lao-ocean-girl

Wow, I can?t believe it?s been 10 days… and to top it off, Happy Valentine?s Day!  Let me try to recap the last ten days.  Las Tablas is where the Carnival action is in Panama.  It?s the biggest, and full of the most energy, as Panamanians have told us.  Unfortunately, we were unable to get a room there, or anywhere within an hour outside of the city.  Celebrating in Panama City was were we decided to be.  The first two nights of Carnival were ok.  A downtown street, Via Espana was closed off for 4 days.  Friday night started off slow.  The street was about 3/4 of a mile, and there were hardly any people to fill it up by 8pm Friday night.  There were food vendors, but mostly beer vendors.  A can of any of the 5 Panamanian beers were 50 cents a can.  This is when Ras was wishing he was travelling with an anyone who drank beer.  (I can?t stand the taste of beer.)  We hung out for a bit and decided to come back the following day… maybe things would be a little more exciting.  The next day, there were thousands of people that filled the streets.  It was packed!  There were 3 stages, with a main one that would be televised throughout the country.  The costumes and the parades I was hoping to see weren?t there.  We went to buy drinks at Rey, a supermarket that was located on Via Espana.  You could buy liquor there, but couldn?t take the bottles ouside.  Instead, employees would open your bottle in the store for you, pour it out into a plastic container, and let you take that outside.  There was no charge.  By that time, it was Sunday, and we had been in Panama for 6 days.  It was time to get out. 

Carnival lasts 4 days - Saturday through Tuesday night (aka Mardi Gras).  Everything was closed for those four days - banks, laundry mats, many stores, and travel agencies.  There was no way to get out of town, even if we wanted to.  We just had to wait out two more days.  The last day of Carnival turned out to be pretty fun.  We arrived during the day and drank, ate 30 cent meat  on a stick, threw water and confetti on kids, and met people along the street.  A parade came down later that night, with costumes and all!  I was happy.

The next day, we practically ran out of Panama City.  We took the next available flight to Contadora, which is a part of the Pearl Islands.  Yes, the Pearl Islands of Survivor Fame.  We stayed there for 3 nights, and have spent the last 2 nights in El Valle, a town of 6200 that is situated in the 2nd largest crater in the world (a result of an extinct volcano).  More info about Contadora and El Valle later.  We?re leaving El Valle this morning and heading to Pedasi, and go to Iguana Island.

Here?s Ras? mass email of his version of our trip so far…

let?s see, last time i wrote i was still in panama city.

from there, we jumped on a tiny, little, two prop, 21 seat puddle jumper that went from panama city to Isla Contadora - one of the few inhabited islands in the Pearl Island chain. as much as we looked,
searched, and scoured the beaches for any sign of a pearl, there was nothing. the beaches were nice, though in the ?book? (not lonely planet, mind you), one particular beach was described as ?the nicest in the pacific?. not sure how a 40 meter strip of sand can beat out some of the beaches i?ve seen in mexico, let alone the amazing beaches in hawai?i.

as we were walking along one of the main beaches in front of the 167-dollar-a-night-for-a-double-room-resort, we saw a stack of hand made, floating devices laying on the beach. turns out, it was
leftovers from survivor, pearl islands. our little brush with fame.  just across the water from our room, which wasn?t in the super resort, was on of the islands that one of the tribes lived on. apparently, to
make the show, they had rented out the whole resort, as well as all of the area (ocean and airspace) around the islands for a 5 mile radius. the locals, with their boats, had acted as water security guards, not allowing any traffic for the duration of the show. at the time we left, there was a film crew from colombia, doing their version of survivor on the islands.

it was a nice couple of day, relaxing in the sun. it wasn?t a big place, so we were able to walk around the island in a couple of hours. we saw the locals houses (not much to speak of), $300,000
dollar houses, and the front gates to a place owned by Christian D?ior.

our humble room was 33 dollars a night, with a kitchen in it. it was nice to be able to stay away from restaurants for a few nights, cook some food at home, drink beer in a hammock. now, it
wasn?t all wonderful…our view looked straight out onto the landing strip for the island, to see the ocean you had to turn right. planes only came twice a day, so it wasn?t that bothersome, and we were almost always at the beach during those times.

after the island, we flew back to panama city, went to the bus station, and hopped an air conditioned bus to El Valle. it was just over a 2 hour trip from the city to this town located in an old
volcanic crater. we got here in the afternoon, and took a walk to the thermal pools. entry was a grand 1 dollar, and we got to cover ourselves with mud, shower off, then soak in hot springs (heated from the old volcano) - 36 degree water. very, very nice.

the next day (yesterday) we walked, and hiked, and walked, and walked. in the morning we visited the sunday market, where everything from fruit to plants to jewelry to local handicrafts made by
the Kuna indians were being sold. i ended up buying two molas, traditional handmade cloth items that are usually worn on the women?s clothes. from there we went to see the oldest petroglyph in panama. following the trail beyond the carvings was a waterfall we wanted to see, so away we went. on the way up, we met theses two little brothers, 8 and 6 years old, who were on their way home from buying food at the market - their house was nearly on the top of the mountain. i asked them
about the trail to the top of the mountain (supposedly you could see both oceans from the top, and they proceeded to escort us to the top. they got up the mountain faster than most of the adults we saw along the way.

finally we got to the top, but could only see the pacific. not a bad view though, it was well worth the hike. soutthida, the two brothers and i had a quick lunch of chicken, then it was down the mountain again. about a quarter of the way down, we had to say goodbye to the little boys and we were off.

after the walk down, we trudged up another hill to see El Macho, an 85m ?famous