Sunday, December 23, 2007
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Day 1: Panama City
We arrived in Panama City in the afternoon. The company's driver, Ricardo, picked us up and took us to the company apartment. After we settled in, we did some shopping and explored the mall across the street from the apartment. M and E went out to dinner with some business associates while J and I stayed at the apartment and watched the world from 15 stories up.
Driving in Panama is CRAZY. They have absolutely no street lights and only the occasional Alto sign. The honking never stops. The honk can mean:
"Just letting you know I'm here."
"You can go"
"Don't go"
"Get out of the way"
And I have no idea how you're supposed to know which honk means what. Holy moly! There was a lot of traffic. But everyone seemed to know what they were doing and it some how worked. But just try to imagine our intersections without stoplights. They don't stop. The traffic just sort of flows.
I saw third world poverty for the first time on the way to the apartment. I wish I could have taken a picture of it because it's not something you can explain.
Day 2: To Bocas Island
Ricardo picked us up early to take us to the airport. This was a different airport then the one we flew into the day before. This airport was an army base. E's grandmother used to work at that base and that's where his grandparents met.
It was a brief one hour flight but it was late leaving by about an hour.
When we arrived in Bocas, the weather was surprisingly cool and breezy. But it was 9am and it soon warmed up. We went to the house M's company bought to use as the office "to impress clients" and two employees live there and that is where E stayed.
We enjoyed the amazing waterfront views from the balcony. We could see the needlenose fish. Very nice.
After a while, we checked into our hotel, Tropical Suites. We stayed on the second floor in the suite above the front door. It was very nice but it has this smell that I can't get out of my clothes.
We rented bikes so we could explore the island, but we had a problem with M's bike. The seat fell down and smashed J's foot since he was in the baby seat on that bike. J screamed and the bike lady felt really bad so she fixed the problem and let us rent the bikes for free. It's usually $2/hr which is not very much for us but probably a lot for her so we tried to pay her anyway. J fell asleep five minutes later so M took a bike back and I took J back to the hotel so he could sleep more comfortably.
I checked out the grocery stores. Super Gourmet is the nicest place to get food but it's a little expensive. There are a few other stores. All the stores all small, but they have everything we would need. Some things are cheaper, like freshly made bread, but most of the food in Bocas is expensive. The prices are similar to Randall's grocery store prices.
Day 3: Sandy White Beaches and Snorkeling
P and his family spent the day with us. We met P about 3 or 4 years ago. He was passing by our boat one day and he saw the missionaries outside our boat and wondered if we were Mormon since he is Mormon so he came by another day and a friendship was begun. He left with his family to go cruising on his boat about six months. He met us in Bocas with his family and his boat.
First we took a water taxi to Redfrog beach. The company was named for the beach not the beach named for the company. We docked and paid a per person fee. We walked through the jungle on a dirt path for about 10 minutes to get to the beach. Some little boys stood on the side of the path and showed us the little colorful poison frogs they were catching. P got some good pictures of them.
I walked the length of the beach hoping to find a sloth but without success. J slept most of the time. I practiced snorkeling.
Then we went to Hospital Point. The taxi took us to this tiny piece of beach. The kids, P's boys, played while the grownups went snorkeling. This was my first time to really snorkel, not including my practice time. I saw so many amazing fish. It was the coolest part of the trip. E saw a very big barracuda.
When I was up on the beach, some little native kids came down. A few kids were too shy to come down but these little three year olds wanted to play.
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