Panamá

We're back from Panamá! Last week was Semana Santa and we went down to Panama because we've never been there. I only spent less than $250 for a week in another foreign country...how great is that?? Rather than give you a long boring post...I'll give you the main highlights, rather, the missions that we went on.

Day 1: Surviving the 17 hour bus ride to Panama City. I took a carsickness pill and passed out. I slept for 15 of the 17 hours. Kate got food poisoning and threw up for half of the trip.

Day 2: Kate getting better. I go to church with the family we're staying with. I have to get up and speak in church in Spanish. I give a shout out to those from Ohio...apparently no one is from Ohio :) Then some lady comes and prays/screams 10 minutes of blessings over me. It's 100 degrees and she is all up on me. Her lips keep touching my ears and I'm drenched in sweat. I can't help but laugh. She prays that I am strong like the buffalo (see a previous blog)...I die laughing.

Day 3: We all go to Casco Viejo )the old part of Panama city...it's absolutely beautiful. The new city is beautiful and super advanced...I can't believe how different it is. The roads even have names and people follow them (what???). Then we go to some Artisans markets and Albrook mall. It's huge. Bigger than anything we even have in Ohio. Everything is much cheaper in Panama. I eat Dairy Queen!!!!

Here are some locals swimming in the fountain in their underwear :)

Day 4: We went to the Panama Canal. So cool. The history was so interesting. I think the reason that Panama is so advanced is because the Americans were there for so long. We saw a boat pass through the locks. For those of you from Cincinnati...it's kinda like driving down River Road down on I50 and getting a few glimpses of the river and instead of seeing a barge, seeing a huge cruise ship or ocean tanker. It's pretty crazy. Then we went to the mall again and I ate Dairy Queen!!! Then we left on a random bus to Bocas del Toro which are islands on the Carribbean. We watch Marley and Me in Spanish on the ghetto bus and cry our eyes out while flying through the backcountry of Panama.

Day 5: We arrive 10 hours later at the islands really early in the morning. We take a land taxi and a water taxi and arrive at a hostel that has given away our reservations. So we sit and fall asleep on their couch because we're exhausted. We get another water taxi to another island to another hostel. They have a place but need to clean the twelve person room. 12 hours later, the room is cleaned. It was disgusting. The guys in before us were drunks and absolutely trashed the place. It was awful, but we were stuck on the island. Soooo we sucked it up and made it through.

Day 6: We're feeling more rested and the room is cleaned a little more. We meet some cool people from all over the world and go to the beach. The sun still hasn't shown...it's been raining. We hike to some random beautiful beach. I almost get sucked up in quick sand as I search the forest for a good place to go to the bathroom LOL

Day 7: The new friends we made invited us to go snorkeling with them. It was beautiful. Clear water, cool fish and corral. We saw dolphins! It's still rainy and gross out. I touch some fire corral on accident and get corral poisoning (who even knew that this was possible). My arm was burning and red and puffy. I survived :). We got back to the hostel and the sun came out for 2 hours...yesss!!! We got burnt lol.

Day 8: We leave in the morning. We didn't have return tickets so we were just going to beg for rides, try to catch a bus...hitch hike if needed (not really...well...). We take two water taxis and one taxi. Thankfully the land taxi guy was super helpful and got us a place a bus going back to CR. lol standing room only on this 6 hour busride, but some how we got a seat. We get the super ghetto border crossing. Walk our own butts across this awful bridge into Costa Rica. They didn't check our bags or anything, just gave us a stamp lol. 5 hours later, gracias a Dios, we got back to San Jose. God was definitely taking care of us :).
So basically, it was great...but probably the weirdest, longest trip ever. We're home safe and really thankful. I'm glad we made it. Thanks for your prayers.