Isla de Coiba

I'm not sure what's got into me but I'm actually going to use this post for its intended purpose of telling people about my travels... however not before I ramble on a bit as usually about stuff of absolutely no use to anyone wondering what to do and where to go if they visit Panama.

Let's start out with the fantastic breakfast that I had this morning. I've been in site 3 months now and the food finally got to me. No offense to any Panamanians (love you guys, just not your food), but the food here is just abysmal. I know I've mentioned this before, but I can't help it... when I hear my mother say breakfast is ready it brings me to tears. It's not necessarily that the meals taste bad (although there's a lot of food that doesn't agree with me), but it's the same thing every damn day and there's absolutely no creativity. Patacones (fried pieces of smashed platano) and fried hotdog for every breakfast, beans and rice and a piece of chicken for lunch, and usually a repeat of lunch for dinner. AND, half the rice is undercooked while the other half is burnt. It's rice! Even I can make rice properly! The first time I heard someone say we were having tortillas or tamales I was thrilled. Unfortunately, a tortilla in Panama is thick greasy fried corn meal hockeypuck thing and a tamale is mashed up corn and bits of chicken (bones included) wrapped inside a banana leaf. Their stoves are equipped with ovens, but they're used mostly for storing pots since no one bakes anything. So why was this morning’s breakfast so absolutely amazing? After eating this food for many months and losing at least 15 pounds and dreading almost every meal I've finally decided to start buying my own food and cooking for myself before the food here kills me. So this morning I had real sausage (they call their hotdogs sausages even though they are clearly just inferior versions of American hotdogs), scrambled eggs, cereal, and toast. It was spectacular.

Here's a random story that happened a while ago, but I forgot to mention it... I should have though because it's hilarious. So I was sitting on my bed minding my own business reading a book when Fofi and Boris come in (brother and his friend). I'd noticed before how Panamanian guys are much less homophobic when it comes to touching each other. I've seen guys with their head on another mans lap or other stuff like that and I didn't think anything of it... just cultural differences. But when Boris was laying on my bed talking to me and Fofi reached over and started rubbing Boris's nipple I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Boris just kept talking away like nothing weird was going on. Keep in mind that they both have girlfriends. I've had many conversations here where the other person has their finger up their nose or is breast feeding a baby, but this was just too much. I was stunned. I tried to look at Boris's face instead of the nipple and concentrate on the conversation, but it was hopeless and I had to laugh. They couldn't understand what was so funny and I didn't try t explain why. I haven't seen anything like that since but one can only hope.

So now to the part about my travels to the Isla de Coiba (I've even thrown in a few pictures). Coiba is a pretty big island on the Pacific coast. There’s a bunch of smaller islands surrounding it and the whole place in a protected reserve. I went with a group of about 15 other volunteers. We didn't get to explore the island very much which is a shame cause it's beautiful and there's supposed to be plentiful wildlife. However, we did a ton of snorkeling and diving which was pretty awesome. There were more fish and other critters than you could poke a stick at... and believe me I was poking. I managed to catch a few blow fish which I believe were to put in the ocean for my entertainment. There were some sharks, but none big or ballsy enough to face me when I poked them. Sorry Perle, I'm doing my best to mess with dangerous animals, but they're all a bunch of pansies.

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