A great little trip yesterday to discover the area, Kaytee and Oscar took us to a gorge in the middle of a rain forest just outside Boquette. It was truly magical, I have seen a lot of falls and swimming holes but nothing quit like this. The hike down was about half a mile through the foliage on some pretty steep inclines, the path was hardly worn. I felt like maybe a handful of people had ever been there. At the bottom the scene opened up to an expanse of water and rock cascading down from the mountains. It was a stirring moment. My son, KC and I just looked at each other recognizing we are seeing a memory that we will talk about years to come. Life is about memories of events you have with each other that binds your relationship with each other. We immediately took to the water. Swimming to the 15 foot high rock just below the falls. Up KC went, to the very top and dove off. The smile he had was incredible. Of course dad had to follow along with everyone else. It was an experience we will savor for ever.

Day 7 – Christmas Eve

We got up early and headed over the house Kaytee and Oscar are currently house sitting for a birthday breakfast… champagne, orange juice, American blueberry pancakes with syrup, bacon and fried tomatoes, mmmmmmmm :) The house was really beautiful and had an amazing view from the balcony of a stream and tree covered mountains.

After breakfast we initiated Christy in the previously mentioned Colombian birthday tradition! Oscar is from Colombia and had told her about it a few days before, half joking, and bizarrely she actually agreed to do it… they crack one egg over your head for each year of your life then throw flour at you. Apparently it’s only for family and close friends haha. So we got a box of eggs and went outside! This was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen, and I videoed the whole thing for her because she didn’t think anyone back in New Zealand would believe she did it!

Oscar went up on the balcony and hosed Christy down, and then when we all went inside he and Matt decided to go and pick up the eggshells from the patio. I said to Kaytee we should sneak out onto the balcony and spray them with the hose to get them back, which really made them jump, hilarious!

After another glass of champagne and giving Christy her birthday presents, Lauren, Oscar and I headed back into Boquete to go to the supermarket for last minute supplies for Christmas dinner. It was soooooooo busy it was crazy, and we caused a big drama by using a $50 note…. apparently they are so worried about fraud here that every time you use one you have to produce your passport, and sign a piece of paper with your name, address and phone number! The people behind us in the queue did not look overly impressed! If I come here again I will definitely bring my money in $20s.

We headed back to Kaytee and Oscar’s to prepare Christmas dinner (the main Christmas celebration here is Christmas Eve night). Everyone was really hungry again so we were snacking on random stuff! The meal was a random mixture of so many different cultures! We had roast ham, mashed potatoes, thai green curry…. we couldn’t cook the turkey as it was still frozen! Then deserts were pavlova, fruit salad and some other random things which I didn’t recognise but all very tasty! There were 17 people there for dinner altogether – Selideth (the lady who runs the youth centre here), Kaytee’s adopted Panamanian family, other friends, and the volunteers.

We had done a secret santa among all the volunteers, but unfortunately it didn’t remain very secret and we all knew who each other had picked! Kaytee and Oscar gave us earrings made on the GEM project as well which was very sweet. I got into Christmas mode properly now and started jumping around in a santa hat haha…. strange that until then it hadn’t really felt like Christmas, I suppose because of the hot weather, the palm trees!

Kaytee later decided that because I’d suggested spraying Matt and Oscar with the hose, we would come out onto the balcony and spray me with the hose! But then, since she hadn’t needed much persuasion to go along with my evil masterplan, I sprayed her back and she ran into the house trying to duck the water and fell over, taking Lauren with her! Lesson 4: Alcohol, water and glass is not a good mixture!

Really fun day :) all a bit worse for wear we headed back to the volunteer house… somebody kindly gave us a lift as there weren’t any taxis!

Day 8 – Christmas Day

On Christmas Day all the projects are closed so we decided to go to Bocas Del Toro in the Carribean. We got a bus to David, then from David took the bus to Bocas. Altogether this takes about 5 hours, but only costs $8! The buses are sooo cheap here, but unbelievably slow… I think they have lawnmower engines, or at least that’s what it sounds like when they try to go up a hill – not good in such a mountainous country! All the bags are tied to the top of the bus and it looks as though they will come flying off! The toilets at David bus station were nearly as scary in Africa… I wouldn’t recommend them!!

The bus ride to Boquete was really beautiful. We climbed up into the mountains, and suddenly the temperature dropped as we went into the Cloud Forest. All the clouds cling to the tree tops so it actually looks as if they are coming out of the trees like smoke from chimneys!

The bus conductor seemed fairly suicidal, hanging out of the open bus door to peer out at the view and the sheer drops from the side of the road. There were small settlements all along the road with houses made of wood, some with tin roofs and some with none. The vegetation was really amazing, strange trees with huge leaves that look like they are from a tropical greenhouse, fields full of banana trees, and pineapples, which grow in the earth like potatoes. I’d never really thought about this before but I suppose they would be too heavy to grow on a tree! All you can see is the green spikes sticking out of the ground. One man got onto the bus and paid for his fair in mandarins.

We stopped for lunch at a little restaurant serving fried stuffed potatoes (mmmmm!) then gradually decended down to the coast, where we caught a taxi from the bus station and then the water taxi over to the islands. Along the harbour were tiny shacks over the water, and people’s toilets go straight into the sea! I wouldn’t want to swim around this area of the mainland!! Lesson 5: Never swim in murky water….

It was a bit cloudy but the scenery on the way to the main Bocas island was really beautiful, so many tiny islands covered in palm trees along the way. It takes about 20 minutes in a small boat carrying maybe 10 people. The boat kept flying up out of the water, and the people near the back of the boat got soaked!

Once we got to Bocas we found a hotel quite easily, $50 a night per room with hot water and internet, happy days! We had a wonder around and found a cute little bar by the sea serving amazing cocktails and fried chicken wings. This was a good food day, even if not the traditional Christmas stuff!! Because of the setting I decided that there was only one drink to have; a pina colada.

We chilled out for a while, then found a restaurant near the hotel for dinner, then headed to this water bar that Kaytee and Oscar had been to before. The bar is out above the water, on wooden walkways, which have a space in the middle where you can swim in the sea! It was so different to anything I’ve seen before I loved it.

Day 9 – Boxing Day

Boxing day is was still cloudy and there were sharp rain storms, so our plan for a day on the beach had been foiled! We took a water taxi to one of the other islands, and found a cute little bar called ‘Bibis’… we had planned to go to the ‘Pickled Parrot’ further down the beach, which a friend of Christy’s had recommended, but it was closed. The bar is surrounded by a palm forest, so beautiful. I was surprised though that the water in the Carribean is nowhere near as blue or clear as in some parts of the Mediterranean, like the Greek islands.

We had an amazing lunch in the bar, whole crab and sautéed prawns…. mmmm!! Then we played a drinking game which went on for about 5 hours, two of which were happy hour (I like that happy hour is two hours long ) and by this time everybody was a bit worse for wear! It was so much fun though, and found out some very interesting things about people, which are never to be repeated haha!

We called a water taxi back to the island, and after some confusion managed to find it!! When we got back Kaytee was quite ill L she went to bed and the rest of us went out for dinner. Oscar and Christy then went swimming in the pool at the bar from the night before, very funny but way too cold for me with no sunshine!  I got some very sad news in the evening by email, it’s really knocked me back, and I have no idea how to respond.

Day 10

It was very wet this morning, so we decided to head home, after a very strange breakfast where I had bacon that was cooked to a crisp, the texture of a pork scratching! We took the water taxi back to the mainland, and it was even more bumpy than before… I could actually see the hull of the boat buckling under my foot as we hit each wave like it was about to give way! Really fun though! We had the foresight this time to buy some ponchos so we didn’t get soaked!

The first bus back to Boquete was full, I suppose lots of people were travelling around to visit family for the holidays. People were actually standing for the five hour journey through the mountains! Fortunately all five of us managed to get on the second bus. I spent a lot of the time on the bus just deep in thought.

Back in David, Kaytee and Oscar headed home and Lauren, Christy and I decided to take a look around the shops before heading back to Boquete. There are lots more shops here than in Boquete, which is very small. I was amazed how nice and how cheap the clothes were! For less than £50 I bought two pairs of shoes, a dress (for £4!!), a necklace and a bag – happy Roz!!! Shopping heaven and no guilt :) just wish I didn’t have the baggage allowance to worry about on the way home…. Lesson 6: If you come to Panama bring an empty suitcase!!

Back in Boquete Lauren was exhausted and went to bed, so Christy and I went in search of food! Bizarrely although only 8pm – dinner time! – most of the restaurants were closed. We eventually found a pizza place but sadly it wasn’t like the one we went to on my first day…. the people were lovely but my pepperoni looked like some kind of reconstituted luncheon meat and the pizza was soggy so I left most of it not such a great food day today sadly, but on the whole the food here has been amazing!

Around 11pm we heard a loud crash – there was a crazy thunder storm going on. It turns out the crash was roof tiles breaking and falling down because there was an earthquake! It was only tiny and we barely noticed it, but I’m glad it happened as I’ve never felt one before and I knew they were common here, so it would have been disappointing if none had happened during these few weeks! Oscar did tell us though that often after one bigger ones will follow, and I hope that doesn’t happen, I’m happy with my little one haha! Lesson 7: Don’t wish for earthquakes!

Day 11

Back to work today! Very busy day and so much to do. Lauren and I had our next Spanish lesson today with Jacqueline, she’s so lovely! Because we’d been away though we had to do our homework before the lesson, and I realised again that my brain just won’t switch on before 10am at the earliest at the moment! I’ve added her to facebook so we can keep in touch. My Spanish is improving, I just need to keep practising. Frustrating that I’ll be back in England soon and it will get rusty again.

After the lesson Oscar came to the volunteer house and we cleaned ready for when the new volunteer arrives tomorrow. Then we had a burger at Tammy’s restaurant (apparently Tammy is Lebanese, random!). We headed over to the orphanage in the afternoon, although we were delayed by a rain storm and a funeral procession blocking the road!

The children were so excited, some people from Panama City university had come to visit them in the morning and brought them Christmas gifts, dolls and little mini computers teaching them maths. They asked me to help them with some of the maths questions, and were so excited that we were getting the answers right! We took them string and beads to make bracelets, and some of the girls wanted to be pushed on the swings, and lifted up onto the climbing frame so they could go down the slide – the bottom rung of the ladder is missing so the little ones can’t get up there!

We got the bus back into Boquete just as the rainstorm hit, and got pretty soaked going to the school to teach our English class. After the lesson we went to the shop for food for dinner, and got soaked again! There were people singing and dancing in the square, having some kind of festival. The big festivals here start on 13^th January (so sad I will miss that, it sounds amazing and apparently goes on til 6am every night partying in the streets!) so I’m not sure what this was for but it was great! Later in the evening it got even more lively, with drums that you could hear from inside the house! I love how they love to celebrate here, any excuse! In that respect it really is quite Spanish here, I remember in Madrid going into a restaurant for dinner and by the time we got out there was a huge street party going on, they’d even erected a stage and spotlights!

I realised this evening that I’ve forgotten to take my Malaria tablets the entire time I’ve been here! Ooooops! What a special girl :) They take a few days to start working though so there doesn’t seem to be much point now!! Around Boquete itself there aren’t many mosquitos at all so the risk is minimal, but down by the coast in the Carribean we got bitten a lot… at the time I didn’t think I had but this evening lots of tiny bites have appeared all over my legs and they itch like crazy!! Lesson 8: Malaria tablets are not just for carrying in your toiletry bag, and bug spray should be taken everywhere!

I’m so exhausted now, this has been a really long day. This trip has made me realise that I’m still really not well, and when I push it like this it really knocks me back, I need a whole day to recover! So frustrating to be ill for so many months. But I’m hopeful it will improve in the new year with more injections, it has to!!!! Fortunately tomorrow is family day at the orphanage and there is no English class so I will have some time to rest. I am not good at taking it easy but I’m realising it’s something I need to learn.

Day 12

Exhausted this morning! Feel like I haven’t slept lol!! Christy has decided to go to David to get a tattoo, and Oscar is going with her…. I think he wants another one but Kaytee has made sure he doesn’t have enough money with him to do it! I think I will stay here and relax today so I’m well enough to make the most of my last day volunteering tomorrow, and it sounds like it will be a very packed day tomorrow as well!

There’s an amazing rainbow behind the house this morning, I’ve never seen anything like it, you can literally see where the ends are, just in the next street! There are so many here because of the weird weather, the moisture in the air even when it’s sunny, but this one was so bright and close it was stunning, with the volcano in the background.

We dropped off some washing at the launderette – I am seriously running out of clothes! Then I realised that, again, I’ve been so busy I am miles behind with my journal so I sat down to write it…. but then the power went off! My computer battery still won’t charge here, even with the voltage adaptor, so as it was only running on the mains it died less than a minute after the power cut. So, plan B… Spanish homework!

Kaytee, Selideth (who runs the Starfish youth centre) and I went to the good pizza place for lunch, and I had the most amazing pizza with pepperoni, fresh pineapple (god I’m going to miss that on pizzas when I get back to England!!), capers and onions, soooooooooooo good and erased my memory of the bad one a couple of days ago Kaytee also bought me a bottle of bright green liquid that people here use for soothing bug bites. It looks suspicious but it is far better than the spray you can buy at home, I’m really impressed, I just wish I knew what was in it!!

After lunch we did some more cleaning for the new volunteer’s arrival tonight – apparently she’s an Australian girl who is staying for three months. The power is back on now so I’ve spent a few hours getting the journal up to date, and I can hear fur elise being played from the house next door, I think a little boy or girl must be taking piano lessons. Wasn’t expecting live performances of Beethoven in Panama, so I can’t complain!

Tonight Christy and I need to get all our things packed up to move to the house in the mountains where Meg was staying – she and Matt have now left for Costa Rica. There won’t be space for us at the volunteer house for our last few days as a group of 10 Koreans are coming to stay for a week! Although it’s a bit out of the way, there are amazing views from up there, and I’m quite glad to be going as I think it’s going to be a little too hectic here for my taste! I can’t imagine how 12 people are going to get through the bathroom in the morning haha! I’d better get on with getting my things together, and preparing for the orphanage and English lesson tomorrow!

It’s weird to think that this time next week I’ll be back at home in England. I can’t imagine it. There are some things I have really missed though so it won’t be all bad haha. The time here just seems to have gone so fast, and I will be sad to leave the children. It’s a shame we aren’t allowed to take any photos at the orphanage, it would be nice to have some pictures to remember them by.