Welcome guest blogger: Ryan!
The next morning we awoke to the familiar sounds of crashing waves, tropical birds and the occasional howler monkey. We got our stuff together and met Helene in the restaurant and waited for our cab. The sunrise was beautiful. It always seems to be a nice day when you are leaving your current destination. During the bumpy ride out of playa bluff I had a banana and a cipro for breakfast. We got to the airport one hour prior to departure checked in and stood waiting. There was a lost crab wandering through the airport, which provided some entertainment while waiting. We eventually went through security two people at a time. They never really told you when the people in front of you were done so we had to guess and just enter the black tinted security room. On a side note the man behind me was complaining about how crappy the security system was, and unfortunately for me he emitted a horrible odor of sweat, booze and garlic, needless to say I did not indulge him in conversation. We all got through security and sat in another room waiting, with no plane to be seen. The plane arrived and we took off exactly one hour after our scheduled time. Steph boarded before me and by the time I got on all the seats around her were taken so I had to sit up front. For the next 45 minutes I regretted putting my bag in the overhead, because the views of Bocas from the air were stunning. A series of turquoise reefs surrounding islands was a beautiful sight from the sky.
We arrived grabbed a ham and cheese empanada, two café con leches and got some money out of the ATM and headed to Mamallena.
After checking in we walked to Calle Argentina and had lunch at café Beruit. The food was great and the restaurant was even nicer. In the words of Steph “It smells like Lebanon.” Upon entering the restaurant you were immediately struck with the smell of spices and hookah, which smelled wonderful. We strolled down the street some more and went into a huge supermarket to get some supplies for San Blas. Our afternoon sugar fix was cured with a banana split. We walked back to the hotel and grabbed about 3 gallons of water for San Blas since water is not provided and apparently drastically overpriced on the Island. For the past two days we have been discussing our San Blas trip and deciding if we are even going to visit the Islands. We read some blogs about the islands and came to the conclusion that we would skip it and try and take an earlier flight home. This decision was fueled by the expense of getting to and from San Blas and the fact that we had already spent 5 days lazing on beautiful beaches. We grabbed a veggie pizza from Hola Pizza and then went to make our call to American Airlines. We tried to use the phone at Mamallena but they charge 25 cents per minute for local calls! In an amusingly familiar situation we walked down the street to a cabina to make a call. However the circumstances were quite different but we laughed none the less. Via the website we anticipated a charge of 150 per person to make changes. To our amazement they would only charge us 65 per person and it was not an issue to leave tomorrow. In less than 15 minutes we had flights for manana. We cancelled our San Blas trip, told Mamallena what was going on and went to bed.
I awoke at 2:45 and had to go to the bano and when I got back I was WIDE awake. I sat in bed for the next 90 minutes not being able to sleep. I got up and brought the computer outside to look at pictures and edit some of our journal. After a half hour I was getting sleepy and I went back to the room and sleep till 7:00. I quickly got up brushed my teeth and we had a pretty nice hostel breakfast. We smashed two nature valley bars, sliced some banana and added yogurt. This was accompanied by coffee and a pancake. Our first pancake stuck to a sad looking pan like super glue.
Our plan was to go to the “handicraft” market to grab a few last minute souvenirs for Alex and grab some magnets for our fridge. We planned on taking a cab but ended up walking the whole way. The walk was fun because we walked through some markets and got to experience the morning rush in Panama City. I stopped to grab a pastry that I have been eyeballing for the past week, and it was delicious. We are still not sure if we officially found the market because all we found were second world electronic stores and stalls with sunglasses, belts and not much else. We did manage to find one handicraft store and found a mask which we can use as a magnet.
Panama City was lacking in the tourist souvenir department and we found nothing to bring back except our newly purchased paper mask and a coffee bag. We grabbed a cab back to the hostel, checked out and sat around Mamallena for a little while before leaving on our shuttle. Steph took some last minute video of the city and we boarded our flight to Miami. While boarding we met a couple from Puerto Rico who said they were spending their sons inheritance on travel which make me chuckle. The woman next to us on the plane talked up Guatemala and had some Yellow Springs Ohio connections. We ended up moving one row back so her and her husband could sit next to each other. The two rows behind us were empty so we had plenty of room and I could lean my seat back without feeling bad.
update: after dinner in MIA at la carreta we are home safe and sound in Columbus. Thanks for following along!
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Monday, June 18, 2012
Boquete To Bocas del Toro
After breakfast, we headed to the pipeline trail. It was a beautiful morning and we began the hike at the same spot where we began the waterfall trail, just to the left instead of right.
After about 25 meters (ahem, we use meters now), we were in someone’s front yard. A woman in a barn waved and pointed toward a path through a gated fence. “I guess we go this way,” I said as we looked at the hand painted metal sign that read something like “Properidad Privida, No Pase.”
We walked through anyway, as there was no where else to go. After about a half hour up uphill hiking/walking over rocky path, we were on the actual trail.
No long into it we came across a man carrying a large machete. He quickly noticed that we were Americanos. He began pointing to the trees saying “Quetzal!” Sounded like kate-zal-ay. This is the national bird of Panama I believe (I can’t check because I don’t have internet access right now.) We followed him back down the patch and stood at various points for probably about 20 or 25 minutes. At one point he pointed reverently high into the trees. “Donde! Donde!” I said. Something flew out of the tree. I caught a glimpe, so did Ryan.
“Quetzal,” the guy said. Alright, if he says so.
He showed us where he was hanging out under a huge tree with a young woman in a traditional dress. He swung on a vine.
After a few comments on how beautiful the area was and a thanking him for helping us see the bird, we bid adios to our machete-welding amigo.
We continued on down the path until we reached a beautiful waterfall, with a few rocks next to the stream being a perfect seat to rest a few minutes before heading back.
Halfway down the train on our way back we ran into a couple from Arizona. Hippies to the bone, these 2 were. The man had a shaggy ‘do and the woman had feathers clipped into her hair with a large feather tattoo on her back. We chatted for a bit about Panama, they had just bought a crepe restaurant in town. The gushed over how much they loved the “young energy” in Bocas del Toro. They were really nice and we talked for a good 10 to 15 minutes about our plans, their restaurant, etc. Ryan diagnosed them both with periodontal disease, he told me after they walked away.
We finished the trail with a newfound excitement about Bocas since talking to the flower children. Just as we were getting back to our rental car, a woman appeared asking for 3 dollars from each of us for hiking the trail. She had a book for us to sign, and gave us a receipt, so it has to be legitimate, right?
We came back to the hotel and had the rest of our calzones, only to agree that we were both still hungry. We drove down to Sugar and Spice, a bakery and café, and ordered two salads. We loafed around a little, realized we forgot the ATM card, so ended up having to postpone our withdrawal until later that night.
Upon arriving back at the Inn, owner Jason stopped us at the gate with a handful of fabric swatches. The swatches were of the material that James Bond’s suits were made of for the movies. He had some connections and planned on ordering one at a fierce discount.
We stopped in our room for a bit before making our way to social hour for our free sangrias. There were some other “whities” already enjoying theirs.
Jason and Ryan talked more James Bond, but I pulled manager Danny aside to ask if there were any local insects that could possible do more harm than some itching with a bite. He said no. This was before I formed my theory that my worst bites are just jellyfish stings gone wrong., I had noticed my ankle had 2 large edematous bites and assumed they were new, We had picked up hydrocortisone earlier at the farmacia. 1% cream for 8 bucks. Should have brought some with me instead of my benadryl dabber that seems pretty dinky to me at this point.
We decided on Big Daddy’s for dinner. A combo of trip advisor and Danny encouraged the choice. I got fish tacos, grilled fish for Ryan, platacones for both of us. Ryan says they were the best platacones he’s had!
We stopped at the ATM, I had my OFF Deep Woods can at the ready to deter any ladrones. We settled in for a long day of busses in the morning.
The following morning we again enjoyed delicious Boquete coffee, fruit, cereal, granola, and a today a muffin while we watched the birds eat the fruit put out for them on the garden statues.
After paying Danny for the room, we decided to drive back up to Finca Milagrosa to purchase a burlap coffee bag. We saw one framed in our hotel room from Café Ruiz, and wanted something like that, only from our favorite coffee estate.
We drove back up the mountain to Milagrosa and actually found it down a along road in disrepair, totally off of memory. I was impressed with us for finding it. We were driven in a van by our guide last time.
I knocked on the gate and Tito, the owner, let us in, He speaks English, but I insisted on purchasing the bag in Spanish. A huge burlap bag with Finca Milagrosa on it for 10 bucks!
After buying our bag, we filled the car with gas and returned it to the dealership. Cash only. Crap - we didn’t realize it was cash only. Abel, the manager, drove us to the ATM, we paid him, and told him to let us out anywhere because we wanted to grab a few things before the bus stop.
I don’t think he understood, because he kept talking of dropping us at the bus stop. No problem, there is a supermarket next to the bus stop anyway. Well, turns out it’s a good thing Abel was driving us. The policia were having some sort of huge doing, and all the roads were blocked, and the bus stop was relocated. Abel shouted to a few of the cops, who shouted back, then told us the bus just left and we could catch it. He starts peeling down a highway-type road toward David. In a few minutes, we find the bus on a stop. We hop out, thank Abel and we are on our way to David in a bumpy yellow school bus. With racing stripes. And lightning bolts.
Once in David Ryan stopped in a bano for 25 cents, I decided to hold it until Bocas - about 3.5 hours. Not one of my better ideas. Anyway, we found our bus to Bocas del Toro, it was pretty small. The bus man shoved my suitcase under a seat in the front, and I sat right in that seat, on top of it. He motioned for me to move to a different spot since I would be on the bus longest, with lots of people on and off between then (at least I think that’s what he said) but I remained. Ever since our Ecuador trip I like my stuff where I can see it- under my seat and against my ankles. Our bus twisted and turned through the continental divide and dropped people off along the way in seemingly well…nowhere. They seem to drop people off on the side of the road where we could see nothing but trees and steep slopes on each side. At one point a women dressed in traditional garb got off with her kids and what we think was a pig in a cardboard box. Immediately upon stepping off the bus she reached into her bag and started hurling empty coke bottles, juice boxes and plastic bags into the grass/woods behind her, with absolutely no shame. Ryan and I starred is disbelief at this women’s utter disregard for her surroundings. I think this littering Indian woman stunned us the most out of everything we’d seen in Panama.
After a couple hours our driver pulled into a rest stop. “20 minutes“, he told us in Spanish. I hopped off and bolted to the bano. It wasn’t horrible, but not clean either. As I expected, no toilet paper. Once again I used the pack of black and white tissues I bought at JoAnn fabrics that had a fancy “W” printed on them. I bet it was the fanciest toilet paper that bathroom ever did see.
Ryan and I bought ice cream bars at the little food area, also a coke and ginger ale, then it was back to the road. The mint ice cream bars were defective and upon taking a bite the chocolate shell sheared off and landed on the ground below.
I read and occasionally looked out to enjoy the scenery, but boy was I happy when we arrived at the water taxi area. The usual chorus ensured.
“Taxt! Taxi? Taxi!!! TAXI?!?!” About a dozen men, some with laminated name tags, others with only desperation, yelled and tried their best to convince us to let them take us to the water taxi. We found a couple other whities and shared a taxi with them. Our driver yelled at the other taxi guys “Tu Papa! Tu Papa!” while pounding on his chest. I’m pretty sure it was a taunt to the other drivers, an “I’m your daddy now” of sorts.
We were hustled down to the water taxis, the guy tossed my suitcase onto the boat, and I stared at until I was on the boat as well. I had a vision of the boat driving away and me standing on the doc, never to see my stuff again.
Thankfully we were all aboard, with Ryan and I sharing the front seat with the driver. We bounded over waves, with each slam making me look over my shoulder to see if my suitcase was bounced out of the boat completely. About 20 minutes of this, and we idled up to the dock. There were only a few men yelling “taxi” at this point.
We went to the tourism office and the guy there called our hotel, which sent a taxi for us. We’d neglected to stop at an ATM or put more dinero onto our check card. We hopped into the cab and took the surprisingly long and bumpy off-road ride to playa bluff. Steph looked over and said “this is out there” which it was.
It’s funny how things seem to work themselves out. We had 12 dollars left and the cab ride ended up being exactly 12 dollars. This was quickly followed by Erwin the restaurant owner saying “you don’t need money here.“ What were the odds? We obviously did need money eventually but he put all our food on a tab that we paid at the end of our stay.
Our room is in the center of the building with a sliding glass door and 2 windows with a king bed, small table and chairs, and pretty nice bathroom. The lights are dim because the entire place is on solar power. Its an eco-lodge. There’s a ceiling fan, but no a/c, and the gardens in the back have dart frogs, snakes and more. The owner pointed out a sloth high in the trees when we arrived. It was the size of a dog up there, pretty big sloth. We were hoping to see it closer. We would eventually see a green parrot in the trees the following morning.
We came back around to the restaurant after putting our stuff down, starving since our lunch was menial. Erwin was the managers name, born in Belgium, raised in South Africa, sniper for the military for 17 years, spear fisherman, crocodile owner, possible president of a ramshackle turtle-watching club. Anything else you want to know? Because by the time we got 2 waters, we knew this guy better than we knew each other. We ordered dinner and drinks at the same time. I became increasingly worried as he launched into a story of finding giant crates of pure Columbian cocaine washed up on Playa Bluff shores on a regular basis.
I wasn’t worried about being taken out by drug runners, I was worried because it had been 20 minutes since we ordered our food and he made no mention of it. The lone worker in the kitchen stood there polishing silverware. “He didn’t tell her“, I thought. I tried to telepathically alert Ryan to the situation.
Finally I picked my menu back up and when I saw the opportunity I asked “So what would you recommend?” Nachos was the answer. He turned his back for a minute and I whispered “We need to order!” Ryan responds “I thought we did!”
He turns back around and I order the club, Ryan orders the fish, and 15 minutes later we were eating. Phew! This whole time we are listening to the most bizarre soundtrack of Rhianna, Bob Marley, salsa, bachata, Whitney Houston, Daddy Yankee, Juanes, “you sexy thang“…you never know what will play next.
After dinner the hotel owner came back and took the edge off by talking to Erwin about fishing the next day. Did I mention we are the only guests tonight? Here we are 30 minutes from the civilization of Bocas Town eating fish sandwiches with Norman Bates. Just kidding. Erwin is cool, just a little out there. He even told us that he’d leave the fridge unlocked in case we wanted a late night soda. Thanks, Erwin! Although on second thought he did just get done telling us that the property’s dogs will attack to kill anything that moves in the night, so not to enter through a certain gate. Um…thanks, but I don’t think I’ll be needing any late night drinks.
We got showered and tucked in to bed, and boy did we loose track of time. It was….get ready…8:12! That’s right, we were saying goodnight and turning lights out at 8:12. We woke up at 5:30 totally wide awake.
I put my cream on my bites, some seeping at this point. Ryan went for a run, and I wandered the garden covered in DEET, leggings, and my shawl. Not to get off subject, but pests (bugs, jellyfish, etc) really put a damper on my travel experience. The more stings and bites I get, the more fearful I am of getting more, and it interferes with my enjoyment of the beautiful surroundings. Really burns me up.
Anyway, I saw the snake again, more frogs, and when Ryan got back we saw a green parrot with an orange beak eating his breakfast with one foot on a branch. We got a picture of him.
I headed to the restaurant for our complementary breakfast. Helene, the co-owner greeted us and introduced herself. We poured ourselves some instant coffee and waited for our omelets. It was a pretty tasty little breakfast. Although Raul would spit on us for drinking instant Folgers after tasting the liquid gold from Milagrosa.
After breakfast we decided to walk an hour north to Playa Pristina, its exactly like it sounds, a pristine playa. Erwin told us about the area. He also told us about a lagoon nearby that’s completely hidden. “You can swim naked. Really,“ he told us with a serious tone. On the way to the beach we saw howler moneys in trees, mostly hidden.
Once there, we took pictures, swam a little with borrowed goggles and snorkels. We could see a few fish swimming around, large waves crashing just beyond the rocks on the next beach, and gray skies and thunder in the distance.
We walked along a little, in and out of the water. We decided once it started sprinkling and thundering more, we should go. I also had a bug land on me, that I’m pretty sure was a sand fly. I didn’t tell Ryan, for fear that he would try to drown himself if I brought up my bites one more time (kidding).
We packed up and headed back down the trail. It was still sprinkling. Then it started raining. Then pouring. Then down pouring. Its an hour walk back, so there was no point in trying to hurry. We were quickly drenched and walked at normal pace. My hat was completely soaked and misshapen. My dress was vacuum sealed to my legs. Erwin had quite the smirk when we sloshed up the walk into the restaurant. I went straight to the shower. After we were showered and changed, we came down for lunch.
Ryan ordered the nachos. I ordered the “Dutch Chicken Satay.” Ryan’s was an entire bag of Tostitos dumped into a bowl, covered in chunks of chicken and cheese with salsa and sour cream. Mine was fries, chicken, and crunchy peanut butter passed of as “A spicy peanut sauce,” uh huh…yeah.
After hanging around the hotel, watching the rain, we decided to go into town to deal with the cash situation. The hotel reimbursed us for the taxi ride, so we had 12 dollars. I found another 15 in my purse.
The hotel called us a taxi and gave us a cell phone to bring along and call a cab for the way home. Ryan told me after lunch that he had diarrhea again today. Oh no! We bought him a Gatorade and wandered town a little, buying coffee and some waters to take back. We walked up to the atm and realized that we left the card in the hotel room. I used my credit card and got a hundred bucks from it, otherwise we’d barely have enough cash to get a taxi back.
We had a crappy dinner at a waterfront dive and grabbed some waters from a supermarket. The taxi number that I saved in the phone was nowhere to be found. We called the hotel and they sent one to get us.
Halfway down the dark road the driver slowed down to place a sign on his door. From what I glimpsed it said “ocupado.” I immediately took this a a notice to hooligans in the hills that “I have Americano’s in the car, come rob them please.” I got out my OFF Deep Woods. Ready to spray it into the ojos of any ladron that dare cross me.
Nothing happened.
He dropped us off and we headed in to bed. It was early of course, so I blogged a little first. Ryan was asleep by the time I finished page 1.
Sunday morning we woke up and, after looking unsuccessfully for sloth in the backyard, we had some breakfast decided to head down to the beach.
We packed some Mojo bars and water and headed back down to Playa Pristina. We went down farther on the beach than the day before, and found a palm tree to sit under between swimming and snorkeling. We saw some pretty fish in the clear water. It really is a postcard perfect place. Totally secluded.
We hiked back and rinsed out our water shoes, showered, and got a taxi to town, this time with the ATM card. We got some dough, had some batidos (milkshakes) and dinner at a slightly less crappy waterfront dive. We spotted the Playa Bluff truck.
This was good because Ranier and Erwin were out fishing this morning. They should be coming back for the truck any time now! Sure enough as we ate our dinner we see them pull up in a little boat and walk to the truck.
We just got our food, and we watched them mill around the truck for a bit not really doing anything, making a few cell calls and walking away. We tried not to hurry ourselves, but we wanted that free ride back to the hotel.
We waited by the truck and saw then walking back. Ranier explained that he left his keys on the boat and someone was bringing a spare, and that we could ride with him. We waited about a half hour, and headed in. They didn’t catch any fish, and only had one cd to listen to the whole day on the boat.
We got back, settled our bill, and hit the hay.
After about 25 meters (ahem, we use meters now), we were in someone’s front yard. A woman in a barn waved and pointed toward a path through a gated fence. “I guess we go this way,” I said as we looked at the hand painted metal sign that read something like “Properidad Privida, No Pase.”
We walked through anyway, as there was no where else to go. After about a half hour up uphill hiking/walking over rocky path, we were on the actual trail.
No long into it we came across a man carrying a large machete. He quickly noticed that we were Americanos. He began pointing to the trees saying “Quetzal!” Sounded like kate-zal-ay. This is the national bird of Panama I believe (I can’t check because I don’t have internet access right now.) We followed him back down the patch and stood at various points for probably about 20 or 25 minutes. At one point he pointed reverently high into the trees. “Donde! Donde!” I said. Something flew out of the tree. I caught a glimpe, so did Ryan.
“Quetzal,” the guy said. Alright, if he says so.
He showed us where he was hanging out under a huge tree with a young woman in a traditional dress. He swung on a vine.
After a few comments on how beautiful the area was and a thanking him for helping us see the bird, we bid adios to our machete-welding amigo.
Our Quetzal-spotting amigo
Waterfall at the end of the Pipeline Trail
We finished the trail with a newfound excitement about Bocas since talking to the flower children. Just as we were getting back to our rental car, a woman appeared asking for 3 dollars from each of us for hiking the trail. She had a book for us to sign, and gave us a receipt, so it has to be legitimate, right?
We came back to the hotel and had the rest of our calzones, only to agree that we were both still hungry. We drove down to Sugar and Spice, a bakery and café, and ordered two salads. We loafed around a little, realized we forgot the ATM card, so ended up having to postpone our withdrawal until later that night.
Upon arriving back at the Inn, owner Jason stopped us at the gate with a handful of fabric swatches. The swatches were of the material that James Bond’s suits were made of for the movies. He had some connections and planned on ordering one at a fierce discount.
We stopped in our room for a bit before making our way to social hour for our free sangrias. There were some other “whities” already enjoying theirs.
Jason and Ryan talked more James Bond, but I pulled manager Danny aside to ask if there were any local insects that could possible do more harm than some itching with a bite. He said no. This was before I formed my theory that my worst bites are just jellyfish stings gone wrong., I had noticed my ankle had 2 large edematous bites and assumed they were new, We had picked up hydrocortisone earlier at the farmacia. 1% cream for 8 bucks. Should have brought some with me instead of my benadryl dabber that seems pretty dinky to me at this point.
We decided on Big Daddy’s for dinner. A combo of trip advisor and Danny encouraged the choice. I got fish tacos, grilled fish for Ryan, platacones for both of us. Ryan says they were the best platacones he’s had!
We stopped at the ATM, I had my OFF Deep Woods can at the ready to deter any ladrones. We settled in for a long day of busses in the morning.
The following morning we again enjoyed delicious Boquete coffee, fruit, cereal, granola, and a today a muffin while we watched the birds eat the fruit put out for them on the garden statues.
After paying Danny for the room, we decided to drive back up to Finca Milagrosa to purchase a burlap coffee bag. We saw one framed in our hotel room from Café Ruiz, and wanted something like that, only from our favorite coffee estate.
We drove back up the mountain to Milagrosa and actually found it down a along road in disrepair, totally off of memory. I was impressed with us for finding it. We were driven in a van by our guide last time.
I knocked on the gate and Tito, the owner, let us in, He speaks English, but I insisted on purchasing the bag in Spanish. A huge burlap bag with Finca Milagrosa on it for 10 bucks!
After buying our bag, we filled the car with gas and returned it to the dealership. Cash only. Crap - we didn’t realize it was cash only. Abel, the manager, drove us to the ATM, we paid him, and told him to let us out anywhere because we wanted to grab a few things before the bus stop.
I don’t think he understood, because he kept talking of dropping us at the bus stop. No problem, there is a supermarket next to the bus stop anyway. Well, turns out it’s a good thing Abel was driving us. The policia were having some sort of huge doing, and all the roads were blocked, and the bus stop was relocated. Abel shouted to a few of the cops, who shouted back, then told us the bus just left and we could catch it. He starts peeling down a highway-type road toward David. In a few minutes, we find the bus on a stop. We hop out, thank Abel and we are on our way to David in a bumpy yellow school bus. With racing stripes. And lightning bolts.
Once in David Ryan stopped in a bano for 25 cents, I decided to hold it until Bocas - about 3.5 hours. Not one of my better ideas. Anyway, we found our bus to Bocas del Toro, it was pretty small. The bus man shoved my suitcase under a seat in the front, and I sat right in that seat, on top of it. He motioned for me to move to a different spot since I would be on the bus longest, with lots of people on and off between then (at least I think that’s what he said) but I remained. Ever since our Ecuador trip I like my stuff where I can see it- under my seat and against my ankles. Our bus twisted and turned through the continental divide and dropped people off along the way in seemingly well…nowhere. They seem to drop people off on the side of the road where we could see nothing but trees and steep slopes on each side. At one point a women dressed in traditional garb got off with her kids and what we think was a pig in a cardboard box. Immediately upon stepping off the bus she reached into her bag and started hurling empty coke bottles, juice boxes and plastic bags into the grass/woods behind her, with absolutely no shame. Ryan and I starred is disbelief at this women’s utter disregard for her surroundings. I think this littering Indian woman stunned us the most out of everything we’d seen in Panama.
After a couple hours our driver pulled into a rest stop. “20 minutes“, he told us in Spanish. I hopped off and bolted to the bano. It wasn’t horrible, but not clean either. As I expected, no toilet paper. Once again I used the pack of black and white tissues I bought at JoAnn fabrics that had a fancy “W” printed on them. I bet it was the fanciest toilet paper that bathroom ever did see.
Ryan and I bought ice cream bars at the little food area, also a coke and ginger ale, then it was back to the road. The mint ice cream bars were defective and upon taking a bite the chocolate shell sheared off and landed on the ground below.
I read and occasionally looked out to enjoy the scenery, but boy was I happy when we arrived at the water taxi area. The usual chorus ensured.
“Taxt! Taxi? Taxi!!! TAXI?!?!” About a dozen men, some with laminated name tags, others with only desperation, yelled and tried their best to convince us to let them take us to the water taxi. We found a couple other whities and shared a taxi with them. Our driver yelled at the other taxi guys “Tu Papa! Tu Papa!” while pounding on his chest. I’m pretty sure it was a taunt to the other drivers, an “I’m your daddy now” of sorts.
We were hustled down to the water taxis, the guy tossed my suitcase onto the boat, and I stared at until I was on the boat as well. I had a vision of the boat driving away and me standing on the doc, never to see my stuff again.
Thankfully we were all aboard, with Ryan and I sharing the front seat with the driver. We bounded over waves, with each slam making me look over my shoulder to see if my suitcase was bounced out of the boat completely. About 20 minutes of this, and we idled up to the dock. There were only a few men yelling “taxi” at this point.
We went to the tourism office and the guy there called our hotel, which sent a taxi for us. We’d neglected to stop at an ATM or put more dinero onto our check card. We hopped into the cab and took the surprisingly long and bumpy off-road ride to playa bluff. Steph looked over and said “this is out there” which it was.
It’s funny how things seem to work themselves out. We had 12 dollars left and the cab ride ended up being exactly 12 dollars. This was quickly followed by Erwin the restaurant owner saying “you don’t need money here.“ What were the odds? We obviously did need money eventually but he put all our food on a tab that we paid at the end of our stay.
Our room is in the center of the building with a sliding glass door and 2 windows with a king bed, small table and chairs, and pretty nice bathroom. The lights are dim because the entire place is on solar power. Its an eco-lodge. There’s a ceiling fan, but no a/c, and the gardens in the back have dart frogs, snakes and more. The owner pointed out a sloth high in the trees when we arrived. It was the size of a dog up there, pretty big sloth. We were hoping to see it closer. We would eventually see a green parrot in the trees the following morning.
Walking into our room at Playa Bluff
We came back around to the restaurant after putting our stuff down, starving since our lunch was menial. Erwin was the managers name, born in Belgium, raised in South Africa, sniper for the military for 17 years, spear fisherman, crocodile owner, possible president of a ramshackle turtle-watching club. Anything else you want to know? Because by the time we got 2 waters, we knew this guy better than we knew each other. We ordered dinner and drinks at the same time. I became increasingly worried as he launched into a story of finding giant crates of pure Columbian cocaine washed up on Playa Bluff shores on a regular basis.
I wasn’t worried about being taken out by drug runners, I was worried because it had been 20 minutes since we ordered our food and he made no mention of it. The lone worker in the kitchen stood there polishing silverware. “He didn’t tell her“, I thought. I tried to telepathically alert Ryan to the situation.
Finally I picked my menu back up and when I saw the opportunity I asked “So what would you recommend?” Nachos was the answer. He turned his back for a minute and I whispered “We need to order!” Ryan responds “I thought we did!”
He turns back around and I order the club, Ryan orders the fish, and 15 minutes later we were eating. Phew! This whole time we are listening to the most bizarre soundtrack of Rhianna, Bob Marley, salsa, bachata, Whitney Houston, Daddy Yankee, Juanes, “you sexy thang“…you never know what will play next.
After dinner the hotel owner came back and took the edge off by talking to Erwin about fishing the next day. Did I mention we are the only guests tonight? Here we are 30 minutes from the civilization of Bocas Town eating fish sandwiches with Norman Bates. Just kidding. Erwin is cool, just a little out there. He even told us that he’d leave the fridge unlocked in case we wanted a late night soda. Thanks, Erwin! Although on second thought he did just get done telling us that the property’s dogs will attack to kill anything that moves in the night, so not to enter through a certain gate. Um…thanks, but I don’t think I’ll be needing any late night drinks.
We got showered and tucked in to bed, and boy did we loose track of time. It was….get ready…8:12! That’s right, we were saying goodnight and turning lights out at 8:12. We woke up at 5:30 totally wide awake.
I put my cream on my bites, some seeping at this point. Ryan went for a run, and I wandered the garden covered in DEET, leggings, and my shawl. Not to get off subject, but pests (bugs, jellyfish, etc) really put a damper on my travel experience. The more stings and bites I get, the more fearful I am of getting more, and it interferes with my enjoyment of the beautiful surroundings. Really burns me up.
Anyway, I saw the snake again, more frogs, and when Ryan got back we saw a green parrot with an orange beak eating his breakfast with one foot on a branch. We got a picture of him.
I headed to the restaurant for our complementary breakfast. Helene, the co-owner greeted us and introduced herself. We poured ourselves some instant coffee and waited for our omelets. It was a pretty tasty little breakfast. Although Raul would spit on us for drinking instant Folgers after tasting the liquid gold from Milagrosa.
After breakfast we decided to walk an hour north to Playa Pristina, its exactly like it sounds, a pristine playa. Erwin told us about the area. He also told us about a lagoon nearby that’s completely hidden. “You can swim naked. Really,“ he told us with a serious tone. On the way to the beach we saw howler moneys in trees, mostly hidden.
Once there, we took pictures, swam a little with borrowed goggles and snorkels. We could see a few fish swimming around, large waves crashing just beyond the rocks on the next beach, and gray skies and thunder in the distance.
We walked along a little, in and out of the water. We decided once it started sprinkling and thundering more, we should go. I also had a bug land on me, that I’m pretty sure was a sand fly. I didn’t tell Ryan, for fear that he would try to drown himself if I brought up my bites one more time (kidding).
Playa Pristina with storm rolling in
We packed up and headed back down the trail. It was still sprinkling. Then it started raining. Then pouring. Then down pouring. Its an hour walk back, so there was no point in trying to hurry. We were quickly drenched and walked at normal pace. My hat was completely soaked and misshapen. My dress was vacuum sealed to my legs. Erwin had quite the smirk when we sloshed up the walk into the restaurant. I went straight to the shower. After we were showered and changed, we came down for lunch.
Ryan ordered the nachos. I ordered the “Dutch Chicken Satay.” Ryan’s was an entire bag of Tostitos dumped into a bowl, covered in chunks of chicken and cheese with salsa and sour cream. Mine was fries, chicken, and crunchy peanut butter passed of as “A spicy peanut sauce,” uh huh…yeah.
After hanging around the hotel, watching the rain, we decided to go into town to deal with the cash situation. The hotel reimbursed us for the taxi ride, so we had 12 dollars. I found another 15 in my purse.
The hotel called us a taxi and gave us a cell phone to bring along and call a cab for the way home. Ryan told me after lunch that he had diarrhea again today. Oh no! We bought him a Gatorade and wandered town a little, buying coffee and some waters to take back. We walked up to the atm and realized that we left the card in the hotel room. I used my credit card and got a hundred bucks from it, otherwise we’d barely have enough cash to get a taxi back.
We had a crappy dinner at a waterfront dive and grabbed some waters from a supermarket. The taxi number that I saved in the phone was nowhere to be found. We called the hotel and they sent one to get us.
Halfway down the dark road the driver slowed down to place a sign on his door. From what I glimpsed it said “ocupado.” I immediately took this a a notice to hooligans in the hills that “I have Americano’s in the car, come rob them please.” I got out my OFF Deep Woods. Ready to spray it into the ojos of any ladron that dare cross me.
Nothing happened.
He dropped us off and we headed in to bed. It was early of course, so I blogged a little first. Ryan was asleep by the time I finished page 1.
Sunday morning we woke up and, after looking unsuccessfully for sloth in the backyard, we had some breakfast decided to head down to the beach.
We packed some Mojo bars and water and headed back down to Playa Pristina. We went down farther on the beach than the day before, and found a palm tree to sit under between swimming and snorkeling. We saw some pretty fish in the clear water. It really is a postcard perfect place. Totally secluded.
We hiked back and rinsed out our water shoes, showered, and got a taxi to town, this time with the ATM card. We got some dough, had some batidos (milkshakes) and dinner at a slightly less crappy waterfront dive. We spotted the Playa Bluff truck.
This was good because Ranier and Erwin were out fishing this morning. They should be coming back for the truck any time now! Sure enough as we ate our dinner we see them pull up in a little boat and walk to the truck.
We just got our food, and we watched them mill around the truck for a bit not really doing anything, making a few cell calls and walking away. We tried not to hurry ourselves, but we wanted that free ride back to the hotel.
We waited by the truck and saw then walking back. Ranier explained that he left his keys on the boat and someone was bringing a spare, and that we could ride with him. We waited about a half hour, and headed in. They didn’t catch any fish, and only had one cd to listen to the whole day on the boat.
We got back, settled our bill, and hit the hay.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Boquete
This morning Ryan and I decided to rent a car for the rest of our stay in Boquete. Our hotel, while great, is set a bit away from town, and most activities around here require lengthy bus or cab rides if you don’t wish to pay for a tour.
Danny, the manager, hooked us up with a rental guy named Abel. We have a Yaris. Today after breakfast, which is cereal, fruit, and pastries, (did I mention they put fruit out around the garden to attract birds while we eat breakfast?) we drove to Cerro Punta. Its about an hour and 20 minutes on the other side of Volcan Baru.
It was a scenic drive through cloud-shrouded mountains and farmland. We wanted to see ancient petroglyphs in one area, but even with our map I couldn’t find it.
A woman was walking with a small child, so we pulled up, rolled the window down and asked for directions. It went something like this:
Me: Perdoname senorita, donde esta la calle a la barillos?
Woman: :::blank stare:::
Me: Um…las picturas mas pequena y mas vieja? Donde esta?
Woman: :::blank stare::::
Me: Sabes?
Woman: No.
Little girl: Chao!
Me: Chao.
Rolled window up. Drove away. It then started raining and we gave up on the petroglyphs. At this punta we were ready for lunch, so we stopped at a little diner in Volcan next to a farmacia. Chicken, beans, and rice for lunch. Pretty good I might add. We were the only "whities" in there for a while. Side note: breastfeeding is much more commonplace here. I've seen women breastfeeding at bus stations, restaurants, even ordering meat from the butcher in a grocery store. They don't cover with a blanket or anything. Just out and proud, I guess. Interesting. I feel like that's taboo in the US of A. Anyway...
We drove on into Cerro Punta with the intent on seeing Finca Dracula, an Orchid Farm. It was raining, we parked and walked up to the gate, but the sign said 10 dollars a person to come in. We arent really flower enthusiasts so we took a picture of the sign and went back to the car.
We headed back out the way we came, stopping for a strawberry milkshake for me, and fresas y crema for Ryan. Both tasty.
We were back to the hotel in time for “social hour.” We got our complimentary sangrias and chatted with the owner of the hotel, Jason, an Englishman. After talking for a while about healthcare abroad we headed to La Pianista for a salad and calzone.
The calzone was huge, and we brought some back to the hotel. We’ll keep it in our minifridge and have it for lunch manana.
Update: Watching Animal Planet and waiting for Ryan to get out of the shower after his morning run, We’ll grab some breakfast and head out to the Pipeline trail!
Danny, the manager, hooked us up with a rental guy named Abel. We have a Yaris. Today after breakfast, which is cereal, fruit, and pastries, (did I mention they put fruit out around the garden to attract birds while we eat breakfast?) we drove to Cerro Punta. Its about an hour and 20 minutes on the other side of Volcan Baru.
It was a scenic drive through cloud-shrouded mountains and farmland. We wanted to see ancient petroglyphs in one area, but even with our map I couldn’t find it.
A woman was walking with a small child, so we pulled up, rolled the window down and asked for directions. It went something like this:
Me: Perdoname senorita, donde esta la calle a la barillos?
Woman: :::blank stare:::
Me: Um…las picturas mas pequena y mas vieja? Donde esta?
Woman: :::blank stare::::
Me: Sabes?
Woman: No.
Little girl: Chao!
Me: Chao.
Rolled window up. Drove away. It then started raining and we gave up on the petroglyphs. At this punta we were ready for lunch, so we stopped at a little diner in Volcan next to a farmacia. Chicken, beans, and rice for lunch. Pretty good I might add. We were the only "whities" in there for a while. Side note: breastfeeding is much more commonplace here. I've seen women breastfeeding at bus stations, restaurants, even ordering meat from the butcher in a grocery store. They don't cover with a blanket or anything. Just out and proud, I guess. Interesting. I feel like that's taboo in the US of A. Anyway...
We drove on into Cerro Punta with the intent on seeing Finca Dracula, an Orchid Farm. It was raining, we parked and walked up to the gate, but the sign said 10 dollars a person to come in. We arent really flower enthusiasts so we took a picture of the sign and went back to the car.
a micro town on the way to cerro punta
We headed back out the way we came, stopping for a strawberry milkshake for me, and fresas y crema for Ryan. Both tasty.
We were back to the hotel in time for “social hour.” We got our complimentary sangrias and chatted with the owner of the hotel, Jason, an Englishman. After talking for a while about healthcare abroad we headed to La Pianista for a salad and calzone.
The calzone was huge, and we brought some back to the hotel. We’ll keep it in our minifridge and have it for lunch manana.
Update: Watching Animal Planet and waiting for Ryan to get out of the shower after his morning run, We’ll grab some breakfast and head out to the Pipeline trail!
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Goodbye Santa Catalina, Hello Boquete
We began our day yesterday with breakfast at our favorite little bakery in Santa Catalina. We were there right when they opened, so we would be able to make the 7:15 bus to Sona.
Juan (the owner) talked with us so long that we thought we’d miss it! We paid for our meal and ran down to the bus. It was a school bus. Filled with school children…and us. So there we sat, sticking out like sore thumbs bumping along until we reached the school and dropped all the kids off. The bus got a little more variety after that as we picked up others along the way.
We arrived in Sona in time to hop on a mini bus to Santiago. We ran into “Super Carnes” to grab a couple snacks and some more sunscreen (we were almost out already!). We dodged some sketchy cabs/buses and found a taxi to El Pyramidal station. It’s a muy grande bus station that had a luxurious double decker charter bus to David, where we were headed.
We happy waited 30 minutes to take the nice bus to David -a 3.5 hour trip- versus a mini bus. We drove along and arrived in David. Another pretty big bus station. We navigated our way down a long line of busses until we finally found “Boquete” another mini bus with blaring music.
About an hour later we pulled in to Boquete, high in the Panamanian mountains. We got our gear (by the way, this is my last trip with a rolling suitcase) and headed to Mamallena, our hostel for the night. Just was we expected, Jaron and Joe were there fresh off their stint in Bocas del Toro geting PADI certified. We wandered around a little, and had dinner at a cafeteria a few blocks away. We grabbed dessert with J&J afterward and heard all about their last few days.
The next morning I accidentally woke us up at 5:30 instead of 6:30 because my ipod didn’t have the time zone right. Oops. Ryan and I wandered around and grabbed coffee with the early birds at Romero’s 24 super market. We moseyed along until a breakfast place opened and grabbed some eggs.
After breakfast we came back to the hotel and sat with J&J until our Coffee tour guide picked us up at 9. Joe decided to come along for the tour. Our guide’s name was Raul and he was born and raised in Boquete. The coffee estate is owned by a guy named Tito who built all the machinery used to pocess the beans by himself. He used car parts, parts of washers and dryers, all sorts of odds and ends to make a sort of Rube Goldberg coffee company. Even the roaster had the headlight frame of a Jeep making up the outer rim.
We learned all about the coffee, and even touched the beans of the coveted and rare Geisha strain of coffee bean. At the end of the tour we watched Raul roast some beans, periodically checking their progress with an elongated scoop (which turned out to be a screwdriver with a spoon wielded to the end of it). We were then able to sample some medium roast coffe fright from te estate. Maybe all the hype got to us - but it was great! Tasted very smooth. He even let us eat the plain beans…a light, a medium, and a dark roast. His cute dog sat by us during this part. We all bought some coffee to take home.
At the end of the tour we came back to Mamallena, got Jaron, and all went to Sugar and Spice for some para llevar sandwiches. I got a BLT, Ryan got the “hot volcano”. Just hit me - isn’t it interesting that for many words, the Spanish form simply adds an “O”? Car for example. Car becomes Carro. Anyway, for volcano it’s the opposite… to translate it to Spanish one has to drop the O instead of add one. Huh.
Anyway, we got our sandwiches and got in a mini bus to the trailhead for some waterfalls, about a 20 minute bus ride. We began the half mile uphill walk to to the trailhead. We had to pay a guy working in the fields 5 dollars each (a few minutes before there was a make shift narrow sign that read “$5, $5, $5, $5” with an arrow.) We hiked through pretty steep and slippery trails to all three waterfalls, they were all a good size and lots of water. Joe and Jaron actually swam (for about 30 seconds) in the super cold water under the 3rd waterfall. No thank you.
On the hike back all four of us almost fell on some slippery rock by the second waterfall, but Joe was the one to actually fall and slide a few feet. He was ok.
We made it all the way out to the trailhead to the tune of a large cow mooing at us. We waied about 10 minutes for the bus, and played the “I’m going to the waterfall and I’m bringing Apples, Bananas, Cookies, DEET, Elephant Ears, Flogging Molly, Gyros, Foccacia, Helado, Insect Repellent, Jelly fish, kit kats, limes, mangoes, norepinephrine, ocelots, parasails, quetzales, rice, salamanders, Tortugas, Uncle Chuck, vancomysin, weasels, xerostomia…and believe it or not, I can’t remember Y and Z! Argh! *update: yogurt and zits
Anyway, we grabbed our luggage at Mamallena, and got a cab up to The Boquete Garden Inn. Beautiful grounds, manicured garden, and spacious rooms with pretty decorations and nice bathrooms. Quite the change from our hostel digs.
We hitched a ride into town with the manager and had some great fish at Matchu Pichu. Taxi back, great nights sleep, and plenty of complimentary breakfast this morning. Now we’ll head to the pipeline trail (easier trail than the waterfall) and hang out in town afterwards.
Stay tuned!
Mural at the Bakery
We arrived in Sona in time to hop on a mini bus to Santiago. We ran into “Super Carnes” to grab a couple snacks and some more sunscreen (we were almost out already!). We dodged some sketchy cabs/buses and found a taxi to El Pyramidal station. It’s a muy grande bus station that had a luxurious double decker charter bus to David, where we were headed.
We happy waited 30 minutes to take the nice bus to David -a 3.5 hour trip- versus a mini bus. We drove along and arrived in David. Another pretty big bus station. We navigated our way down a long line of busses until we finally found “Boquete” another mini bus with blaring music.
About an hour later we pulled in to Boquete, high in the Panamanian mountains. We got our gear (by the way, this is my last trip with a rolling suitcase) and headed to Mamallena, our hostel for the night. Just was we expected, Jaron and Joe were there fresh off their stint in Bocas del Toro geting PADI certified. We wandered around a little, and had dinner at a cafeteria a few blocks away. We grabbed dessert with J&J afterward and heard all about their last few days.
The next morning I accidentally woke us up at 5:30 instead of 6:30 because my ipod didn’t have the time zone right. Oops. Ryan and I wandered around and grabbed coffee with the early birds at Romero’s 24 super market. We moseyed along until a breakfast place opened and grabbed some eggs.
After breakfast we came back to the hotel and sat with J&J until our Coffee tour guide picked us up at 9. Joe decided to come along for the tour. Our guide’s name was Raul and he was born and raised in Boquete. The coffee estate is owned by a guy named Tito who built all the machinery used to pocess the beans by himself. He used car parts, parts of washers and dryers, all sorts of odds and ends to make a sort of Rube Goldberg coffee company. Even the roaster had the headlight frame of a Jeep making up the outer rim.
Equipment at Finca La Minagrosa
We learned all about the coffee, and even touched the beans of the coveted and rare Geisha strain of coffee bean. At the end of the tour we watched Raul roast some beans, periodically checking their progress with an elongated scoop (which turned out to be a screwdriver with a spoon wielded to the end of it). We were then able to sample some medium roast coffe fright from te estate. Maybe all the hype got to us - but it was great! Tasted very smooth. He even let us eat the plain beans…a light, a medium, and a dark roast. His cute dog sat by us during this part. We all bought some coffee to take home.
At the end of the tour we came back to Mamallena, got Jaron, and all went to Sugar and Spice for some para llevar sandwiches. I got a BLT, Ryan got the “hot volcano”. Just hit me - isn’t it interesting that for many words, the Spanish form simply adds an “O”? Car for example. Car becomes Carro. Anyway, for volcano it’s the opposite… to translate it to Spanish one has to drop the O instead of add one. Huh.
Anyway, we got our sandwiches and got in a mini bus to the trailhead for some waterfalls, about a 20 minute bus ride. We began the half mile uphill walk to to the trailhead. We had to pay a guy working in the fields 5 dollars each (a few minutes before there was a make shift narrow sign that read “$5, $5, $5, $5” with an arrow.) We hiked through pretty steep and slippery trails to all three waterfalls, they were all a good size and lots of water. Joe and Jaron actually swam (for about 30 seconds) in the super cold water under the 3rd waterfall. No thank you.
The first waterfall
On the hike back all four of us almost fell on some slippery rock by the second waterfall, but Joe was the one to actually fall and slide a few feet. He was ok.
We made it all the way out to the trailhead to the tune of a large cow mooing at us. We waied about 10 minutes for the bus, and played the “I’m going to the waterfall and I’m bringing Apples, Bananas, Cookies, DEET, Elephant Ears, Flogging Molly, Gyros, Foccacia, Helado, Insect Repellent, Jelly fish, kit kats, limes, mangoes, norepinephrine, ocelots, parasails, quetzales, rice, salamanders, Tortugas, Uncle Chuck, vancomysin, weasels, xerostomia…and believe it or not, I can’t remember Y and Z! Argh! *update: yogurt and zits
Anyway, we grabbed our luggage at Mamallena, and got a cab up to The Boquete Garden Inn. Beautiful grounds, manicured garden, and spacious rooms with pretty decorations and nice bathrooms. Quite the change from our hostel digs.
We hitched a ride into town with the manager and had some great fish at Matchu Pichu. Taxi back, great nights sleep, and plenty of complimentary breakfast this morning. Now we’ll head to the pipeline trail (easier trail than the waterfall) and hang out in town afterwards.
Stay tuned!
Monday, June 11, 2012
Santa Catalina
Last night Ryan and I went to dinner at Los Pibes - an Argentine restaurant a 5 or 10 minute walk from our hotel. It was cozy, under a roof with neat lights hanging, about 6 or 7 tables, and cool music. We ordered a pitcher of Sangria and some water. Ryan ordered fish (of course) and I got a cheeseburger. Our food was delicious. We ordered a brownie with ice cream that we split for dessert. We were pretty tired, so we headed back to the hotel, and we were in bed by 9pm!
This morning we were up with no alarm at 6:15 and at our breakfast spot around 7. The power was out in the whole town. We were able to get eggs because they have gas ranges. We chatted with Juan, the co-owner. He was born in Spain but grew up in Germany. He gave us the number of a guy who could take us to San Blas, and helped us plan our bus situation for tomorrow.
After breakfast we decided to see about a surf lesson. We made our way to a surf shop that Juan recommended, but the guy was already out on the water. We moseyed down to the beach on our own and Ryan decided that we should just rent a board and figure it out ourselves. I gladly stepped aside and let him do this on his own. Surfing kind of scares me, and I don’t like violently falling into salt water, getting it up my nose, etc.
Anyway, we went back to the hotel (power still out), changed, got together what little gear we were bringing, and headed back to the beach. We rented a board for 7 dollars from another hotel and restaurant right on the water. I think you had to be a guest to rent them, but that was sort of lost in translation, so we got the board anyway.
I parked myself on a plastic bag and watched crabs dig holes while Ryan dragged the board into the water, looking all surfer-like. I lost him pretty quickly once he was in the water. He’d disappear behind a wave, and there were dozes of tiny heads in the water.
The poor guy was crushed that I didn’t capture any of his ride on video. Back in he went, and this time I stood in the water with the camera on him. Nothing….nothing… I decided to turn around and look over my shoulder at our stuff to make sure no “ladrones” were getting to it. You guessed it. I looked back at the water and there was Ryan in full on surfer mode standing up on the board cruising toward me. The moment I turn my head! I put the camera on him as fast as I could and got a few seconds of footage of him standing. Phew!
He went back in one more time, and I went back to my crab-watching. There were also a lot of dogs running around on the beach, they were pretty cute. There are lots of dogs in this town actually. Some look healthier than others.
After Ryan last go at surfing, we climbed back up the stairs from the beach to the hotel we rented from, returned the boards, and ordered lunch. I ordered coconut curry chicken, and Ryan ordered fish. Both came with fried platacones. After taking our time and sitting there for a while after we ate we headed out. (side note: they were playing a Dispatch cd while we ate - one of my favorite bands! What are the odds?)
We decided to walk along the “beach” back to our hotel. I say “beach” because it was really just piles upon piles of volcanic rock. Thankfully my Crocs held up and we maneuvered over all of them, dodging crabs and what seemed to be half-bug/half-lizards.
Ryan showered and I face-planted onto the bed and took a mini-nap while he finished up. That brings us to now. We ordered two banana drinks at our hotel tiki, Ryan is reading in a hammock, and I am blogging while bemoaning the lack of wifi. He power is back on, but the wifi was knocked out. Looks like I’ll have to post this entry when we arrive in Boquete tomorrow.
Update: here in boquete - had mexican last night near the beach. took many busses today and reunited with Jaron and Joe at Mamallena, Boquete. Blog more later!
This morning we were up with no alarm at 6:15 and at our breakfast spot around 7. The power was out in the whole town. We were able to get eggs because they have gas ranges. We chatted with Juan, the co-owner. He was born in Spain but grew up in Germany. He gave us the number of a guy who could take us to San Blas, and helped us plan our bus situation for tomorrow.
After breakfast we decided to see about a surf lesson. We made our way to a surf shop that Juan recommended, but the guy was already out on the water. We moseyed down to the beach on our own and Ryan decided that we should just rent a board and figure it out ourselves. I gladly stepped aside and let him do this on his own. Surfing kind of scares me, and I don’t like violently falling into salt water, getting it up my nose, etc.
Anyway, we went back to the hotel (power still out), changed, got together what little gear we were bringing, and headed back to the beach. We rented a board for 7 dollars from another hotel and restaurant right on the water. I think you had to be a guest to rent them, but that was sort of lost in translation, so we got the board anyway.
I parked myself on a plastic bag and watched crabs dig holes while Ryan dragged the board into the water, looking all surfer-like. I lost him pretty quickly once he was in the water. He’d disappear behind a wave, and there were dozes of tiny heads in the water.
beach - santa catalina
I made a few attempts to wade into the water for a better view of him. Eventually he came walking out with a did-you-see-that expression. I didn’t. He said he was able to stand up and ride a wake for a good 8 or 9 seconds! Wow! For never surfing a day in his life, that’s impressive! The one time I tried to surf in his school I barely stood for one.The poor guy was crushed that I didn’t capture any of his ride on video. Back in he went, and this time I stood in the water with the camera on him. Nothing….nothing… I decided to turn around and look over my shoulder at our stuff to make sure no “ladrones” were getting to it. You guessed it. I looked back at the water and there was Ryan in full on surfer mode standing up on the board cruising toward me. The moment I turn my head! I put the camera on him as fast as I could and got a few seconds of footage of him standing. Phew!
He went back in one more time, and I went back to my crab-watching. There were also a lot of dogs running around on the beach, they were pretty cute. There are lots of dogs in this town actually. Some look healthier than others.
After Ryan last go at surfing, we climbed back up the stairs from the beach to the hotel we rented from, returned the boards, and ordered lunch. I ordered coconut curry chicken, and Ryan ordered fish. Both came with fried platacones. After taking our time and sitting there for a while after we ate we headed out. (side note: they were playing a Dispatch cd while we ate - one of my favorite bands! What are the odds?)
We decided to walk along the “beach” back to our hotel. I say “beach” because it was really just piles upon piles of volcanic rock. Thankfully my Crocs held up and we maneuvered over all of them, dodging crabs and what seemed to be half-bug/half-lizards.
Ryan showered and I face-planted onto the bed and took a mini-nap while he finished up. That brings us to now. We ordered two banana drinks at our hotel tiki, Ryan is reading in a hammock, and I am blogging while bemoaning the lack of wifi. He power is back on, but the wifi was knocked out. Looks like I’ll have to post this entry when we arrive in Boquete tomorrow.
Update: here in boquete - had mexican last night near the beach. took many busses today and reunited with Jaron and Joe at Mamallena, Boquete. Blog more later!
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Santa Catalina with Isla Coiba
Its raining now. Ryan is in a hammock under the roof reading, and I am brushing my hair one strand at a time after having it blown in violent boat wind for hours. Perfect time to blog and scratch my bites.
This morning Ryan woke up and ran down to the beach to run for a bit while I was getting ready. We had to meet our snorkel group at 8am in town. When Ryan got back we walked down to a bakery/café that we found yesterday and had some breakfast. I had cereal fruit and granola, Ryan had am omlette and toast, and we split a muffin. We had coffee too of course. The owner talked to us for a while and told us a little about the area, and gave us some insight to Kuna Yala. We ordered two lunches to go and brought them with us to meet our group.
Our group was us, 4 Spaniards, and a guy from Seattle with his Scandinavian girlfriend. The guy and his girlfriend were scuba diving, and the rest of us were for snorkeling. After a brief intro, we wadded onto the boat, a dinky little thing with a tiny roof. Once we were all settled we began the very choppy, bumpy hour long ride to our first dive. I watched a Spanish guy and his girlfriend in a near-constant state of making-out.
Ryan noted that the wrist strap to our water proof camera was loose and kind of big to be trusted snorkeling. I must say I was impressed with myself when I took out my hair-tie and wrapped it around the cord a few times to make a little tightener thingy - it worked great! How resourceful!
Since I only had coffee so far today, I sucked down the juice box from my packed lunch and put my flippers on. Then the mask - I’m surprised I have any hair left on my head, those rubber straps really pull!
In we went, Ryan first, then me. I’m always a little scared when I first jump in,. We started paddling away from the boat, and began to see some fish swimming in front of us. It was about this time that I was stung by my first jelly-fish, right on the thigh. To be the first of many. At least the jellies were small - thumb nail size to quarter size.
I shouted an expletive into my breathing tube and swam on. Soon we were over a reef and below is were hundreds of teeny fish in schools, a handful of what looked like angel fish, and dozens of other large colorful fish. All around us they swam, at times we seemed to be right in the middle of all the action. We looked around a little more and then swam out to follow our guide to another section. Nothing was really over there, I’d gotten stung about 2 more times, and Ryan’s facial hair was totally preventing his mask from creating a seal. Needless to say we were ready to go back when the hour was up.
Back in the boat we bumped on over to Coiba Island - a national park. The beach there was beautiful. I booked it to the bathroom and closed my eyes to the spiders lurking in my stall, then we signed in at the ranger’s station.
We hung on the Island for about 20 minutes watching crabs run around, admiring the scenery, etc. We piled back in the boat to go to our second dive site.
On this dive we were able to see many more fish and I spotted several barracudas. They hang by the surface and look pretty scary. They didn’t come near me, but at times we were pretty close to them. We got some video of them. I’m glad that Ryan finally saw one. I was worried he’d start to think I was crazy. I’d claimed to see some in our Vietnam dive, and on our first dive of today, and he’d yet to see any.
We swam some more before getting back onto the boat, eating our olive loaf packed sandwiches, and returning to Coiba to drop off the Spaniards who were staying the night on the island. We walked around the island some more, I said hello to the potty spiders again, and then is was back to the boat for our third and final dive. This time we were the only snorklers, the other 2 were scuba.
We hopped in, and again I’m getting stung by the jellies. Ryan, the lucky dog, is so hairy that they couldn’t sting him if they tried. Although, he’s not that lucky of a dog. His poor little toe was being totally destroyed by the friction of the flipper, and was full on bloody by day’s end.
Anyway, were swimming around, I see more barracudas, and we swim next to eacher for a minute looking at fish. Ryan’s taking video of some fish and moves the camera down a little. What’s that in the murky distance? Is it? It is! It’s a sea turtle! Its pretty big and swimming right on by. Lucky we got some footage. I pointed at it frantically even though Ryan was obviously already filming it. I couldn’t believe it! After it was out of sight we surfaced and high fived over the sighting.
It was around this time that a team of jellies decided that I’d had enough fun for one day. I felt an electrical pricking and stinging all down my left forearm and right hand. Those damn things sung me all at once. I watched about 7 or 8 tiny welts appear on my arm and hand and that was that. I booked it back to the boat after informing Ryan about the vendetta these animals apparently had our for me. We swam back and waited for the divers to come back up.
Once we were all aboard the boat was fired up and we were headed back to the mainland. The scenery was beautiful, but soon were being pelted by sting rain as we raced on the clunker back to shore. Eventually it let up. We passed an even clunkier (that’s a word, right?) looking fishing boat, made a hairpin turn, and pulled right up to it. Some dude jumped in to our boat from the fishing boat. Ok. Apparently he needed a lift.
Again we were off and soon we were pulling back up to the beach. We unloaded, returned our flippers, signed that wall on the dive center, and began the walk back to the hotel. We stopped at a little tienda and bought a bag of yuca chips and an apple juice. It started raining just as we got to the hotel. We showered, I realized that my backside was bright read at my bathing suit line, we washed out our suits, and that brings us to now. I still fell like I’m on a boat, the ground seems to be rising and falling.
We’ll be heading to a little Argentinian restaurant for dinner tonight.
This morning Ryan woke up and ran down to the beach to run for a bit while I was getting ready. We had to meet our snorkel group at 8am in town. When Ryan got back we walked down to a bakery/café that we found yesterday and had some breakfast. I had cereal fruit and granola, Ryan had am omlette and toast, and we split a muffin. We had coffee too of course. The owner talked to us for a while and told us a little about the area, and gave us some insight to Kuna Yala. We ordered two lunches to go and brought them with us to meet our group.
a smoothie at the bakery
Ryan noted that the wrist strap to our water proof camera was loose and kind of big to be trusted snorkeling. I must say I was impressed with myself when I took out my hair-tie and wrapped it around the cord a few times to make a little tightener thingy - it worked great! How resourceful!
Since I only had coffee so far today, I sucked down the juice box from my packed lunch and put my flippers on. Then the mask - I’m surprised I have any hair left on my head, those rubber straps really pull!
In we went, Ryan first, then me. I’m always a little scared when I first jump in,. We started paddling away from the boat, and began to see some fish swimming in front of us. It was about this time that I was stung by my first jelly-fish, right on the thigh. To be the first of many. At least the jellies were small - thumb nail size to quarter size.
I shouted an expletive into my breathing tube and swam on. Soon we were over a reef and below is were hundreds of teeny fish in schools, a handful of what looked like angel fish, and dozens of other large colorful fish. All around us they swam, at times we seemed to be right in the middle of all the action. We looked around a little more and then swam out to follow our guide to another section. Nothing was really over there, I’d gotten stung about 2 more times, and Ryan’s facial hair was totally preventing his mask from creating a seal. Needless to say we were ready to go back when the hour was up.
Back in the boat we bumped on over to Coiba Island - a national park. The beach there was beautiful. I booked it to the bathroom and closed my eyes to the spiders lurking in my stall, then we signed in at the ranger’s station.
We hung on the Island for about 20 minutes watching crabs run around, admiring the scenery, etc. We piled back in the boat to go to our second dive site.
On this dive we were able to see many more fish and I spotted several barracudas. They hang by the surface and look pretty scary. They didn’t come near me, but at times we were pretty close to them. We got some video of them. I’m glad that Ryan finally saw one. I was worried he’d start to think I was crazy. I’d claimed to see some in our Vietnam dive, and on our first dive of today, and he’d yet to see any.
We swam some more before getting back onto the boat, eating our olive loaf packed sandwiches, and returning to Coiba to drop off the Spaniards who were staying the night on the island. We walked around the island some more, I said hello to the potty spiders again, and then is was back to the boat for our third and final dive. This time we were the only snorklers, the other 2 were scuba.
Anyway, were swimming around, I see more barracudas, and we swim next to eacher for a minute looking at fish. Ryan’s taking video of some fish and moves the camera down a little. What’s that in the murky distance? Is it? It is! It’s a sea turtle! Its pretty big and swimming right on by. Lucky we got some footage. I pointed at it frantically even though Ryan was obviously already filming it. I couldn’t believe it! After it was out of sight we surfaced and high fived over the sighting.
It was around this time that a team of jellies decided that I’d had enough fun for one day. I felt an electrical pricking and stinging all down my left forearm and right hand. Those damn things sung me all at once. I watched about 7 or 8 tiny welts appear on my arm and hand and that was that. I booked it back to the boat after informing Ryan about the vendetta these animals apparently had our for me. We swam back and waited for the divers to come back up.
Once we were all aboard the boat was fired up and we were headed back to the mainland. The scenery was beautiful, but soon were being pelted by sting rain as we raced on the clunker back to shore. Eventually it let up. We passed an even clunkier (that’s a word, right?) looking fishing boat, made a hairpin turn, and pulled right up to it. Some dude jumped in to our boat from the fishing boat. Ok. Apparently he needed a lift.
Again we were off and soon we were pulling back up to the beach. We unloaded, returned our flippers, signed that wall on the dive center, and began the walk back to the hotel. We stopped at a little tienda and bought a bag of yuca chips and an apple juice. It started raining just as we got to the hotel. We showered, I realized that my backside was bright read at my bathing suit line, we washed out our suits, and that brings us to now. I still fell like I’m on a boat, the ground seems to be rising and falling.
We’ll be heading to a little Argentinian restaurant for dinner tonight.
Friday, June 8, 2012
Panama part 1
We are here in
Panama, currently sipping coffee and conversing with a retired couple from Los
Angeles. The man, Bob, owns a winery called
"Trefethen" on Oak Knoll street in Napa Valley. We’ll try to remember
that if we are ever in CA.
We are swapping some travel stories, and just
finished our breakfast of eggs and fruit.
We already like Santa Catalina, and its a nice change from the
mediocrity that was Panama City. Joe and
Jaron are probably on a beach in Bocas del Toro right now, and there's a good
chance we will catch up with them in Boquete in a few days.
We love Hotel Santa
Catalina, its relaxed with an open-air restaurant. I'm waiting for the wifi to work. When it does I'll be able to post this entry.
We will spend today
wandering the small town and getting our bearings. Hopefully I'll find a fresh mango to peel
with my peeler!
We got in last night
after a day of bus and taxi rides.
Luckily when we arrived in Sona around 8pm, in the dark, there was an
English guy named Chris who was waiting to split a cab with someone. Chris was a laid back dude who is bulding a
skate park in the town. He offered us a
beer in the taxi, then offered the taxi driver a beer. None of us accepted, he
drank two on his own. He told us a
little about the town while I tried not to pee my pants on the hour drive in. I had a headache when we got in last night,
but after sleeping in the a/c and having a good breakfast I'm glad to say that
I feel much better today.
I am also happy to
announce that our GI troubles seem to be over.
Yes, after a sketchy meal in Panama City, 75% of our little group had
diarrhea. Jaron was the only one who got
away scott-free. Poor Joe had it the
worst, with me in second, and Ryan with only 1 or 2 bouts. It wasn't that bad, and truth be told, we
were overdue after getting thru Vietnam and Ecuador with ne'er a loose
stool. It only lasted about a day for us, and we kept hydrated with gatorade and had some bland rice and hummos for lunch. Must have helped, and we didn't have to take any Cipro.
Update: After
breakfast we walked down to a beach at the end of the street. There were dogs and kids running around, a
few surfers on waves, and a really neat area of rocks in the sand surrounded by
small pools of water where there were little fish and large crabs.
We borrowed some
bikes (in need of repair) and rode into town to check in for our dive tour
tomorrow. After making sure we were on
the roster, we stopped for some jugos and a muffin at a little bakery. I had mango juice, and Ryan had papaya, both
good and went great with our banana muffin.
After a little more riding around we had lunch at La Buena Vida. Great salad and tacos with hot sauce. Met a couple from NC who were working there,
they had a 5 month old cute baby with them.
As we ate loud thuds could be heard as mangos dropped onto the roof from
the trees above. After lunch, we rode
back to our hotel. I’m blogging now and
Ryan is reading in a hammock next to me.
Must be tough, huh?
When the tide comes
back in we might take some kayaks out for a spin. Its hot an humid, but we’ll take it anyday
over lecture and work.
Quick note on arriving. The flights worked out fine, our ride from the airport was a no-show so we had to finangle a cab to the hostel. Jaron and Joe were in a dormer, and Ryan and I had a private room. It was a room, and nothing more. Pancake batter set out by the stove was breakfast. We ran out to the canal to see a ship go by, pretty neat, but dare I say an over rated excursion? We dopped J&J at a mall near the airport, went and grabbed our gear, and ended up at the mall again because it is connected to the bus terminal. Yep, we ran into the guys aghain and chatted for a few over our shawarma and smoothies. We missed our bus after dilly-dallying, and had to catch another an hour later. It worked out fine, however. It was nice to have a proper meal this morning after a one item breakfast, mall food lunch, and granola bar dinner yesterday.
until next time!
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Goodbye Spring
A week or so after the showcase, Ryan was off to the Red with a couple friends. I always enjoy some alone time when he leaves for the weekend. I usually just go to bed early, but its just relaxing to kick back a little while he's away. he had a good time and got some good climbing in.
Memorial Day was pretty nice this year. Although it was very hot and very humid, Ryan and I were both off together. That hardly ever happens. We took advantage of this and went out for breakfast at a little joint in Clintonville, The Beechwold Diner. We sat at the counter because there was a wait. The food was good and it was nice to just hang out and eat and drink coffee. Breakfast out is one of our favorite things to do.
We drove around Upper Arlington a bit and eventually made our way home in time to pack a picnic lunch. We grabbed some books, some food, and our pop-out chairs and went to a shady spot in Antrim Park. We stayed a couple hours readying and lounging before heading home. Pretty nice little afternoon!
I am so ready for vacation. I have been counting down the days. This is worrisome since its only been 6 months since our last trip. How am I ever going to make it thru to Ryan's graduation? I find that having something to look forward to really helps get me through. For example, this trip. Then, I am going home for the fouth of July...then my boss is going to London to see the Olympics in August...we get a weekend in Hocking Hills in September, and my step-brother gets married in October. Thanksgiving is next, of course. There is a showcase in December, and my boss will be going to India over the holidays, so basically...its already 2013!
Memorial Day was pretty nice this year. Although it was very hot and very humid, Ryan and I were both off together. That hardly ever happens. We took advantage of this and went out for breakfast at a little joint in Clintonville, The Beechwold Diner. We sat at the counter because there was a wait. The food was good and it was nice to just hang out and eat and drink coffee. Breakfast out is one of our favorite things to do.
We drove around Upper Arlington a bit and eventually made our way home in time to pack a picnic lunch. We grabbed some books, some food, and our pop-out chairs and went to a shady spot in Antrim Park. We stayed a couple hours readying and lounging before heading home. Pretty nice little afternoon!
I am so ready for vacation. I have been counting down the days. This is worrisome since its only been 6 months since our last trip. How am I ever going to make it thru to Ryan's graduation? I find that having something to look forward to really helps get me through. For example, this trip. Then, I am going home for the fouth of July...then my boss is going to London to see the Olympics in August...we get a weekend in Hocking Hills in September, and my step-brother gets married in October. Thanksgiving is next, of course. There is a showcase in December, and my boss will be going to India over the holidays, so basically...its already 2013!
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