Don't worry, about a thing

To those who would like a brief update on my safety (Mummy and Daddio)--

• Machetes: Yes, a lot of people have them but I have only seen them used to retrieve fruit, expand trails, and create hiking sticks.
  
• Snakes: While on the porch our cabin a Coral snake slithered by me, but it had better things to do. Roughly 6 have been spotted at our station, but everyone is okay! And the fer- de-lance has only been spotted at the park once, and I was not there.
  
• Scorpions: One was found in a bed next to me and in some luggage, but apparently the stings are manageable.
  
• Spiders and mosquitos: absolutely love me. I have lots of bites. But I've been keepin' on.
  
• Thug behavior: No one in our group has been robbed, unless you call a $6 ten minute cab ride a robbery, which I did, but the driver wasn't having it. Ever since then I've been a wheelin' and a dealin' those cabbies.

Now take a load off, family :)

I spent a little time on the mountain, I spent a little time on the hill

Lost in Translation in Santa Marta: Spam, Sardines, and Soccer

Our original plan was to leave for Santa Marta on Sunday, March 7th, but the incessant rain made the roads impassible. We ended up leaving after lunch on Monday to give the roads more time to dry out, and while the steep, winding, muddy, mountain roads were still quite discomforting for 13 people packed into a fully loaded chiva, we all arrived alive.

Our group and our host families convened at a house in the center of their beautiful mountain town around noon. Both sides were full of emotion as we realized just how lost in translation we really were. Everyone awkwardly introduced themselves, pretending to comprehend the pronunciation of each others names, and then we divided up into pairs. Stacy and I went with a man named Manuel Lorenzo, who eventually took us to his home after a little volunteer work at the school. He lives with his mother, father, sister (Bedelia), her husband, their son (Carlos), her husbands brother, his wife (Dany), their 2-3 children, their daughter's daughter, three big dogs (Lassie, Kujo and Perro, which means dog), one tiny dog (Perrito, which means little dog), and one cat (Gato, which means cat). There was also another family that I did not understand their relation, but lived there part time as well. Needless to say, it was a full house and although I tried, I by no means remembered all of their names. Manuel and Bedelia spent the most time talking with us (and had the easiest names to remember) although we spent time with everyone.

Throughout the next four days the Lorenzos invited us not only into their home but into their family, and I gained an tremendous amount of respect for the pueblo of Santa Marta. Without electricity, paved roads, cars, and the hundreds of other luxuries that people in the U.S. have, our homestay in Santa Marta will be one of the most memorable weeks of my life. While I cannot claim to have enjoyed every moment of my time there, I know what I learned has already sincerely altered my worldview. I learned an incredible amount from the people of Santa Marta, and while this testimony will hardly give them justice, I will still attempt a respectable account of our stay...

As I mentioned earlier, our first task was to help at the school, as this week was their first week back from summer vacation. The current administration under the president of the Republic of Panama, Ricardo Martinelli, issued backpacks and school supplies in all the public schools (termed a Universal Scholarship), so our job was to help stuff backpacks and assign them to classrooms. This was the first school I have been to in Panama, and it is a lot different than those in the United States. The town of Santa Marta has roughly 800 residents, scattered throughout the nearby mountains and valleys; as with other mainly agricultural areas, or campos, the town is extremely poor and it shows in the school. Without the aid of the government, not only would the students be without books supplies, but they would be without a school. Furthermore, the students are often taught by unreliable teachers who show up approximately three days each week. It is heartbreaking to hear families discuss a school system that is so limiting for their children. One of the daughters in our family, Erica, travels everyday to El Cope (the closest town to us) to go to school at the "technological high school". To label it a school for technology hardly makes sense after learning that they do not even have a computer, and the teachers there are just as flaky. While it was hard for them to comprehend the fact that we all aren't rich and that we rely a lot on loans, it is still incredibly unfair that higher education is something that is near impossible for anyone from the campos.

After our time at the school Manuel went with Stacy and I to his house to meet the family, tour their home, and eat dinner. That night we had pollo con arroz y lentajes (chicken with rice and lentils), which was extremely delicious cooked over a wood-burning stove and served with fresh coffee. All of our meals were a little different than what we generally eat in the U.S., but still delicious. I had trouble coming up with new ways to tell them just how good their food was. Besides being made with love (my dad's favorite ingredient), almost everything we ate came directly from their house--they grow yucca and lots of other starchy things that I cannot pronounce, a variety of frijoles (beans), plantains, oranges, and several other fruits, and keep chickens--which made them even more delicious. Part of the family works together during the day planting/harvesting (depending on the season), preparing meals, cleaning, and weaving sombreros. The rest of the family travels to other cities like Panama or San Pablo for work. Eating almost entirely local and not having refrigeration is definitely a form of cooking I appreciate and respect. When I compare the work of microwaving a package of frozen vegetables I bought for $3 versus preparing land, planting seeds, tending plants, harvesting crops, storing, and cooking it all myself, it seems incredibly unfair how easy I have it. Not only are vegetables just that easy for me to attain, but nearly anything I could ever want to eat I have access to, and at nearly any season of the year.
While some meals I was not as ecstatic about (namely sardine and yucca soup) I made sure to eat and appear to enjoy everything they served me. (That goes for the fried spam and plantain breakfast too.)

The second day we woke up around 6, ate breakfast (salchicha, fry bread and coffee) and headed to the trail around 7, to embark on what would be a 9 hour hike to see where former president of Panama General Omar Torrijos Hererra's plane crashed in 1981. While I got to ride the first 20 minutes on a horse named Naranja (Orange), it was definitely one of the scariest 20 minutes of my life and I actually preferred the strain of walking versus the fear of falling. As mentioned, Santa Marta is in the mountains, and the path was one of the steepest I'd ever seen. Walking up my knees were almost hitting my chest, while walking down took a lot of skill to not tumble down slick mud. Four and half hours later we reached the plane, incredibly exhausted but excited to see a place so revered by the locals. As with many of the campesinos, they believe that in 1981 Torrijos's plane crashed, marking his physical disappearance but not his death, and that he still lives in the jungle. One of our guides named Jorge was one of the first people to find the plane, and described what the search was like when there was no path. While the path is still very difficult, they have worked hard to create and preserve it so the people of Panama can visit the plane and remember Omar. It was a really memorable trip. For lunch we hiked up a little further into a cloud and ate (very cool) but it was more brisk than we could handle. On the way down a guide cut down a branch with his machete and made me a walking stick to help with the steep decline and it made all the difference--especially because my legs were so tired they were shaking uncontrollably. That night I slept like a baby, starting around 8 pm.

The next day my muscles felt like I had hiked 10 kilometers in the mud throughout mountains and valleys. Oh that's right...

Luckily we had a somewhat easy day ahead of us. Wednesday morning the grandma and her daughter? Dany taught us how to weave sombreros from the stalks of a local plant. It was awesome! It was just what I wanted to do that morning, relax, gossip, drink coffee, and weave. Then after lunch (sardine soup) we had a futbol match against the local kids. We played kids half our size, age 6-16, in mostly jeans. Half were barefoot, some wore flip flops and crocs, and the two best boys split a pair of cleats and crocs. (BFFs) While we looked athletic in hiking shoes and comfy shorts, we still lost all three games. Thanks mostly to Chad, our biology professor, we did score some goals. This was one of the best events of the trip, and the games were incredibly fun. Despite the intense language barrier that we experienced during every other activity, futbol/ soccer was something we all understood. Cheesy, but true.

Thursday was our last full day in Santa Marta, and was probably my favorite day. After a breakfast of crema (cream of wheat), plantains, and carne (beef), we set out to hike! We hiked to two different waterfalls (chorros) that were insanely beautiful. Lots of places to jump off and lots of fun swimming. These were also my favorite hikes because they were all terrain. Sometimes we were on windy paths, sometimes we were floating downstream in the current, and other times we were using ropes to maneuver rock walls. AWESOME. We also hiked to a hot spring which the locals believe has healing powers. It was roughly the size of a kitchen sink, but exciting to touch nonetheless.

After a full day of water activities, the town threw us a fiesta! The local dads got out their drums, guitars, and accordion, and they hosted a big dance for us. This by far was one of the most interesting yet awkward parts of the trip...
Just imagine a group of Americans on one side of the patio who are about twice as tall as all the Panamanians who are on the other side crammed onto a sweltering porch while its raining outside, dancing for hours to what appeared to be just one song with a few interruptions and inaudible announcements from the town "doctor". I ended up dancing with people from age 5 to 30, each of whom had their own entirely different style of dance. Oh and did I mention we all smelled realllly bad and were sweating heavily, due not only to the heat but the general uncomfortable feeling of having an entire community (grandparents and children alike) watch you foolishly dance with their men while your teacher is videotaping you for the school. Oh yeah, and you are sober.
As uncomfortable as this sounds, I really do love to dance, so I did not have as many problems as others. However, I will probably never forget scooting away from my previous dance partner at the end of the song, walking back to the gringo side, only to have someone reach for your hand to pull you back in for the next song. Quite thrilling. After several hours, the dance ended and everyone walked home. (Without electricity they usually go to bed around 8, so 11 pm was pretty darn late!) That night, per usual, I slept realllly well.

Friday morning we had breakfast with our family (crema de maiz with salchicha), packed, and headed to the house that we would help build. The family there was building an addition and taught us how they make their walls from mud and straw. This was very, very fun, although they told us that they usually do not do this sober. The framework of the walls were already in place, so we just mixed dirt with water, stomped around a lot, added straw, stomped around a lot more, build them into bricks, layered them across the frame, and smoothed it out. It will take a few more months to dry and then they will smooth it out again. While we only worked for about 2 hours, they were really happy for us to learn and contribute to their home. After building we ate a community lunch (shredded chicken mixed in rice with corn, carrots, olives, cabbage, and raisins) and some people sold some crafts to us.

The last thing we did was stand around together while each family gave a small speech about how much they enjoyed our visit. A few of us also spoke about how great our stay was, and how close we had grown to everyone in such a short period of time. The people in Santa Marta made us feel incredibly welcome, letting us into their homes and treating us like family. Despite the difficulties in communication, we still had a lot of great conversations and learned a lot about their culture. Some of us plan to return on the 26th to help them start up ecotourism, as we were the first visitors to ever stay in Santa Marta and they want some assistance. While a lot of us have mixed feelings about this, we grew so close with the town that we want to help them in any way we could. Hopefully our next visit will be as wonderful as our first, and we can reunite with our families that we miss very much.

Break out the booty wax, it´s a Saturday night in Boquete!

After recovering from Kuna Yala, Panamá City, and Gamboa, a group of us decided to head to Boquete for our free days. (Yes, the last three excursions were for school.) We hiked out of El Copé on Tuesday, March 2nd and caught a bus to the entrada at the Pan-American highway. We figured that it would be easy to catch a bus from there to Davíd, and then to Boquete. We were wrong. After sitting at the stop for over two hours, Nancy, Maeve, Denyse, Kelly, Andrea and I were quite frustrated at the lack of available buses. So we hopped on over to the gas station, bought a bottle of Abuelo, and started our vacation early. One hour later we were in much better spirits, and then, as if from nowhere, a glorious double decker bus for Davíd opened its doors for us, and we jumped in. We went up top, walked to the back to sit down, and miraculously three other students from our group were sitting right next to us. From then on out we knew it was going to be a good trip. We had about 5 hours until David, but it turned out to be a very good bus ride indeed.

Because of the late start we didn´t arrive in Davíd until around 10pm, and by then all the buses for Boquete had stopped running. Sadly, I was the best spanish speaker out of our group so I poorly attempted to arrange a ride with another bus driver, but he wouldn´t accept anything less than $70 to drive us about 45 minutes. Luckily I found another guy who offered to take us for $36 and we were on our way. To further show our lack of planning, we didn´t have the names of any places to stay in Boquete, so upon arrival we walked around the town looking for places open past 11. Once again, as if from nowhere, someone else from our group spotted us walking from his hotel patio and told us what places were available to stay. We had to split up, so Denyse, Maeve and I got dorm beds at an awesome little hostel named Mamallena and everyone else got a hotel room. Around 1 am as I was climbing to my bunk, the guy sleeping below me kindly asked "Are you coming or going?" I said I was coming and he said "Well, welcome then." And went back to sleep. I knew I was going to love this place.

The next morning around 8, Maeve, Denyse, Paul, Ethan, and I helped ourselves to the all you can make and eat pancake breakfast offered at Mamallena, as we discussed what activites we should partake in. We decided to grab some sandwich stuff and head to the nearby hotsprings at Caldera. After a short bus ride we got off, read the sign that we thought meant ´hot springs this way´ and started what would be over an hour long hike through the mountains. While it was very pretty, it was exhausting and hot and we saw no water. We ended up turning around and realized that they were off a trail about 100 yards from where we started, but with absolutely no sign or distinction. At that point we were much too hot for hot springs, so we just swam in the river and waited for our bus to come back. Quite interesting though. That night we all went to bed pretty early, after eating at an awesome Lebonese place.

The next morning I left at 7am with a small group from the hostel to go rafting on the Chiriquí Viejo! It was awesome. I met people from Holland, Southside Chicago, and North Carolina, and our guide Freddie was of course Panamanian. The stretch was about 10.5 miles and had 40-50 class II-IV rapids. Freddie even let me guide some of it. The stretch was also incredibly beautiful; it was all rainforest with tons of birds and a few monkeys. Very awesome time, but it reallly made me miss rafting with my west coast homies :(

That night was also incredible. Our whole group had separated that day to hike the volcano Barú, do zipline tours, or of course raft, so we all met up for dinner. We ate delicious pizza at La Huaca, and then made bananas foster back at the hostel to share with other guests. Right after we headed to the only bar in town-- Zanzibar-- and had a rockin good time at our first Panamanian bar. After such a wonderful stay, sadly we had to catch a 6:30 bus in the morning to Davíd, then to Santiago, then to the Entrada, then to El Copé, and then hike back to La MICA. Oh well, totally worth it.

After getting back on Friday we had three days for classes and volunteer work at La MICA before heading to Santa Marta on Monday. More to come about that later..

The Grilled Cheese Incident

On our way back from the Kuna Yala Comarca we traveled through Panamá City. While a non-tinted bus would have been ideal, we still got to see a lot of the city and learn about the history. We stopped at the Miraflores Locks to wait patiently as a large ship passed very, very slowly through the Canal. We also visited Casco Viejo and Panamá Viejo, two former locations of Panamanian settlement just outside the current city. That night we stayed in the same hostel in Gamboa and had a jolly good time making friendship bracelets over some cheap rum and juice.

The next morning we all missed the bus to Panamá City, so Maeve, Joy, Jackie, Nancy and I snuck into the Gamboa Rainforest Resort for a relaxing afternoon. We mostly swam, enjoyed the luscious scenery, and made small talk with a lot of wealthy Canadians while pretending to stay with rich relatives. Quite the splendid day. We also decided to eat lunch there (we ordered meals because the buffet was $22) which included a fun scuffle between Jackie and our non-English speaking waiter. It peaked when Jackie requested that the waiter feel her not-so-grilled $7 grilled cheese, after trying to explain with every Spanish phrase we knew that her sandwich was not even a tiny bit melted. Basically it ended with a free tuna pita because no one could comprehend what grilled cheese meant. A very splendid afternoon indeed!
That evening we headed back to La MICA and rested well after a great week of travel. It would only be a few days until a group of us would travel to Boquete, of which I will post more soon...

Kuna Yala: Home of Molas, Chicha, and Budweiser

Let me explain...
So last week our group traveled to Kuna Yala in the San Blas islands. Incredible. After two days of foot, chiva, bus, van, and boat travel, we reached Needle Island in Kuna Yala that we would spend the next few days on. We are talkin´ an island out of the google search images of serene islands. After arriving we each got our own tent (or hammock) and camped all over the island. Next we went the main island, Carti Sugdub, and met the Kuna Congreso. They welcomed us to their home and explained that their independence celebration would last for the next two days. What a great two days.

We spent most of our time swimming, playing frisbee and soccer on the beach, touring the mangroves, snorkeling, reading, and of course, having biology and history discussions in the sand. We also spent a lot of time interacting with the Kuna and bargaining for molas, the traditional sewn cloths that the women make. (Google image search them until I put up pictures.) The locals made all of our food, mostly fresh fish, rice, and fruit, and it was delicious. We had two days of these activities and then on the 25th we headed out to Carti around 9 am to celebrate.

What a celebration! For two days the Kuna re-enact their revolution against the Panamanian government throughout the town, and the second day (the 25th) things get crazy. The drama goes from 9 until 12, and then they head to one ceremonial hut-building with women and men separated. The older men come through with bowls of chicha (fermented coffee, corn, and sugar) and the women pass out cigarettes and hard candy. After lots of dancing and cheers-ing, they drink the bowl of chicha in one drink, then light up. Very entertaining. This continues for a few hours until all the chicha is gone, and then comes the rum shots. Needless to say, everyone who speaks Kuna breaks out their Spanish, and those who speak both break out their English. I was proposed to in all three languages.

While I greatly enjoyed drinking Chicha, I headed out of the ceremonial hut after about an hour to avoid the rum (things got a little crazy) and savored $1 budweiser at the docks with some other students. What a wonderful independence day. After we left the island we had biology class on the beach (best bio class ever) and sat around singing songs. Needless to say, I will forever remember Kuna independence on February 25th and forever long for more chicha.

That night a horrible storm rained on our parade and we all left the island very, very wet in the morning. Totally worth it. Kuna Yala was one of the most beautiful places I´ve ever been and the people there were wonderful. I only hope we don´t go blind trying to recreate chicha back in the states...

This is the best life ever!

So it has been one week since we arrived in Panamá and I am still completely in love with this country. It feels as though we have been here for months, but maybe I just have a lot of dirty laundry...
On Friday Pablo drove Hannah, Joy, Nancy, Marc (our professor) and I to El Caño, the archaeological park where I will be working for the next few weeks. The archaeologists at the site are great and gave us a tour of current and previous excavations. While right now the site they are excavating is a bit crowded, we will still get a chance to assist them by sorting through dirt for human and dog teeth (los dientes de humanos y perros). Quite dirty, but exciting. I´m learning a lot about bones! The site includes several unexcavated earthen mounds, two graves that have been excavated, and lots of strategically placed columns (some of which used to have heads before people cut them off to take to the United States...) that most likely signified a market area and sports arena. While this week we will be traveling to San Blas, I should be working there about 5 days a week once we get back.
After we spent the morning at El Caño, we went to Penonomé and La Pintada, where they were setting up for a weekend festival. I bought a very cool woven hat from a man and it makes me look totally Anthropologist. It was an awesome day and we listened to a great mixtape of Pablo´s, which included select songs from the soundtrack to Grease, Bob Marley, Cat Stevens, and Britney Spears. Pretty killer tracks.

Saturday was very relaxing, just a lot of reading, a Biology lecture out on the deck and a JINS discussion on ethnic relations in Panama after dinner.

Sunday was one of my favorite days so far. The morning started with cereal (per usual), and laying out on the rocks down by the river reading ´Beak of the Finch´. Then Jackie and I went to the swimming hole and everyone joined us. It is one of the greatest swimming holes of all time, very secluded with good climbing rocks and a waterfall. Quite possibly the reason I have been bathing so often. Next we enjoyed a delicious lunch, followed by a biology class in Omar Torrijos National Park. A few of the BIO 444 students joined our class of 5 as we hiked for a few hours deciding on what to study. The rainforest is one of the coolest places I have ever been, especially when we have our professor (Chad) and three very intelligent bio students (Denyse, Joey, and Will) telling us everything we would ever want to know about the plants and animals around us. We finally decided to study the percentage of surface area consumed by herbivores in a two week period of new growth and old growth plants around La MICA. Pretty exciting. After getting quite muddy in the park, the chiva drove Chris, Jackie, and I up to El Copé for a little more excitement. We walked around the town, chilled on some benches, and had a swell time trying to use our Spanish while talking to the local police. (Who by the way, absolutely love the ladies around here.) We also pulled out the uber-gringo card by taking pictures of a local fútbol match between the local kids while waiting in line at the panadería (bakery). They probably loved it. On our hike back to La MICA we ran into a gringa named Kayla who has been here for 2 years with the Peace Corps. Hopefully we will get to spend some time with her after we get back from San Blas. In short, after the long hike back we jumped in the river for a late night swim, ate dinner (french fries at last!) and then went to bed. Great day!

Now I am the last one on the computers and everyone is waiting on the bus to leave for Kuna Yala! Hasta luego!

En Español, por fa

Pues, es Jueves, 18 de Febrero y estoy en un cafe internet para el primero vez en Penonomé, Panamá...
¿En íngles, por favor? It is Thursday, February 18th, and I am at my first internet cafe in Penonome, Panama. YES! I finally made it! (To Panama, of course, not just the internet cafe.) It is unbelievably exciting here. We arrived on Tuesday morning after a very swift connection in Miami (similar to a scene from Home Alone 1). Everything since has been very different, but enjoyable. Our home base is out of the "ecological station" La MICA (www.lamica.org) just outside of El Copé. A van picked all 25 of us up from the airport and drove us about three hours west to El Copé. From there we had about a 15-20 minute hike to our compound. Our station consists of a large cabin for the 23 students, a deck underneath for eating, classes, and lounging, a separate cabin for our 2 professors, and 2 showers and 2 "toilets" in bamboo huts. (I will put up pictures later.) It is incredibly secluded, beautiful, and relaxing. There is even a river about two minutes down the mountain.

Our first day at La MICA we just got situated in our cabin, picked out our bunk, and ate a very delicious chicken and spaghetti dinner. The next morning after a 7 am breakfast we hiked out of la MICA and toured El Copé. While the locals seem to have limited contact with gringos, everyone was very friendly. I think I said "Buenos" and "Buenas" (good day, short for buenos días y buenos tardes) roughly 50 times throughout our walk. After the tour (which took about 15 minutes to see almost the main part of town) we ate lunch at Julie´s house (the researcher for La MICA). The lunch consisted of white rice with stewed beef, carrots, yucca, onions and beans, and fresh pineapple, watermelon, and plantains. ¡Delicioso! Next we rode in the back of a truck (chiva) to Omar Torrijos National Park, one of the places our group will be conducting a lot of field research. The park is a tropical forest (bosque tropical) at 800 metros in a cloud forest (bosque nube). The flora and fauna is incredible, and we spent a few hours hiking and learning about the ecosystem. Very soon my biology class will do some labs there, and the biology major students are conducting their semester projects there. What a beautiful but challenging hike (¡Más bonito pero muy dificil!) While the temperature was warm, it was incredibly humid and poured down on us toward the end of our adventure. Luckily, the 40 minute drive in the back of the chiva helped to dry us off. :) The rest of the day back at la MICA was relaxing, just showering, dinner, and journal time for me, with a very early bed time.

Today I was the last one to wake up (somehow my body doesn´t comprehend "early to bed, early to rise") at 7:30. After breakfast we headed out at 8:30 to a chiva, which took us to a bus, which took us to Penononmé. Here we toured a museum, stood in the geographical center of Panamá, spent about an hour shopping in local markets attempting to purchase things with limited Spanish knowledge, and then ate lunch. I had rice, soup, a plantain, and tea (arroz, sopa, platano y té). ¡Muy delicioso! We have a few more hours here in Penonomé, and then we head back to camp.

I have had a wonderful time here so far, and it´s only been three days! Tomorrow Hanna, Jackie, Joy, Nancy, and I will head to the archaeological site at El Caño to see where Hanna and I will be working for the next few weeks. I have been doing a lot of research about the Coclé culture and our museum tour today included information about the nearby sites as well. Hopefully we have a splendid time!

¡Hasta luego!