Cartegena

What a great city!  Although, the city is super hot and humid, like 'puts you in a bad mood' hot and humid....Cartegena's only drawback for me.....  Like Panama City, there is an 'old' town and a very modern downtown.  We hung out mostly in the old town.  Although it's full of tourists, locals also live there, so it's a nice mix of people, and hopefully still a good snapshot of Colombian life.

The walled city (old town) was really cool.  Lots of people out in the streets, at night people hang in the local plazas, drink, eat, watch kids play soccer, listen to impromptu street musicians, mix and mingle, etc.

One plaza in particular was a hot spot....each night we stopped by and inevitably bumped into people we were on the boat with, or met during the day on our adventures.  It's kind of fun seeing people you know, in a giant city where you don't really know anyone ;)

On the boat, Elise and I met 2 girls traveling together from Seattle.  We all decided to travel together for a bit too.  So we all took Cartegena in together!

While in Categena, we ate lots of street foods (now, my favorite kind of foods...and super cheap!), visited an old castle full of tunnels- built hundreds of years ago to protect the city, went to a small museum to learn about early Colombians and their GOLD craftsmanship, went to a local market, watched street performers, etc.  

One day, we also went to a local volcano.  Not your usual volcano, this one is full of mud!  When you visit, you walk up a rickety staircase, then into the volcano down a slippery muddy ladder.  Once in, you lay, suspended, in the mud (a really weird, but cool mud that feels almost like jello....so strange... but apparently great for your skin), then you get a small mud massage, and after that, you get to hang out in the mud for a while.  Apparently the mud goes down for about 200 meters, but you can't sink it in.  In fact, it's hard to even move around-  you almost have to rely on others to push and pull you around.

After you get out of the mud, you go down to a little lake nearby, where ladies are waiting to clean you off.  It's strange that they help clean you off, but its part of the experience, I guess.  Afterwards, fresh and clean, and super soft skin.  That was our last Cartegena activity.....onto Medillin

Sailing from Panama to Colombia

My friend Elise and I took a 5 day sailing trip from Panama City to Cartegena, Colombia.  We were on a 60ft boat with 10 other passengers (all great, fun folks) and 4 crew.  The first 3 days, we anchored at different islands in San Blas.  

San Blas is a district of islands along the Panama coast.  The islands were amazing!  We did lots of swimming, snorkeling; we say starfish, stingrays, fish galore, etc.  the food on the trip was also FANTASTIC!  I was way impressed with the crew and what they busted out for meals, especially since they were working with a tiny little kitchen.  One day, a local guy from one of the islands brought his canoe out to our boat and loaded us up with a cooler full of lobster. Our last night in San Blas we ate like kings, on the boat deck in the middle of the Caribbean, surrounded by beautiful islands, and cool ocean breezes.

At one point our captain briefly brought two local Indian women onto the boat.  They came aboard with molas (really nice layered fabric designs), and beaded jewelry to sell.  The indigenous women of San Blas wear the molas and beaded jewelry everyday. The molas are part of the shirts, and they wear beads up much of their legs and arms.  

The last 36 hours on the boat were miserable......open sea stinks.  We even hit a storm during the night to make it even better.  The first 24 hours of the open sea sailing part of our trip, NO ONE moved from their beds.....the only comfortable way to sail was laying flat on your back, so you moved with the boat.  The cabin was hot, humid, and uncomfortable, and by this time, it had been days since we all showeed.  Those 36 were some of the worst of my life.  It was brutal!  Getting up just to pee seemed like an insurmountable task.  But low and behold, we made it to Colombia!   Afterwards though, glad I did it. The 3 days in San Blas were worth every minute of the crappy 36 hours.   Plus, I learned a little about myself too.....the sailing life is not for me!

I am a little behind on posting.....it's hard to keep up when I am moving around so much, but I will try to get small blurbs and pics up when I can.  More to come.....

Panama!

Everyone in Panama just refers to Panama City as, 'Panama' - and so, here I am, in Panama!

We left Santa Catalina and had another full day of bus travel to Panama City.  We only had to take 2 buses this time, but still had an 8 hour trip.

We are staying in an up-and-coming part of town called 'Casco' - it's a really cool old part of the city, that is under major renovation.  It's a hip place, lots of art, cool old buildings, streets and parks that are being revamped and reinvigorated, and overall, a very cool big-city feel (at times, it reminds me of parts of Houston).   The weather also reminds me of Houston.  It is HOT and humid here....and AC is sometimes hard to comeby.  I have been sweating almost non-stop since we arrived. Hace calor (in espanol).

Casco and the downtown area of Panama are remarkably different, but the two main parts of town are connected by a really nice park/pathway area.  It's a fantastic area along the water.  There are also several large pedestrian shopping/market areas, a large barrio, and a mix of people, lifestyles, and scenery in between.  It's a really neat city, and much larger than I thought it would be.

I am here with 2 other girls that I met I Boquete and taveld with to Santa Catalina.  Since we arrived, we have explored Casco, the park along the waterway, visited the canal (!!!!!!), hiked a national park just outside the city that overlooks the entire area, and ran some errands/replenished our toiletries (a very exciting activity, since there are stores here with more than 1 shampoo option, and sunscreen that doesn't cost $18 a bottle).

The canal was really neat to see.  I wasn't too I pressed with the museum, but there is an observation deck overlooking one set of locks, and watching that process that ships go through is pretty amazing- a much faster process than I thought too.  The most incredible part, is that the lock system there now, is the same system they built nearly 100 years ago...with much less technology than we have today.  Truly a man-made wonder!

One of our daily activites includes visiting the local fish market for ceviche.  A cup of ceviche with crackers goes for about $2 -corvina ceviche is only $1.25, and the shrimp ceviche goes up to (a whopping) $2.50.  The outdoor ceviche area is a mad house-  a packed row of vendors with ceviche stands, and then lots of people all jammed into the small seating area that backs right up to the vendors.  It's a little nutty, but really cool.

On Wednesday, one of my travelmates and I will embark on a 5-day sailing adventure to Columbia.  We are hopping on a 20-passenger sailboat to Cartegena, Columbia.  The first 3 days of the trip, we will sail around and anchor in the islands of San Blas, then the last 1.5 days we will be at sea, on our way to Columbia!  Eeek.  On the 27th, I will officially be in South America!  Holla!

Santa Catalina

After leaving Boquete, I went with a few friends to Santa Catalina for a couple of days; a short stop on our way to Panama City. From Boquete, we took 4 different buses (3 of which were jammed-packed crowded AND hot) for a total travel time of 8.5 hours! 

Santa Catalina is a small surf town. . . . very very small.  We stayed at some cabanas close to the beach, but then again, everything there is close to everything else, bc the town is so small. While we were there, we hit the beach, surfed, checked out a big surf competition happening in town, and went for a day trip to Coiba Island.  The surf competition was reef break surfing (?), which happens a bit farther out in the ocean, so my camera didn't really take any good picturs. ....basically, all I have are some pictures of the town (the 3 photos below are looking in all 3 directions of the main intersection in town), and some pics of our Coiba snorkel adventures!

Speakng of snorkle adventures: our group of 5 took a boat out to Coiba National Park (an island about a 1.5 hour boat ride from Santa Catalina), as well as a couple other small islands nearby.  We snorkeled twice with a guide, and also took a small hike on Coiba.  We swam with all kinds of interesting and colorful fish, sea turtles and (my worst nightmare) SHARKS. Thankfully, the sharks were far enough away, and smallish (maybe 5 feet long); plus, this type of shark typically hangs out on the ocean floor. . . .or at least they usually hang on the ocean floor until your guide bothers them a bit to get them moving.  At one point, I had a few short heart palpitations, but I made it out alive.

It was a short 4 night trip, but a nice stop on our way to Panama City.

I heart Boquete

I really like this place- the people, the weather, the culture, my hostel, the pace of life, etc.  I super dig the school here too.  With these two weeks, I will have made major progress on my conversational Spanish.  My Spanish is still pretty terrible though....don't get too excited about my 'attempt at being fully bilingual' skills...I am still light years away from that point.

In the last week, I tried rock climbing, took a coffee plantation tour and visited a nearby river (twice), for some swimming, playing and relaxing.

Rock climbing: a small group of us from school went together.  Our 'guide,' Cesar melendez, is one of the top 50 rock climbers in the world.  He practically ran up this rock wall we visited.  It was amazing to watch.  This sounds cheesy, but it was almost like watching a ballet.  It was beautiful. (Climbing photos of Cesar are in a couple places below).

Anywho for the first-timers (ie NOT top ranked climbers), rock climbing is hard.  Holy heck.  I got up the wall 2 and a half times taking different paths.  I was also super flipping sore the next day too.  It was tough, but fun, so I might be inclined to try indoor climbing as well, one of the days.

Coffee Tour: again, a couple of us from school went on the tour.  The plantation we visited is small, and it's very much a mom and pop shop.   All the beans are picked and sorted by hand, and most of their beans are processed on site in a small shack using homemade machines.  Seriously,when the owner bought the farm 25 years ago, he couldn't afford production equipment, so he took old car parts, washing machine parts, etc and made his own machines, that they still use today.  It is fascinating how Mr. Tito figured this all out.  We learned all kinds of interesting things about coffee and then got free samples.  I don't generally like coffee, but with a little coffee in my sugar, I was able to get on board with Mr. Tito's medium roast.  In anycase, it was a very informative tour.

* a very important tool used in the roasting process: a scroon. (a spoon welded to a screw driver).  For some reason I was fascinated by this.  Plus, it's the only one of its kind in the WHOLE world (more than likely), so I had to get a photo with it.  

Caldera:  Saturday, our little group went to a town 30 minutes away to visit some swimming holes and do some more rock climbing (well, some people did more climbing.....I just had a couple failed attempts).  Cesar joined as as well, just for fun, so he could do some climbing there too.  We did some jumping/diving into the river, swimming, climbing, hanging and even some fishing (sort of).  There was  a small waterfall at the river, where we could catch little fish in our hands (as the little fish tried to swim up the little waterfall, they would fly in the air a bit, and we could easily catch them with our hands...it was an odd but enjoyable activity). Super fun and relaxing day.

Caldera remix: Sunday, I went with some folks from the hostel to a different spot in Caldera, just to hang out and do a little swimming.  The water here is a remarkably comfortable temperature, considering it gets pretty cool here at night.  I think it has something to do with the volcano on the north side of town, but I am not quite sure......

Anywho, there are some really great people running, working, living, and visiting this hostel.  Sometimes people can make all the difference, and I think the folks here have really made Boquete a special place for me.  I have even gone out a couple times at night with everyone....and it certainly takes some special people to make that happen. Haha.

I don't know my exact route south from here, but I think I will be heading out of Boquete with some friends from the hostel and school early next week. More to come......