Sal Si Puedes, Panama (part 1)

Ah gee.  Where to start?  This blog post is quite intimidating.  There is SO much I want to tell -- I want to include all the funny stories/experiences of the trip rather than just give a blow-by-blow itinerary.  All of the unexpected situations/encounters didn't affect me negatively at all.  Instead, I thought everything was just hilarious!  I may split this post up in to 2 sections so I'm not so overwhelmed by it.  I have LOTS of pictures to accompany the stories, so I hope it'll be fun.

I guess I'll start off with the morning (middle of the night) we left.  I was paranoid and wanted to get to the airport 2 hours before our flight took off, since that is what the airline suggested.  Even though none of us were checking bags, I just felt like it would be a lot less stressful if we were early and had to wait around at the gate rather than cut it close and feel anxious and stressed about getting to the gate in time..  Which means that we planned to leave Dave's place at 3:30 in the morning to get to the airport by 4AM, park the car and catch the shuttle to make it to the airline counter by 4:30AM.  Turns out that we made GREAT time.  We accomplished all of this, got through security, walked to the other end of the airport, and were sitting at our gate by quarter to 5.  Haha.  Ah well.

The 5 hour flight went by pretty quick!  I sat next to a cool single gal and we girl-talked almost the whole flight.  :)  We soon landed in Panama City.  Getting through customs was kind of a joke!  We weaved our way through the line to get to a counter and got to an area where they took your picture.  Kinda bizarre, I thought.  So of course I make a funny face for the camera and move on to the 'teller'.  Then I find out that I needed a traveler's Visa.  Ah.  That's right.  I read about that online.  So I go back to the counter that is at the start of the line and pay for a Visa.  Then weave back through the line, get to the photographer again, and hear my buddy Scott say that he already had his picture taken.  Oh, the naive Americans.  It was not a camera!  It was a temperature sensor.  They didn't want to accept anybody in to their country who had a fever.  Swine flu was obviously a concern.  It's a good thing I made the funny face for the fever-detector.

Long story short, after getting rejected again at the counter for not having any claim papers filled out (the dude on the plane told me I didn't need to fill it out!), and again at the bag x-ray, I finally made it out!  Whew!  (An unexpected annoying hassle, but later funny situation -- I'll call these F-U's; for Funny-Unexpecteds)  Now we just had to figure out what to do to kill 4 hours of time before we caught our domestic flight to Bocas Del Torro.  We wanted to eat, so we asked a lady at a tourist counter where we could go get some grub that was near the other airport.  We imagined an area of restaurants we could choose from, perhaps sitting outside and catching a view of the city.  My mind imagined a little straw-hut-type-looking place, with sushi prepared table-side and abundant fresh fruit.  Welcome to the tropics, Myself!  The lady instructed us to go to the Albrook Mall.  Hmmm.  Alright.  Maybe this is an outdoor mall of restaurants.  We'll take your word for it, Lady.

From inside the cab:  Panama City

A cheap cab ride later, we were at what looked like part of Tyson's Corner.  It really was a shopping mall.  (F-U!)  Not what we expected, but there we were, and we had no idea where else to go.  So we went inside to enjoy the A/C.  There was the typical food court that you might see in any American mall; Mrs. Field's Cookies, Subway, Ben & Jerry's, etc.  A little bit of a let-down.  We didn't want any of that!  We wanted something original!  We didn't fly all the way to Panama to get a 5 dollar foot long.  After wandering around to various areas of the mall and realizing that restaurants were either closed or gross (only beef plates), we headed back up to the food court section to accept that our first Panamanian meal would be very Amerian-ish.  The boys ordered pizza and I chose to look over the menu at The Chicken Factory.  I was proud of myself for ordering in Spanish.  :)  They gave me a ridiculously huge marker to place on my table so they could deliver my meal to me.  Definite photo-op!

A couple of intense people-watching hours later, we decided we needed to leave the mall.  The amount of teenagers was growing by the minute and we were ready to start convincing ourselves that indeed, we were in another country.  We caught a cab and asked him to take us to the airport.  We still had over an hour before we needed to check in, but we couldn't take the mall scene any longer.  Along the way, we (or rather Dave and Scott with their Spanish-speaking skills) asked the driver if there was any local pub-type place we could hang out that was really close to the airport.  We were dropped off at this hole-in-the-wall that was awesome!  They had huge plates of food for cheap and there wasn't a white face in sight.  Just what we wanted - a little piece of authenticity (even if the food and the cooks WERE Korean).  AND this place was within walking distance to the airport.

Shortly after we sat down and tuned in to the Spanish soap opera on the little corner tv, the rain started coming down.  And I mean it came down in TORRENTS!  People walked in absolutely soaked.  Pretty cool, though.  After about half an hour, the rain died down a bit and it was time for us to make our way over to the airport.  It was still lightly raining and there were a lot of huge puddles to maneuver around, but besides me losing my flip flop in the middle of an intersection (bare feet in Panama streets! Yikes) and a lady VERY close to us getting drenched from the car spray of a SUV that sped through the river in the street (we narrowly avoided that catastrophe!), we made it safely over to the airport where we waited in line to check in.  Only a certain amount of weight could be carried by these planes, so when checking in, we had to get our backpacks weighed and also tell the guy how much WE weighed.  Made me a little nervous about the performance of these air vessels.  People-watching was again in great abundance as we waited to board.  A lady with obvious camel-toe going on seemed proud of her clothing choices.  Hahahahahaaa.  (Mom, don't look that term up.  Be happy with your ignorance in this area - I assume you aren't familiar with it...)

Pics of boarding in Panama City, flying out, and landing in Bocas Del Torro:

From the internet, Bocas Del Torro seemed like a big tourist-spot.  But that is not the personal impression I got.  This airport consists of one little building and a runway.  The runway, when not in use by planes, is used by children for their various play activities.  I imagined the scene from Wayne's World when they're playing hockey in the street and a car comes.  They quickly move their equipment out of the way, and as soon as the car passes, they exclaim, "Game on!"  "GAME ON!"  Now just think of that scenario on an airport runway with little kids.  Nuts!

We walked out of the airport and met our personal boat driver, Gregario.  Gregario didn't speak a lick of English.  Odd, I thought, as this house we were staying at I imagined is geared toward American tourists who could very well not speak or understand Spanish.  (F-U!)  Lucky for me, both Scott and Dave were able to communicate.  Otherwise, who knows -- I may have been raped and sold in to slavery, never to return to the states again.  Really - you never CAN know.  ;)

So we start walking down this really crummy street, along which we find the following scenes:

The locals playing baseball was kind of fun.  Scott got really excited when he saw this.  He wanted to stop and watch the game.  Then we came across this house/hotel/hostel -? - that had a TON of these old-school stake center-like satellites.  You know - the HUGE ones.  It was laughable - and we laughed.  Then across the street, we were treated to a local dog and vultures feeding on the trash.  I kept thinking, "OK - around the corner here, it's all gotta clean up and look nice.  Feel touristy."  But it really didn't!  There were some shops and lodging, and maybe if we had wondered a little further in and away from the boat docks, we would have found the scenery to be different, but as it was, there were just some flea market-type set-ups, a few places to sit down to eat, a couple of sketchy grocery stores, and fresh waves of rotten trash.  (F-U!)  We really weren't put off by this, however.  We thought it was cool to get the 'real deal' instead of Americanized high-rises, etc.

We dropped our backpacks off in Gregario's boat and made our way to the grocery store.  Somehow we ended up spending over $100 on cereal, pasta, bread, milk, sunscreen & insect repellent.  We didn't purchase any meat, as it looked really scary, but it SEEMED like we had a lot of food to take to the house with us...  We headed back to the boat with our goods and saw that Gregario wasn't there.  So we stood and waited for him on the dock.  Lucky for us (sarcasm), an English-speaking local came up to talk to us.  First he asked us if we were Canadian or American, then after he found out we were American, he proceeded to tell us that he used to live in New Jersey and worked at the World Trade Center.  REALLY.  He went on to say how awful it was about what happened, to which we agreed.  Then he asks, "So how do you feel about it?" ..............   First of all, how do you really accurately answer that sort of question?  There are layers upon layers of feelings and emotions surrounding the catastrophe and sorrow that 9/11 brought.  Second, Americans are resilient.  While we never forget, we don't DWELL.  We move on.  We rebuild.  We make the decision to have hope again; to find the happiness in life.  So to conjure up these memories and feelings on a whim to answer a seemingly simple but actually complex question posed by a lying stranger, is no easy feat.  While we all hesitated to answer him, he made the conclusion that we were just stupid ignorant people.  Right.  And why don't YOU tell US how it was that you went from living in New Jersey and working at the World Trade Center to slumming it in the streets of Panama.....   Something just doesn't quite fit.  Loco.  (F-U!)  It didn't take me long to start laughing about the conversation later.

Gregario came back and we were on our way!  At this point, we were super anxious to check out our digs on our secluded island.  Just a short 20 minute boat ride away!

Our excitement of the boat ride slowly faded as the 20 minutes turned in to 45.  We passed lots of little houses, and each time I sighted one, I thought, "This is it!" and then we would keep going.  Finally we arrived at our casa!  But it was not the seclusion we expected....  There were several houses 'next door', and locals on the beach.  I guess "Secluded" means cut off from food - not people.  (F-U!)  But the house and surrounding area was beautiful!  We eagerly walked down the pier to check out what we would call home for the next several days.  We found a big open living area connected to the kitchen, granite countertops, a large room with king-size bed, big open bathroom with wide open shower, another half-bath off the living area, little laundry room with washer/dryer, and a huge nice outside porch and outside eating area right off of the living room.  Aaaaaah.  It was the kind of environment that just FORCED you to relax.  I quickly spotted little geckos along the walls and ceilings and tried to catch them so I could pinch their little bulbous bellies.  But they are quick as lightning!

I was really antsy and excited to start relaxing.  But of course I was too wound up with eager energy to ACTUALLY relax.  I quickly unpacked my entire backpack in to the dresser drawers in the bedroom, put my book and personal identification in the drawer of the night stand, and set up my toiletries in the bathroom.  I urged the boys to do the same, but they didn't seem to feel the necessity of doing this right away, as Scott explained it away as the female's urge to 'nest'.  Well, finally, I just grabbed both of their bags and put them in the room.  I would have unpacked for them (I was that antsy), but I didn't think they would appreciate that.  I couldn't understand why they WOULDN'T want to get settled in right away.  ......  The evening folded in to night, and it turns out there was a little tv with satellite, so we relaxed in to the couches to see what the television airwaves had to offer.  But again, I was just really wound up and started leaping across the room and trying to capture geckos.  Finally I felt sleepy and retired to the bed.

At 6:30 the next morning, I was wide awake and eager to take it all in.  I looked out the windows and couldn't help but smile at what I saw.  After snapping a few pictures out the windows of the bedroom, I quietly grabbed my book (and held on to my camera) and made my way outside to read on the porch.

Shortly after I started reading, I noticed Gregario going out to his boat.  Then not long after that, a white couple emerged from the house next door.  I said 'Good Morning' and the lady came over to ask if we needed her to pick up anything for us at the store, as Gregario was taking them in to Bocas for her husband to catch a flight. I still thought that we had PLENTY of food, but I did ask her about getting meat.  She informed me that if we go down to the point  of the island (she pointed down the beach to my left and I saw a little teeny hut at the edge of the land-line before the land curved back around out of sight), we could get fresh fish and rice from the local there.  I thanked her, watched them leave, and went back to my book.  I took frequent breaks to look up from my book and really absorb the reality of where I was and how beautiful everything looked!  This is exactly what I had signed up for.

Around 9-ish, the boys emerged and we walked out to the pier to get a better look of our island.

Our neighbor's pier

Our pier

The crystal-clear water

Getting a look at the starfish

Checking out what's in the distance

Close-up of the starfish

Scott points to something off in the distance, then we check out the fish under the boat dock

View of our Casa from the bock dock

Our neighbor's pier & boat dock

I am ready to explore at this point.  Dave and I walk around the house and find the kayaks, but no paddles.  So we go on a quest to locate them.  We wander out behind our house to where Gregario stays.  Since he is gone, we can't ask him where the paddles are.  We look in some windows and think we found them!  But of course the door is locked.  Then we wonder if maybe there is a key inside our house!  So we start rummaging through things inside.  I go in to the bedroom closet and discover some circular discs of some sort.  I grab them, thinking this could be a nice discovery later -- as soon as we figure out what they are.  After a short amount of time, we give up on the paddles and decide to partake in the consuming of the giant box of Fruit Loops we purchased.  Dave and I both pour ourselves a big bowl, and he goes to the fridge to fetch the box of Leche.  First bite -- SO GROSS!!  The cereal, despite being sealed in the plastic bag, is more than disgustingly stale.  And what is this milk?  It has a flavor that I am definitely not accustomed to.  BLECH!  The cereal is quickly discarded.  Dave then tells us that he remembers that in Guatemala, they never purchased the name-brand cereals because they would be the oldest sitting on the shelves.  Those boxes were more expensive, so the people didn't buy them as often.  This huge box of $6 Fruit Loops very well could have been sitting on the shelf for a year, absorbing all the wonderful humidity this country has to offer.  Indeed, the cardboard box was pretty flimsy.  (F-U!)

Back outside: I see a jurrasic-type lizard!  I get as close as I can to take a picture.  Then I unzip these disc things and find that they unfold / pop out to be body-length blow up floaties!  Awesome!  Dave quickly blows one up and takes it out.  After snapping a few pics, I blow up the other one and join him.  The late morning float turns in to early-afternoon and Gregario returns.  He fetches the kayak paddles and we spend a good amount of time kayaking around.  We eat lunch, then spend the rest of the day lounging and reading.  The day is perfect.

That night we were woken up to a freak thunderstorm!  The lightening was incredible; lighting up the entire sky, ocean and beach, including the inside of our house!  It was awesome.  The rain came down in torrents and I loved listening and watching the storm.

The adventure continues....................