Panama Update #3 - Don't cry for me Argentina!!!!

December 31, 2017

hi there all...and happy new year's eve!!!! i am finally getting the chance to catch up on my blog after a crazy finish to my first semester at the international school of panama.....i am now in the states chillin' with my family and friends and tryin' to catch up on the back log of things...including writing my update....so here is my apology and my hope that the next update comes out sooner, rather than later....i am hopeful that i will do it while i am still in the states this break....but that might be hopin' for a bit too much....

anyway....the second half of the semester flew by...one of the coolest things i did was spend a week in beautiful argentina with two friends of mine from panama....we also hooked up with a friend of mine from ghana who lives and works there now....we spent time in both buenos aires and mendoza (the wine region) and i have found another "b" city in the world i simply love (think budapest, berlin, barcelona, beijing, etc)....let's get on with the adventure and pictures that were....and i hope you enjoy what you see as much as i enjoyed livin' it!!!!

so one of the first stops we made in this amazing town was the cemetery....specifically the recoleta cemetery....which on the day we went was spectacular....this cemetery is all mausoleums....so all crypts above ground...and the artwork of these mausoleums speaks for itself in the pictures....in the shot above you can see the gorgeous day we had (with no humidity!!!! a huge welcome from panama!) and that the red plant in the foreground is actually a poinsettia tree....perfect for the holiday season we are all in at the moment.....

i love this shot....if you zoom in and focus on the black spot in center of this image, you can see that it is a nun in her habit walking through the mausoleums.....she was also with a priest and some other folks....i was hoping to get them both with this backdrop, but to no avail.....however....this is just one row of the cemetery, which has over 6,400 mausoleums and statues and crypts...it is referred to as the labyrinthine city of the dead....freaky, yet cool at the same time....

some of the crypts were falling down and some were in perfect condition....i loved how many had stained glass windows and when the sun shined through them they lit up the inside of the mausoleums....it was stunning.....

the works of art of some of these mausoleums was incredible....and the statues of angels or the people who had died or the religious icons was just incredible.....and with the blue sky, white cloud backdrop....it was a perfect way to spend a wandering afternoon....

of course, one of the most famous mausoleums in the entire cemetery was that of eva perone....known by many as evita....she is considered to be the heart of the argentine people and is still revered by all....

her family mausoleum is the only in the entire cemetery that is allowed to have fresh flowers....no other has any....pretty wild....there was also a line to see her crypt....which was not true for any one else in the cemetery either.....

this is a shot of jess and i, standing in front of a bank.....we have no idea what the people behind us are doing....but we decided that they must love the smell of our hair!!!! hahahahahaha....whatever... it was great to connect with jess....we worked together in ghana....yay team ghana!!!!

the bridge above is a swing-suspension bridge....called the bridge of women...it actually swings open....i loved it...we walked across it later on the trip....but this is a shot as we were passing by it....

this was my favorite sculpture in the entire city....it is called the floralis generica and is a stainless steel flower....huge, as you can see from the comparison of the people in the picture....it is a mobile public sculpture...meaning that it opens at 8am every morning, like a real flower would, and it closes at sunset, like many flowers do...it is controlled by hydraulics and photosensors.....way cool!!!!

buenos aires is the host of the 2018 summer youth olympics.....it is refered to by many as just "BA"....they have started getting the city ready for this honor of hosting these games....should be a great place to host them.....

the building above is called la casa rosada (the pink house)....the balcony on the third floor is the famous balcony that eva perone spoke from as she was in the last stages of cervical cancer....they also say she spoke from here when her soon-to-be husband and president of argetina, juan perone, was in jail....when you do the research though, supposedly this never happened....the park in front of this building is where many protests are held and currently there is a long standing camp to remember the veterans of the war of the falklans....interesting stuff and a beautiful building.....don't cry for me argentina!

here i am on the bridge of women.....the cool one in the shot above....i was soooooo excited to be wearing jeans and closed toed shoes on this spring afternoon.....so much cooler in temperature than panama.....as a matter of fact, i am loving the cold weather we are having in the northeast of the states right now....hats, gloves, scarves, jackets....love it!!!!

one of the must do's in argentina is to go see a tango show....and we went to one of the longest running and most spectacular versions....senor tango.....they even had a live horse in the performance....but my favorite parts were the musicians....they had all of the older musicians who had played with the show, come back and perform....3 violinists, a bass player, a pianist, and three accordion players....we were not allowed to take pictures, but the passion, especially of the accordionists, was amazing and so awesome to watch.....the tango was amazing as well....but the musicians were really phenomenal.....

from buenos aires we flew to mendoza....the wine coutry of argentina (just think malbec)....on our first day we wandered the city of mendoza and found their hometown chocolate factory....mostly by smell we found it.....even in high season, easter, it only employs about 100 people....very tasty....

for our second day in mendoza, we went wine tasting....starting at 9am....lots of wine, so very little time....the first stop was trapiche winery, which actually sells all over the world....it is one of the oldest around and has gone through many changes, but is a beautiful place....the egg looking things are the newest ways they ferment the wine....they are pods made of cement....they say it gives the wine more flavor...we saw them at two of the three wineries we went too....so maybe they have something here....aged in our finest limestone and cement pods....hmmmmmmmmm

the second winery we hit was la casa el enemigo....the house of the enemy....it was started by a guy who actually also is part owner of the trapiche winery....but he wanted to create a small, boutique winery that focused on art, food and tradition....the winery is not really where we were for this tour....however, what they have set up for tours is hell, purgatory and heaven.....you go into a cellar (hell)...where there is amazing art....out into an open area (purgatory) that has more art, and the image you see above was from that part (the virgin mary holding a glass of wine....she is considered the virgin of the wine and is only found in this part of argentina)...and then you walk up steps into the tasting room - labelled as heaven....a very beautiful and hipster oriented place....they have their own organic farm and are really carving out their own niche in this region....it was lovely and the wine was tasty.....

last stop was a five-course paired lunch at the winery called augustino....and this was waaaaaaaaaay over the top....the plates had edible flowers....they let us try four different wines with lunch and a champagne (as much as we wanted).....it was stunning....and in a meat-focused country as this, i have to say the vegetarian meal i was served, was incredible....

this is a shot of us after our lovely wine tour day....literally it was alllllllll day....here you see me with our tour guide extraordinaire sal (his wife runs the company), and my traveling friends shawn and tracy....it was a perfect weather day and a perfect wine day.....

then we headed back to buenos aires.....we flew, but if i did this again, we learned that an overnight bus is a better way to do it....you have dinner with wine on the bus....in completely reclining seats and then go to sleep....when you wake up, you have a few hours to enjoy the argentine scenery and then you are at your destination....one thing i really, really loved about buenos aires (and there are many things i loved), was the street art....this was an entire side of a building that was an image of frida kahlo...if you look in the bottom right corner, you can see a shadow of someone's head....to give you an idea of how big this is.....

while in BA, we stayed in two very different parts of the city....recoleta and palermo....this is a shot from the airbnb we stayed at in the palermo section.....what a view....it was in the hipster and quirky part of town...so cafes and bars and restaurants and art galleries were on every corner.....it was awesome to just walk around....and BA is a very walkable city....

we walked down through the amazing parks and the botanical garden in the city to the planetarium....the galileo planetarium....but unfortunately everything is in spanish.....and although my spanish has improved....it has not improved that much.....but it was a cool structure and lovely day to walk around.....

here is a shot of me with one ot the huge meteors they have found in argentina....loved it....

again....i loved the street art of BA...here is another cool building i took a picture of while walking around in palermo....

and of course the last shot of me having an argentinian beer - ande s- it was actually a tasty dark beer....this toast comes from me to you....and i want to wish you all a very happy new year and all the best to you and yours in 2018!!!!  if you have not been to argentina, i would recommend you add it to your list....the capital city and the country are stunning and i really hope i get the chance to return to see some more areas of this enormous and lovely country....

and so i have made it to the end of this update...i am hoping to get another out in the next week and a half, but am not sure that will happen....but i have been exploring parts of panama and would love to share them with you....i hope you enjoyed my tour of argentina...i certainly LOVED visiting this country....again...i hope you all have had a wonderful holiday season and i wish you all the best in 2018!!! thanks as always for reading and feel free to shoot me questions if you ave any....catch ya on the flip side and have a fab day :)

peace out....dani

Panama Update #2 - Sailing & getting out of the city!

October 15, 2017

hey there folks....from a steamy and wet panama....it is definitely the rainy season these days.....this area has HUGE lightening and thunder storms.... this past week some trees and even a person was hit on our campus....he is okay, but whoa - scary stuff.....the rain is HUGE in these parts....i thought rain was huge in ghana, and they are comparable....but this seems to be more frequent....and the lightening is always happening.....i am hoping to get a picture of it at some point, but of course that is harder said than done....we still have not had a week off here in panama, and do not get one until the second week in november, so this year starts off as a killer....but this past week we were given a special day off.....as panama has for the first time in the country's history, qualified for the world cup in russia next year.....soccer rules the world.....the partying was insane on tuesday night into wednesday....i have never been somewhere when a victory parade was held the night of the big game....the team won, the partying started and the parade was held from midnight to 2am.....i did not go to the parade, because at that point we did not know if we had school or not....but i did go out to one of the main streets after the game was over to see the insanity.....it was a blast :)

we did get a three day weekend in september and so some friends of mine and i rented a sailboat (with a captain and cook) to sail around some of the 300 san blas islands in the carribean of the panamanian coast....it was fantastic and i have some pictures below....i have also decided for my sanity that i need to get out of the city at least once a weekend....preferably in the mornings, as it gets really hot from mid-morning to the late afternoon and then if it storms on top of the heat, it can be pretty crazy....so i also have made it to the second biggest city in panama - colon - and to a quaint town called potro bello and to a lovely little island just off the coast called isla grande.....i am hoping to get to see more of the canal real soon and maybe even take a boat through some of parts of the locks.....plus, i hope to get to an island on the pacific side soon.....and in november, i head to argentina for the week we have off.....yahooooooo

so things are moving along....we just had the end of our first quarter and parent-teacher conferences, so the school year is also moving along....this signals the end of astronomy - boo, but now onto what is science and learning equipment and doing labs - yay!  below are some pictures from the past bit of time here in panama....maybe this will convince some folks to come on down and visit ;)

one of the crazier things we did on a school night, was go see maroon 5 at an outdoor stadium (called the rod carew stadium - for those who know that baseball player, he's from panama)....it was insane because we had the highest bleacher seats....which were covered in bird poop....it was nasty....so no sitting for us....this was the close-up with my camera, so it wasn't too bad, but the sound was not so good....lots of energy though and if there was an easier way to get in and out to this stadium, i would try it again....but the traffic was ridiculous and trying to get a ride back to the city was an adventure...it was good that my friend carla was with me and that she is as friendly as me and knows spanish....that was our ticket for success....but hey, you never know how it will go until you try....one and done for a concert on a school night at this particular stadium....

this is  a shot of the middle school crew one friday happy hour...mostly women and lots of fun :) a great group of people, who care about what they do and the students they teach.....many have been at the school for quite a long time....so you know they are passionate about what they do!

this is the sailing crew from the three-day weekend.....this is the water taxi that took us out to the sailboat....this was after we had been picked up at 5am....yes, you read that correctly, and had to take one of the curviest, vertical at points road for an hour....it was insane.....but oh so worth it!

the food on the boat was all you could catch....it was/is lobster season in the carribean....yummy....this was our first dinner....there is shot below on how things were caught by the captain and the cook....it was awesome....they caught dinner...and we snorkeled around.....

this is captain benjamin spearing a barracuda....which we then had for a tasty ceviche lunch....more on that in a minute....as you can see, the water is sparkling and clear....it is like the waters you see on screen savers of computers.....the islands are like that as well in many cases....no people, white sand, palm tress and lovely reefs surrounding them....

here is captain benjamin again.... a 23-year-old frenchman, who has lived most of his life in Venezuela and on a boat....he is holding the flag of panama out for all to see....with one of those tiny palm tree filled islands we saw all over san blas....it was spectacular....

this was our special birthday island....we swam to this from the boat, and then they delivered a ceviche and beer snack for us to enjoy....this island is known as the japanese garden....and yes, this is the whole island....what a cool place to have a birthday fiesta....inflatable flamingos and dolphin included :)

and this was just the beginning of the celebration....we actually got to sail to the next island after this one and had a blast dancing along with the wind and music....the ceviche in this picture above was made from the barracuda caught earlier....done two different ways....the traditional way with lots of lime - and this is what "cooks" the fish....and the other way which was sushi style with soy sauce and sesame....yummy....what a birthday treat to start!

we also picked up these crazy pirate glasses and captain glasses for us and the crew....just some fun party favors....this is shawn with the cook, morracho - also known as pitbull ;) and the captain benjamin....they loved having us and our party on-board!

and here are the four of us....the captain and his three pirates on our island for the birthday festivities....it was a blast hanging with this crew in san blas....a beautiful, unspoiled place for the most part....the perfect spot to kick off exploration of panama :)

one last sunset shot from the boat of one of those tiny, palm tree filled, surrounded by sand and reef islands....yep...it was picture perfect :)

i finally made it to the panama sign along the cinta de costera....which some refer to as a corniche or a promenade....it goes along the southern part of the city and lets you look out to where ships are waiting to enter the pacific side of the canal.....there is a long walk out to the causeway....which i am hoping to do when it cools down a bit...but i finally got my walk in along the cinta.....

one of the other towns i have visited now is porto bello....a quiet, sea-side place where two forts were set up to protect panama from the british and french a long time ago....this was the way into land before the canal was created....plus, this has been a place where drug runners have been for ages....so the brits and the french would wait outside of this town and sink ships....even today the DEA stakes itself out here sometimes for the aforementioned drug runners.....interestingly panama is a huge dumping point for drugs and cash.....as we are the country next to colombia and everyone must pass it to get to the states and mexico....who knew???? not me....

in porto bello they have a cristo negro (black christ) in their church....the big celebration for him is next weekend....i have been told the worshipers will come from far and near to see the cristo negro....the reason this cristo negro is so revered is because he was thrown out to sea three separate times by the governor of the region and each of those times returned.....the people asked if he came back the third time, could they keep him....and the governor said yes....he came back and is now worshiped in this church....i love all of the candles.....

however, the mary in this church was much more intriguing to me....she is like a mannequin from a department store...not very elegant and dangling from her wrist is a set of handcuffs....something i have never seen on a mary before....when i asked about his, i was reminded how many drug runners come through here, and was told that many families have members that join those drug runners and then end up in jail....the people of this town have decided that mary needs to watch over all of the incarcerated....the priest removes the handcuffs every month, but the parishioners replace them when he has removed them.....interesting to say the least.....

from porto bello we kept going up the coast to an island known as isla grande....you have to take a speed boat over and no cars are on this island....one of the biggest drug lords of colombia has a house just across from this island and in the water is a negro jesus to watch over the boats traveling through here....it is a wild to see the jesus, with this amazing mansion behind it....it even has a helicopter pad attached....crazy....

i just wanted to post a picture of what isla grande looks like....beautiful sand, lovely water and we had amazing blue skies....it was hot, but the isla was terrific.....i hope to go back for a longer stint...and have heard there are some nice places on the "other side" of the island....just means more to explore....

due to all of the seafood here, i have started to put some fish and shellfish back into my veggie diet....i mean how can you say no to fresh caught baby lobster....yum!!!!

this was our view as we were crossing back over the to mainland side....before we hit all of the traffic coming back into panama city....i have to say, that is probably one of the worst things about panama....the traffic...it never disappears because this city never planned ahead and thought it would get this big....traffic rules my weekday and sometimes my weekend....its a bummer and i have to drive to work....definitely different from many of my most recent international school experiences.....

and here is one of the celebration shots from tuesday night's win against costa rica that guarantees panama is in the soccer world cup in russia....even in celebration, it's all about the traffic....this shot was taken before the celebratory parade down this same street a few hours later....it was just insane in this city!!! and because all of my other countries of residence are not going....i will be cheering on panama!!!!

one last shot for you to enjoy....or for me to enjoy ;) oktoberfest is something that even happens in panama....this is a shot from the oktoberfest here....they brought in beers from all over the world for us to taste, so a good time was had by all....myself included....

so there you have it....update number 2 from my country of residence now...i am official and have a residence card and even a panamanian driver's license.....crazy the way it all comes together....i am hoping to get another update out before i head to argentina....but am not sure it will happen....if you have any questions or comments, please get in touch and for all of those experiencing fall....please enjoy the color change and the temperature change for me....i am missing both of them this year!!!! i hope you enjoyed this update and thanks as always for reading!!!!

have a fab day :)
dani

Panama Update #1 - getting life together here!!!

September 4, 2017

hey there folks.....well, life here in central america is finally coming together.....sorry it has taken me so long to get in touch with all of you....but it has been a very busy six weeks of organizing life and we have already finished four weeks (yes....a whole month!!!) of classes.....i am no longer living in a hotel room....and i am loving my apartment, especially the pool....i have a car, although at the moment it is in the shop getting organized and ready for me to drive.....i have adapted to being back in a classroom and am loving that aspect of my job.....i have kids from all over the world, all though the majority are from north america, central america and south america......but it feels good to be back in an environment i know and love....an international school!!!! yay!!!!

panama city is a very interesting place......it definitely pulled one over on me the night i arrived....lots and lots of high rises made me think it was a HUGE city....and it is not....i do like all of the buildings and that it is easy to get from one side to the other of this place.....there is a metro line, but i have not used it yet....and uber is definitely alive and well here.....it is what i normally use to go out and come home....but for the most part i am loving being in a walk-able city, that as a bunch to offer.....from restaurants to bars to movies to an amazing waterfront walk......and green space is just a stones throw away....

another thing that has been quite surprising is the amount of rain and of storms we have here....i do not think a day has gone by without lightening....and when that happens there is very loud thunder....i need to see if panama city is a hot spot for thunder and lightening.....because it sure seems like it....watching it off my balcony is one of my favorite things.....the storms also keep every thing quite moist....so you have to be very careful of mold growing literally every where....the amount of moisture in the air has been incredible.....temperature has fluctuated, but i am definitely back in the tropics....hence why i love the pool sooooooooo much.....

this is going to be a quick update....as i still need to get ready for school tomorrow....but i really feel like i needed to let you know i am well and happy and adjusting....i might be headed out to go diving or go to the beach next weekend....which i am greatly anticipating....need to get out of the sticky city....although, you really do not have to travel far to get to green rain forest....which is nice.....and the flora and fauna has been fun to check out.....very different from northeast pennsylvania....i have already had one trip to the rain forest....where we saw macaws. toucans, a sloth, parrots and heard howler monkeys....

onto the pictures.....and thanks for reading and checking in on me....one last thing....some people have asked if they can mail me cards or things....and unfortunately the answer to that question is NO!!!! panama actually does not have a mail system....so literally nothing gets mailed here unless you use a specialty service.....it is wild....only way things get mailed out is if someone is leaving the country and can send it from the country they are headed to....simply mind-blowing!!!!  so thanks in advance for the attempts to keep in touch via snail mail, but really nothing will make it to me....sorry :( plus, i am not sure how often i will get the chance to send postcards.....so just know i am thinking of you!!!!

when i first got to panama in the middle of july, we had our orientation at the marriott in town, which is also where we lived until we found apartments to live in....i have never been given this option of finding my own place to live in....i have to say i am not a huge fan of this.....just give me an apartment a previous teacher has lived in, in the area i am most interested in, with colleagues located close by....it took a lot of time, effort and i lost two apartments before i got the one i am currently living, which i really like....but while we were at the marriott we were given the royal treatment, including this cute box filled with sweets....welcome to panama.....

the picture above is how we were greeted as new faculty at the school the first day we arrived.....every one of the staff and faculty that was on campus came out to greet us and made us feel like rock stars....a wonderful welcome!!!!  and now i am an ISP dolphin....it was a lovely way to welcome us to the school.....

a HUGE selling point for the school is a brand new, FIFA approved soccer field....not only for our teams, but it is used continually by surrounding neighborhoods and league teams here....yesterday there was a huge under 18 tournament.....so its cool because it is good for the school and good for the community!!!!

one aspect of panama that reminds me a bit of asia is the mall and the crazy things in the mall...they are like ghana because many stores are really small and have very little in them....but then the art and statues and food courts remind me of asia and the states....and then there are the people there for the air conditioning and to get out of the storms.....but there are also huge stores like those in the states and overseas....but with different names of course....but there is definitely no target.....penguins in panama.....yeah right.....but i found these guys ;)  in the mall.....

here we are at one of the food courts....you probably recognize some of these names....and i have to say, i think i have found all of the fast food from the states....from mcdonalds to kfc to taco bell to little ceasars....we even have chuck e cheese.....at times i look around and wonder just where i am, as a lot of it is very states oriented.....

there are quite a few large parks in panama city....although many of them are being refurbished...including the one closest to my place....and once again i am living close to a statue of einstein....living close to a famous scientist statue also happened in china and croatia as well.....just wild :) but at the moment the einstein head is covered in plastic....but i am excited for when i finally do see it....

there is one older section of town called casco viejo (means old town in spanish)....and the next few shots are from down in that area....there are still cobbled-stone streets and tons of renovation....this is one of the main plazas in this part of town, called plaza herrera....the statue is general tomas herrera...he was the first president of the free state of panama.....in 1840....it only lasted 13 months and then panama was back as part of colombia....

they are definitely working on this part of panama city....and sometimes you see old facades of buildings with nothing really left inside of them.....this particular building, and old church, is being left this way....an outdoor courtyard....this the remains of the church and convent of the society of jesus....it was founded in 1578 by a jesuit priest....it is a lovely building....

because casco viejo gets a lot of tourists....there is a lot available to buy in this section of town for tourists....lots of bold colors and fabrics here....although, they are very different from the bold fabrics of africa....you just know you are in a latin country from their crafts....more on these in a later update, when i actually buy some or go see how they are made :)

of course, no first update would be complete without some shots from the panama canal....i have been to the older set of locks, which you see above, but thus far have not made it to the bigger, newer set....as they are a bit farther away from the city.....the school took us to the mira flores locks for a dinner to welcome up to this country....it was a blast....the boat in the picture above is headed to the pacific ocean....and is in the second to last set of locks in this section of the older locks....

one of the coolest things i learned, is that the ships may not use their own engines while going through the locks....they are maneuvered through by tug boats and little trains along the canal locks themselves....you can see one of the trains in the shot above....as two large tankers are coming through.....the orange is headed to the pacific and the black one is headed to the carribean....

in this shot, you can see that the locks have closed and that the water on the right side is much higher than that on the left side....the engineering behind this system is amazing....and although it is fully automated....there are people working along side the entire set up....

my last shot from the canal was taken a bit farther up the locks....what is also very interesting is that there are bodies of water between the different sets of the locks,,,,and this is where the tugboats do their thing...what is also cool is that every ship must sail the panamanian flag while going through the locks, because the tugboats are all panamanian....

this is another shot of caco viejo from a balcony of an apartment i was taken to see....you can actually have a view of the waterway into the panama canal....but i made the decision that i did not need to live in a high-rise along this strip....the neighborhood definitely does not have as much character as mine....but it sure has a nice view!!!!

one of the stops we made in our exploration of the area around panama city was at a park that was set up to help rehabilitate animals that have been injured or "abandoned" by parents....one of the animals on exhibit was a harpy eagle....the bird in the picture with me....this is the national bird of panama....so it was cool to be able to see one up close and personal....

flowers and insects here have impressive thus far....some really huge cockroaches in my classroom....bleh.....lots of lizards around as well.....and many, many, many pretty butterflies...as i am typing i keep thinking of the names of these animals in my head in spanish for practice, as i am taking spanish lessons....as it is something you should have if you are living here.....

we stopped at the rehab park on the way to the gamboa rainforest....where it rained...BIG TIME!!!! luckily it stopped early enough for us to be able to take a cable car to a viewing platform above the canopy....but here you can literally see the "cloud forest" aspect in this part of panama.....

here i am at the top of the viewing platform (go team croatia!!!!) in the rain forest....behind me is part of the panama canal....the canal is huge...and now has two pathways ships can take...big and bigger....the canal makes tons of revenue for panama...and it very impressive...more on it in a future update :)

so this is a shot of most of the newbies in my cohort at the rehab park...there is a lot of teaching power in this picture....cool and interesting folks who have been all over the world and the states....good people as we say.....go dolphins!!!!

one of the best things about being back in latin america.....ceviche!!!! plus, here in panama, like in ecuador....they eat it with yucca....yahooooo!!!!! in this shot you can see three different types of ceviche.....which is perfect for a sunday lunch at the fish market....ceviche is a raw fish dish which lime is added to, so that it is cooked by the citrus.....sooooooo tasty and full of flavor :)

and of course i had to end the first update from my new country of residence with a beer flight....this is from my local happy hour pub just down the street from my house.....la rana dorada....which means the gold frog.....most of the beer here in panama is light in color and not so bold in taste....but this pub brews their own....and they have a porter!!!!! yahoo.....there are a few other brew pubs in the area, but i have not had the chance to make it to them yet.....salud!!!!!

so there you have it....my first update from panama....thanks for sticking with me to the end....and consider this your invitation to come on down for a visit....only a 2.5 hour flight from fort lauderdale, fl....easy access to the pacific ocean and the caribbean sea....you can actually swim in both within the span of a day....and of course the panama canal....an engineering wonder every one should see at least once....if you have any questions....feel free to get in touch and hopefully my next update will be out in the next month....i have a boat trip for a couple of days in the next month and am hoping to go diving and hit a few beaches....i'll keep ya posted.....

hope all is well for you and happy beginning of school to all of my friends who teach....all of my friends with kids and all of my past students....good luck, have fun, drink water!!!!

peace out....dani