First I visited some friends whose sites are over there. It's always great to visit other volunteer sites, to see how we all live. I spent a day in each of three friend's sites.
Oh my goodness, it's such a long trip. I live an hour west of Santiago, about the center of the country. To get from my site to the main terminal in Bocas del Toro: 1 hour to Santiago + 3 1/2 hours to David + 4 1/2 hours to Changuinola (follow on a map if you wish to see). So including the time waiting for buses in between, it was a 13-hour trip. Insane to imagine when you consider that the country is so small. The roads, especially during that last leg of the trip, are winding, built along mountains. Slow going in a bus going about 30 mph on average. A gorgeous ride, but I spent a good portion of it trying to sleep.
I spent Monday night at a friend named Jackie's site, which seems to be the most central. It was a nice little reunion with a few friends. We all spent the night at her house and basked in each others' presence. We went to the river, made good food, and had a great time.
On Tuesday I headed to a friend named Austin's site.
Cutting down "free" bananas with Austin from vast banana fields. The trees were interconnected with string to help hold up the flimsy trees. The bags, I believe, are to protect from insects.
It should have been one swipe to chop down the banana tree. Fail. I'm no good with a machete.
His site is on the border with Costa Rica, so we could literally have walked between countries. We chose to simply walk to the river and chill out at the bridge, not crossing. It's interesting to see the culture there, Costa Ricans and foreigners leisurely going from Panama to Costa Rica or vice-versa.
On Wednesday, I went to a friend named Andrew's site.
His site is an indigenous community up in the mountains, with wooden houses on stilts. It's gorgeous. This isn't the best picture, but what can I say? I don't take very good pictures. Or enough pictures to have good ones.
On Thursday I met up with a friend from U-M named Marnie. She's working as an English teacher in Costa Rica. She was going to Bocas with some friends, and got in contact with me a while back to include me in their plans.
A U-M and RC (represent!) reunion in Isla Colón, a famous tourist spot literally crawling with foreigners. It was very unnerving seeing that many people that, well, look more like me than most Panamanians. As is customary when I see white people, I immediately lean in a bit to try and listen to their conversations...to see if they're speaking English! Not all of them do. My time in Panama has almost conditioned me to believing (as many in the interior do) that white people all speak English.
Isla Colón, along with all of Bocas del Toro, is amazingly beautiful, tropical towns and mountains, and picturesque beaches not pictured in this post. It was a great way to spend Holy Week!
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