Medillin, Colombia

September 22nd - 23rd

The bus ride from Cartagena to Medellin was 13-plus hours...that is long enough for anyone, however, when the bus driver is cranky, it just makes everyone equally cranky...and of course, we were FREEZING UNNECESSARILY. PS - plastic bags as leg-warmers, not super effective but good in a bind. Also, even the weather outside is Sahara hot, never board a South American bus without ALL THE CLOTHES YOU OWN! Luckily, we had some entertainment in the form of an older woman that sat to the other side of Hannah - she would just do really random things that made us smile, like spend a solid 20 minutes picking tangerine peels out of the bottom of her purse, have no hesitations walking right on into the men's bathroom at our rest stop, and then returning to her seat...in the bus next to ours! It made us smile lots - and she did realize her mistake eventually. However, we paid for our entertainment...in the form of REVENGE! The lady for some reason transported a cooler full of dead fish. Well, the ride was a bit windy and bumpy...thus, all the fish juice had run out and ONTO OUR BACKPACKS! Yes, we smelled of rotten fish for THE ENTIRE metro ride to center city and the walk to our hostal. Basically, people moved for us...we could literally part crowds instantly. It was like a superpower... whose consequences included smelling like sewage run-off. After the lady who checked us into the hostal graciously excused herself (probably to dry heave) a few times, we headed up to our PRIVATE room and spent the rest of the morning washing and drying EVERYTHING! Not going to lie, the city urine smell was a welcome one compared to what we emitted! Hostel Odeon...you are our savior! Clean, bug free PRIVATE rooms with towels, a mini fridge, windows, and TV!! DONE!


After a couple hours of washing, Febreezing, and washing again, we heded our to explore the city. In the heart of Medellin sits Plaza Bolivar, littered with replicas of Botero statues leading to the doors of Museo de Antioquia, a large collection or various artwork spread out amongst its four floors. Also, it was the first time we were able to use our youth cards to get in for free, saving us $8000, which we later used to buy groceries for dinner! The fastest exhibits were Botero's (just not a fan) and the portraits collection from the 1600s. The greatest piece was an abstract/mixed media that had paintbrushes and parts of various musical instruments emerging out of the canvas background! Once our brains became overwhelmed with art knowledge, we walked around town and did what we do best...people-watch. Medellin is the perfect town for someone with ADD and a little bit of street smarts...at times, overstimulating but never dull. According to Lonely Planet, there was a bookstore with a decent collection of English books, so we of course checked it out. Usually LP doesn't mislead anyone too badly, but the get a thumbs down on this one - it was a woman sitting in front of a glass case containing about 22 books, 4 of which were in English - LAME! We gathered necessary veggies for the usual tomato/cucumber/avocado salad and ate it in our OWN room, while flipping channels until landing on...drumroll please..."Dawson's Creek!" Hannah and I apologize to everyone involved in our lives during the stage of our lives where we actually thought this was a good show...we are sorry.




Relaxing after a loooong art education!

The second day consisted of jamming to great tunes and seeking out the significance of the word "mona," which Hannah and I were getting called a lot. Though we assumed it had something to do with being gringas (doesn't it always?), we confirmed with the confused gentlemen at the tourist information booth. Diplomatically, he said "it means someone with lighter hair." "Neither of us has light-colored hair." "Well, it means maybe a fairer being..." "So, it means 'whitey?'" "Well...yes." "Thanks, that is what we thought, we just wanted to make sure." Pumped with our new-found knowledge, we headed to another nearby park and stumbled upon an amazing quartet of musicians who played Vallenato classics for the rather significant yet still intimate crowd of fans that had formed beneath the trees' scattered shade. Obviously, we joined and enjoyed the infectious harmonies and the perfect blend of musicality that three guitars and a cheese grater can provide! As they sang, one older gentleman in particular observed them, us, ans everyone else with the same mouth agape, half grin/half shocked expression - almost as though he was dumbfounded or at a loss for words...just for the ENTIRE morning. He made us smile lots! Luckily, you too can enjoy his awesomeness on the right in the picture below. Once someone in the crown made a comment about "monas" and "cameras," we decided that was a perfect opportunity to explore a little more. Of course, we circled back around to catch a few more tunes within about 30 minutes of leaving the park. This time, we admired the creativity of a child sitting across from us in the park...until we realized the device he was making served as a launcher of grass and other earth-like elements...at us! Oh Medellin, never a dull moment, and we thank you for that!



Getting to our flight was quite eventful, thanks to the ridiculous security for passengers leaving Colombia. They REALLY don't want you to bring ANYTHING, other than coffee, out of that country! So, start with two separate officials that checked your ticket validity prior to entering the "security" area! Next, the usual x-ray station where they avidly discouraged the removal of shoes. Walk through metal detector. Get a 360-degree hand-held wand search from another official. Pat down from a female officer. Then, further down to the station where the police (whose main job is to keep drugs in their country?) opened each carry-on and went through it all, one item at a time. The officer (PO1) started with our deflated playground ball - she removed it, smelled it, shook it, and flipped it. Next, she held out the bag of plastic utensils (which we have strategically collected from the good places) with a very questionable look on her face, paused for a diva moment, and moved on to the peanut butter. Oh gosh. She looked at it, shook it, opened it, and took a deep whiff of it...I literally thought she was going to sample it with her pinky finger. (In Spanish to the other officer - PO2 - who was doing...NOTHING) PO1: "They have large containers of this in America, my mom says." PO2: "What is it?" PO1: "Peanut butter." PO2: "What do you do with it?" Us: "Well, you can make sandwiches with that and marmalade, or simply put it on crackers..." PO2: Makes a confused/disgusted face, reaches over and grabs it from PO1, shakes it, opens it, smells it, hesitates, makes a semi-dry heave face, puts the lid back and hands it back to PO1! Ummm...WHAAAAAAAAAAAT? Are we on candid camera? Does this really happen? This is RIDICULOUS but simultaneously hysterical! Thankfully, we only had one person in the security line ahead of us...can you imagine how long this process would take if you even had 10 people ahead of you? Years...you would need to go back and get a VISA! After another 3-4 minutes of inspecting our food bag and making what began as "really?" looks that soon turned into more pitying looks with each collection of "probably useful sometime" things that she extracted (ie napkins, salt and pepper packets, little ice cream sample spoons, etc), she then moved on to our personal belonging bags. Status of PO2: still doing nothing, but now looks like he might be contemplating the uses of peanut butter...or maybe remembering that he left the stove on? The process went much the same for our backpacks. With my other most valuable items, I packed some individually-wrapped dark chocolates that my parents sent in a care package :) Well, apparently that looks suuuuppppeeeerrr sketch...thus, a repeat of the PB inspection. PO1 shook the Ziploc of chocolates, dragged her nose along the top of the Ziploc while sniffing intently, opened it, removed one chocolate, and repeated the exact same process. To lighten the mood a little, and to ensure her I wasn't trying to smuggle drugs out of her country, I asked her if she wanted one. PO1: "What kind of chocolate is it?" Me: "It's pretty dark...about 72%." PO1: "It's sweet?" Me: "Not really." PO1: Fake dry heave with the tongue out and everything, then throws the chocolate back in the Ziploc and moves onto the next item! During the rest of the search, she kept asking us what other countries we were visiting. A common theme we have discovered among Colombians...any other country outside of Colombia "es feo!" We would endulge her a little with conversation, but that ended once she kept saying, "ahh, Ecuador...es feo! Y Peru?...Es mas feo!" DANG LADY! HARSH! What usually quiets them down is when you ask if they have ever traveled to them, which is what I asked her...you will find that 93% of the time, the answer is no. Oh gosh, Colombia - you have some die-hard patriots in your country! Once we got past security, all was well. One of our in-flight options of entertainment was watching the "Beiber" episode of "Glee!" Not super important, but it reminded me of my lovely "Caucasian" friends...I miss you ladies!

Next up... QUITO, ECUADOR! Miss everyone from home...mucho!

Cartagena, Colombia

September 19th - 22nd

After a long 22-plus hour bus ride, we got to Cartagena and took yet another bus into the center city. We walked for a good 20 minutes and finally found a hostel listed in our guidebook. More than tired, we threw our stuff into the room, went out to get food, and returned to relax. In my half-motived effort to check for chinches, I saw two or three crawling around the edge of the mattress' corner - I cannot be 100% certain they were in fact bedbugs, but I was 100% certain I didn't want to stay and find out in the morning! So as we went down to tell the man running the hostel that night why we were leaving, he became INSTANTLY defensive, dropped his pen, and said "You show me!" and STORMED up the stairs. Well, as we unfortunately have discovered, bedbugs don't really come when called. So, literally after about 5-7 seconds of us looking with out headlamps, he said (unless otherwise indicated, everything is in Spanish) "See, there are no bedbugs, THERE ARE NO BUGS!" He then RIPPED the sheets off the beds, and FLIPPED the mattresses over and half onto the floor while still screaming that there could never be bedbugs in his establishment. After about 5 more minutes of us trying to look for bedbugs while he would dive in and flip things around again, we walked down the stairs and waited for him to return our money. He did, but with a "you are very bad people to make up such lies and you better not tell ANYONE!" Well, if we didn't feel welcome before, we certainly feel comfortable to stay now!?! Holy gosh, what a way to end an already horrific 24 hours. Luckily, we chose a much nicer place and woke up the next morning, without bites or chinches - SCORE!



The next day was spent exploring, where among many other things, we found a huge, styrofoam container of freshly cut fruit for only C$2000 - the cheapest real food to be found in all of Colombia. We walked along a beach-like section of the city, took mandatory jumping pictures, and then headed to their Naval/Armed Forces monument, where Hannah tripped so high enough I could have taken another "jumping" picture. There was one lady near the beach who I thought was going to rob us, but really she just told us we would be robbed and to keep our bags close! Haha, thanks lady! Hannah and I meandered along the old fort walls of the city overlooking the ocean until the sun became hot enough to warrant a 10-minute "perusing" break in an air-conditioned bookstore. Again, no way in HECK we would ever spend $50 on a book! The colorful storefronts and cobblestoned streets provided us picturesque views for the remainder of the daylight. There was a rumba band playing on the fort walls during the night, giving us the perfect soundtrack for people-watching.







On Wednesday, we walked to the fantastic "Old Shoes" monument which I know my sister would have loved! Quite literally, a bronze sculpture of two huge, old shoes. There was another fort in that general direction of the city as well! Again, for our AC break, we headed into a little mall that had "escalators" - aka moving walkways at a tilted angle! We had SO much fun running up and down those guys - it's the little things! After completely cooling off in the refridgerated section of the mall's supermarket, we explored Las Bolvedas, a series of 20+ former dungeons-now-turned artisan shops. At one point, I look up and find Hannah being surrounded by some kids and giving me the wide-eyed "hey, come here" signal. When I joined them, I realized they were 5-6 students learning English privately with the gentleman that approached Hannah and asked her to speak to the students - this was their "get out and use it" day of English class. The ages ranged from 8-18...they were all quite shy, but the 18-year-old who spoke quite well did the majority of the talking. We asked the 15-year-old girl if she wanted to travel to another country and she said, "No, I do not want to travel because I love Colombia and I want to work in occupational health for Colombia!" I was quite impressed by the pride she had in her country and her patriotism, though I cannot quite empathize with her lack of interest to travel. The teacher's friend who owned one of the shops came out to chat with us as well. He spoke 5 languages and I capitalized on the opportunity of having a real English-speaker - I asked "What's up with all of the men calling and hissing at women like we are dogs?" After pulling the whole "it's our culture" thing, he said "It's just another way of being flirtaceous, like 'hey, you have beautiful eyes' or 'I like the way you walk!" HAHAHA! Apparently, they use that here! Best pickup line ever!






The evening consisted of running around and taking the typical "touristy" pictures after realizing our parents and family might want to see them! We headed back to the hostel to recharge, repack, and prepare for another long, cold bus ride. During the ride on the transporter bus, Hannah and I stood/sat on separate ends of the PACKED bus. When we finally exited together at the bus terminal, I asked Hannah, "soooo, what'd you think about?" She then told me about a whole alert/alarm system she created for us in the incident when one of us would be robbed and the other wasn't in the direct vicinity! Speechless, thinking "wow, that was a productive bus ride," Hannah then asked what I thought of during the ride. I responded, "things that open...you know, like doors, gates, hands, eyes, bags of chips...and metaphorically speaking, minds, hears, and ears." "Ohh, that's...fun." At least one us thinks of things that benefit us as a traveling duo! Thanks Hannah!

Bogota, Colombia

September 12th - 18th

Oh...where to begin?

Luckily, the two short, less than 50 minutes flights to Bogota were uneventful! For the first time, we had someone MEETING us at the airport - one of the best things ever! However, at our connection in Medellin, we discovered the immgration officers here in Colombia are NO JOKE! Like a prepared traveler, I had not written down the contact number or contact number for Mauricio, the new member of our family (his sister married my Dad's nephew?) who we would be staying with in Bogota. When the immigration officer realized I had left the "Forseen Address" section of my customs card blank, she demanded I give her one by saying (literally), "If you don't have an address, you cannot enter my country, and I suggest you go ahead and leave!" Whaaaattt? Dang lady - no "Bienvenidos a Colombia?" I RAN over to Hannah 6 cubicles down and grabbed the South America guide book which had various hostel addresses listed - Hannah already had it in her hand, so she didn't have a very warm welcome or easy entry either! Thank goodness that appeased her. They should really use her for interrogation, she would truly excel - she did an excellent job scaring the crap out of me! Finally, we reached Bogota and after a little mix-up about international vs domestic arrival areas, we found Mauricio waiting for us with our names written out on a sheet of paper! We kinda felt like rock stars a little at that moment. He is just the nicest and sweetest gentleman on the planet! The night consisted of unpacking, eating AREPAS he made for us, sampling juice from "lulo" (a fruit only found in Colombia we were told), and decompressing! Thank goodness he speaks clearly and somewhat slowly, by Colombian standards, so we can actually understand him.


On the 13th, Mauricio escorted us to the city after a tamale breakfast (that's right, huge tamales at 7:30am) and showed us "must-sees according to a local" - guaranteed to be better than any guide book could offer! We walked along the streets near one of Bogota's many universities, which provided the youthful excitement that one can find on most all college campuses. The energy was set perfectly to the background of cobblestoned streets, vibrantly colored houses, and many wooden external balconies artfully littered with potted flowers and plants. Bogota sits in a valley between alarmingly steep but smooth mountains, so wherever you look, the green giants are always present...a HUGE yet humble reminder of where we are standing. We walked MANY streets in that area before descending into Plaza Bolivar, a vast open space of clean, concrete beauty, flanked on all four sides by very significant architechtural icons - the Primate Cathedral, the National Capital (Congress), Palace of Justice (Supreme Court), and Lievano Building (home of the Mayor). We could have spent HOURS there exploring and people-watching if it weren't for the obscene amounts of pigeons constantly flying at your head. We checked out a cloister-type compound that had just recently been restored which also provided information about some ongoing human rights projects in various areas of Colombia. Of course, we sampled the street sweets called "obleas," two circular wafers that contain the ingredients you choose - raspberry jam, dulce de leche, peanuts, coconut, etc - and ate a traditional lunch soup called "ajiaco," quite literally a little bit of everything. After walking a bit more and speaking with the eclectic locals, we headed back to the apartment to recoop before the FUTBOL game!! We went to see Equidad de Bogota play Libertad del Paraguay... an hour and a half before the game even started! Due to the fact this is a relatively young team (7-years old), we may or may not have been three of the first, ehhhhh, 20 people in the stadium - let's just say at that moment, the number of police and personnel working the event outnumbered the fans 15:1. Luckily, the die-hard fans soon came to set up their drumsets, brass instruments, and "buzzers" (the annoying things you heard during the games of the World Cup), thus providing the majority of our pre-game entertainment. The quality of play was leaps and bounds better than Guatemala (sorry Guat, but it's true), and the teams were pretty evenly matched, so it felt like a real game!




The next day, Hannah and I went explored some more and took the funicular up to Monserrate, a huge yet simple white church that sits atop one of the surrounding mountains and provides 360-degree views of the city! I am always amazed that people can build train cars and gondolas that can safely ascend or descend near-vertical terrain! Also, SUPER FUN to ride in, let's be honest! Bogota is HUGE - not only does it take up the entire valley area, but it creeps up the bottom third of almost every surrounding mountain! We spent a good amount of time just sitting and appreciating where we are and putting things in perspective. After coming back down the mountain on the gondola, we made our way to the Museo de Oro, a very informative, well-organized, and well-supplied museum about this history of gold and other earth metals. It is still quite difficult to believe any metal comes from the earth! On the way back, a man struck up conversation with Hannah and asked what we had done thus far in Bogota - she told him about the futbol game and he kept insisting it was a waste of time. After repeatedly defending the game and honestly telling him how much we enjoyed the game, the conversation ended when Hannah said in a very direct tone, "Well, we had fun and really enjoyed it!" I was so proud of her and the awkward silence that followed! In the evening, we headed to a cute Del Ray-ish style bookstore, which had books for $50 and above!! PS - NEVER buy a book in Columbia if you can avoid it! Actually, try not to buy ANYTHING in Colombia if you can avoid it because it is SOOO EXPENSIVE. We have already decided to cut our time in Colombia due to the fact 4 days is one week's worth of budget! As a thank you to Mauricio, we made a pasta dinner with a vegetable salad because, well, who can really mess that up? THESE KIDS! Somehow the pasta became rubbery, we burnt the pre-made sauce, AND none of the vegetables (cucumbers, tomatoes, and avacados) were ripe! Saaaaaad! Some thank you! Mauricio, being the kind and gracious man that he is, ate everything on his plate. We still feel bad about that...don't worry, we took him out for a real dinner before we left - at an actual restaurant!







You thought I was kidding when I said it was expensive?

The next few days were filled with laziness and failed attempts to organize our lives, except for LAUNDRY. As we were looking through Mauricio’s eclectic collection of books, he began recommending some…which we later discovered were “American classics”…that we had never heard of before. Pretty embarrassing a Colombian whose THIRD language is English knows more about American literature than we do! He also had an English idioms book…how many people have heard of the phrase “as awkward as a cow on a crutch?” I definitely hadn’t before, but now I use it as often as possible because the mental image makes me smile. We went to a richer area that had a very Old Towne vibe to walk around at night, looking at the various name-brand stores, expensive boutiques, and specialty restaurants…with the exception of a “Hooters?” Why does Bogota or ANY city for that matter need a Hooters? We did pass through the mall cinema and see a “Coming Soon” poster for the movie Mauricio had worked on with his professor, “Pequenas Voces,” which we went to see the following day in 3D!! The movie itself is a 3D animated collection of stories about the lives of certain countryside children told by the children in the face of troubling times. It was AMAZING! The animation is based on the drawings of the children as well, so although simplistic, they are very powerful. Even if you do not speak Spanish, you only have to watch it to FEEL EVERYTHING! I would definitely recommend the movie to anyone!


Things that may us jump for joy...clean laundry!


Hannah with the best arepa to date!



On the 17th, we took a bus ride through the mountains to Villa de Leyva, a beautiful, Spanish-influenced pueblo that is one of Mauricio’s favorite places in Colombia. Many of the white buildings had external wooden, flower-adorned balconies which gave the whole pueblo small splashes of color and lots of personality. Pretty sure my grandmother would run out of film in this town! We spent the entire late morning/early afternoon just walking around the town and taking in the beautiful people and architecture. Events in short: ate huge lunch (soup, rice, baked potato, salad, lentils…), watched a man weaving his own material very quickly and efficiently, got rejected by street dogs when they wouldn’t eat the bread I offered them, watched kids being kids, and just before boarding the bus home, we saw a bride and groom riding through the streets in a horse-drawn carriage to the church steps in the main square, where their friends and family awaited them with HUGE smiles and rose pedals. We took hundreds of pictures and Mauricio waited patiently without a word – oh Mauricio, sorry!





We convinced Mauricio to partake in the jumping pictures ritual!

The next day, we packed and took Mauricio to “Crepes and Waffles,” an AMAZING restaurant with, well, sweet and savory crepes, waffles, and a HUGE salad bar! FINALLY, a good salad! THANK YOU MAURICIO FOR A GREAT TIME!



After bittersweet goodbyes, we headed to the bus station for a LONG, 24-plus hour journey to Cartagena!

Gracias por Todos!

We WILL be seeing you again!




And Hannah, how would you sum up our time in Central America?

Panama and San Blas

September 6th - 12th


Still waiting...

Panama is a looooong country - the projected journey was 15.5 hours, and although ours took a little more than 18 hours, more than a third of that time was spent at the border crossing! We were unloaded off the bus on the Costa Rica side to get our exit stamp at about 4:30am.  Already exhausted from shaking in the bus's arctic temps (the nausea-inducing kind), everyone was none too pleased when we were relocated outside only to wait until someone showed up to work at the window slightly before 8am. The Panama had similar wait times for the stamp and bag check (PS proof of onward travel required), but we were at least entertained by the various "trajes" of the indigenous people that were passing through as well. Soon after that debacle, our bus had a little breakdown problem for about 45 minutes or so. Luckily, I had taken Bendaryl 50mg in hopes to sleep, so I missed a good portion of the actual driving and, according to Hannah, a checkpoint or two - reason #721 why traveling with someone is advantageous: when they cannot wake you after multiple shakes and taps, they check for chest rise and then go into your bag to hand the waiting policeman your passport! Thanks to Hannah and the makers of Benadryl! When we arrived to Panama, people cheered! Our hostel is situated in Casco Viejo, the "Old Quaters" of Panama and is, quite literally, across the street from the Presidential Palace. The view of Panama City is what you may find on postcards, and they had a paved walking and bike path (or ciclovia) that ran along the water from Casco Viejo into the city center...could not have a better location! 


The next couple of days were spent exploring the antiquity and run-down beauty of our area and walking the length of the exercise path. The city itself reminds me a little of Tampa Bay - sky-scrapers, a causeway, great pedestrian paths along the water, and similar climate. We love the presence of sport and exercise here - there are 6 nice basketball courts  along the pathway where you will almost always find groups playing (futbol mostly, but occasionally basketball as well). One night, we watched a group of Panamanians "playing" basketball and, although no rules were observed and there was lots of double-dribbling, traveling, bear-hug guarding, and shanking off the backboard (and fence sometimes) going on, they were having a BLAST and it was refreshing to see. Another court had middle-aged women running simple futbol drills while being coached and encouraged by men in business suits - they were of similar athletic caliber as the basketball group, but again, soooo fun! Plus, this is really the first time we've seen kids having the opportunity to be kids! Panama City also provided us entertainment in the form of cab rides - always exciting and rarely legal. by far, my favorite driver was an older gentleman who wore cut-off leather gloves and pretended he was a race car driver - to compensate for the fact he had an automatic, he would shift into neutral at stoplights in order to rev his engine before shifting back into drive once the light changed! Classic!




On the eighth, Hannah and I made our way out to the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal by way of their "chicken buses" (similar use of color to Guatemala's but they use much more chrome and "bling" here). Due to my lack of knowledge about the Canal, I hadn't really understood why it is "one of the greatest engineering feats to date." Now we do! The museum at Miraflores is very comprehensive, interactive, and provides a plethora of visual aids to enhance one's understanding of the canal's history and significance. The canal itself has many different elevations throughout its 27 kilometers and so, to aid in the passage of ships, the locks transfer water between lanes by gravitational flow to either raise or lower the ship to the same level as the upcoming section of the canal! We had the opportunity to watch a rather large ship go through the locks and be lowered for the next portion of canal! It was really interesting to watch - in real time, paint could dry in the time it takes one large ship to be guided through the locks, yet it still was quite exciting! Others thought so too - in less than ten minutes, we went from being two of ten people on the museum roof/canal-viewing area to being squished up against the walls mosh-pit style by a group of 100+ that came out of nowhere. Also, it was nice to learn of the canal's significance within the country - especially since Panama took 100% control over the Canal and it's functioning in 2001, it is a huge source of national pride amongst Panamanians. Miraflores was simply a wonderful experience! On a side note, it won our Central America superlative for "best gift shop," so that's a plus as well.




A ship passing through the canal! Here are the water levels before...


...and after. As you can see in Hannah's face, it is pretty amazing!

The weekend brought us San Blas, an archipelago of 160-plus picturesque islands all owned by the indigenous Kuna! Phones only work about 30% of the time on the islands, so making a reservation at one of the islands with cabanas was quite a production. After the transport van (with A/C!!) picked us up at 5:30, we were then driven to the office to pay all necessary fees. It was there where we told them at which island we planned on staying - when we said ours, we got the same confused look we'd received from, well, everyone we'd spoken to about San Blas. A few phone calls later by the office staff and we were told the island is the furthest out and would take six-plus hours by boat and, resultantly, about $500 more! Whaaaaaat?!?! Thus, we went with his recommendation given our criteria - pretty and as uninhabited as possible!  We met two great Aussies, Gemma and Keith, during the transport fiasco - bus ride, border patrol (aka policeman sitting in a plastic lawn chair by the docks who compares your passport to the travel manifest), boat ride to another "immigration control" office on the island of Porvenir (where the "airport" is, and by airport, I mean 70-yard strip of shorter grass that is used by island footballers), and boat trek to our respective islands. One island stood out as more picturesque than many we'd passed, and as we all positioned ourselves to get a clear picture of it, the boat slowed down and Batman Kuna Mullet (the Kuna man with a mullet and Batman visor who drove the boat) announced it was Iguana - the island we were staying on!!! It looked like the islands you see on those "Dream" posters! We explored the views from every point on the island, which is less than 50-square yards of white sand and home to about ten cabanas. That evening, we had a round-table meal (HUGE blue fish caught by the resident Kuna family) with the others staying on our island - three separate Israeli couples, a pair of German brothers, Gemma, and ourselves. The great conversation carried us through the evening. On a side note: so relaxing to be someplace where you don't have to watch your bags all the time and the greatest threats are the falling coconuts - seriously, they would drop FEET away from us...those things can legitimately kill you! We would just hear thuds throughout the night every half hour or so - CRAZY! Hannah and I started looking up when we walked and strolled along the ¨beach¨ in order to evade the potential danger, because really, what an awful way to go!


Batman Kuna Mullet


The island we shared with the Kuna!




Pretty much how we feel being on this island!


All day Saturday, our exchanges would be like "who are we?", "who does this?", and "we are blessed!" We ate dinner with Gemma and Keith, who made it over on an early morning boat to stay on Isla de Iguana because, well, who wouldn't want to move to the best island in San Blas!?! Then, the post-breakfast swim and wade in the crystal blue waters. Hannah and I spotted a group of three teenage Kuna in their wooden canoe who were fishing a little further out...so, like any sane person would do, we joined them! Our skills for, well, anything relating to fishing aren't that great to start with, but then replace the standard pole with a spear + a stick with a rounded piece of metal on the end = we watched. It was a workout in and of itself to simply stay in the canoe and not flip it! Add to that the catches they'd already made, HUGE crabs and lobsters in the bottom of the canoe whose sole purpose was to pinch whoever they thought put them in the boat in the first place. While we "helped" by shoveling warm water from the base of the canoe and replacing it with cooler ocean water via shoes, these kids dove down 15+ meters with only a mask and snorkel...we wouldn't see them for MINUTES!! It was absolutely incredible! When they returned, they held lobsters the size of my neck and head up triumphantly while simultaneously moaning slightly due to the INSANE pressure build-up in their heads! To humor us, and maybe themselves, they paddled the canoe over to shallower water, about 7-8 meters, and dropped one of the lobsters to the ocean floor so we could try and catch it with the stick and metal loop thingy. The pressure in your head is CRAZY...and that was only HALF the depth that they went. Needless to say, whether it was my lack of skill or my vegetarian subconscious, I was highly unsuccessful. Spearfishing...equally unsuccesful and spent the majority of time humming Dori's "just keep swimming, just keep swimming" while underwater. We were called into lunch via conch shell, had a short game of volleyball afterwards, and then futbol with the Australians and two Panamanians vacationing on Iguana as well. Hannah and I were on a team with Kafu Bonton, who we later discovered is a very famous reggae singer in Central America! Hannah, Keith, and I wanted to make it a tri-sport day, so we played catch with...a small coconut, as one does on the best island ever! As the sun began to set, we headed back into the water and were serenaded by Kafu's friend Mario as he rapped to a reggae beat about us being on the island. The best part = we actually understood it!! Dinner brought coconut rice and salad, crazy music, an impromptu dance lesson led by Mario, and a long series of jumping pictures! An AMAZING DAY!!


The end product of all of their hard work! Ours is that exact plate, minus the seafood. So yes, just rice :)


The winning futbol team with our teammate (and first celebrity encounter) Kafu Bonton.


One of many amazing jumping pictures!


Hannah and I hanging out with Aussie Keith.

Sunday brought an early, wet boat ride back to Porvenir for another "Immigration" check. Luckily, the sun came out for the later half of the ride back, allowing us to dry off before getting on the awesomely air-conditioned bus! The driver stopped at Portobelo's fortress ruins that sit on the Caribbean - absolutely BEAUTIFUL! We said our goodbyes to Keith and headed back to Luna's Castle to organize our lives before our flight the next day. There were some street and market vendors in the main square of Casco Viejo, so we walked around a bit and bought empanadas made by a woman originally from Coral Gables, which reminded me of my FAMILY! Love that! We couldn't leave Panama City before a quick pickup game of basketball. As we approached the courts and sat on the bench, one guy asked if we were wanting to play - he literally walked on the court and stopped the game of 4-on-4 to allow us to join! It was refreshing to play again and with HANNAH - she is such a natural athlete and shocked the boys quite a bit!!!! One of the guys on her team, "Ruff Dad," was also a reggaeton artist! That was THE perfect way to end our time in Panama City!



THANK YOU CENTRAL AMERICA FOR ALL THE EXPERIENCES YOU HAVE GIVEN US AND THE LESSONS YOU HAVE TAUGHT US! WE ARE GRATEFUL!