Blogs from Panamá, Panama, Central America Caribbean - page 46

A group of some of my favorite people on the ship were suppose to get off the boat yesterday night, and spend 5 days away in the jungle and on an island. Their bags were packed, and they were all crammed down on the last deck of the ship. They all waited vigorously for the doors to open, to taste freedom, to step on land. Two hours of patience all for nothing, but small puddles of sweat and stress. Rough seas prevented anyone from leaving. So I got one more night with them. We all laid in one of the fortunate larger rooms of the ship, and watched fight club. As for me I attempted to watch fight club, but because I often suffer from narcolepsy I passed out during the first 30 minutes of the ... read more

Believe it or not, we are just about beached out. So we said ¨Adios¨ to one of the best Caribbean beaches we´ve ever seen and road down to Panama City. Panama City is as metropolitan as Central America gets, which means there are skyscrapers, casinos, nightclubs, malls, movie theatres, and huge grocery stores full of goodies. There is also big-city transportation, which means better chicken buses decked out with not only amazingly detailed paint jobs, but also flashing black lights and bumping sound systems. Rock on. Trevor also spotted nitrous BMX bikes - the same stuff used in rocket motors. All the better to speed through traffic. The Casco Antiguo part of town is the former city center and now a Unesco World Heritage Site. It´s a lot like Viejo San Juan in Puerto Rico or ... read more

This is our 12th day in Panama. Yesterday was the end of our first week of school. This week we walked at least 22 miles, since we walk to and from school four days each week, we walk to the grocery store, to the movies and everywhere else. If you are one of my students and you are reading this, know that my admiration of your courage in meeting the challenges of a new culture has grown. My Spanish vocabulary is hundreds of words now, but when I need just one of those words to order a meal, answer a question or ask for directions my head becomes empty. After one week I can recognise a word or two on TV, or in an overheard conversation. Mi esposo (Doug) is doing much better than I am. ... read more

So we are still here, patiently waiting for our flight to peru tomorrow. We have occupied ourselves with things like going to the cinema, watching CSI, and not much else really. Panama City is incredibly difficult to navigate (unless you are prepared to pay for a taxi everywhere) and we get lost every time we try and take a bus somewhere. It kinds adds to the excirement though- We tried to find our way to the old town the other day, which by all accounts is a bit dodgy. The LP saya not to go at night, so we thought that if we stayed on the main streets we would be ok. We inadvertantly wandered of course however, and ended up in the didgy bit. I was starting to feel a little uneasy when a Policeman ... read more

Well here we are in Panama City, the last stop in Central America, the completion of the first leg of the journey, Ha to all of you that didn't think we'd make it this far! To get here we cheated a little, we opted for a one hour flight instead of a 11 hour bus journey but it was the smallest plane we'd ever flown on and Jo isn't great at flying at the best of times so it was still quite stressful. Because of this, once we landed we thought we better start 'hardcore' travelling again and got the bus from the airport to town instead of a taxi. This may not sound particularly impressive but you try lugging a heavy rucksack through sweating heat on packed ex- US school buses through a city you ... read more