To follow up where we left off with our vacation recap yesterday, here is the route we followed during our 23 days in Panama:

After the first two days in Panama City, we took a quick 12-seater flight to the country’s second largest city, David, where we spent the next two days & nights doing a lot of sweating, walking, drinking bottled water, and more sweating. We spent one afternoon wading near a waterfall and met this super sweet girl, who told us she was an Olympic swimmer for Panama and won the silver metal at the last Olympic games…or at least that’s what we think she told us…our Spanish is not brilliant.

Days 5 thru 10 – We started Day 5 by boarding an old yellow school bus for a trip to the mountain village of Boquete, near Volcan Baru. We loved it here and stayed for 6 nights, exploring nearby villages on foot and via scooter. We tried our hands at rock climbing, hiked in the lush mountain forest in search of the illusive Quetzal, sipped coffee at a coffee plantation, and swam in a rock-lined river.

Day 11 thru 13 – We had to take the bus back to David to catch another bus north to the Caribbean town of Bocas del Toro, where we spent 3 nights checking out some of the local beaches. We snorkled, swung in hammocks, saw the native red frogs and even a lounging sloth.

Day 14 thru 16 – Day 14 began with a flight back to Panama City and a 4-hour bus to the sleepy mountain town of El Valle, where we spent three days playing a lot of cards, soaking in mud baths and hiking along waterfalls. We also met a very interesting herbalist, Frank Gruber, creator of the rather infamous Gruber’s Jungle Oil. Created from a blend of herbs he found in the El Valle forest, his jungle oil is meant to repel all kinds of biting insects and even eliminate the sting if you did get bit. It could also be used as a sunscreen, although I didn’t quite understand how that worked, given that it was primarily made from oil. Frank also said it could cure several types of skin cancer and reduce the poison of a viper bite. And amazingly it could also cure acne and be used as a deodorant. Frank generously gave us a bottle, which we haven’t really put to the test yet. But, it was so cool talking to Frank. He was such an interesting person with some fabulous life experiences to share. We could have talked with him for days.

Day 17 – We took an afternoon bus back to Panama City, where we stayed the night before flying to the remote and native Kuna Yala-owned islands of San Blas.

Days 18 thru 21- Sunrise flight to the islands of San Blas, where we spent four heavenly nights on the 400-person island of Wichub Wala. Every day we took a boat ride to explore one of the San Blas’ 365+ islands. We only visited a handful, but it was blissful. We’d park our butts under a palm tree and just wile away the day with some swimming & snorkeling, reading, cards, and a whole lot of nothing.

Day 22 – Flight back to Panama City for a little souvenir shopping, a dip in the hotel’s roof deck pool and another belly filling meal of meat, rice and beans before heading home on Day 23.

Here’s a map outlining our route:

David was still a city, though not nearly as big as Panama City, so mostly we just walked around and ate. Boquete was one of our favorite places. The climate is much cooler because of it’s mountainous location and there was more to see and do there, even if that meant just sitting in the plaza people watching, as this young boy in the next photo is doing….two seconds later he was texting on his cell phone. Crazy, right?

Coffee is a big industry in Panama and Boquete is one of the largest producers. This next photo was of what we thought was a coffee processing plant. Looks like they dry roast in the sun…

I ended up with a pretty uncomfortable stomach bug and was in some serious need of relief, so we popped in the Clinica Valle Boquete. As awful as I felt, it ended up being a really cool experience. It cost me $5 to see the doctor and get a prescription of antibiotics. The doctor didn’t speak English, but he was wonderfully patient with me and spoke very slowly, enunciating really clearly. I actually felt like I could speak Spanish. As strange as it sounds, my visit to the clinic was a highlight. Plus, it’s always good to see how other people live in a very day-to-day way and while our health care system is no doubt in need of some serious reform, we are blessed to live in a country with state of the art medical facilities. It’s always good to be reminded of that. We took this next shot for a giggle the day after I started feeling better….

Andy spent an afternoon in a rock climbing lesson one day. I still wasn’t 100%, so I didn’t take a lesson. But, our instructor, Cesar, was super passionate about the sport and encouraged me to give it a go. So, in shoes way too big for me, I scurried right up the climb just to the left of where Andy is in this next photo. That was the beginner’s route and the first one Andy did too. The one Andy is on in the photo below is his third trip up. It was a more intermediate climb. We both really enjoyed our time on the rock and are really excited about trying it again.

Just passing time….

Willy the toucan, resident at Pension Topas, where we stayed in Boquete. Every morning began with “Hola, Willy,” as we walked past his cage. It’s just amazing all the beauty that is in nature. His colors were spectacular.

These little munchkins were the children of a guest at the pension and the dog belonged to the pension owners. Kind of a fun perspective…

One afternoon we hiked up into the hills of the town, where many of the native people live. Boquete is beautiful, but the disparity between the haves and the have nots is upsetting. There are many US transplants living in Boquete, in what would be million dollar homes in the states, while the people of the Ngobe Bugle tribe live in ramshackle houses on the perimeter of the coffee plantations. They wash in the river and get paid very little for the back-breaking work of picking coffee, not to mention their exposure to pesticides working in the fields. They don’t own cars and have to walk great distances to get into town to buy food and supplies. Some speak Spanish, but they also have their own native language. We wished we could have spent some time with a family. Here a family crosses the man-made river bridge to make the long trek down the hills into town.

A little boy plays outside his house.

These little girls saw us walking up the hill and were excited to make contact. This shot pulls at my heartstrings. With laundry drying on the barbed wire fence and the girls in their traditional native dress grabbing on the fence with their little fingers, they are still filled with the happy innocence that is childhood.

The girls and two boys we assumed were their brothers ran out to the street to see us. They saw our cameras and wanted a photo, so we grabbed a couple. I loved the first one we took, where they all looked so serious. Andy grabbed the second photo, which I LOVE, where I’m showing the kids what they look like in the photos. I tried asking their parents, who were outside doing chores, if they had an address so we could send them copies of the photos. But, I don’t think they understood us, and honestly, I doubt they had a mailing address. We tried finding a place to print photos in town, but couldn’t find anywhere. Such a bummer.

This young woman washes her clothes in the river.

High in the hills of Boquete, near the start of Los Quetzales trail, the temperature dropped and we were nearly in the clouds, with a rain-like mist that gave such a lushness to the surroundings. It was beautiful!

Later in the trip, we visited Los Pozos Termales, or thermal pools, on the edge of town in El Valle. Our $1 admission let us cover our faces in therapeutic mud, then soak in mineral baths before rinsing off in the outdoor shower. With sunburns from our stay on the beaches of Bocas del Toro, the mud and minerals felt great.

Tomorrow we’ll be posting photos from our stay on the islands of San Blas and the beaches of Bocas del Toro. Stay tuned. Chris & Andy xo

Travel is something Andy & I are both extremely passionate about. Not surprisingly, our relationship began while we were each traveling in Spain. Travel is the thing that seems to magically transport us back to the easy-breezy lifestyle we had when we first met nearly 15 years ago. We were young and free of responsibilities and expectations. Life was an open book and our experiences filled the pages with adventure.

There is something about traveling to new places, meeting new people, eating new foods and experiencing new cultures that makes us truly come alive. Maybe it’s just the way we travel. My sister thinks we’re crazy. She’s a five-star hotel kind of girl and me, well, don’t get me wrong, I like down comforters, fluffy robes and chocolates on my pillow as much as the next girl. But, for me and Andy, stepping completely out of our comfort zone and taking away the creature comforts we’re used to has a way of putting life squarely into perspective.

Here in the US, we’re constantly bombarded with messages telling us we how important it is to be number one, to accumulate lots of stuff, and that to be successful and happy you not only have to keep up with the Jones, but beat them down on your way up. The kind of traveling we like to do peels all that clutter away and brings us back to basics, reminding us of what is truly important in life — love, laughter, health, happiness, family, friends and basic human interaction. The rest is all just stuff.

It’s been a few years since Andy & I took a long vacation. We’ve been super busy and taking a big chunk of time off just wasn’t in the cards. But, this year, we made the commitment to ourselves and to each other to get away for three weeks and give our batteries a much-needed recharge.

Destination…Panama.

Panama was chosen without much forethought. In the throws of a miserable February winter, desperate to get away…somewhere, anywhere, Andy asked me what I was looking for in a vacation. We went to Nicaragua three years ago and we both absolutely loved it there. So, I said I’d like an experience  similar to that. I didn’t want anywhere too touristy, somewhere that had cute towns to leisurely stroll through, jungles to explore and beaches for doing lots of nothing. I love trying to speak Spanish…emphasis on trying…so I told him I’d also like to go somewhere where Spanish is spoken.

With that, Andy headed off to Borders to do some research and called me back a few hours later. “How do you feel about Panama?” he asked. “Panama? Sounds great!” I said, without knowing much of anything about Panama. But, with it’s close proximity to Nicaragua and precisely because I didn’t know much about it, it sounded like the perfect destination for our adventure.

And, that was it…vacation planned. We booked our tickets, and our first night’s accommodation in Panama City and figured we’d use the guide books Andy got at Borders to map out a rough itinerary before we left on March 1. Then, just let our instinct be our guide.

We spent our first two nights at a hostel in Panama City. Hostels have changed a lot since we first met at Hostel del Pilar, in Marbella, Spain…or at least the people who visit them have changed. When we began traveling, there was no internet…God, that makes us sound ancient. Backpackers didn’t carry laptops, cellphone or wireless USB modems. They didn’t check facebook several times a day, tweet regularly or make movies of their adventures to post on their personal websites.

Back when we first got bit by the bug, you traveled to get away; to leave all things familiar behind and open yourself up to new experiences. If you needed to reach someone or had something to say, you bought a payphone card or sent a postcard.

Today, the new generation of backpackers seem to spend more time chatting about what they’re doing than actually going out and doing. It was very strange to us. We were there to unplug and get away. I admit, we did Skype with family at home to let them know we were okay. We even checked Bello e-mail a couple of times just to make sure all was well. But, for us, the joy in getting away is to disconnect as much as possible so that we are completely in the moment, enjoying the experience as it happens.

And enjoy the experience we did! Although we had a few bumps in the road, including two trips to Health Clinics for a seriously dodgy stomach and sun-stroke, Panama was exactly the experience we were hoping for — a perfect mix of adventure, culture and relaxation.

Here are some highlights from our fabulous Panamanian Adventure. Enjoy!

As I mentioned, the hostel in Panama City wasn’t the best. Our room was a 8′ x 8′ blue box with dirty walls, a super uncomfortable double bed, tiny window and an old AC unit that only went on from 9PM – 9AM. And, it was HOT…crazy hot, especially coming from winter temperatures. This first photo is a sort of self portrait I took our first morning in Panama City. I remember laying in bed, sweating my tootsies off, thinking about the crappy room and how the scene, with the thin sheets and dirty walls felt like something out of an insane asylum. It’s kind of dark spirited for the start of our post, but it makes me smile because at the time Andy & I were wondering if we’d made a big mistake with Panama and if we should leave, go home, go back to Nicaragua…what?

It all turned out fine and as it happens, we loved Panama. After the self portrait, we headed out to see the Canal at the Miraflores locks, which was very cool. The Canal is quite a marvel of human engineering. There are three separate locks, but the government is in the process of expanding at least one of the locks and I think I may have heard talk of adding another at a new location.

During our few days in the city there was a constant queue of ships of all sizes waiting to pass through the Canal. During our trip to the Canal Visitors’ Center, there was a giant freighter carrying some sort of explosive hazardous materials from Hong Kong on its way through the lock. Inspectors check the ship as it passes through the Canal and emergency personnel could be seen on stand by just in case. It was a little freaky, but surprisingly efficient. It takes about 8 hours for a ship to pass through the series of three locks transiting from the Pacific to Caribbean.

I think the guys in the next photo were Panamanian inspectors…they don’t look terribly busy inspecting, but with 8 hours to pass through the locks, I guess they had lots of time to take a break and wave to onlookers.

The next day we walked around Casco Viejo, or old town, and this next photo is a view of Panama City from Casco Viejo. We were surprised at how many skyscrapers there were in the city. We were told the majority are apartments and many are actually vacant…yet construction continues. It was really hot and humid in the city and thick smog hung in the air. Sunken ships left abandoned complete the scene.

In a slightly different direction from the same perspective…

This next photo is one of those moments you just live for when traveling….

Like the gates of an abandoned heaven…

These were just a few of our photos from the big city. We’ll be posting more tomorrow from our visit to the mountainous regions of Panama. And then some more later in the week from our visit to the coast. And, we’ll wrap up with a slideshow. Thanks for visiting! And as always, please feel free to leave a comment or spread the love. Chris & Andy xo