¡Panamá!

What an adventure! So there were two reasons behind me going to Panamá. Number one and the most important one was that my best friend in the entire world, Adri, was going to meet me in Panama City. She lives in Bogota Colombia and we hadn’t seen each other in 4 years! Neither one of us had been to Panama and it seemed like a great way to start our dreams of traveling the world together. Plus I had to leave Costa Rica for a couple days in order to renew my tourist visa.

So how do you get to Panamá City? Fly? I don’t have $450 to spare so I took the cheap way: $50 for a two way bus ticket to Panamá City. The worst part? It is a 15 hour bus ride, not including the time it takes to go through the boarder crossings. Now, I’ve done the 14 hour plane ride to India but this was just painful. Not to mention getting from Monteverde to San Jose is a 5 hour bus ride. So on Saturday, I spent over 20 hours on a bus. But when I got off the bus, there was my gorgeous hugging me! It was wonderful to see her!

I got off the bus a little early, at 4 in the morning, at Rio Hato. A beach town where we stayed the night with a friend of a friend who lives in a condo really close to the beach. Adri and I spend 3 hours just talking, but then we fell asleep for a few hours. At noon we woke up, had French toast and then went to the beach. It was so much fun to just spend a day on the beach. There was a open air beach bar that had shaded seats and amazing cooking that we just relaxed, listened to music and spent time with our new friends. They did the most amazing barbeque with chicken, beef, sausage and veggies. Oh my goodness it tasted good! I was just a fantastic relaxing day.

The next morning Richard, a driver paid for by one of Adri’s friends, picked us up and we went to Panamá City. The city is huge! Lots of traffic, noise and smells. I usually have a pretty good sense of direction but there was no way for me to remember where I was going once we left the place we were staying. Adri’s connections had gotten us a room at a woman’s apartment that included breakfast. It was on the 4^th floor of a building in the city with a view of some of the city. The room was so nice! A real mattress, real pillows, a ceiling fan, a mirror that is bigger than just my face and a nice bathroom for the two of us. It was wonderful!

After dropping off our stuff at the apartment, we went to see the Canal de Panamá. There are three major locks that you can visit and the biggest one, in the city, is the Mineflores Locks. For $8, there is a museum and a couple informative videos that you can watch in addition to some really good viewing spots. Here are some fun facts about the canal:

• Construction of the canal began in 1881 by French pioneers. A lot of the workers died from yellow fever and malaria.
• Eventually construction of the canal was taken over by American contractors.
• The canal was dug by thousands of people and machines that removed enough soil from the isthmus between North and South America to circle the world about 4 times.
• There were special ships that had digging scoops on the bottom of them that allowed them to work much faster.
• The canal was completed in 1914, and the first ship to sail from one end to the other was the SS Ancon.
• It takes 8 hours for a ship to get from one end to the other.

Then we went to the observation deck and watched a couple gates close as water fill the next compartment as the ships moved though. Not too spectacular to watch, but a fantastic feat of engineering when you really think about it.

The canal is once again under construction to add two more sets of locks on either end that will allow more ships to go through, as well as ships almost twice as big as the current ships the canal allows. They are also using a new water reservation system that will allow the water to be reused, instead of just being used for the passing of one ship. The construction is proposed to be finished in 2014.

For the evening we just stayed at home talking. Girl talk with my best friend! For the first time in 4 years, we finally had time to just talk about our lives and experiences. It was so fantastic. Like a void within me that had been empty for much too long was filled. There was an emptiness that was complete when with Adri that had been there for so long I hadn’t realized it.

The next day we woke up, had a wonderful breakfast, and were picked up at 10 to go to the Bahá’í Temple. This was really important for Adri because she is Bahá’í and I really wanted to see it. I think religions are fascinating and the temple sounded like a wonderful place to visit. The temple is on a hill above the city and it was a gorgeous view. The temple itself looks a little like an egg, rounded and white, but the inside is beautiful. Every part of the architecture had a meaning. The design of the building was by an English architect and was chosen from several designs submitted for the temple. The architecture was influenced by designs from Asia, Africa, North and South America, and Europe. The Bahá’í faith is built on ideals from Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Hindu and Buddhist faiths. It is a wonderful religion to learn about. I am fascinated with it! On the roof of the temple is a 9 sided star and in the center, on Panama wood, in gold, is a beautiful phrase, written in Arabic. There are 9 open air entrances to the temple and the inside is simple and peaceful. Pictures were not allowed, but it was so beautiful!

We walked around the temple enjoying the little gardens, the trees and the fantastic view! We returned to the craziness and traffic of the city to go to the ruins of Old Panama. The ruins are what is left of the main buildings of the city. The most spectacular one is the church tower that was on the edge of the main square and a cobbled street was actually unearthed a while ago. The ruins were mostly main buildings, not houses. The homes of that time were much simpler and wouldn’t have survived very long.

After walking some of the ruins, and getting slightly sun burned, we went to dinner at a Colombian Restaurant (Adri is Colombian for those of you who don’t know). I got the “traditional” spread with about 6 different types of meat, beans, rice and all kinds of good stuff. The plate was bigger than my head!!! It was so good, and then took about 2/3 of it home. After eating we went “home” and Adri picked up her stuff and I dropped her off at the airport. It was so hard to say good bye, not knowing when I would see her again but it isn’t likely to be soon.

The next day I slept in and hired a taxi for a couple hours to try to find some authentic Panamanian art and gifts. It was fun and I got some amazing stuff at really good prices. There are the Moras that is a native art form some where in between quilting and other types of needle work. Look it up online, they are hard to describe. They are usually animals or native designs with bright colors. There were also these carvings from Tagua nut, called the ivory nut sometimes. It is kind of related to the coconut and they are carved and painted animal shapes. There were some that were just stunning! It was really fun to see the local art!

I spent the rest of the day sleeping and just relaxing until I had to go to the bus station. When I got to the bus station the time had changed from 8 pm to 9 pm, so for an hour or so I wandered around the mall/bus station. It was incredible. From the bus station, people can take a bus to all parts of Panama, plus Costa Rica and Nicaragua. It was unbelievable, the lines wove all over the place and it was insane!!

When I finally got on the bus at 9, we drove until we got to the border at about 5 am. However, the border office doesn’t open until 6, so we waited an hour, then walked to the Costa Rica border where we had to wait in line there and then wait for them to check our bags. The whole thing took about 3 hours. Then it is back on the bus. We got to San Jose at about 2:15 pm. I hopped in the closest taxi and went to the bus station to try to catch the 2:30 bus to Monteverde. I get there and there are no more buses until Saturday morning, due to Good Friday. So I paid too much money to get to Monteverde in a taxi. I really didn’t want to spend the next two days in San Jose. Half way there, the taxi I was in had to call another one because his engine was over heating.

Needless to say, it was an adventure to get home. I was then sick for two days, but the trip to Panama was pretty great for the most part. I just never want to see another bus!!

Sorry it took so long, but my parents were visiting!

Hugs all!!

Kathryn