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JONATHAN'S BLOGS
I'v been slacking a bit on the blog thing so I've got some catching up to do. The past two days were kind of uneventful because we've been moving around a lot. Thursday was the day we started our journey to Panama City, but not before another amazing lunch at Antojitos (where I ate twice as much as any man should) and a tour of a major coffee plantation. Souvenir tiles and a memorial invitation were involved, but you'll have to hear that story in person :) We have seen ZERO Starbucks' here; the only chain that seems to have some ground is Kotowa, so we decided to take their tour. A nice and outrageously tall Dutchman named Hans picked us up at Mamallena and drove us a whopping ten minutes to their processing plant. I wanted to steal his incredibly awesome leather shoes but I think he must've worn a size 14. Hans was informative to a fault and loved to talk so much that our 2.5 hour tour lasted 3.5 hours, but we had absolutely nowhere to be and nothing better to do so it was hard to complain. We saw the fields, the plants, tasted many different varieties, and finally realized that the "mist" of rain we've been experiencing here in Boquete isn't rain at all: it means we are literally in a cloud. How cool is that? The biggest thing they hit on during the tasting was the roasting times and what light, medium, and dark roast really meant. Apparently it's only a difference of about 30 seconds in the roaster, but the flavors and mouthfeel change dramatically. I learned that I'm a middle-of-the-road kind of guy and Brittany likes the light roast, packed with flavor but little body. We don't drink coffee all that often but I'll have a new appreciation for it when we do! Back at the hostel we grabbed one last round of strawberries and natilla, got on the bus to David, and watched Brittany promptly spill said strawberries and natilla all over herself and her backpack. Ah, what grace I married! :) One hour on the converted school bus and we were in David, where we wandered the bustling station, trying to figure out where to get tickets for our overnight journey to Panama City. When we finally found the ticket booth we discovered that the only bus not already sold out was the 11PM, so we were really fortunate to get a ride at all. Man if all of those buses were booked we would've been in trouble! With tickets finally in hand we spent another ten minutes wandering in a cloud of confusion, looking for the bag drop. Finally free of our packs we started walking toward the mecca of Panamanian food and culture that is TGI Fridays. Ok so it wasn't perfect and I'm not proud but it worked out perfectly. It took us almost half an hour to get there (partly because we accidentally took the long way around a packed baseball stadium) and we were drenched in sweat when we walked through the door. That didn't matter much because there were about five other people in the building. We killed several hours there, scarfing good but devastatingly bad for you food (the Oreo ice cream sandwich was fantastic) counting down the minutes to the bus. When 11PM finally rolled around we were sitting in plush air conditioned awesomeness; the bus couldn't have been better and especially not for $18 per person. The ten hour trip was as good as it could be, but was still miserable. On the bright side, we didn't pay for a dorm room that night, so...cha-ching! Arriving at the bus station in the morning was another huge hassle. We elected to pay $8 total to get into town on another bus instead of dishing out about $50 for a taxi. The problem was that it was just about impossible to figure out which bus to take. There were HUNDREDS of them and we had a really hard time figuring out which one would get us where we needed to be. This is where Joe saved the day and talked to every uniformed person he could while I stood with the girls. Finally we were told to hurry up and get on a bus that we never would've boarded otherwise and made it to a sleazy little plaza ten minutes away from the hostel. This was definitely not the nice part of town, but the sun was just about to come up and it didn't take all that long to find the Magnolia Inn, our "luxury" hostel. The place is actually just as beautiful as they claim and we're sharing a small dorm room. Unfortunately for us we arrive just before 7AM but couldn't check in until almost noon. That translated to five hours of languishing in a (albeit beautiful) common room after already spending a miserable night on the road. My first shower was an ethereal experience; I swear I could feel the layers of grime and general grossness disappearing under the magically constant hot water. I shudder at that shower's awesomeness :) Finally feeling like humans again we walked to the local fish market, checked out the mountains of massive fish kept cool on ice, bought cheap and delicious ceviche (tentacles included) and sat down at one of the dozens of outdoor stalls for a fresh lunch. Joe got exactly what he asked for when a m************ fish, deep fried to moist crispy goodness, came out accompanied by a mound of coconut rice. I got the same fish but pre-boned (I've done the whole-fish thing...I'm over it), and the girls both went for shrimp. Just sitting at the table, waiting in anticipation of our food, gave us time to reflect on where we were. Island music was pumping, the sun was high and intense, and a bazaar of smells was carried by on a strong cool breeze. This is definitely NOT the USA. We've all been pleasantly surprised by Panama. After learning that they use our money and taking a hundred years of cultural influence into account I was afraid we'd feel like we were in a beach town back home. Panama has a culture and feel all its own. After lunch we walked the Old Town, which is very much in the throes of an architectural revival. There are many old and dilapidated buildings, but most are being slowly restored to the good old days. While we walked the cobblestone streets massive and modern skyscrapers loomed in the distance. It was a juxtaposition we witnessed in Colombia, but there the revival has already taken place. Joe checked out some Panama hats, Kim and Brittany fawned over tourist ****, and I downed a mouthwatering ice-cold Coca-Cola from a glass bottle (there is no better experience than that). The previous night's fatigue eventually caught up with us and we came back to the hostel for a short nap that lasted several hours, took on zombie forms just long enough to enjoy a cheap dinner at the Coca-Cola Cafe in the seedy part of town, and then collapsed back into bed. We were first through the door at the canal museum this morning (it's like one block from our hostel) and we picked up our little English audio-guides with great anticipation. I've been looking forward to Canal Day for a long time, and this was it. The museum was visually appealing but EVERYTHING was in Spanish so we missed out on 95% of it. Our audio-guides only worked in a few places and gave a super watered-down version of events. Brittany's guess is that the real story was in Spanish on the walls, because the English stuff made it sound like the US was just a friendly benefactor, always looking out for others. That somehow doesn't mesh with the giant pictures of the flag riots, etc. After about two hours in the very oddly laid out museum we jumped in a taxi to the Miraflores locks. It was an exorbitant $15 to get in (stupid guidebook said it was $8) but the museum blew away what we saw this morning. For starters it was in English, and it felt a lot more like a European museum. It was high-end and made the entrance fee seem more reasonable. We caught the tail end of a massive ship going through but didn't actually get to see the locks in operation. We had all kind of assumed that there was an endless barrage of super tankers waiting to get through but that apparently isn't the case. We learned that most ships pay between $400,000 and $600,000 in tolls to make the transit and still save massive amounts of money compared to going all the way around South America. We saw an exhibit about indigenous wildlife which included a TARANTULA HUNTING WASP. I think that was tailor-made to terrify me. I hate wasps as it is and this giant sucker patrols the rainforest for poisonous tarantulas to kill. I guess I already know the subject of my next nightmare... There was a comically terrible 3D film that had everybody laughing instead of learning, and the most interesting part of the day was seeing (and feeling) an explosion in the distance from the canal expansion project still underway. It was supposed to be done more than a year ago, but $1.6 billion budget overages can put a damper on a project. It looks like they're on the finish line and it would be exciting to come back and see that side of it someday (maybe we'd actually see a ship haha). Everyone was starving after our two hours at the canal so we had the taxi drop us off right at Cafe Rene, a beautiful little restaurant in the heart of the Plaza. We each paid ten dollars for a multi-course meal. You decide what kind of meat you want and that's about it, everything else is a surprise. We didn't know what to expect but every course was fantastic! We shared a bottle of wine for a seemingly reasonable $18 (Kim later found it in a grocery store for $4 lol) and left still discussing the unique and surprising flavors of the meal. I hope we'll have the chance to eat there one more time before we leave. I slept...again...while everyone else wandered the city. They bought some chow-mein and soup seasoning for a quick dinner and we slurped it down with some of that $4 wine on the second floor balcony of our hostel. The views aren't all that great but it's Saturday night and there are grills set up all over the place. The sweet aroma of meat grilling over charcoal wafted into the hostel and proved too much for me and Joe to bear; we left the girls in bed and set out into the city for some mystery meats. There were surprisingly few vendors but we eventually found some (so chewy that one skewer lasted a solid 15 minutes) but the real highlight was the city itself. It's after 10:30 at night and there are hundreds of cars still pouring into the Old Town, valet touts chasing down drivers and selling (presumably) parking spaces. You'd have to pay me a whole lotta money to drive a car here! We followed the car blockade to the "happening" spots, enjoyed listening to some street musicians (music blares on every street, giving everything a hopped up and lively vibe) and made our way back to the hostel with some confidence. It's always nice to stay in one spot for a few days because you start to feel like you know the place. I think we're going to do the Amador Causeway tomorrow and make one last ditch effort to see some sloths. The following day is our last and it's gonna be rough. We check out of our hostel at 11AM and don't fly out until 2AM the next day. That's a lot of time to fill and I'm still not sure how we're going to do it.
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Jill How cute,hope you enjoyed the movie!