Lord Grant us the serenity.....etc etc.

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March 4, 2011 (Barb) OK OK Ok....I give up...will this craziness ever end????
Yesterday was another day of lounging around cuz Skip was still not feeling well...his stomach was just not 'right'. He slept most of the day away. I wandered off by myself...no not in the car...I'm not that crazy yet!!! I wandered around the area...not tooooo far cuz as most of you know I'm directionally challenged. I found a small store...kinda like a mini Super Walmart type place with (isn't that a contradiction in terms?? LOL) with a small grocery and large meat counter at one end. I wandered around but did not buy anything. That was the most exciting part of the day.

We went to bed as usual with me making sure flip flops were right next to the bed in case I had to get up to use the bathroom during the night....thank God I have been doing that since I got here cuz I got up to go to the bathroom around 5 am and in the semi darkness I could see my flip flops kinda twisted...but being still half asleep I twisted them around and slipped my feet into them but something was not quite right j and as I stood up I realized that our room was flooded with water!! Not deep but enough to have made me scream if I had put bare feet on the floor. I went to the bathroom and did my business and like a dummy flushed...not good...it didn't overflow but almost...I turned to the shower and noticed that it was full of water which was what was overflowing into the room. I woke Skip and told him what was going on....we threw some clothes on and opened the door and a security guard (complete with gun) was in the hall. He indicated to us that a pipe broke and motioned down the hall which was flooded.....much worse than our room. The guard was laughing and made motions indicating that when people woke up and put their feet on the floor..WOW....and he laughed and so did we. It was so anti-climatic for us we just shook our heads. We ended up eventually going to breakfast after hanging around for a bit. I guess that everyone is getting to recognize us (hell we almost live here) cuz the cute little waiter came over and said agua (water)something to us and we all laughed. After we got our order I asked for ketchup for my omelet and the cute little girl brought it to me and asked how to say in English and I asked her how to say in Spanish....as we were chatting he brings over the bottle of hot sauce for me and my eyes got big and I said oh no no...and he started to laugh and we all were cracking up..it was so cute...the waitress said...'he bad'...and that made us laugh even more...oh well I guess you had to be there to appreciate the whole thing.

So we go back to our room and nothing has changed except lots of people in the halls talking Spanish...Finally I went to the desk and asked for the woman in the office who speaks English and ask what the status is...and she starts to apologize to me...and I told her not to worry...this stuff happens...and compared to the rest of our trip this was nothing...getting robbed in Boco Del Toras was much worse and she was horrified about that and we chatted a bit and finally I asked her if, when she got a chance, could someone please bring a mop to our room..and she said OH NO...your room is still full of water ,,,I will get someone right away to take care of it...and she did...so we are back to normal...
We'll see what the rest of the day will bring!!!

(Skip) Hello!! May be back to the living! As Barb has been explaining, I've been under the weather for the last few days. My pants feel like the one benefit to this illness has been the loss of weight from all the Balboa that I have been drinking during this trip. Barb and I have really taken all of the different situations with a grain of salt, and believe me when I say there were many other circumstances that for some people that would be trip busters. Life is just the way that one wants to approach it and for me life is good; therefore, the flow of life is just another experience and cannot be described as good or bad, it just is!

Today has just been another blast with these fun loving people who just open up when they find out that we're not up tight but just accept and move on with what is required.

Probably this is a good time to reflect about driving a vehicle in this country. Driving is certainly different in panama and I suspect in most Central American Countries. At first when I took the wheel in hand, I must admit I was very intimidated. However, after giving myself a short lecture and starting to pay attention to the flow of traffic I realized much of what was happening made sense. Little use is made of directional lights and much use is made of the horn. Most of the time the horn is not used to show disrespect or irritance but as a warning, or a indication to proceed or if you are a taxi driver and you see a good looking woman (that's what we were told anyway). When passing or turning into traffic from a side street, you need to slowly show intention and then proceed; do not hesitate or stop the initiated action. Obviously accidents do happen and I have no doubt they are serious, but for the apparent dysfunctional driving (from a US prospective) I have observed very few accidents. (Barb—except for the one we witnessed at Mike's when we first got to Chitre!)
While traveling in Panama you will encounter very, very few stop lights, route signs (Route 4 etc), street signs or directional signs; one is just forced to move forward and use the old adage, try and try until you succeed. Panama City appears to have signs on their major roadways around the city but once you enter downtown, just forget the signs, it looks and feels like a corn maze. Traveling in the smaller towns and cities is easier but still challenging because of the lack of street signs and route signs. When Barb and I are off the Pan-American highway we just feel our way along and enjoy the villages and countryside as we move forward. This type of travel will feel very foreign to a US driver who is used to all of the rules of the road including road signs (Barb—and Skip is very comfortable with this type of driving, believe me!!!) and GPS's that work using updated maps. Forget updated GPS maps in Panama, many times during this trip our GPS (when it was functioning) showed our vehicle in the middle of a blank space; however, the vehicle would reflect our directional change but remain in this no mans land on the map.

All in all I do recommend traveling in Panama by car, its challenging, but you are able to see much more of the country than using public transportation. This is also a good time to point out that public transportation is absolutely excellent in this country. It does not matter whether you are in a large city, large town, small village or in the middle of almost nowhere; there is frequent land transportation at a reasonable price to whatever destination you choose. Our only exposure to water transportation was in the Boco's using a water taxi. For our ½ to ¾ hour boat ride to our island destination the cost was $4 each. I think that was very reasonable.

I am sure Barb will soon reflect on our overall trip in Panama, but since this is a down day and I am feeling a lot better health wise, this feels like a good time for me share my overall opinion. First and foremost I have enjoyed the entire adventure, every place we have visited ; every person we have interacted with; all the wonderful vista seen with my eyes; the beautiful flowering trees, shrubs, plants together with their fragrance will always be apart of my fond memories. For me, the area around Santiago and north to Santa Fe is the most relaxing and beautiful taking everything into consideration. Definitely the cleanest areas during our travels in Panama.

Everyone has their own personal preferences as to what it takes for a particular area to meet their subjective criteria; for me the Santiago/Santa Fe area of Panama comes close to perfect. The following are my personal reasons for this decision. They are: I like the overall cleanliness of both Santiago and the entire area up to and including Santa Fe; once leaving Santiago behind, a fast transition is made to rural Panama; at the present time agriculture (dairy/beef) is the primary use of the land between Santiago and Santa Fe; the road between these two towns follow a up/down twisting path (paved) all the time gaining elevation and revealing wonderful vista while slowly taking you to the mountain town of Santa Fe, truly a wonderful journey both the eyes and heart; while taking this marvelous journey one passes quietly though very small hamlets (one has to look closely); once you arrive at the town of Santa Fe, clinging to the sides of a mountain, one finds a small quiet and quaint town. More extensive write-up on this town can be found by goggling “Santa Fe, Panama”

(Barb) I would have to agree with Skip on his ruminations about Panama....I wouldn't have missed it for the world...all the stuff that happened to us could have happened anywhere (ok probably not all on ONE trip) but still...it has been pretty amazing, especially when I think of all the people who never get to travel at all. We have some great memories tho (and Skip has lots of stories!!!)
Soon..I'm going to give you a list of all the things I'm grateful for....I'm still formulating that one!
Nitey nite folks!

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