Panama!

My short weekend in Panama was an absolute BLAST! I had such a great time fellowshipping with a bunch of friends I wasn't acquainted with very well and then meeting new friends along the way!

miles and miles of banana trees for Chiquita Banana

The border from Costa Rica to Panama that we crossed was 100 years old! It was built in 1908 for transportation of bananas between Panama and Costa Rica. It was the first among lots of cool things I saw! It was literally falling apart, so wooden planks were placed vertically across the other horizontal wood planks... but they weren't even hammered down! They slide around when you walked on them! It was really scary to step on the bridge that gave under your weight over a roaring river!

 rickety bridge to cross the border

After a short bus ride, we took a water taxi to Bocas del Toro in the pouring rain. Nikki and I finally arrived at our B&B. For dinner we went to this floating bar & restaurant on the ocean which was SO fun! The food is cheap in Panama and really yummy! We chatted with an old man from our B&B and he ended up buying us drinks and paying for our bill! It was such a pleasant surprise! We went back to the B&B later and spoke to our new friend, Les, for two more hours! It was so great to have good company!

Me, Les, Nikki & Nicole

The next day, Nikki and I took a water taxi to the island that our friends were staying on, Red Frog Beach! We enjoyed fresh cut coconut, courtesy of our friend, Robert, climbing a coconut tree! We beached allll day long with very little burning and lots of adventuring! Our friend Nicole then met up with us and we went back to the boat bar and right when we were about to pay, our friend Les arrived! He then proceeded to snatch the bill from our hands and pay for two more rounds of drinks! It was a great night full of laughter and stories that continued on into the night with the addition of our two new NYC friends, Brenden and Allen. We stayed up until 3:30am just talking and laughing!
Our last day, Nikki, Nicole and I ventured to Starfish Beach, where the water was smooth as a lake with a beautiful backdrop of mountains. How many beaches have mountains in the back round?

It was a great end to a beautiful weekend! Needless to say, Panama was a great (but short!) trip!

Good Weekends

I certainly have a lot of things to be thankful for this month, with the first being this weekend! I started off with Friday doing what I anticipated to be a boring service project. It turned out to be a super fun time with all my teachers and a chance to help a local orphanage by cutting and gluing a Christmas Advent Calendar! I lost track of time and actually was late to meet up some friends to go to the mall! There, I successfully bought the one gift on my Christmas AngelTree's gift-list: a big stuffed dog. Qué bueno!

Saturday I woke up soooo early (8am :P) to go to an area of San Jose called Moravia. I went with three friends from school and it was a great morning getting to know other students outside of class! I finally got home and was able to relax from my "stressful morning" before being picked up by my prima tica, Maria Fernanda! We bought lots of junk food and watched Los Juegos del Hambre! We talked for hours in spanish and laughed and laughed and laughed when Maria's mother taught me what words NOT to use in spanish! 

The next day Maria Fer picked me up with her boyfriend, Roblo, in an old school, beautiful, red Land Rover. Gosh, it was gorgeous, and I'm not even a car person. We spent the entire day in Parque de Diversiones, a theme park of San Jose! It was like a mini Disney World! I had such a fabulous weekend with my new Tico friends! 

Next week brings more adventure as I will be traveling to Panama for just a few days! Some students have to leave the country for two days, and I decided I would like to travel along, because hey, why pass up more traveling? It will be a six to eight hour bus ride to Bocas del Toro, but I'm so excited to spend my second to last week on the beach in Panama! 

Two weeks from today my Costa Rican adventure will be over, but in less than a month I will be in Europe! I'm sad that this journey has gone by so quickly, but I will make the most out of the last few days I'm here!

Nos vemos!