Hola! We have spent the past two days living the life of our friend Rachel. Rachel moved to Panama to be a teacher, and this year has moved from being a teacher at an international school to working at a community center in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Panama City- Curundu. We spent two days at the center, one day teaching Bible, the next teaching English. It is 'tranquilo', very laid back, kids coming in and out, and amazing teachers and volunteers who oversee it all! The kids are soo cute, and so well behaved! Today, their school was cancelled (school is apparently sporadic, kids often released early or teachers just cancel classes) so there was 40 kids there for the morning session! The center is small, 2 rooms, a patio, and kitchen, but the kids are respectful and have a great time despite the cramped spaces. The kids get breakfast and lunch, all made at the center. Rachel is amazing, connecting with the kids who have so little, giving them something to look foward to in their day to day life. She has such a heart for the children of Latin America and it definitly shows through her work. The first morning we were there, we got to walk back further into the neighborhoods to visit a new baby. Even while we walked back, we were warned...'you know its dangerous back there'. The houses were built on stilts over basically a swamp filled with garbage. It was dirty, and although I did not feel threatened or nervous, apparently the local gangs war with each other, thus making the area very dangerous. It breaks my heart to think that most likely the 11 and 12 year old boys at the center will soon (or already have) drop out of school and be pulled into the gangs.
Thank you Rachel for allowing us to be a part of your life for a few days, letting us crash on your air mattress, and showing us a different side of Panama!
Below are pictures of Paradise Gardens, El Valle, Playa Palmar, Panama City and Curundu...Enjoy!
Showing posts with label Panama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Panama. Show all posts
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Panama...
Good bye GAP. We are here in Panama City and have just said good bye to the four girls we have been traveling with since Mexico City, as well as the rest of the group and our leader Micheal. Its hard to believe that we have crossed six boarders, visited seven countries, and have been traveling for two months. We have seen so much and meet so many people, yet it feels like we are just starting our travels after saying good bye to the group.
This past week has been slower but, we have seen and enjoyed each place we visited. From Bocas del Toro we traveled to Boquete where we stayed at a cozy hotel which had the feel of a hostel- communal kitchen, TV room, and balcony. The best thing about Boquete, and maybe our whole trip was our visits to a place called Paradise Gardens. A couple from England retired in Boquete and brought with them a few Macaws that they owned in England. Since moving to Panama, their home has turned into a rehabilitation house where threatened, poorly cared for and/or abused animals are taken in, cared for and then, if possible released back into their natural habitat. Paul and his wife Debbie showed us all the animals and told us the stories of how they ended up here. Some of the few animals they have or once had in there home are geoffroys, tamarins, kinkajou, margay, sloth, tucans, macaws, monkeys and much more. During our visit we were able to feed Niki the kinkajou a banana, pet the margay, scratch/pet and hold Precious the scarlet macaw, go inside the cage of the white faced monkeys and play with Billy and Montey, hold Tember the 3 month old sloth and talk with the birds. Our fist visit was great and we loved it so much we decided to go back the next day and it was just as a amazing. Its so great to see Paul and Debbie be so welcoming to what was unspokenly set out before them. Their plan was to retire, have a beautiful garden and butterfuly house, but instead they have spent the last three years creating Paradise Gardens. The have already helped so many animals, and are showing no signs of stopping! They truly love their life and are so thankful to be caring for the animals! The volunteers we met who help them really seemed to enjoy their work as well. One of the girls from our GAP tour is actually heading back to spend another week volunteering there. They are working on their website right now, but if anyone is looking for a great place to contribute to the environment and play with animals, we have their contact info! If time had elated Heather and I both would love to have stayed and volunteer but sadly we had to continue on.
From Boquete we traveled our last long day to a town called El Valle. El Valle is a town inside the crater of a volcano. Apparently millions of years ago the volcano erupted and created a crater lake. An earthquake happened and cracked the moutains and the water ran out and now people have been living here for a few hundred years. If living inside a crater isnt strange enough this town is surounded by mountains and the most famous mountain is the Sleeping Indian Girl. The legend goes that when colonizers came to El Valle there was a prince who fell in love with an indian girl. The prince went back to his father to ask if he could marry the girl. The king said no because he was obligated to merry someone of royalty. The indian girl did not like this decision, and then killed herself. According to legend, she now lays in the moutain side wating for her prince to return. Once her prince returns she will wake up and they will live happly ever after. This is just one version of the story there are many more but the outline of the indina girl dose layout on the moutian. During our time here we took a day excursion to a beach town called Pelmar where we learned how to surf and layed out on the beach. Micheal, our guide rented a surf board gave us a little lession and then took us out into the Pacific ocean and attempted to teach us to surf. After a few attempts, both Heather and I succefuly stood up on the board and it was great. Who knows, maybe we will take surf class while we are in Australia to better our skills. Either way, it was loads of fun and it was a great last day at the beach with everyone before our last stop, Panama City.
We started our trip in Mexico City and we are here in Panama City ending it. Panama city has been a great place to end the tour, an amazing city with a rich history. Before saying good bye to everyone Michael took us around town and showed us Casco Viejo, The Canal, and the View Piont. Panama has two down towns- "the new town" which is filled with modern sky rises, and "the old town" which is called Casco Viejo. Casco Viejo has become Panamas historical site where you see vintage buildings, churches, plazas and the first university. It was really interesting to see the contrast of old and new, and take in the impact the canal has had on this city, its people, and the surronding land. The next day we spent the morning at Miraflores Locks- one of the engineering wonders of the world. Toriann and I thought it looked a lot like the Ballard locks (other than it had a HUGE freight going through holding 5000 or so Japanese cars, haha). The Panama canal has been open for 94 years now, and has been hugely successful. It has shaped a large part of Panama Citys history, impacting the people to the politics. The US handed over control in 1999, with many fears about how the Panamanians would handle the switch. But the canal is more efficient than ever, and an expanded portion is currently being built.
So, we are now transitioning to being on our own, being without the group and a guide. We have a few more days in Panama City, staying with Torianns roommate from SPU, Rachel. She has been kind enough to let us stay in her apartment that she shares with 3 other girls! Tomorrow she is going to let us tag along to the community center where she tutors inner city children!
We hope all is well at home!
Much love, Heather and Toriann
This past week has been slower but, we have seen and enjoyed each place we visited. From Bocas del Toro we traveled to Boquete where we stayed at a cozy hotel which had the feel of a hostel- communal kitchen, TV room, and balcony. The best thing about Boquete, and maybe our whole trip was our visits to a place called Paradise Gardens. A couple from England retired in Boquete and brought with them a few Macaws that they owned in England. Since moving to Panama, their home has turned into a rehabilitation house where threatened, poorly cared for and/or abused animals are taken in, cared for and then, if possible released back into their natural habitat. Paul and his wife Debbie showed us all the animals and told us the stories of how they ended up here. Some of the few animals they have or once had in there home are geoffroys, tamarins, kinkajou, margay, sloth, tucans, macaws, monkeys and much more. During our visit we were able to feed Niki the kinkajou a banana, pet the margay, scratch/pet and hold Precious the scarlet macaw, go inside the cage of the white faced monkeys and play with Billy and Montey, hold Tember the 3 month old sloth and talk with the birds. Our fist visit was great and we loved it so much we decided to go back the next day and it was just as a amazing. Its so great to see Paul and Debbie be so welcoming to what was unspokenly set out before them. Their plan was to retire, have a beautiful garden and butterfuly house, but instead they have spent the last three years creating Paradise Gardens. The have already helped so many animals, and are showing no signs of stopping! They truly love their life and are so thankful to be caring for the animals! The volunteers we met who help them really seemed to enjoy their work as well. One of the girls from our GAP tour is actually heading back to spend another week volunteering there. They are working on their website right now, but if anyone is looking for a great place to contribute to the environment and play with animals, we have their contact info! If time had elated Heather and I both would love to have stayed and volunteer but sadly we had to continue on.
From Boquete we traveled our last long day to a town called El Valle. El Valle is a town inside the crater of a volcano. Apparently millions of years ago the volcano erupted and created a crater lake. An earthquake happened and cracked the moutains and the water ran out and now people have been living here for a few hundred years. If living inside a crater isnt strange enough this town is surounded by mountains and the most famous mountain is the Sleeping Indian Girl. The legend goes that when colonizers came to El Valle there was a prince who fell in love with an indian girl. The prince went back to his father to ask if he could marry the girl. The king said no because he was obligated to merry someone of royalty. The indian girl did not like this decision, and then killed herself. According to legend, she now lays in the moutain side wating for her prince to return. Once her prince returns she will wake up and they will live happly ever after. This is just one version of the story there are many more but the outline of the indina girl dose layout on the moutian. During our time here we took a day excursion to a beach town called Pelmar where we learned how to surf and layed out on the beach. Micheal, our guide rented a surf board gave us a little lession and then took us out into the Pacific ocean and attempted to teach us to surf. After a few attempts, both Heather and I succefuly stood up on the board and it was great. Who knows, maybe we will take surf class while we are in Australia to better our skills. Either way, it was loads of fun and it was a great last day at the beach with everyone before our last stop, Panama City.
We started our trip in Mexico City and we are here in Panama City ending it. Panama city has been a great place to end the tour, an amazing city with a rich history. Before saying good bye to everyone Michael took us around town and showed us Casco Viejo, The Canal, and the View Piont. Panama has two down towns- "the new town" which is filled with modern sky rises, and "the old town" which is called Casco Viejo. Casco Viejo has become Panamas historical site where you see vintage buildings, churches, plazas and the first university. It was really interesting to see the contrast of old and new, and take in the impact the canal has had on this city, its people, and the surronding land. The next day we spent the morning at Miraflores Locks- one of the engineering wonders of the world. Toriann and I thought it looked a lot like the Ballard locks (other than it had a HUGE freight going through holding 5000 or so Japanese cars, haha). The Panama canal has been open for 94 years now, and has been hugely successful. It has shaped a large part of Panama Citys history, impacting the people to the politics. The US handed over control in 1999, with many fears about how the Panamanians would handle the switch. But the canal is more efficient than ever, and an expanded portion is currently being built.
So, we are now transitioning to being on our own, being without the group and a guide. We have a few more days in Panama City, staying with Torianns roommate from SPU, Rachel. She has been kind enough to let us stay in her apartment that she shares with 3 other girls! Tomorrow she is going to let us tag along to the community center where she tutors inner city children!
We hope all is well at home!
Much love, Heather and Toriann
Monday, September 29, 2008
Bikes, beaches, bananas and boats
We have completed our time in Costa Rica, our last stop in Puerto Viejo...an old port town, now a Caribbean beach town surrounded by banana plantations. We are on the fourth and final portion of the trip, and we got to spend 3 nights in Puerto Viejo, which was amazing. We spent the first night having dinner at a soda restaurant (a small hole in the wall restaurant, Costa Rican style) having traditional, famous rice and beans. Rice and beans here are made with coconut milk and served with your choice of meat, our favorite was fish with Caribbean sauce...soooo goood! After dinner, we found a place called Bread and Chocolate. Bread and Chocolate was a dangerous place...haha, they served mint brownie sundaes to fried egg sandwiches to homemade bagels..soooo good too!
The next day we rented bikes and rode to a couple nearby beaches-Cocles and Punta Uva, both were beautiful with turquoise water and white sand. We decided to have a survivor challenge and see who could get down a coconut to drink. After some unsuccessful attempts to climb the trees, throw stones and old coconuts, a kind lifeguard lent us a ladder and a knife. We then managed to open it up with just a stone and shared in drinking coconut juice fresh from a coconut. It definitely made me have respect for those people on Survivor!
The following day, our tour leader took us to Cahuita National Park. Cahuita National Park was established in the 1970s to protect the large coral reef just off shore. Unfortantly, the reef is still dying due partially to a large earthquake in 1992, but also from pesticide run off from the large banana plantations. The pesticide causes plankton blooms that block the sunlight and poison the water. These same banana plantation use bags to protect the bananas from bugs. The bags are not properly disposed of and almost always end up in the sea. This is rapidly killing off the turtle population, as the turtles can choke on the bags. To say the least, banana plantations are having a harmful effect on the environment. Chiquita and Dole are two major companies who are taking part in the careless treatment of the environment, and it makes you think twice when buying produce at home. The park itself was beautiful, including rain forests filled with Howler and white-faced Capuchin monkeys, sloths, hawks, and leaf-cutting ants. After exploring the jungle, we visited the beaches that lined Cahuita National Park, which were similar to the beaches from the day before. After spending the day at the park, we headed back to Bread and Chocolate for a late afternoon snack before we had our last plate of rice and beans, so good but sad to have to say goodbye to Costa Rica!
In the morning we crossed our last border in Central America with GAP. We finally arrived in Panama!! Our first stop in Panama is in the district of Bocas del Toro, on Isla Colon, the most developed of the 6 islands in the area. It is an Afro Caribbean island with a small town feel. It was discovered by Columbus, who named it after himself, then left because there was no gold. A few hundred years later, immigrants from Jamiaca and England came to the island, leaving a mixed population of Afro Caribbeans, indigenous tribes, and white people from the mainland. The islands were also commercialized by the United Fruit Company (banana farms now owned by Chiquita, Dole and Del Monte) in the 1900s. Bananas remain one of the major exports of Panama, as well as most countries in Central America.
Our first and only excursion we did on the island was the Catamaran tour. We spent the day relaxing on the boat watching the dolphins swim by and snorkeled in a privately contracted part of the reef. Our first stop was amazing, the water was so clear and the reef was filled with brilliant colors of the rainbow. As for the coral reef its the best we have seen so far. After our relaxing snorkel swim I (Toriann) thought it would be fun to swim to a nearby island to get some exercise. Well in the midst of swimming I felt my body starting the sting and then realized i had swam through a spool of jelly fish. I was not just stung once but about four times. Thus, I decided to swim back. Never being stung by a jelly fish before I was shocked by how bad it hurts. My advice is if you see jelly fish don't then go for a leisurely swim because there inevitably will be more. After the jelly fish encounter, we boarded the boat had amazing sub sandwiches and boated to the second snorkeling spot. Heather and i ventured out to snorkel but still freaked out about the jelly fish I freaked out midway and swam back. Heather, on the other hand was much braver and snorkeled around the beautiful coral reef and enjoyed the colors of the reef and fish. Before we realized the day had past and we were back on the island were we spent the rest of the evening relaxing around town. The Caribbean chill feel has really grown on us and it is sad to have to say good bye.
The next day we rented bikes and rode to a couple nearby beaches-Cocles and Punta Uva, both were beautiful with turquoise water and white sand. We decided to have a survivor challenge and see who could get down a coconut to drink. After some unsuccessful attempts to climb the trees, throw stones and old coconuts, a kind lifeguard lent us a ladder and a knife. We then managed to open it up with just a stone and shared in drinking coconut juice fresh from a coconut. It definitely made me have respect for those people on Survivor!
The following day, our tour leader took us to Cahuita National Park. Cahuita National Park was established in the 1970s to protect the large coral reef just off shore. Unfortantly, the reef is still dying due partially to a large earthquake in 1992, but also from pesticide run off from the large banana plantations. The pesticide causes plankton blooms that block the sunlight and poison the water. These same banana plantation use bags to protect the bananas from bugs. The bags are not properly disposed of and almost always end up in the sea. This is rapidly killing off the turtle population, as the turtles can choke on the bags. To say the least, banana plantations are having a harmful effect on the environment. Chiquita and Dole are two major companies who are taking part in the careless treatment of the environment, and it makes you think twice when buying produce at home. The park itself was beautiful, including rain forests filled with Howler and white-faced Capuchin monkeys, sloths, hawks, and leaf-cutting ants. After exploring the jungle, we visited the beaches that lined Cahuita National Park, which were similar to the beaches from the day before. After spending the day at the park, we headed back to Bread and Chocolate for a late afternoon snack before we had our last plate of rice and beans, so good but sad to have to say goodbye to Costa Rica!
In the morning we crossed our last border in Central America with GAP. We finally arrived in Panama!! Our first stop in Panama is in the district of Bocas del Toro, on Isla Colon, the most developed of the 6 islands in the area. It is an Afro Caribbean island with a small town feel. It was discovered by Columbus, who named it after himself, then left because there was no gold. A few hundred years later, immigrants from Jamiaca and England came to the island, leaving a mixed population of Afro Caribbeans, indigenous tribes, and white people from the mainland. The islands were also commercialized by the United Fruit Company (banana farms now owned by Chiquita, Dole and Del Monte) in the 1900s. Bananas remain one of the major exports of Panama, as well as most countries in Central America.
Our first and only excursion we did on the island was the Catamaran tour. We spent the day relaxing on the boat watching the dolphins swim by and snorkeled in a privately contracted part of the reef. Our first stop was amazing, the water was so clear and the reef was filled with brilliant colors of the rainbow. As for the coral reef its the best we have seen so far. After our relaxing snorkel swim I (Toriann) thought it would be fun to swim to a nearby island to get some exercise. Well in the midst of swimming I felt my body starting the sting and then realized i had swam through a spool of jelly fish. I was not just stung once but about four times. Thus, I decided to swim back. Never being stung by a jelly fish before I was shocked by how bad it hurts. My advice is if you see jelly fish don't then go for a leisurely swim because there inevitably will be more. After the jelly fish encounter, we boarded the boat had amazing sub sandwiches and boated to the second snorkeling spot. Heather and i ventured out to snorkel but still freaked out about the jelly fish I freaked out midway and swam back. Heather, on the other hand was much braver and snorkeled around the beautiful coral reef and enjoyed the colors of the reef and fish. Before we realized the day had past and we were back on the island were we spent the rest of the evening relaxing around town. The Caribbean chill feel has really grown on us and it is sad to have to say good bye.
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