Panama 6

 Now that school is ending in a week, it's time to finish up this Spring break vacation before vacationing starts again! And since it's Mother's Day, I'm not involved in meal prep and have a few moments to myself.

On our last day in Panama, we made a last-minute decision to drive out to the river that connects the Panama canal on both sides of the country. We were fortunate enough to find a man named Fernando who agreed to take us out on his boat. He was an excellent tour guide but used a lot of superlatives which I'm pretty sure were inaccurate, for example, we saw the smallest bat, loudest and smallest monkeys, and fastest lizard IN THE WHOLE WORLD, to name a few.

Here's a huge boat that came from one canal and is headed to the other one.

The smallest bats IN THE WORLD! 

Fernando said they were blood-sucking bats, but by this point, I wasn't sure whether to believe him.

Panamanian alligator

A Jesus lizard that is the FASTEST water-walker in the world!

My monkey feeding a monkey. The little monkeys were used to tourist feeding them fruit.

They took papaya from both Iris and Sybil's hands.

There was a huge troop of monkeys in a tree at the edge of the water. I'm not sure whether they were howler monkeys, but Fernando revved the boat engine a few times and they went berserk, angrily screaming at us.

After the boat trip, we went to the original Panama City which was destroyed by English pirates. 

The museum that chronicled the invasion and we walked through the ruins.

Of course our last stop before the airport was at a gelateria. 

I refused to partake because we had eaten neither breakfast nor lunch. 

Ice creamed seemed like an abomination, but this is a typical travel day with David.

Panama 5

Oh man, I loved Panama. This was another highlight for me. Sybil and Max joined David and I for a jog around the perimeter of the island. Elijah and Iris decided to sleep in. 

We explored since it wasn't a very well-traveled path. It was about 3.2 miles and was unpeopled except towards the end of the path where we wove through luxurious hotels and also through the slums.

David insisted that we needed to leave Almirante in time to make it to the empanada store on the side of the highway back to Panama City before it closed. Big mistake. At least three of us got bad food poisoning because of this stop:

We arrived at a beachside resort that night and found hundreds of hermit crabs on the beach.

There aren't many countries where you can play with hermit crabs on a Caribbean beach in the morning and then play with hermit crabs in the Pacific by night.

Then the kids swam in 4 pools. As they were playing, we saw a couple of coatis (cousin to the raccoon) crawl out of the trees and play near the pool.

The next morning, we explored the beach again

and saw an iguana.

We dropped Max off at the airport and then went to a wildlife museum. Sloths:

Rooftop swimming again

 

Panama 4

The drive from Boquete to Bocas del Torro. 

We saw the brightest rainbow, both the beginning and end of it. It followed us. That was the only positive part about the road trip. Some of the roads were so steep that we couldn't see the road. A few times, we saw a dog lazily moving to the edge of the road. We had no idea that there was even a dog in the road in the first place since vision was impaired. We crossed old wooden bridges that looked unable to sustain the weight of a car with 6 people. And of course, David sped over them. He also drank way too much water and made us all giggle with his "Peepee stop" songs. The problem was that he chose to take his peep stop in the middle of a mudslide. Our car got stuck on the side of the road and kept sliding away with the tires spinning. A Good Samaritan stopped, pulled out a rope that we tied to an axle, and miraculously saved us while getting his really nice shoes dirty. The trip was downhill from there. The sun went down, the roads got narrow and windy. People appeared out of nowhere at each turn, lazily walking in the road. 

And David went faster. 

I think that was the only time I ever cried out of fear while in a car. David told Elijah that he should come to the front seat, but little did he know that Elijah was also fearing for his life in the back seat, holding his suitcase in front of his body as a cushion because he was convinced that someone's fatality was imminent. And David went faster.

Miraculously, nobody died.

The next morning, we took a boat to Isla Colon where we ate breakfast on the beach and then went to our new place on the beach. Sybil, the independent child insisted she didn't need to sit near us:

We took a boat tour and saw jumping dolphins, 2 sloths at the edge of an island, 

and then saw this voyeristic toucan perched and peeking into the mens' bathroom.

My favorite part of the day was snorkeling. I loved seeing the colors of the plants, and coral, and swimming alongside the brilliant fish. After, we were dropped off at an uninhabited island that had a boardwalk winding through it.

We explored through driftwood beaches with palm trees leaning into the ocean. 

Conch shells and wildlife were plentiful and quicksand was hiding at the shore of this private beach.

It was a beautiful island paradise; white sand, blue sea, warm water.

On the way back, we stopped by Manglar Island which was surrounded by huge, orange starfish.

That night we ate pizza on the beach.

After dinner, we took a walk through the town and spotted huge crabs, 

bigger than David's feet, hiding among piles of empty coconut shells.

They came out, spied at us sideways, and slowly retreated if we moved too much.

 

Panama 3

Boquete part 2

Zip-lining

Sybil and I did a 12-line zip-line course. 

We flew over jungle and waterfalls hundreds of feet below us. 

Sybil went with a guide for the first 2 times and then insisted on going by herself.

The older kids and David went on the Superman course which was only 3 lines, but about a mile long each. Not only was their positioning different, they got up to speeds of about 60 miles an hour.

The next day we went on a hike where we saw 3 waterfalls.

Iris found irises.

We drove through the neighborhoods and forest listening to an audiobook 

and the kids giving eachother tickle tortures.

This kid loves my kisses

Our last adventure in Boquete was white water rafting. Our guide, Teeny was an expert bird watcher. We saw a flock of swallows swooping down to eat bugs, a boa hanging out in a branch right above our headsmen fishing for sabado fish, white cows, horses, palm oil trees that kill the earth with their acidity. Of course, the boys kept throwing each other out of the boat.The rapids scared Sybil a few times, then she loved them. But she loved jumping out of the boat and swimming most of all.

Tired kids, On the bus ride home, Sybil re-enacted the scene from Lord of the Rings when Gollum crushes the crackers. and maliciously spreads them on Sam. Max was her favorite audience: fresh and attentive. Max woke up soon after and pushed her onto Elijah. Sybil went by "Maria" in Panama because of the sideways looks we got with her first name.

Best city ever