ISP Bowling Night

I am not living in a 3rd world country, at least in terms of bowling alleys.  We ate nachos and chicken fingers while bowling.  What was supposed to be high school teachers vs middle school teachers ended up as a fun free-for-all.

And I know it's hard to see, b/c the computer erased the big score as soon as the game was over, but check it out... L = Laura = 114 for the game.  I've never done that well.  On my team, the closest score was 90.

Caving Adventure...

....which was much harder than I expected.  I pictured us strolling through the woods, walking into 30 ft caverns, taking pictures of stalactites.  Instead, we hiked through the jungle, bellycrawled through 3ft holes, got scratched up by jagged edges of rocks, pulled ourselves up and over 5 ft boulders, and generally got the snot beat out of us.  Just for context, the guy from Man vs Wild spent a week in this park, so it's not for sissies. While I feel like a total badass for finishing, this is not a Panama experience that I need to repeat.  

gorgeous, but intimidating

in many of the caves, cockroaches the size of oranges were hanging out everywhere.  And the passage through the cave was very skinny, so it took a lot of shimmying to make it though the cave without touching any huge cockroaches.

It's hard to tell, but all of those little black spots are bats.  There were so many bats in these caves, and although  I definitely screeched the first time one of them dive-bombed me, they were pretty cool 

mi cumpleaños

It's my birthday, and look at all of these new friends who showed up to help me celebrate!  It's the first time I've had to work on my birthday in 13 years.  At least today was a half day followed by an afternoon of professional development.  For my birthday dinner, we had burgers, terrible $1 draft beers, cake, and lots of laughs.  And check out the fancy cake that Emma unexpectedly brought- chocolate cake with vanilla frosting, yum!  What a great way to celebrate!

Besides sharing my birthday with Julia Child, Ben Affleck, and India's Independence Day,  I learned today that August 15 is the anniversary of the opening of the Panama Canal.  Although we had to work, the rest of the city had the day off.

Bridge of the Americas

This the Bridge of the Americas, which spans the Panama Canal.  The Bridge is one section of the Pan-American highway, a road that runs from Mexico all the way down to Chile.  On our way to whale watching, we got to cruise underneath it, and I have to say, it's pretty impressive.

Whale Watching

Best Sunday ever!  Wake up at 5am, catch a ride to the marina, get in a speed boat, go 50 miles off the coast, and then wait.  We were lucky, as we only waited about 15 minutes until this pod of 5 humpbacks appeared.  It was amazing- they played hide and seek with the boat, they sang a little, and they let us follow them for almost 80 minutes.  On the video you will hear us cheering, which we did for those 80 minutes.  The whales were about 20 ft from the boat.  It was awesome, in the true awe-inspiring sense of the word. 

Note:  You can press play to watch, but for sweet details, make it full screen, and you'll be able to see their blowholes and humpbacks.

Skyline at night

It is almost like looking over Chicago;  lots of highrises, tons of traffic congestion, and bright electronic billboards that flash all night long.  But tonight, after eating a blue cheese burger that tasted like smoked ham, walking by piles of trash in the streets (no alleys), and listening to 10 dogs bark at each other (or maybe the moon), I know that it's definitely not Chicago... too many palm trees.