Keagan Sees A Shark

This story is alternatively known as "the time piper almost cried/freaked out while snorkeling." [The hostel we are at right now doesn't have a working computer (nor AC, but hey, $10/night!!) so I'll do a more in depth post about Bocas del Toro later.]

Back to the story.

Today we took a mini-tour out to some of the surrounding islands. Basically we just got to chill on a gorgeous beach and go snorkeling (and see dolphins [delphines], sloths [osos perezosos], starfish [estrellas], and jellyfish [jellyfish].) Keegan and I managed to grab some snorkel gear to play with while the rest of the group was lounging on the beach. The coral was really pretty so we followed it way out without realizing how far from shore we were (it was also super shallow, less than 3 feet in some places, so it didn't feel like we were out very far.) Pretty soon we got to the drop off. I've seen Finding Nemo so naturally I was terrified (also I was already pre-disposed to fear since I'm terrified of the ocean in general.) All of a sudden Keegan's body language totally changes. Above water he says, "Piper, don't look. Just turn around and swim." Yep, that's all it takes for me to turn into Michael Phelps. Darted my ass back to shore as fast as I could. We stopped when we were about halfway back to shore, but I wouldn't let Keegan tell me until we were safely back at the beach what he had seen. If the title didn't give it away already, he saw a shark about as big as Keegan's wingspan. 

In conclusion, the ocean is terrifying and Marlin is always right: stay away from the drop-off.

Panama City: First Impressions

So far, so good! It seems like we´ve been away for a lot longer than 2 days already.

Happy gringos. Eventually we´ll get a photo we are both in.

Panama City is a really cool city, but really strange. There is so much construction and renovation going on (because it has newly booming tourism and financial industries.) Completely destroyed or run down buildings, borderline slum conditions, are right next to or mixed in with beautiful new buildings. Its really crazy to see because it changes in an instant. (Don´t worry mom, dad, grammas, and the McCaffrey´s: we haven´t felt unsafe at all. There are tons of police everywhere to protect the fledgling tourism industry and everyone has been super nice anyway.)

The white building is totally run down, but to the left is a super gorgeous hotel.

 

 

I also can´t believe how many sky scrapers there are here.

This is the financial district where our hostel is. To the left is probably 25-50 more giant sky scrapers

 

 

 

 

So far we´ve walked about 1000 miles and probably biked just as far. We rented bikes for last night and this morning. Turns out, it´s not really a bike friendly city and we looked like crazy people carrying our bikes up and down curbs and stairs. There is a gorgeous pathway that goes downtown and into the tourist district ("Old Town") where biking is a lot easier though.

 

Grafitti in the Casco Viejo ("Old Town")

 

 

 

One nice suprise is that everything here has been crazy cheap. Today Keegan and I shared a big plate of rice, beans and some sort of meatloaf thing with 2 slices of platano on the side, 2 beers and a 2 scoop ice cream cone for $8.50 total. Beer at the store is 59 cents each, and only like $1 at restaurants if you aren´t in a tourist area. Our hostel is $10/night/person and it has a whole hang out area with hammocks and a swimming pool (important since its insanely humid here!!)

 

We got kicked out for opening our beers in the store. Oops.

 Finally, the best/craziest/most WTF thing we have seen so far. "Chicken buses" that go all over the city/country that are completely decked out with mufflers and crazy paint jobs and sometimes scantily clad ladies.. we even saw a Miley Cirus on one.

He saw us taking the picture.

Sweet mufflers bro.

So that´s all for now folks! Tomorrow we head for Bocas del Toro, a group of islands in the north west corner of Panama.

 

(Last fun fact for the hispanohablantes: when people greet you here they say `bueno` instead of  `hola`. I haven´t figured out which you are supposed to say back yet though..)

The Plan

Our plan for this trip is to fly to Panama. Fly from Panama to Colombia. (There is no road connecting Panama to Colombia and apparently most people that attempt to hike are never seen again because of a combination of nature, hostile tribes and drug lords/gangs... So yeah, we will fly.) And then bus/fly (whatever ends up being cheapest for each leg of the journey) our way down the west coast of South America and fly out of Buenos Aires sometime before Christmas. So that's Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Argentina (again to fly out.)

We leave tomorrow at midnight. So excited!!