huevos felicidades

Panama City:  Where the eggs are friendlier than the people who work in the grocery store.

Christmas in Pedasi, I

My friends Andrew and Katrina were also staying in Panama for the holidays, so rather than staying in the dirty, loud, smelly city, we headed out to Playa Venao, a gorgeous beach on the Pacific Coast.  It is the prime surfing spot (I played with a boogie board for a while, but the surfers here were much too serious for a novice like me to get in their way) in Panama, and it quickly became my new favorite spot. 

 We found a great little Catholic Church in a very small town near Pedasi.  In true Panamanian fashion, the priest was 10 minutes late, so the 7p service began around 7:15.  And then he gave a 20 minute sermon in Spanish- I caught something about making everyday like Christmas Day, and bringing the Light into the world, but I missed the rest.


Also in typical Panamanian fashion, an un-neutered dog hung out during the service, scratching himself for the entire service.

After church, we went back to our amazing hotel, and had a fantastically decadent Christmas Eve dinner.  4 salads, roast turkey, beef filet, foie gras, roast squash and onion jam, fish, crepes suzette, and a lot of wine.  It was a really lovely Christmas Eve.

decorations in my neighborhood, proudly brought to you by Del Monte and Sip dishsoap

Del Monte's version of Santa is a parrot with a juice box?

There is the weird Santa again...and notice the tree topper.

If you look closely, the tree is made of tiers of Sip soap containers.

more Christmas glitter

For those of you who do not have Facebook, I enjoy this picture too much not to share it.  When you find yourself around life size ornaments, it's best to try to blend in...

Decorations in Parque el Mar

Go big or go home.

The three wisemen, complete with camel.

Strange little gingerbread/peppermint boys.

life size ornaments covered in GLITTER!!!

Apt holiday decorations

Christmas is huge in Panama... wait until I get some pictures of the decorations on my street posted.  My roommate and I do not want to deal with a live tree, but I had to decorate a little bit.  Here is my "arbor de luz" on our patio door. 

And here is my Kuna Yala (native Panamanian tribe who have managed to maintain many of their cultural traditions, including intricate fabric art) Christmas stocking.  I love that it has both Christmas bells and palm fronds on it. 

Two friends and I are going to Pedasi (a great little beach town on the Pacific Coast) for Christmas, and although we are not going to do a huge present exchange, both of them were on board when I suggested that we all bring stockings.  I have already gotten the stocking stuffers for both of them, and am excited for Christmas morning when my new stocking is overflowing with fun presents. 

Boquete

Thanks to the celebration of Panama's Independence from Spain, we had a three day weekend, so took a girls road trip to Boquete.  It is about 8 hours northwest of Panama City, but feels like a world away.  I wore a hoodie for the first time in six months, which was glorious.  We were surrounded by mountains, there were pine trees everywhere, and the 60 degree weather gave us a great excuse to drink hot chocolate with every meal.  We also got to visit a coffee plantation- all shade grown beans that are sustainably harvested.

Myself, Mallory, Denise, and Julia spent a lovely morning
hiking through the field of coffee beans.

This was the Hotel Bambito- it kind of reminded me of the Kellerman's
Hotel from Dirty Dancing.

The (seriously) rainy season

Normally, we have a really nice view from our 14th floor balcony.  We can see mountains in the background, as well as a lot of architecture.  







But, when the rainy season daily storm hits (usually sometime between 11a-1p), our view goes away. This is not fog, but sheets of rain that obscured all visibility.  The cats and I were happy to be inside watching movies during this morning's storm.

reflections on the mountain town of El Valle

Sometimes it feels like I live in a developing country.

Sometimes it feels like I live in Jurassic Park.

Always it feels like I live in a rainy, humid, Tropical climate.

Fiestas Patrias parade in a small town

The local Fire Brigade led the parade.

The Sassy Girls Junior High Dance Squad (as we called them), shook their booties all the way down the street. 

Every school-age child wore their uniform to march.

A little girl and boy, dressed in traditional Panamanian dress;  the girl had to hold out her skirts for the entire parade, and her principal continously corrected her wrist alignment and posture.  I say, let the 6 year old march!

India Dormida

Spending the weekend in the mountains of Panama was calming and lovely.  Hiking to the top of this mountain (right), was challenging and slippery and cold, but gave me a sense of accomplishment. 

 Before we started the serious hiking, we took a group photo by a trickling waterfall (2 hours later, when we crossed it again on the way out, it was a raging torrent that hide all of those pretty rocks we are standing on).  We look clean, energetic, and ready to face the Sleeping Indian Girl mountain. 

Forty minutes before reaching the top, it started to pour cats, dogs, lizards, and spiders.  All of the rain made the mossy rocks very slippery, and I made it the last 20 minutes on sheer determination alone.  This is the view of the entire valley town of El Valle from the 'nose' of the sleeping indian girl mountain.  It was pretty in the rain, but I bet it would have been outstanding on a sunny day. 

To get back to our hotel for a well earned hot shower, all of us hopped in the back of a pick-up truck taxi cab.  I don't know if the phrase 'drowned rat' comes to mind when you see this picture, but that's how I felt.  But the townspeople loved seeing a taxi full of gringos drive through the one street on the town.  They laughed and waved and smiled, which made a bit of the challenging part of the hike seem funnier. 

ISP Halloween

The kids dressed up in a variety of (surprisingly appropriate) costumes, the teachers dressed like angst-filled, dress code violating teenagers.  And most of us have dress-code violation detention slips in our hands or around our necks. 

This is our teen angst photo;  I am rolling my eyes like any good teenager, Austin and Nick are spacing out, Andrew and Kim look like they have a secret, and Denise looks stressed out by IB exams.

Sunset

 It usually starts raining at about 2pm each day, but occasionally, we get some gorgeous sunsets. 

ISP 30th Anniversary Staff Gala

At my old school, I had to buy chalk.  Literally.  Each year, I would go to Office Depot and get the one good kind of chalk, because the school always bought the cheap stuff that didn't erase.  When we had staff parties, we had to pay $30 to attend, which included one alcoholic beverage.

At my new school, they feed us at staff meetings, they buy new materials, and when they throw a staff party to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the school, they do it at the Marriot, complete with gift baskets for each teacher, unlimited food and alcohol (I drank a lovely amount of champagne), and with a 10 piece live band for after dinner dancing.

My friend Janelle and I

I am still a strong believer in public education and the right of poor kids to get a world class education, but last night's party pulled me over to the privatization dark side, just for a few hours. 

The traditional Panamanian dancers who performed.

When the 8 piece band started playing, everyone, and I mean everyone, started dancing.  Gotta love those Latin coworkers.  They danced for hours, all in 6" heels.  I am still in awe of them. 

PanaMUN XX

This week, ISP hosted the 20th Int'l School of Panama Model United Nations conference, aka PanaMUN.  Every student in the high school participated, as well as 100 kids from 13 other countries, including Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Canada, and the US.  It was a wonderful event, all student run and organized.  Next year I will be the PanaMUN director, and after seeing how well run this event is, I am both excited and daunted.

Prosecco in Panama

What I think a glass of prosecco should look like.

What a glass of Prosecco looks like in Panama:  poured over ice, mixed with a shot of Red Bull, and garnished with a squeeze of lemon and a straw.  I tried to drink it, but just couldn't make do.  Panama bartender:  1, Laura: 0.  

The Best Empenadas in Panama

 So everyone raves about this place;  if you are driving to the Pacific Beaches, you MUST stop at Quesos Chela on the way.  As you can see, it's not much to look at.  What you cannot see from this picture is the line of 25 people waiting to buy fresh-made cheese, empenadas, and breads. 




So here is a cheese empenada, supposedly the best in Panama.  After taking a bite, I can confirm that while it had a nice blend of sweet corn tortilla mixed with very salty cheese, it can't hold a candle to the empenadas in Chile.

Verdict:  For Panama, it isn't bad.  For the world, it is just mas o menos (so-so). 

Swimhole

What'd you do this weekend?  Oh, you know, just kayaked to a hidden waterfall, and swam around in the swimhole created by the waterfall.  The water in the swimhole was much chillier than the bathtub water in the Pacific, but the chance of maybe running into a crocodile make it that much more exciting!

Monkeys!

This weekend, my mom and I took a jungle cruise on the lakes of the Canal, and there were monkeys everywhere.  Our captain had brought a bunch of peanuts and bananas, which he distributed to us to get the monkeys to come over.  It was pretty darn amazing.

These tiny little white bundles (which kind of look like owls) are actually tiny little monkeys.  I got to feed one- it was pretty great. 

You can see how tiny this monkey is- the captain told us that it weighs something like 16oz, and is about 6 inches long.  Kind of like a gerbil-sized monkey. 









And the monkeys felt comfortable enough to play around the boat.  I really enjoy how sprightly this little guy looks in this picture.