast a day early complete with stuffing and mashed potatoes and pumkin pie and shared it with the rest of us. Then we hang out and played cards and kicked it. Awesome awesome day!
OK, it is two days later and I am in Boquete, but I feel like this is tres long and the band is starting up outside and I want to see what goes down with the festival.
Ciao for now. I'll add more next week sometime when I have internet again.
