Panama Sunday

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2/20/2011
(Barb) Oh Lord what a day! I thought today would be kinda laid back and maybe even boring as we had nothing in particular planned. We went to breakfast and once again had a hard time with ordering..I was ok with my omuleta...but Skip wanted what he had yesterday and we had no idea what it was called. Some woman jumped in to help..she was from Miami and was orginally from Panama...yea us!
Went back to the hostel and Mike told us about some old churches and how to get to the ocean not far from here. So off we were....
First we went looking for one of the old churches and yes it was very old and beautiful. Very ornate. Took some pictures and then off to the ocean. Got lost a few times but that was ok..cuz we just went where we had never been..Skip is so good about getting lost and not caring. So we find the ocean and it's low tide...not a pretty sight..the beach is full of old tires and junk...and..there were cows running around the beach and beyond..yes cows...moooooooo cows wandering all over. That was different. We then went back to the main road and took another route to another beach...oh things were hopping there...one of those beer gardens full of people, loud music and people selling food along the road. Skip had to potty so he asked for the bano (bathroom) and they directed him to the side building...I followed and figured I'd go too...NO NO NO...I went into the next 'door' (if u can call it that) and found myself in the men's room...I knew this to be so because there was a trough for men to pee in!!! Smell terrible...Of course that meant that Skip went into the woman's room!!! He came out and said to me “I don't think you wanna go in there” and I said nope I did not! He laughed when I told him he had been in the ladies room. So then we wander over to the beer garden and get a beer to share...and then we go to another beer garden across the street to see if the bano is better there. I opened the door and this kid was sitting naked on the toilet! Her mother came running over and went in...they were in there a very very long time...have no idea what was going on but I said “let's go I don't have to go that bad” We then had to walk by one of the vendors who had hot dogs on a stick on a grill...except the dogs were sliced and curled around the stick. Skip ate 2 of them..I ate one. It was good but I did worry about whether we'd get sick or not...
Anyway, then we went looking for the other church and when we got there (about 2pm) there were services going on. Across the road and a little down from the church was another beer garden. We decided to have a Balboa while waiting for services to finish. As soon as we walked into there some guy came over and tried to talk to Skip. Of course we had no idea what he was saying. Skip was so nice trying to talk to the guy but they both gave up and the guys at the bar were laughing and they motioned to us to order and we said 2 Balboas..and they cheered! Then we went to sit at the edge of the stage as there were no tables available and these 3 guys at a table started to talk to us...they were pretty drunk but we stopped and tried to figure it out...next thing you know someone brings us a table and 2 chairs over and we sit next to the guys. They are all trying to hard to communicate. From what we could figure out from their sign language and body language they were either cowboys or jockeys or maybe horse theives....or something...they kept galloping..so I guess that is what they meant...and then I guess Skip thought they wanted to dance and he said no..pointed to me and got up and started gyrating like he was dancing..so they thought I was a dancer!!! OMG...it was hysterical...I was laughing so hard at the antics of both the 3 men and Skip I almostwet myself. I went to the car and got a Spanish/English Dictionary...and the guys just laughed...they made signs that I'm not sure if they couldn't read or they were too drunk to read. When we got up to leave they didn't want us togo but Skip motioned via the sign of the cross that we were going to the church..so they let us leave....they all shook our hands and tapped knuckles with Skip. What a hoot!!
Now Skip is cooking us dinner in the hostel kitchen. Mike is joining us.

Something I wanted to mention was the women here walk around in those big honkin' curlers we used to use in the 60s....they hardly ever wear shorts..but they have no problem with the curlers in public. And the men wear panama hats a la Gomer Pyle.

Also...Panama seems to have it's own type of Circle K...without the gas station. They are called Mini Supers....like Mini Super Carolyn, or Mini Super Kari, or Mini Super Yen Lie....they are all over the place...and if the place is a mini Mini Super then they just have MS Andew or MS Sandra instead of the whole name. They are as plentiful as the beer gardens...sometimes even next door to each other.

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