Panama City...or not so much!

Panama City...well, we accidentally ended up on a private island in the Caribbean...

After 2 hours of sleep at Los Santana, we headed out in a "jeep" for San Blas.  The flyer and the lady at the front said it was a day trip to a beach.  I assumed it was a beach on the Pacific Coast, because there are quite a few a stones throw away from Panama City.  My bad!  We started unraveling where the San Blas Islands were as soon as the next group of people got into the car. The next stop was to pick up 2 Canadians on holiday for 3 weeks.  They were surprised we wanted to do a day trip and said the destination was about 3 hours away.  I though- eh, that's like going to Santa Barbara for the day.

Things were confusing for everyone.  The driver didn't really speak English and there were two girls from Argentina trying to get him to stop at a grocery store for a good hour. We finally met this American woman (Amy from Vermont).  She was waiting to fill out paper work.  Her Spanish was good and she could talk to the tour operator.

The guy in charge of LAM tours told us that there was only one pick up each day (at 9:45am)...so he wouldn't come pick us up later in the evening/afternoon.  We'd have to sleep over on one of the islands (the island was picked randomly, but luckily, we ended up on an island with Amy and Amy (another girl working in Honduras from Virginia)).  Luckily, we didn't need much - a bathing suit and towel and that's about it.

We arrived at the place where the boats would take us to the island.  The islands are operated by the Kuna people.  They are an indigenous group of people that can live an autonomous lifestyle on the coast of Panama.  The islands are really close to Columbia.  The area consists of about 400 islands and only 29 are inhabited...ideal for the Colombian drug trade.  The Kuna do not speak Spanish as their first language and so communication can be more difficult.

Boat Ride

View of the Island

View of the Water from the Island

We ended up on Tony's island.  It was actually called something else but the name eludes me at the moment.  The island was actually split between two people (Tony and Franklin).  There was a fence in the middle that separated the huts operated by each Kuna family.  Tony's side of the island had about 6 huts where there were about 3-6 people per hut.  We ended up sleeping with 2 Australians (Emma and Kristin) and 2 Americans (Amy and Amy) - 6 total in the hut.  Coincidentally, we ran into some people we met our first night in Panama City at Luna's Castle. It was weird. Everything seemed to circle back to Luna's Castle.

Everyone in front of the hut.  From Left to Right: Me, Emma, Kristin, Amy (Virginia), Rebecca, Amy (Vermont)

Relaxing in a hammock! 

So nice!

The Kuna provided 3 meals a day and some boat access.  Some people decided to see a sunken boat off the coast of another island.  I decided to take in the island (in fact, I swam around the island in about 10 minutes).  I was also pooped on by a bird- good luck right?  There was an older guy, Boris, originally from the Soviet Union, now living in NY.  He was nice and really liked to wear his speedo. The image will be with me forever. Later that night, we were invited to another Kuna island.  The whole week the other island had been celebrating one girl turning into a woman. There was supposed to be a tradition dance and drinking...there was way more drinking by the Kuna than dancing.  From what I gathered, the Kuna men had to drink copious amounts of rum before the dance could begin.  The men started coming up to us and regaling us with drunken stories of their wives with long hair and trying to speak French and English and Spanish. Most Kuna men could barely stand..so there wasn't going to be a dance.

Best fried chicken! (And for those of you wondering, I make exceptions on food for travel...so I'll eat chicken and fish...or pretty much try anything because traveling is all about the experience)

After dark, it was time to get back on the boat and head back to Tony's island (sans the dancing - there was a little dancing but not much). We were on the boat for about 5 minutes and the engine broke down.  We were floating adrift in the dark in the middle of the Caribbean with 2 drunk Kunas operating the boat.  It was comical for a while until we really weren't getting anywhere. There was one paddle and that's it.  We tried signalling to another island but nothing. Everyone was drunk and/or inside. We all (about 17 of us) started yelling for help, but it's not like anyone could hear us.  We all really didn't know how long we'd have to be floating for before we reached land, drug dealers or another boat. After about 45 minutes - 1 hour, they got the engine to work. Hooray!

New friends from the trip! (Before the broken down boat trip)

The rest of the night was spent talking, playing cards and drinking.  The folks from Argentina, Chile, UK, Israel and Belgium started playing a drinking game.  The objective was to count to 10.  Yes, someone yells out 1, 2, 3, etc. They set a language before starting (English, Spanish, etc.).  If you and someone else say the same number at the same time, then you both drink - so if I say 9 and you say 9 then we both drink.  The game was short lived and people were drunk and dancing by 10pm.  It was fun!

The Kuna Island where the dancing was supposed to take place...but didn't

I fell asleep to the waves crashing against the sand and the sound of laughter from people still up, playing cards in the dark (since the generator goes out at about 10:30pm).

Panama City Day 2: December 27, 2011

Panama City: Night 2

In the morning, we moved to a new hotel.  We didn't know where would have available rooms so we went to the nearest cab and told him to take us somewhere. We stayed in the Casco Viejo area and moved to Los Santana, which turned out to be an Israeli hot spot.  The lady at the front didn't speak a lot of English and there was a lot lost in translation. We signed up for a tour the next day and hoped for the best.

All the cats in the room were quite comical.  The bed was very springy. We took much needed and much desired showers and then headed out to visit the city.

The city was hot and humid.  We hailed a cab and headed to the Panama Canal.  By this point we were very hungry...I'll repeat, hungry.  We decided to eat at the restaurant on the 2nd floor, which offered a nice view of the boats passing through the locks. Unfortunately, Rebecca is a vegetarian and the option were limited. We settled on Sangria.  We hadn't eaten in a good 20 hours and proceeded to get a bit tipsy on the Sangria.  I ordered food but I'm a lightweight so that didn't mitigate the Sangria too much.  The Sangria was delicious and made for an interesting rest of the tour through the Panama Canal. I proceeded to act like a fish by the aquarium and a canal worker next to the statues. 

 

The Panama Canal with a boat going through!

Sangria was the drink of choice for the trip! (Although, I did more of the drinking)

Shoveling dirt and rocks to make way for the New Panama Canal

We then headed to the old city of Panama.  The old city is where the President lives. The buildings were run down and colorful.  The cat calls were everywhere.  Note to any single ladies out there, if you need a pick me up then go to Panama.  You'll get honks, hoots and hollers and some broken English cat calls. 

 

After enjoying the views of New Panama City from Old Panama City, we headed to the Causeway.  This was a struggle.  The cab driver wanted to charge us a crazy amount to go to the Causeway.  We eventually negotiated being dropped off at a bike shop which was only $10USD (savings of $20USD). The walk was great and you could see the New Panama City and the Miraflores bridge.  The sunset was lovely.

View of the Miraflores Bridge at Sunset

It was time to think about food again.  We tried to find authentic food but could only find Italian.  I decided to indulge in a cerveza de Panama.  It was delicious. The food was decent and now we need a cab. No cab company ever answers the phone in Panama, so we had to wing it. Not many cabs passed the Causeway at night.  This lovely white car did stop by and asked if we wanted "un taxi especial".  It was a bit creepy and we had a good laugh.  We eventually made it back to the hotel. 

The next day, we had to wake up at 5am, so we tried to get to bed early. Unfortunately, the bar turns into a night club.  The music was bumping the entire night....then there was all the Hanukkah singing until 3am.  We got about 2 hours of sleep before our adventure the next day...

Panama City Day 1: December 26, 2011

Panama City Night 1:

I started my journey at 4:30am on Monday December 26th.  I had to make a couple of connections before making my way to Panama City. I waited for Rebecca at the airport before heading to the hotel.  The Panama cab drivers are quick to get you into a cab, haha, but in our case, he was quick to kick us OUT of the cab.  No one knew where our hotel was and the hotel wasn't answering their phone. We were at the airport about 30 minutes before 4 Belgians ran into the same problem.  We were at the airport another hour talking to the taxi drivers, the police and the armed guard.  No luck.  It was lucky that Maxim and Rebecca spoke some Spanish, but the result was the same, everyone knew the area but no one wanted to or didn't know the way to the hotel.  

It was a blessing in disguise. The guys were awesome! It was a highlight of the trip.  The 4 guys (Vincent, Tom, Maxim and Matisse) were buddies traveling together.  Vincent worked at a medical device company and actually knew what I did for a living.  It was a first.   Vincent was totally into Rebecca, too...  He even offered to sleep with us in our sketchy "theater room" (continued below). 

Matisse, Me, Tom

Luckily they double booked at a hostel (Luna's Castle which was guarded by security and a metal gate) in Casco Viejo.  The hostel only had enough room for the boys, who had been traveling for 26 hours, so Rebecca and I slept in the "theater room".  It was more like an orgy room.  To be safe, we slept on towels because gosh who knows what went on in that room!?! The bar next door turns into a hot nightclub but, luckily, not the night we were there. We slept for a couple of hours and then had to find another place so we could actually settle down and take a shower. Although we were only in the hostel a couple of hours, I made  few new friends from the UK, Netherlands and Robert from Canada. 

Theater Room - Chillin

 It was a great night.  We were gross, slept on some questionable sheets, met some awesome people.  I wish the Belgians had rendezvoused with us later, but alas, they were off the next day to Costa Rica and we were on to our next adventure.

Cool Art in the hostel

Feels good to start the trip off on an adventurous note!

Panama and Costa Rica 2011/2012

The next series of posts will be dedicated to my latest travel adventure - Panama and Costa Rica.  It will include all the highlights of the trip, day by day, including the time the cab driver couldn't find our hotel and the one day trip that turned into an overnight adventure.  It will be complete with pictures, fun anecdotes and food pictures!

Let that anticipation grow because this is going to be a wild ride!

New Mexico Adventure 2011

This past weekend I went on an adventure. I decided that it was time to reconnect with my friend from elementary school.  Yes, I've known Camille (Heather) since the 4th day of elementary school.  We were Smith Surfers, Jr. Oilers, and Oilers together.  Go HB!! WOOOO.

She graduated number 1 in her class from UC Davis law and now lives in New Mexico.  It's not my first choice to live but it's certainly a place for adventure.

I started in El Paso, TX.  I didn't do much there but there were some lovely chalk paintings and a crazy statue.

The El Paso taxi driver told me I needed to learn Spanish.  He also said he used to live in Juarez...and I told him that I didn't want to cross that bridge :) I'd like to live through the weekend.  I had coffee at the Percalator and waited for Camille. It was tame

We went to Las Cruces to meet the puppies.  Camille has two dogs, Hermit (black) and Jemima (white).

We went backpacking in the Gila National Forest. The ranger said that there would be running water so we brought a filter.  We hiked for about an hour and we didn't see any water and were getting really worried.  The dogs sniffed it out! We set up the camp and kept hiking where we proceeded to act like Bear Grylls. 

I stepped on a snake (accident) and proceeded to scream. The snake is alive...I think.  It wasn't there when I went to check on it, so I assume. It was a tiny snake so it wouldn't have killed me.  Ok...onto the Bear Grylls...

Scenario 1: Hiding in the wilderness!

Scenario 2: Crawling on a log...please don't fall!

Scenario 3: Scare away the scary beasts of the wild!

And then, there is enjoying the surroundings! and not listening to directions ... eek!

All in all, a great weekend! A great adventure....oh ya! and we saw llamas! Weird!

Pirate Weekend

There is this thing called Buccaneer Days! 

It happens once a year, the first weekend of every October at Two Harbors on Catalina Island in California. 

I highly recommend it. 

There are a couple of rules.

1. Dress like a pirate!

2. Talk like a pirate. ARRGGHHH!

3. Act like a pirate!

He's acting like a pirate!

I arrived on a Friday.  I took the Catalina Express but next year I will sail.  There was a live band this year.  There is a DJ. The weirdest thing every is to see pirates moshing.  There is Grog! There was a special Catalina drink called Buffalo Milk.  This year I camped at the elementary school with Johanna, Mike, Nick and John.  Friday night is a party and Saturday day and Saturday night is an even bigger party.  Sunday morning is a recovery morning/day.  I left on the 4pm ferry back to Long Beach but next year, I'd take the 2pm ferry.  

Let me tell you!! Pirates can boogie! Make bad pirate jokes and drink. ARGHH!

PB&J Thumbprint Cookies!

It's a lovely Saturday! I've tried to do a number of things off my To-Do list.

I really wanted to use the raspberry jelly that a co-worker made. Thumbprint cookies came to mind and then I remembered my cookie book.  I had this thumbprint cookie tagged...probably because of the peanut butter!   Plus, my mama likes peanut butter.

This is the original recipe.  I substituted 1/2 cup of butter. 

I used the measuring cups and measuring spoons that my mom bought at RISD. 

The brown sugar looks awesome. 

I mixed the 1.25 cups firmly packed brown sugar, .75 cups peanut butter, .5 cups butter, 3 tablespoons milk and 1 tablespoon vanilla in a large bowl.  I left the butter out so it was room temperature.  I decided to mix it with a fork since I didn't want to take out the mixer. 

Mix in 1 egg.

In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients: 1.75 cups flour, .75 teaspoons baking soda, .75 teaspoonssalt.

Mix all together.  Put the mixture into the fridge for at least 30 minutes. In the mean time, set the oven to 375F.  Put sugar into a bowl (used for rolling the dough in).  I used large sugar crystals usually used for decorating.  They look terrific.

Roll the dough into balls and then roll the balls into sugar. 

Place into the oven for 6-8 minutes. Take out and push teaspoon sized imprints into the cookie.  Place the cookies back into the oven for another 3-4 minutes.  Take the cookies out and let cool.  You might need to press the cookies again.  

Let the cookies cool completely.  Place jelly into the imprint.  ENJOY!