Found It!

So you know how when you found out I was going to Panamá for Peace Corps, you did the math:

Area of Panamá (mi^2)    =  2 year beach vacation
miles of coastline

Now there are some volunteers that live in beautiful beach communities, but we’re not friends with them for obvious reasons.  ;)  The rest of us spend most of our time tucked away on a mountain, in the deforested Darien, on a river that is used for bathing as well as latrine-ing, or in a fake beach site (it’s not a beach, it’s mangroves!).  We flood to the coast every few weeks to get our required intake of sand and sun.  I’ve heard the beaches are gorgeous in Bocas del Toro and the Sanblas Islands, but I haven’t been there yet.  The beaches in Coclé and Chiriqui aren’t ugly, but they don’t scream “Paradise!”

When Luke came to visit we were limited in our travel options by protests of the Ngabes on the Interamerican Highway.  A friend suggested Santa Catalina, which I had never heard of, and we said “why not?!”  We got there by way of a bus that only runs 3 times a day and when we popped out on the other side it was a surfer Twilight Zone; packed with gringos and little beachside hotels.  The shores were super rocky, but there were two sandy beaches.  We took surf lessons and I was a natural!

(We’ll see if Luke actually reads my blog!)

We also went snorkeling at Coiba National Park.  Gorgeous!

It was awesome!  If you’ve ever had the privilege of being around me when I try to enter deep, dark water you probably wouldn’t use the word “awesome” to describe the experience, but I was surprisingly calm.  Even when I saw FOUR sharks, couldn’t see the bottom, and got stung by little baby jellyfish!  The reefs, jumping manta rays, sea turtles, Nemos, Scarfaces, and other Pixar fish made up for it!

I could do that again!  :)

Lost?!