Panama

2nd port has come and gone. Our time in Panama seemed to fly by, even though I didn’t get to do a whole lot. Our berthing situation was tricky in Panama. On the first day we were anchored in the harbor and used tender boats to get ashore. Sounds easy enough right? Not when the water is choppy – it was crazy getting people in and out of boats when the boats are rolling crazily and waves are crashing up under the pontoon. It was so rough that they couldn’t let anyone off the ship on our first night – boy did that not go over too well. Everyone was upset until the next morning when they saw what a death wish it was to get on and off the boats.

On the evening of our first full day there we moved to a high security fueling port to berth. We were supposed to be there for 3 days and then anchor back out in the harbor again for the last two days. Luckily things changed and we were able to stay berthed the rest of our stay. Even though being berthed was preferable to tendering it was still not easy. Rodman terminal is an old US military base and because it is a fueling port it is high security and it’s pretty far outside the city. TSS did run shuttles to a big mall in Panama City during the day and to a popular tourist hot spot street in the evenings which helped.

After 14 days on the ship I was sooooo ready to get off the ship on our second full day there. This too, was not as easy as it sounded. Problem is I am tied to the ship most mornings to get trips off – by the time I am free there usually isn’t anyone around to do anything with. Normally I would be totally happy to do things by myself but since it was so tricky to get anywhere from our berth AND I was so shattered from having to troubleshoot so much – the thought of having to make even the simplest decision made me want to cry.

I solved that problem on the first day by taking an eight year old to the mall. Kyra is the third grade daughter of our Director of Student Life. Like me, she ends up being tied to ship a lot because her mom and dad are both working on the ship. So when I was finally free on the 2nd day I asked if she wanted to go to the mall with me. She was thrilled. So we took the shuttle to the mall and spent the whole day there. We window shopped, ate lunch and hunted animals. Yes, hunted animals. This gigantic mall is broken down into sections that are named after animals. A large statue of each animal can be found in each section so Kyra and I went hunting for all of the animal statues. In fact it was our quest to find the zebras and the lion (the last ones in our search) that caused us to miss the 2pm shuttle back to the ship. The next shuttle wasn’t until 4pm so what did we do to kill even more time at the mall? Got manicures of course. Kyra had never gotten a manicure and was excited about the idea. She was most impressed by the price of the manicures – only 4 dollars. All in all it was not a bad first day off the ship.

I think the highlight of my time in Panama was the day that I did a shore excursion to the Chagres River. The Chagres is one of the main rivers that feeds water into the Panama Canal (did I mention that the little bit I saw of us going through the canal was pretty cool). This trip took us down to the river and we got in a gigantic motorized canoe – fifteen of us in one canoe. We traveled down the river for about 20 minutes, then hiked through the woods and through streams for about 30 minutes more. This brought us to a gorgeous waterfall and watering hole. The swimming was great! There were the most beautiful giant brilliant blue butterflies flying all over the woods and near the watering hole. The water was a perfect temperature.

After swimming we hiked back and took the canoe back down the river about 15 minutes. We then stopped at an Embera Indian village. The Embera Indians are an indigenous tribe in Panama who lost all their forms of making a living (hunting and farming) when their land became part of a national park. Rather than lose their land they decided to stay and instead of hunting and farming they now make their living off of tourism. It’s weird - I’m usually uncomfortable in these kinds of situations. I usually feel like we are being horrible gawky tourists or I feel like the indigenous folks are just putting on a show for the tourists (and putting on their jeans and t-shirts as soon as we are gone). I didn’t feel either way in this village. They are very open and honest about the fact that they make their living off of tourism. At the same time they seem generally excited to share their culture with others and they see this as a way to preserve their culture.

We had a lovely lunch in the village – fresh tilapia, fried mashed plantains, fresh watermelon, pineapple, guava and bananas. They showed us the crafts that they make – out of nuts, roots and they super heavy wood. The women also make these beautiful baskets that take months to complete. We also got tattoos – some sort of dye from a tree that they use – similar to henna it will last about 7 days. After lunch they taught us some of their dances and I finished off the day by pulling out my bottle of bubbles and blowing bubbles with all of the kids – they loved it! It was a lovely day and one of the few where I really felt like I left the ship and work behind.

My other favorite memory of Panama has to be our last night. Ok picture this: Dana - a 69 year old retired US Navy Capt, Ken - a middle aged tall lanky bald Canadian business professor, Bachir - a short, balding, gregarious French man who teaches science in Morocco, Anne - a mid-30s blond Scottish woman (who works for Royal Car. and is helping us out til Ecuador) and Kim our totally fun loving Kiwi Shore Ex Manager. All five of them and I went out for dinner at a tapas restaurant in Old Panama on our last night. It was a really great meal – 11 courses for only $20. They put popcorn on the salad and it was actually pretty good. One of the courses was octopus – I usually find octopus or squid chewy but this delicious and super tender – even the large tentacles that were at least and inch in diameter. It was so nice to have some food with a lot of flavor. The food on the ship is very good but it is dining hall-type food so it is sometimes lacking in real flavor.

Well after dinner Kim convinces us that we should go to the nightclub where all of the students are having a last night in Panama party. It is a nightclub owned by one of the business owners who worked with one of our Academic Field programs all week. We find cabs and ask many different times and ways if they know where Crème is? They assure us yes they do and we take off through the city. They drop us off at this night club that clearly does not say Crème and looks like a local shady place. So what do we do? We start walking the streets looking for Crème, of course. Everyone we ask tells us something different or starts taking us to a different place. I’m sure we were looking like quite a cast of characters walking through the streets of Panama looking for this nightclub. Just as we were about to give up and the light rain that had been falling gets heavier we find the place. It was a total cheesy disco playing all the old favorites including I Will Survive and YMCA. The students were having fun and it was nice that we stopped by.

So you’d think that is where the adventure would end – but alas you would be wrong. About an hour later all of us but Kim decide to head back to the ship. Just as we walk outside there is a cab dropping off some students. So we start to negotiate a price to get back to the ship. We thought we had a deal but when all five of us cram in the cab driver starts negotiating again. Anne and Bachir who know the most Spanish start arguing and negotiating a price. This takes about 10 minutes. Finally we agree and off we go. We are about half way back to the ship when we start to cross the Bridge of the Americas and the cab starts to shake and shimmy and feels like it is losing power. The cab driver pulls over and we all get out thinking it’s probably a flat tire. No flat tire and no one knows what’s wrong with the car – it’s now 11:30pm and the five of us and the cab driver are all standing on this bridge. Hmm….so what do we do? Of course we get back in the car and cabbie tries to keep driving. Downhill we do ok but every time he goes uphill even the slightest bit we shake and shimmy and it feels like the power is just going to die. We aren’t going more than 5-10 miles per hour. Anne is freaking out – it’s the engine!, it’s the axel!, we are going to die! Everyone else is just laughing and hoping we can make it to the ship because we are in the middle of no where with no other cabs in sight. We final chug into the terminal – a trip that normally would take 20-30 minutes took over an hour. After all of that the cab driver actually tried to get more money out of us because of all the trouble – ha, ha! What a silly expedition for our last night.

All in all I enjoyed Panama. The people are generally friendly. There is a nice mix of South American, Caribbean and Central American influences in Panama. The Sangria was quite good. Panama City looks like it is in the middle of a huge redevelopment. They are improving the old city and there are tons of condos and other high rises going up in the city.

Now we are back out at sea. Only a three day trip to Ecuador – we arrive tomorrow. Hopefully I will get more time away in Ecuador.

Thanks to all of you who have left comments – these small notes from home keep me going. Thanks bunches!