Mission Accomplished

I just have one more week to soak up Panamanian culture, but am pleased to say I recently knocked out two personal goals - 1) With a quick visit to the Rotary Club of Chitre, I've presented speeches at every Rotary club in the country (and at a couple Rotaract events), and 2) I recently earned my MBA in marketing from the local Panamanian university.

I’m pretty excited since I had my doubts from the very beginning about accomplishing either goals, but with some help from Rotarian friends, I was able to secure dates to visit each club and deliver some talks in Spanish. Now the MBA? I’m not really sure how I squeaked that one through, but I’m not gonna question it.

San Blas

This past weekend, I stepped in a time warp with 4 Israeli friends I met in Guatemala. We all hopped into a tiny air taxi and flew to the San Blas islands, inhabited solely by a tribe of Kuna Yala Indians.

The Kuna Yala are an interesting bunch. They’re an indigenous people who live in paradise, aka San Blas. It’s a little slice of Panamanian heaven on the Caribbean coast, and it’s all theirs. The Panamanian government basically ceded control and ownership of this thin strip of land and 365 idyllic islands to the Kuna Yala after a successful uprising around the beginning of the 20th century.

I’d bet San Blas is an anthropologist’s dream. Apart from the odd TV, the locals live as they would have a couple hundred years ago. Tiny huts crowd certain islands, leaving the rest to the palm trees and the wind.

I just spent an extended weekend doing little more than sitting on the beach, staring at the blue water, and then summoning the strength to get wet. This cycle repeated itself every so often, with the odd lobster dinner thrown in the mix.

I can’t say the accommodations were luxurious – no electricity and no plumbing, but overall no problems. Well, except for when my Israeli friend came down with a wicked throat infection. I had to haul him into the next island’s witch doctor, which resembled more of fisherman than a man of medicine. It was Sunday, so I didn’t let his flip flops, tank top and boxer shorts bother me. His bedside manners could have used some polishing, especially when he cursed in Spanish at the site of my friend’s inflamed tonsils. But when we only had to pay $5 for the visit, the anti-biotics and the shot in the butt, we called it even.


That's our island in the distance...


These guys showed up selling a bunch of lobster and crabs. I asked how much for the lobster - 3 bucks, he says. For just one? -Nope for all 13! We were eating good that night...

We took the beds out of the cabins at night and crashed on the beach.


Here's a view of San Blas from the air.


This is the main island of our county, Rio Sidra.


A sunset from our island...


Here's me acting a fool with some village kids.


We also survived what seemed like hurricane-force winds blowing through the island one morning.


These were my Israeli friends that invited me to tag along to San Blas with them...Maryanne, Ginger and Mrs. Howell...

Since this land is practically untouched, the wildlife is amazing. 50 feet off shore, I snorkeled with a family of about 13 cuddlefish. They're like mini squid that change their colors depending upon their env. The alpha male kept flashing a dark purple as I got close, I think trying to warn me to stay away from his women!

Central America

Although it's debatable that Panama City is one of the safest Latin American capitals, in the time that I've been here, I've seen crime on the rise. Throw in the increasing cost of living here, and crime is one of top beefs the Panamanians have against their government. I think particularly because Panama has enjoyed minimal crime since Noriega was...uh... politely asked to leave (funny tidbit - the story goes that when American forces came to remove General Noriega from power in 1989, Noriega sought asylum in the Vatican Embassy. Since the embassy was off limits, U.S. soldiers couldn't touch him...physically, so they ingeniously reverted to psychological warfare. Knowing that Noriega despised rock and/or roll music, soldiers blasted rock through loudspeakers outside embassy walls. GnR's "Welcome to the Jungle" was the first song that greeted Noriega's ears. The Stone's "Rock and a Hard Place" soon followed. Noriega, obviously lacking sufficient karaoke skills to carry these tunes, turned himself in a few days later, breaking under the pressure.)

Anyways, the increasing wave of foreigners has been blamed for the increased crime. So in a hasty PR move, the government decided to crack down on foreigners who overstayed their welcome and cut the length for tourist visas from 90 to 30 days. To keep from getting thrown into the slammer for visa violations, I realized I had to leave Panama and come back to reset my length of stay. What better way to do that than a roadtrip through Central America?

I found a cheap ticket online and headed up to Mexico to start an epic journey through some of the most beautiful terrain and exciting encounters I've ever experienced. I've traveled a bit in my days, but I've never enjoyed such unique and varied cultural experiences in such a short distance as in Central America. Each country, for better or worse, has its own story to tell. From the Zapatista movement in Mexico to the Sandanistas in Nicaragua, or the weathered Mayans of Guatemala, recent history not only reveals much heartache and loss, but a resilient optimism that seems to supersede the memory of oppressive dictators, natural calamity and ethnic cleansing...but if the countrymen don't dwell on their past, neither will I. I'll mention it only for perspective and cultural understanding.

That being said, the following are the highlights of an amazing month-and-a-half long odyssey...


SOUTHERN MEXICO


My trip started in Cancun, where I camped down in Club Hostel, which seemed more like a half-way house for middle-aged transients. I'm not sure why, but I didn't stick around the filthy hostel long enough to find out. The last straw at Club Hostel was the deluge that soaked me in my bed during the 8 a.m. downpour - I guess my bunk was strategically placed right below the gaping hole in the ceiling... After visiting Chitzen Itza, voted one of the 7 Wonders of the New World, and diving the bluest waters ever in Cozumel, I headed north.


This Mayan ruin at Tulum overlooks the Caribbean Sea. Since the Mayans mysteriously left hundreds of years ago, the friendly iguanas have claimed rightful ownership. They were everywhere!


Isla Holbox was the next stop, which gave me the opportunity to swim with the giant whale sharks. There were about 300 feeding in the waters two hours off the coast.

A whale shark circling...there's a taste of gringo in the water.


The biggest fish in the world...the size of a school bus.


Here's me swimming next to him. The sucker smacked me with his dorsal fin. For perspective, look at his head and dorsal fin popping out of the water - that's his halfway mark - about 20 feet. Double that by what's not in the picture and you can get a feeling for how big he was.


They're very gentle, but I was afraid I'd get scooped up as he took a turn bulldozing the plankton.

...and this is what I saw from the water.




Mayan Indians were selling their wares outside of Chitzen Itza

Where's the love? This was taken in San Cristobal de Las Casas, a town known as the Zapatista HQ, whose socialist beliefs don't jive too well with good ol' American capitalism.

This is an icebow I caught in Mexico. Wikipedia explains it a lot better than I can: "a phenomenon similar to a rainbow except that it is formed by the refraction of sunlight through cloud suspended ice crystals as opposed to raindrops or other liquid water suspended in the air."



GUATEMALA

The Pacaya volcano close to Antigua was spewing a bit of lava a week before I arrived. I took a trip to the volcano, where we walked over hardened lava - in some places you could see molten red lava through the cracks...




This idiot stuck his walking stick in one of the rocks, and it went up in flames...really, I'm just jealous I didn't think of dong it first.


Chichicastenango is a Mayan town that has a great market on Thursdays and Sundays.

This little girl talked me into buying some souvenirs in Panahachel. I caught up with her again in Chichi the next day. When my bus left me stranded, she offered to let me crash at her place! I found out a lot of these Mayan kids are either orphaned or have lost at least one parent, which might have something to do with the old dictator Rios Mont's scorched earth policy that killed some 200,000 Mayans during Guatemala's 36-year civil war.

Tikal is an amazing Mayan site that was used as the Massassi temples in the original Star Wars.

The view above in Star Wars is from the top of this sucker.

Our guide was pretty amazing. After pointing out tons of monkeys and completely camouflaged birds, he took a twig, rolled it around in a tiny hole in the ground, and pulled out this tarantula.


Lago Atitlan is flanked by three volcanos.

Antigua - well-preserved colonial town

I met a group of Israeli backpackers in Guatemala. It's not that hard to find Israelis on the gringo trail - most end up traveling the world after their mandatory military stint. It was very cool traveling with them, and provided much perspective into the problems facing the Middle East. I'm finishing Friedman's Lexus and the Olive Tree, which sheds some light - in it he talks about how there's frustration and jealousy by the people of surrounding countries. Many of them are hundreds of years behind their Israeli neighbors, and are bitter since Israel "just got here!"

Anyways, these guys taught me how to be an Israeli card shark. It worked - I whipped some other Israelis at their own game in Honduras. Shebaba vekhol!


I went with them to Rio Dulce, where we found this hidden waterfall. It was being fed by a cold stream to the left, but a thermal spring from up top. Although the pool was cold, the water falling was just right.

HONDURAS

After hopping the boarder from Guatemala into Honduras, I was riding on a bus and heard some crazy noises coming from the seat behind me. I began to think there was somebody with severe mental problems sitting there until I finally turned around and saw an old lady with her chicken in a grocery bag clucking away. So, I was serenaded by rooster sounds for 5 hours...only in Latin America...gonna miss this place.

Hurricane Felix wrecked my diving in the Bay Island Utila, but I still got to see some great sights.


NICARAGUA


Ah, Nicaragua. It holds a sweet spot in my heart. I went volcano boarding outside of Leon and completely wiped out after launching off a rock going down Cerro Negro - an active volcano that erupted 4 days after I boarded down it!





Here are more vids.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kvn3XL8o6SM

http://youtube.com/watch?v=FnePZ4JZVCw


You won't find too many Reaganites in Leon, the Sandinista stronghold. This painting was found in a language school where the owner's son and I sparred over Central American politics.

On my way into Nicaragua, smoke came billowing out of the rear tire of the bus - the roads looked like a war zone.

When we got out, I hopped on another bus as it was passing by, and that one got stuck less than a mile down the road.

This turtle was the house pet in a hostel I stayed at in Leon. He loved people and would follow you around until you petted him...or accidentally stepped on the poor guy.




The BBQ lady grilled up some mean Gallo Pinto and other Nicaraguan treats...a whole dinner with drinks: $1.75


San Jacincto - Underground lava meets the water table in this tiny town in Nicaragua dwarfed by the looming volcano. The ground is literally boiling as hot water is pushed to the surface. The town's kids act as guides to help visitors from getting burned. Harry Potter was our guide..

Here's me thinking I'm pretty creative, but actually looking really ridiculous.


Central American U-Haul



Makin' friends

I did a scuba dive in this lake, conveniently located in a volcano's crater. I didn't trust my guide when he told me it was an active volcano. He said, "she's just sleeping a bit." I became a believer 60 feet down, when he put my hand over a hole on the lake's floor as it was releasing heat from the volcano below.


My 4-year old sandals blew out on me in Nicaragua, so I held a somber memorial and retired them with full footwear honors.



COSTA RICA



Volcano Arenal is one of the most active volcanoes on the planet. We caught some lava rolling down its side.

Costa Rica's diverse wildlife elicits many oohs and ahhhs, but I had to let out some ewwws when watching a giant green turtle laying her 100 or so eggs on the beach in Tortuguero.


This is my European crew and me after we came back from a nature-watching canoe ride. We saw white-faced monkeys hunting grasshoppers, lizards, caiman, sloths, birds and even some huge spiders.





Since Tortuguero is only accessible by boat, the ride back was half the fun. We caught crocs dining on birds, the Jesus Christ lizards running across the water (they get their name from their crazy ability to literally run on their hind legs over water), howler monkeys, Toucans and other cool birds.

Everywhere you turned, you found something unique. I looked down at my seat on the boat and thought I saw something moving. It turned out this inchworm was tagging along for the ride. He had a make-shift shell on his back that he put together from leaves, twigs and whatever else he could stick to it.