July & August

July and August were good months in Parita and in Panama in general. My mom and Aunt Judy arrived in Panama City in mid-July excited for their 1^st Central American experience. We visited the canal and other touristy sites in Panama City, ate at some delicious restaurants, and fought with taxi drivers trying to rip of the gringo tourists.

The most authentic adventure we had was going to visit my friend Jake’s town about an hour outside of the city. They are an indigenous community who earn extra income giving tours and presentations for the increasing number of tourists in Panama. First, we took a quick boat ride in a dugout canoe to visit a nearby waterfall. The “short” hike to the waterfall turned out to be a 30 minute trek through the jungle complete with mud, knee high river crossings and a few small boulders to climb over.

I was very impressed with mom and Aunt Judy who took everything in stride and made it to the through with only a few small slips. I think they thoroughly enjoyed the experience, especially when we got to cool off after our hike in the waterfall.

After a few days in Panama City we packed up our rental car and headed to the interior to see the other side of Panama. A few wrong turns and pit stops later we arrived in Parita and began the daunting task of visiting all the good people in town who help take care of me. In typical fashion, mom and Aunt Judy came bearing gifts which my townspeople were very gracious for.

We went to church, saw some cows, and of course ate at various friends’ houses. One neighbor even killed one of her chickens and made us a scrumptious sancocho (chicken soup) lunch.

Plaza of Parita from the Church belltower

Having seen the authentic Panama we were soon on the road again to the last stop on our trip – The Royal Decameron Resort is all-inclusive, huge, and amazing. We spent 5 days drinking Piña Coladas by the beach and soaking in the fierce Panamanian sun. Good times.

Less than two weeks after my vacation with mom and Aunt Judy ended, the celebrations for the patron saint of Parita (Santo Domingo de Guzman) were getting started. Everyone in town touched up the paint on their houses and proudly hung their “¡Viva Santo Domingo!” banners.

My coop even got it together to move to our new building that has been donated to us by the municipality. We’ve got a one-year renewable permission to operate there. It is a huge improvement over our last location, which was simply a room, attached to one of the members’ houses. Now we are more centrally located and have painted our name and logo on the outside. All these factors should give us more credibility within the community; we already got one new member signed up since we moved.

I had heard a lot about our patronales celebrations from people in town and it was the only big event I had yet to witness. What happens is they put up barricades all around our massive central plaza and have something resembling a rodeo. In this kind of rodeo though the audience gets to participate!

All the guys just chill out in the middle of the plaza drinking as they let bulls out one at a time sometimes with someone riding, sometimes not. I didn’t get the appeal of this particular activity until I was in the plaza chasing around and getting chased by a huge animal with horns. It’s kind of like hanging out at a nice afternoon BBQ except every once and a while you have to flee for your life! Needless to say it’s a ton of fun; and this went on for four days!

On the last day I actually got hit by a bull. Luckily he didn’t have any horns and just gave me a head butt that knocked the wind out of me before practically the whole town came running to my rescue. This event was captured by a film crew from the weekly show “Hecho en Panama” that travels to different festivals throughout the country. Yours truly was on national TV getting hit by a bull. This story will certainly solidify my place in the pop culture history of Parita for at least the next 10 years.

Besides the bulls there are stands selling crap that kids beg their parents to buy them, discotecas at night, and of course lots of fireworks. My favorite part though is the street food. Vendors of various tasty fried foods peddle their goods inside and outside the plaza risking life and limb for a qwata. (See below)

Thin sliced fried platanos, Mmmm.

A week of partying is probably not the best preparation to run a half marathon but that’s how I chose to do it. On Sun. Aug 10^th I finished the half-marathon in Panama City along with three other friends and four friends who ran the entire marathon. It was quite different from the NYC and Boston marathons I’m used to seeing. There were only about 600 people running, virtually no spectators, and no distance markers. They had a ton of people handing out water, which was very necessary in this climate, but only one traffic lane was closed so exhaust spewing buses zoomed by every once in a while. Overall it was a really fun experience and I plan to continue running and possibly have a go at the NYC marathon next year.

Back in Parita the parties were getting started again, this time to celebrate the 450^th Anniversary of the founding of the town. We are the oldest town in the Azuero Peninsula and are very proud of that fact. I marched with members of my coop in the Foundation Day parade and attended various folkloric presentations throughout the week.

The last day there was another tipico (traditional) parade and a concert by Samy & Sandra, a brother and sister group that are probably the most famous artists here in Panama at the moment.

The most exciting thing to happen in Panama in the month of August didn’t even take place here. Panama won its first medal in 60 years and its first gold medal ever at the Olympics in Beijing. Irving Saladino took gold in the men’s long jump, instantly becoming a national hero. The day he returned to Panama was declared a national holiday and he was greeted by hundreds of people including President Torrijos. Congratulations Irving!

Finally, while Parita was celebrating its 450^th Anniversary I celebrated a personal anniversary of having lived in Panama for a full year as of Aug 15^th. The time has gone by much quicker than I imagined and from what other volunteers say, the second year goes even faster. I’m quite accustomed to the lifestyle here, but I’m already looking forward to my 1^st visit home for Christmas and New Years. Hope to see YOU then.

Vacation Daze

Apologies for the extended absence without an update to this blog. I’ve been sans computer for about 3 months now due to a broken power cord situation. This climate seems to devour electronics as many of my fellow volunteers can contest, so I consider myself lucky to have had only to replace a cord. Since my last update I’ve had visitors, taken vacations, partied in Parita, and managed to get a lot of work done amidst everything else.

"Diablicos Sucios" at the Corpus Cristi Festival in Parita. The dance depicts the battle between the Archangel Michael and the Devil.

In Mid-May Heather arrived and our favorite Scottish-Boricua was immediately put to shame by the almost fluent Spanish of her fairer skinned friend. We spent a night at an all inclusive resort here, dancing salsa at the discoteca and getting a workout (and slight sunburn) at the swim-up bar. We then returned to my town where Heather met my friends and neighbors, and hung around in my hammock while I worked with my coop members and tourist group. Heather also cooked some delicious meals for us and introduced me to some new culinary possibilities. Finally, we did touristy stuff in Panama City getting particularly lucky during our visit to the canal where we saw a U.S. submarine pass through, followed by a Disney cruise complete with Captain Mickey waving to us from the deck.

In the last week of May Peace Corps hosted a Business Planning Seminar with the help of some Panamanian government institutions that help develop small businesses. About 6 volunteers attended, each of us accompanying someone from our community who was interested in starting or expanding their own business. I brought my neighbor and friend Maria who has been working with me on the tourism project. Her potential business would be a small artisan store to sell masks, pottery, postcards, and other souvenirs to the tourists who pass through Parita. The seminar helped her put together a written business plan outlining her products, market, and five-year sales projections. In the coming months we’ll continue to develop her project while looking for prospective funding sources for start-up costs.

After 10 months in Panama I decided I needed a vacation, so in June I hit the road to Nicaragua in a tortuous 20+ hour bus ride. Once I arrived though it was all worth it. I visited the beautiful colonial cities of Granada and Leon, taking day trips to the beach and Laguna de Apoyo, which is a lake in the crater of an extinct volcano.

Nicaragua is full of volcanoes and since it seemed to be the thing to do I hiked the extinct Volcano Maderas, which along with Volcano Concepción forms an island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. Interestingly, this lake is the largest in Central America and was considered alongside Panama as a potential canal site since there would be less excavation work to do. However, a Nicaraguan postage stamp depicting the still active Volcano Concepción was enough to convince American speculators that Panama was the safer choice for their canal investment. I had an amazing time in Nicaragua and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to meet some friendly people and take in the country’s incredible historical and natural sights.

Who's he stepping on?

Heading back South I spent a few days in Costa Rica which was a little more touristy, and accordingly more expensive, but no less beautiful. Between bus rides I managed to zip line through the Monteverde cloud forest and eventually arrived at the laid back beach town of Puerto Viejo. I’ll definitely be making a return trip to Costa Rica when I have more time and money to play around with. Back in Panama I visited my good buddy Mike at his house in Bocas del Toro (near Costa Rica border on the Caribbean side). He had some friends from the states visiting and we all got it poppin’ at his house (see below) and the main island.

I was happy to return to my site after two weeks of living out of a backpack, and sleeping in hostels crowded with smelly people.