I've just realized that it's been about a week and a half since my last blog update. A lot, and also not a lot has happened since then. Like right now I'm in a hotel in Panama City, after going to Gamboa, Kuna Yala, back to Gamboa, then home to El Cope for a few days. Now I'm back in Panama City, but I'll get to that later.
So when I updated last time I was on my way to Kuna Yala. That was an interesting time. From Penonome, where I last used the internet, we rode 2 more hours to Gamboa, where we stayed the night. We stayed in a really snazzy place that was old army housing turned into a hotel type thing. The guy that owned it does bird tours and apparently owed some favors to Marc? So we got to stay there for cheap. It wasn't really even all that snazzy, but it had indoor showers, flush toilets, air conditioning, and pillows. We were all so excited you'd think we had never seen civilization before... Even though it had only been a week and a half.
Gamboa was nice, but the stay was really short. We got there Monday evening then left at 5:30 in the morning on Tuesday. We got picked up by some Kuna people that were friends with Marc in 3 four wheel drive vehicles for all 25 of us. We were pretty jam packed into that car. There were 3 people in the back back seat, 4 in the middle, and one up front, plus the driver. That car ride was one of the most terrifying events of my life. The highway was fine, but the actual drive through the mountains to the ocean was horrible. The road was gravel, with cliffs and drop offs, also through a river, and also up a mountain. We were flying down the road super, super fast and it was so scary and I felt really sick...
Once that horrible, horrible car ride was over though we were at the ocean. We got into giant canoe, that fit all 25 of us plus our luggage, and boated to the island we were staying on. Lordy lou, the island we stayed on was pretty much paradise. White sand, turquoise water, palm trees, you name it and this island had it. We each got our own private tent so we could sleep on the beach where ever we wanted. It was super nice. We spent most of Tuesday playing on the beach and swimming. Ah, so nice.
In the afternoon we went over to Garti, which is the main island in of Kuna Yala where the General Congress is. We were greeted by the Congress and accepted into Kuna Yala. We then explored the island (so we walked back and forth 3 times down the 2 main roads, it's a very tiny island) and shopped a bit. I bought some pretty cool molas (the Kuna women use them as shirts, but mine are just decorative). The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. We just went back to our island and hung out for the rest of the night.
Wednesday we took a horrible boat tour of the bay. We drove straight across the bay for an hour, looked at some mangroves, which were pretty cool and would have been cool if we weren't roasting in the tropical sun. We were on the boat for 4 hours and it was hot and my butt hurt from sitting on the wooden benches...
The rest of Wednesday was better though. I just sat around and read The Other Boleyn Girl. It's a good book, I recommend it. It made me feel better after that boat ride. Also the beautiful beach I was on.
Thursday was the Kuna's independence day. They gained autonomy from Panama on February 25, 1925. So every year they do a reenactment of it. So we spent all morning watching those. It was really interesting, but I don't speak Spanish, or Kuna, so I had no idea what was going on the majority of the time. Eventually though the Kuna people kicked the Panamanian police out and won independence! Ooo! I forgot the part where they picked Chris (one of the guys on the trip) to be Mr. Marsh, an American that "helped" the Kuna get their independence. He didn't really do anything important, but the Kuna glorify him, and it was funny to watch Chris get dragged all over the island in the reenactment.
After the reenactment all the Kuna people go into what we're going to call the "vice hut" and drink chicha beer and smoke. Chicha is a very interesting drink. It's made from coffee, sugar, and rice. The alcohol is very strong tasting... Its kinda like coffee in wine mixed together? I didn't really care for it and was rude and didn't finish the bowl the was given to me. It was too strong! Bleh xP
After spending most of the afternoon in the vice hut we went back to our island and once again did nothing for the rest of the night. We looked at the tide pools on our island, which were cool, but otherwise we did nothing productive. Oh! It was really scary for a while though. The people that were making our food were headed back from the main island at dinner time and their boat flipped. They didn't find them for several hours, but they're all ok now. It was very scary...
The boat flipping was the start of our horrible night... At about 11:45 I woke up because the wind was blowing and the flaps of my tent were flapping like they were going to fall off. So I closed them and tried to go back to sleep. 20 minutes later the heavens opened up and it POURED down rain for about half an hour. Fun thing about sleeping in tents, they leak. The water started coming into my tent and soon everything at the foot of my tent was soaked. I put my towel down there to stop the water and that seemed to work. It finally stopped and I was able to go back to sleep....For another 2 hours, when it happened again. This time the water got my mattress pad wet up to my knees... It then rained once every 2 hours the rest of the night. It was terrible. We were all soaked in the morning. That night was one of the most miserable nights of my life.
Good times good times...
Well we left after that horrible night of rain storms. We had to go across the stormy ocean in our canoe (which seemed so much smaller with the waves as been as they were) and I was comforted the entire time by Chris telling us all what to do in case the boat turned over. Thanks. It was very comforting...
No worries, we made it back all safe and sound. We then rode out the super fun road to/from Kuna Yala back to Panama City, where we went on a tour. The tour was ok, but the bus windows were tinted and it was hard to see out of them. Also we got there late so we didn't get to see very much. We did go to the Panama Canal, which I thought was awesome. We watched a boat go through then got to play in the museum before we were herded back to the bus.
The other cool part of the tour was the church with the giant gold alter that was the only gold pirate Henry Morgan did not steal from Panama City when he sacked it. We also went to the ruins of Panama City, which were pretty cool.
That night we went back to Gamboa. It was nice, again to have a real shower and a comfy bed. We went to Panama City the next day, on public bus, which was super exciting. Public transportation is really cheap and efficient here, which is really awesome. It's $0.65 for an hour bus ride from Gamboa to Panama City. I got Pizza Hut in the bus terminal and it was amazing. I'd been craving pizza for a while, so it was a happy day. Also very stressful cause we had a very short amount of internet time... It got nothing accomplished, but was very stressed for the 30 minutes I was on the internet.
To end our Kuna Yala adventure we headed back to El Cope and finally got back to La MICA. I really, really missed it there while we were gone and it was good to be "home."
The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful. I started getting sick on Sunday so I didn't do much. Also it rained, which makes doing research outside on frogs nearly impossible so we didn't go out and look for them. On Monday I spent almost all day in the Park (Omar Torrijos National Park, where I'm doing my research) looking for frogs and swabbing them. We captured and swabbed 13 but saw more. And we were there from 9 a.m.-3 p.m., then again from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. It was a good day for finding frogs!!
Tuesday afternoon our free day started and Hanna, Jackie, and I headed to Panama City while almost every one else headed to Boquete, which is in the north. They're gonna climb a volcano.
We're staying in a nice air conditioned hotel with flush toilets and a shower, with internet, and going to museums. Getting to Panama City is actually pretty easy. We just hopped on a bus in Cope that took us to Penonome, where we got on another bus that took us to the bus terminal in Panama City. It's really cheap too. Only $6 to take us half way across the country.
Me and Hanna actually went to 2 museums today (the Emerald Museum and the Panama History Museum) and wandered around Casco Viejo for most of the day today. It was really nice. It's very freeing to be able to travel around a foreign country in a super small group. I feel accomplished that we could move around with relative easiness here when neither of us are fluent in Spanish. Score one for the gringos!!
So now we're just chilling in the hotel, probably gonna go find so food later. I'm just glad I could check in!!
P.S.--We saw a cab driver today that looks like a Panamanian Morgan Freeman. It was super exciting.
So when I updated last time I was on my way to Kuna Yala. That was an interesting time. From Penonome, where I last used the internet, we rode 2 more hours to Gamboa, where we stayed the night. We stayed in a really snazzy place that was old army housing turned into a hotel type thing. The guy that owned it does bird tours and apparently owed some favors to Marc? So we got to stay there for cheap. It wasn't really even all that snazzy, but it had indoor showers, flush toilets, air conditioning, and pillows. We were all so excited you'd think we had never seen civilization before... Even though it had only been a week and a half.
Gamboa was nice, but the stay was really short. We got there Monday evening then left at 5:30 in the morning on Tuesday. We got picked up by some Kuna people that were friends with Marc in 3 four wheel drive vehicles for all 25 of us. We were pretty jam packed into that car. There were 3 people in the back back seat, 4 in the middle, and one up front, plus the driver. That car ride was one of the most terrifying events of my life. The highway was fine, but the actual drive through the mountains to the ocean was horrible. The road was gravel, with cliffs and drop offs, also through a river, and also up a mountain. We were flying down the road super, super fast and it was so scary and I felt really sick...
Once that horrible, horrible car ride was over though we were at the ocean. We got into giant canoe, that fit all 25 of us plus our luggage, and boated to the island we were staying on. Lordy lou, the island we stayed on was pretty much paradise. White sand, turquoise water, palm trees, you name it and this island had it. We each got our own private tent so we could sleep on the beach where ever we wanted. It was super nice. We spent most of Tuesday playing on the beach and swimming. Ah, so nice.
In the afternoon we went over to Garti, which is the main island in of Kuna Yala where the General Congress is. We were greeted by the Congress and accepted into Kuna Yala. We then explored the island (so we walked back and forth 3 times down the 2 main roads, it's a very tiny island) and shopped a bit. I bought some pretty cool molas (the Kuna women use them as shirts, but mine are just decorative). The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. We just went back to our island and hung out for the rest of the night.
Wednesday we took a horrible boat tour of the bay. We drove straight across the bay for an hour, looked at some mangroves, which were pretty cool and would have been cool if we weren't roasting in the tropical sun. We were on the boat for 4 hours and it was hot and my butt hurt from sitting on the wooden benches...
The rest of Wednesday was better though. I just sat around and read The Other Boleyn Girl. It's a good book, I recommend it. It made me feel better after that boat ride. Also the beautiful beach I was on.
Thursday was the Kuna's independence day. They gained autonomy from Panama on February 25, 1925. So every year they do a reenactment of it. So we spent all morning watching those. It was really interesting, but I don't speak Spanish, or Kuna, so I had no idea what was going on the majority of the time. Eventually though the Kuna people kicked the Panamanian police out and won independence! Ooo! I forgot the part where they picked Chris (one of the guys on the trip) to be Mr. Marsh, an American that "helped" the Kuna get their independence. He didn't really do anything important, but the Kuna glorify him, and it was funny to watch Chris get dragged all over the island in the reenactment.
After the reenactment all the Kuna people go into what we're going to call the "vice hut" and drink chicha beer and smoke. Chicha is a very interesting drink. It's made from coffee, sugar, and rice. The alcohol is very strong tasting... Its kinda like coffee in wine mixed together? I didn't really care for it and was rude and didn't finish the bowl the was given to me. It was too strong! Bleh xP
After spending most of the afternoon in the vice hut we went back to our island and once again did nothing for the rest of the night. We looked at the tide pools on our island, which were cool, but otherwise we did nothing productive. Oh! It was really scary for a while though. The people that were making our food were headed back from the main island at dinner time and their boat flipped. They didn't find them for several hours, but they're all ok now. It was very scary...
The boat flipping was the start of our horrible night... At about 11:45 I woke up because the wind was blowing and the flaps of my tent were flapping like they were going to fall off. So I closed them and tried to go back to sleep. 20 minutes later the heavens opened up and it POURED down rain for about half an hour. Fun thing about sleeping in tents, they leak. The water started coming into my tent and soon everything at the foot of my tent was soaked. I put my towel down there to stop the water and that seemed to work. It finally stopped and I was able to go back to sleep....For another 2 hours, when it happened again. This time the water got my mattress pad wet up to my knees... It then rained once every 2 hours the rest of the night. It was terrible. We were all soaked in the morning. That night was one of the most miserable nights of my life.
Good times good times...
Well we left after that horrible night of rain storms. We had to go across the stormy ocean in our canoe (which seemed so much smaller with the waves as been as they were) and I was comforted the entire time by Chris telling us all what to do in case the boat turned over. Thanks. It was very comforting...
No worries, we made it back all safe and sound. We then rode out the super fun road to/from Kuna Yala back to Panama City, where we went on a tour. The tour was ok, but the bus windows were tinted and it was hard to see out of them. Also we got there late so we didn't get to see very much. We did go to the Panama Canal, which I thought was awesome. We watched a boat go through then got to play in the museum before we were herded back to the bus.
The other cool part of the tour was the church with the giant gold alter that was the only gold pirate Henry Morgan did not steal from Panama City when he sacked it. We also went to the ruins of Panama City, which were pretty cool.
That night we went back to Gamboa. It was nice, again to have a real shower and a comfy bed. We went to Panama City the next day, on public bus, which was super exciting. Public transportation is really cheap and efficient here, which is really awesome. It's $0.65 for an hour bus ride from Gamboa to Panama City. I got Pizza Hut in the bus terminal and it was amazing. I'd been craving pizza for a while, so it was a happy day. Also very stressful cause we had a very short amount of internet time... It got nothing accomplished, but was very stressed for the 30 minutes I was on the internet.
To end our Kuna Yala adventure we headed back to El Cope and finally got back to La MICA. I really, really missed it there while we were gone and it was good to be "home."
The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful. I started getting sick on Sunday so I didn't do much. Also it rained, which makes doing research outside on frogs nearly impossible so we didn't go out and look for them. On Monday I spent almost all day in the Park (Omar Torrijos National Park, where I'm doing my research) looking for frogs and swabbing them. We captured and swabbed 13 but saw more. And we were there from 9 a.m.-3 p.m., then again from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. It was a good day for finding frogs!!
Tuesday afternoon our free day started and Hanna, Jackie, and I headed to Panama City while almost every one else headed to Boquete, which is in the north. They're gonna climb a volcano.
We're staying in a nice air conditioned hotel with flush toilets and a shower, with internet, and going to museums. Getting to Panama City is actually pretty easy. We just hopped on a bus in Cope that took us to Penonome, where we got on another bus that took us to the bus terminal in Panama City. It's really cheap too. Only $6 to take us half way across the country.
Me and Hanna actually went to 2 museums today (the Emerald Museum and the Panama History Museum) and wandered around Casco Viejo for most of the day today. It was really nice. It's very freeing to be able to travel around a foreign country in a super small group. I feel accomplished that we could move around with relative easiness here when neither of us are fluent in Spanish. Score one for the gringos!!
So now we're just chilling in the hotel, probably gonna go find so food later. I'm just glad I could check in!!
P.S.--We saw a cab driver today that looks like a Panamanian Morgan Freeman. It was super exciting.
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