Having visited Panama in the beginning of April, we decided
we would let our guest-post age, like a sweet Panamanian wine (do they even do
wine in Panama?).
I think the overarching theme we picked up on during our
honeymoon to Panama was just how much diversity we saw in the portion of the
country we visited; roughly the same size as Massachusetts. Now, I’m not saying that MA isn’t diverse,
but between the people, the geography, and the temperatures, MA’s got nothing
on the western half of Panama.
We began our trip months before, with airline tickets
purchased and visits to the travel clinic for our immunizations. Apparently Marie didn’t want to be known as
typhoid-Marie, so we were obligated to receive that shot. After a stern warning from the travel
medicine doctor to only drink bottled water that was obviously factory-sealed,
we left at 8AM for Panama.
Upon arrival, we were greeted, diplomat-style, by one Bri
Drake at the gate. After whisking us
through the special diplomatic customs and immigration line at the airport, we
were out in the – quite hot – air of Panama.
We left 38°F
and arrived in 38°C weather. It was much different. We took a taxi to our hostel, and the first
thing Bri pointed us to, was the tap for water.
Something along the lines of “I haven’t gotten sick off the tap…” while Bri answered the phone to her Dr. telling her she had giardia.... We gulped down some water and headed out to
enjoy Casco Viejo, the new, old part of Panama City. We wandered the streets and I was struck at
just how influenced Panama City was by Spanish architecture. The streets were narrow and winding, and it
was warm.
That
night, we had the privilege of first being completely ignored at a restaurant,
followed by delicious tapas, then graciously shown out the door as the manager
schmoozed with Bri and Marie with good-bye kisses. The
service industry of Panama is definitely more low-key than that in the US. After dinner, we headed to a local brewery to
sample some of Panama’s craft brews.
We
awoke in the morning to catch a bus, to catch a bus, to catch a bus to Santa
Catalina. Our first bus was a big air conditioned coach bus playing a dubbed
movie for a while, then switching over to music videos that can only be
described as mildly graphic. Our second
bus was on a non-air conditioned mini-bus that took us closer. Our final bus was perhaps the shining moment
for Panamanian service: we sat in the hot sun for 45 minutes then drove towards
are final destination, stopping a couple of times so the money-taker could drop
his work shirt off at his mom’s house and then talk to a friend at a bar. At last we made it to our hostel, Hibiskus
Garden.
Unlike
our travels getting to it, Hibiskus Garden was gorgeous. We ended up sleeping in their ‘open’ room; an
empty space on top of their garage with a roof and no walls. Luckily we had bug nets, or the howler
monkeys would have been the least of our problems.
From
Hibiskus, we embarked on several excursions: snorkeling around coral with
sharks, sea turtles, and eels with some cooky Canadians who husked and opened a coconut on a rock, getting offered rum from a Panamanian boat
captain after relaxing on some beautiful beaches, attempting to surf while
being stung by tiny jellyfish. Overall,
we had a wonderful time in Santa Catalina.
 |
| The snorkeling guide (later turned boat captain). |
After
disembarking and making a brief stop in David get smoothies we went to stay with another wonderful Peace
Corps Volunteer in her house with running water, where mangoes were falling in the back yard. We traveled on to the mountain
city of Boquete (which, for those of you reading at home, Chip still cannot
pronounce correctly). We knew we were in
for a treat when we saw that they had actual blankets on their beds. Blankets!
It got cold enough there that you needed blankets to sleep
comfortably. Luckily, it was exactly
what our fortified Wisconsin bodies needed a midst all of that jungle heat.
While
in Boquete we did more walking and wandering.
We may have wandered onto a coffee plantation; we might have hiked to
the top of a mountain expecting a gorgeous view (spoiler alert: it was covered
in trees), we may have been just a couple of ‘Muricans amongst all the other
ex-pats that populate Boquete. You see,
we learned, while in Boquete, that American-, Canadian-, and
British-expatriates like the allure of the ‘exotic’ nature of Boquete, but want
to be pampered. They decided they liked
coffee, and Boquete has coffee, and they wanted someplace warm to live out
their golden years. Even though most
citizens of Boquete spoke English, we had something extra great with our
travelling translator, Bri. We got a
wonderful tour of the city by a bus driver while he drove us to our bus stop to
go hiking. Clearly, perks exist when you
travel with Bri, who just tells people she lives in Cocle.
After
reveling in the cool, mountain air, we headed to see Bri’s province. Penenome was very fun. We ate authentic Panamanian Chinese food, and
stayed in a hotel with A/C. In the
morning on our last day in Panama, we visited Penenome’s market. We got to see all of the hats and meat the
market had to offer.
After
another bus ride back to Panama City, we stopped at one of Bri’s friend’s
apartments. We swam in the pool with the ocean view at his
high-rise complex before heading to the airport to finally leave the jungle
paradise we got to visit.
Overall,
Panama was quite the adventure, and probably one of the neatest international
travels the Nitschke couple has taken yet.
We couldn’t ask for a better guide and friend to help us along on our
honeymoon, featuring Bri Drake.
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