Still and all, if these are my worst problems, I'm not doing all that bad in the grand scale of things, eh?
Even though we don't have a car here, we've still had the opportunity to see huge portions of the country (which has 3 million people, btw, or about 2 million fewer people than the DC metro area. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.) One of Tim's coworkers, Rodrigo, likes to take us on driving tours that we've started referring to as "Rodrigo Trips" which you can see on the not-terribly-high-quality map above.
Tim went on one before I get here (the blue line on the map), which I can't presume to tell you anything about so I won't. Although I guess I could make something up (they went kayaking! with muppets! and ate caviar off of the Hope Diamond!). The first one I went on was Memorial Day and we drove from Panamá city to Colon. I will try to state how amazing this really is as briefly as I can:We drove from the Pacific ocean to the Atlantic ocean and back again, in one day.
Let's also just add that we were driving from south to north, not east to west or vice versa. Helloooo? I am from America, westward expansion, anyone? Oregon trail? No? Well let's just drive on over from one ocean to the other, no biggie. They literally have a race here every year where people just run from one side the other. That is ridiculous. Do you know how long it took Forest Gump to get from one side to the other in the United States? He grew a full beard.
What amazes me the most is how not amazing it was. We got in the car, we drove to Colon, Rodrigo said, "this place used to be really beautiful." --as in "and now it's kinda dangerous." He got out of the car to get some empanadas and said "Don't let anyone in the car while I'm gone" (OMG, I HADN'T PLANNED ON IT.). Then we went and took one picture by the ocean and turned around and left. Wham bam thank you ma'am.
Our trip wasn't that unsatisfying though--we also drove to Portobelo, which is where Sir Francis Drake died of dysentery (Claim. To. Fame. Y'all!). It was a major port for the Spanish and for PIRATES! and there are still ruins of the 17th and 18th century forts and lots of canons that you can play on and pretend you're battling with PIRATES! In particular, Henry Morgan, of Captain Morgan's fame. There's also a church with a Black Christ and the Aduana, or old customs house from when the city was the center of trade and PIRATES!Our second Rodrigo Trip was much longer (the green line on the map), but was mostly just a drive through the mountains near Pananomé. He likes to show us places so that we can go back later on our own. E.g. he showed us how to get to Santa Clara beach, which we went to again this weekend (it rained on us), and he took us to the salt flats at Aguadulce, where there is a restaurant where I discovered my favorite Panamanian food so far: Patacones rellenos de camarones, or shrimp-stuffed fried plantains. I didn't get a picture because we ate them so fast, but I did get a picture of the ceviche.
He also took us to the pineapple plantation belonging to his parents in-law. I enjoy doing things like this: meeting people I would never otherwise get to meet, seeing how different the way they live their lives is from the way I live mine; I wish there was someway to show them the hospitality they showed us. Rodrigo's father in-law reminded me so much of my Grandpa Smitty. And his mother in-law, just like my grandma Helen, talked to me about her flowers and wouldn't let me leave without taking a bunch of food. Even though they spoke Spanish I could tell they had this crazy sense of humor--just like my own grandparents. It's funny how people can be so different and so similar.Well and then there are the pineapples. We took home more pineapples than I've ever had to deal with in my life. And plantains and Yuca too. I feel like people are always handing me native fruits and vegetables in this country. I have more mangoes than I could ever eat.
Mountaintop Graveyard in Pananomé. Lovely, no?
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