Panama City, the Journey Home, and Thank Yous.

My last week in Central America was really nice. After Bocas del Toro, Panama, I headed to Boquete, Panama. It was rated one of the top destinations in the world to retire to in a magazine published in 2001. There are a lot of non-Panamanian residents there and all of the locals are very surprised when they meet a Gringo that can speak Spanish. But it is a beautiful little town set at the base of a volcano, Volcan Baru, which is the largest point in Panama. There is always mist from the Mountains, but it is also always sunny, so daily there are rainbows hovering over the town. Here too, you can find delicious and inexpensive food.

I stayed at a hostel, that was my favorite hostel thus far. It was small, intimate, comfortable beds, kitchen for use, tv with tape player, and right on a river. It was perfect! Also, the guests were all guests also traveling alone, so it made it easy to meet people to go on day trips with. I met a girl from Germany and we went on a hike to a strawberry plantation where we had fresh strawberries and cream, and then we hiked to the other end of town where we went and visited and animal refuge. The next day we woke up early and geared up to do the Volcan Baru hike in one day. Most people hike up to the base of the summit and spend the night and hike down the next day. But we were motivated so we woke up at 6 am and began the hike. It was the hardest hike of my life and I am still unsure if I would say it was worth it. The view at the top is nice, but it is a really challenging hike, at the top there are tons of cable tv towers, and it is really cloudy and hard to get a quality panoramic view. We began hiking around 6:30 am and didn't get back into Boquete until about 6:30pm! And we hadn't planned ahead very well and had only grabbed peanut butter and bananas to snack on the way. But it was a great workout and ended up being pretty rewarding sitting on the top of the summit where there is a huge cross, knowing that we were sitting at the highest point in Panama.

Carnival was nonexistent in Boquete. It is a small, sleepy, mountain town. I headed to Panama City to end my trip and that is where Carnival was really going on. I met some people at my hostel in Panama City and we headed to the location downtown where Carnival takes place. About 7 blocks of the city were blocked off and to enter you had to show a passport and then get frisked by the guards. WE entered and it is basically chaos inside, but fun chaos. There are food stands lining the streets serving kabobs, hot dogs, grilled meats, smoothies, cotton candy, tons of alcohol, and more. There are also designated areas where there are fire trucks spraying water on all of the people (it was about 90 degrees in Panama City so the water felt amazing). There were kids running all over with silly string, confetti, and water guns, spraying people and throwing confetti on people left and right. We would be walking down the road and kids would run up and dump buckets of water on us, or spray us with silly string, or both and then finish us off by throwing confetti on us. We were told the parade began at 11 am so we arrived at 10. We walked around and every hour asked when the parade started. First it was 10 then 11 then 12 then 1 then 2 then 3 then 3:15... We walked around until 5:30 and it still had not began. This is typical in Central America and you have to be ready to just go with the flow. We did get to see the parade and all of the floats and miss Panama and it was a good time.

My second day in Panama City I went to view the Panama Canal which is amazing! There is a viewing area where you can sit and watch them open the locks, allow ships to come in, close the locks, and then either raise the level of the water or lower the level of the water depending on which way the ships are going, and then open the locks and let the ships continue their journey. There is a full museum at the locks location and it is really interesting. The French began construction of the canal but went bankrupt and could not finish the job so the U.S. signed an agreement and continued construction. The canal was completed in 1914 and the U.S. held the rights to the canal until in 1977 a treaty was signed that would give the canal back to Panama in 1999. In 1999 the canal was given back to Panama and now they control the canal which they are currently expanding and should have completed by 2015. The minimum fee to pass through the canal is $500 and the most costly charge for a ship to pass through was $359,000.00 paid by a cruise ship. The majority of the users are the U.S., China, and England. It is amazing the complexity and massiveness of the canal, the rivers and the lakes, that are all man made to allow ships to travel between coasts. Also, there were around 22,000 people that gave their lives making the canal that died either due to disease or hardships... None of this was mentioned at the canal. Many of the men did die from Yellow Fever and there was a little snip-it about the Cuban man that determined the cause of yellow fever and came up with suggestions on how to eliminate it. But nothing about the millions of lives that were lost due to yellow fever and the construction of the canal. I found this really interesting. Also, the treaty to give the canal back to Panama was signed in 1977 as a result of U.S. troops gunning down 9 innocent students. In the video the museum shows, it claims that 9 students were detained and their detainment ended sadly... I found the canal impressive but the museum a bit sketchy. It was really catering to U.S. tourists and not wanting to make them feel guilty about the impact their country has had on innocent lives.

After the canal I headed to the local mall to get some last minute items. The mall in Panama is the largest mall I have ever been to in my life! It was insane. In the food court there was every American fast food restaurant you could think of! Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Popeyes, Dunkin Donuts, Burger King, Subway, Quiznos, Taco Bell, Baskin and Robbins, Panda Express, and I think that is it. I did not see one Burgerville in all of Central America nor did I see one Starbucks which was actually really refreshing. But this mall was crazy huge! And lovely inside and I am not much of a mall person.

Then it was time for my trip home. I loaded all of my stuff into my backpack and got all prepared for my 10 am flight. I had asked the locals the cheapest way to get to the airport was taking a bus from Plaza Cinco de Mayo which was about a 20 minute walk from my hostel. The other option being taking a cab which costs $25. I jumped on the bus which was $0.75 for a 1 hour ride and arrived at the Panama City Airport which is also large and really nice. Panama City is said to be the Miami of the South and that is really what it looks like. Huge sky rise building along the water. I was really surprised with how modern and "city like" it looked. Ok back to the flight home, was going through security and had to get escorted into a private room for interrogation. I had kept mace in a secret pocket in my day bag that I carried everywhere for protection. On all of my hikes and bike rides, etc. I always carried the mace in a secret pocket. Also, I had snagged a little butter knife to use for spreading peanut butter on rolls and bananas and had stuck it in the same pocket. The knife had cut a hole int he material of my back and the knife and mace has slipped through the material into a secret little compartment. SO the night prior when I was packing up my stuff I didn't see the knife or mace and had forgotten about them. So I found myself in a room with 5 security guards going through my bag just saying, no fly, no fly... Eventually they gave me my bag and told me to find the knife which I had been denying that I had. It hit me that I did have mace and a knife as I grabbed onto them both through the hole. I pulled them out and all of the guys looked at each other saying, no fly, no fly. I had to explain where I had been in Central America and why and why I had a knife and mace in a secret compartment of my bag, and why I had denied having them. It was an ordeal and also the last interesting experience I would have in Central America. In the end they let me on my flight and I arrived home safe and sound to a warm welcome at the airport.

I would like to thank everyone for reading my blog for the past 8 months. It was really fun and therapeutic to be able to write down my experiences and then see your comments. I would also like to thank all of you for your support while I was away. It really meant a lot to me and it is all of you that made the desire to return home greater than my desire to stay in Central America:). I would also like to thank all of those that made donations to the orphanage whether it was money or materials. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Mary