Blogs from David, Chiriquí, Panama, Central America Caribbean - page 5

Hola once again! Sorry it has been so long in between blogs, but it isn´t easy to find a good internet cafe. So much has happened and so many stories to tell. We are going to back up to before Costa Rica (that short blog was just to let you know we were all right). We left Pedasi, Panama and headed to El Valle. We weren´t actually sure which direction we were heading until we met with a real estate agent. We spent some time looking at property and he mentioned he was going to Panama City to close a deal. He had a new listing in a little town called El Valle, which was on the way. We expressed our interested and hitched a ride with him and his wife. It was a 4 hour ... read more

Intro to Boquete Under Construction. Our Experience So, we arrived at Boquete after dark and it started to drizzle. Lovely. Additionally, Boquete is in the mountains so it was a cool drizzle. Extra lovely. We tried one hotel - full. We tried a second hotel (in the opposite direction) - full. We stood under an awning trying to find another hotel, and a lady in a pickup randomly drove up and asked us if we needed a nice hotel to stay at with a private bathroom for $7.00 USD per person. Um... yes, absolutely. Funny how things work out. Joe was just blown away at bad luck gone good luck. Joe's Note: Not only did this place work out for us at just the right time, this place turned out to be truly amazing in general. ... read more

Today we flew to David, Panama from Panama City. David is in the West part of Panama about 50 km from Costa Rica. David is the the capital of the Chiriqui Province. Chiricanos have a certain independent attitude that is very simular to Texans in the United States. They are proud of their province and their heritage. You can even get a Chiriqui passport and Chiriqui ID card! David is a thriving city of 80,000 people. We flew out of Panama City from the Albrook Airport. It was one of the former US airbases. The flight was short and pleasant. We were met by several of the David Rotary members and were soon on our way to review the first water project funded by the District 5710 major grant. The David Rotary Club has been assisting ... read more

A week in Panama City was definately enough time. I did most of the touristy things to do there: The canal of course, The rainforest park on the edge of the city, casco antiguo - the oldest neighborhood, and so on. I watched the superbowl in the Marriot hotel´s sports bar. It was alot of fun even though the Seahawks lost. 6 other travellers and I drank heavily and got a bit rowdy. I´m liking being in Panama. There isn´t nearly as much english spoken hear as there is in Costa Rica, which is good because it forces me to learn. The Spanish is also a little different here. It´s much more slurred and the "s" is usually not pronounced. In Panama City I ended up hanging out with a Local girl named Ariza for a ... read more

´´It´s not where you are, it´s who you are´´ I heard a guy say, outside my dorm window, a few days back when I was just waking up from another crazy dream about something forgettable. And I couldn´t agree more. I have realised now, six weeks into the biggest trip of my life thus far, it not all about just going to these far flung places and saying you´ve been there, staying in hostels surrounded by white faces, not walking the streets at night in fear of fear itself or being overly pretentious about energy flows and karma in a hand-written hostel guestbook. I think it´s about doing something that matters no matter how small or big or just doing the right thing. And what that is?... well, I still don´t know yet. That´s enough ... read more