hi there folks and happy super bowl sunday from panama.....i am trying to get another update out, as once again i have fallen behind....and this seems like a perfect way to distract myself until its closer to game time and i am headed out for a super bowl party....before we go any further....i just have to say how nice it is to be able to watch the game in "real time"....not at 3 in the morning, like we had to in ghana....or the next morning or even next evening, like we did in shanghai....this time it's live for me...and very real, as my hometown team, the eagles are playing....not asking for smack talk from anyone....just saying fly eagles, fly!!!!
so as my time here in panama is getting longer, i have been trying to get out of the city more....at least one day of the weekend, as there is so much to see and do in this tiny country.....plus, it seems that more people are excited to come visit me here, as it seems very doable, yet rather expensive, from the states....so i want to give you pointers of what to do in this country i live in....all of that being said...consider this another invite to come on down to latin america.....just be sure to check in and let me know your thoughts before you buy your tickets.....i would welcome you graciously, as long as i am here and not super swamped with school stuff.....
now, back to panama....well...we have finally hit the dry season, i think....it started about a month later than normal from what every one here says.....but these days are mostly dry and rather hot....but there is usually a great breeze coming from the trade winds i have been told....i love sitting on my balcony these days before school, having breakfast and enjoying the trade winds....a slice of heaven....mornings and evenings are a bit cooler than before, but the days are hotter due to it being sunny and dry...not as humid now though....which i greatly appreciate....perfect pool weather.....
so here are some of the adventures i had before christmas break...plus, two pictures from my xmas gift of a trip to see the eagles play with my brother from santa...it wasn't a pretty game by any means, but we won!!!!! so exciting to be there....enjoy the pictures and as always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me....on with update #4
this first shot is from my balcony at sunset...i have to say that i have a pretty awesome view of the sunset and the sky here in panama does not disappoint....especially during the rainy season....pretty spectacular!!!!
this is a shot of a beach on the pacific side of the country...looks pretty nice, doesn't it....we arrived during low tide and there was a lot of beach available for us to walk up and down....but as i was walking i was trying to figure out why there were not more places with beach huts for tourists and why houses had walls that were like 10-20 feet/3-7 meters tall....i found out about 4 hours later when the tide started coming in.....
here is the same wall four hours later as the tide came in....check out the stormy-ness of the sky and look at that wave slam into that wall...it was crazy how fast the tide came and how high it came up the beach....no walking during high tide....since coming here i have done some research on it and there is only one other place that has such a high tide fluctuation as panama....some days there can be a 20 foot/7 meter difference in low and high tide....this is really a big difference from the atlantic/caribbean side....and was one of the main challenges tackled when building the panama canal.....very cool....
we did not have a halloween per se....but we did have a super heroes and super villains day...as you can see...i was one of the ghost busters....trying to rid the school of super villains....not that cathy was one...but this one of the best shots we took....all credit goes to carla for getting these amazing costumes together....so much fun...
in november i was really lucky to get hooked up with a NOAA ship that was making its way through the canal and scored a quick tour on the boat....this is me at mission control of the okeanos explorer....one of NOAA's research vessels that you can always follow....they had been mapping the ocean floor in hawaii, but were coming back to the states to get some work done....and had to pass through the panama canal to do so....lucky me....
this is the ship from the dock....it is a research vessel and the sailors all got a few free days in panama to go explore....i got to hang out with the captain and get a tour of this very cool research vessel....
docked right next door was a japanese vessel that was off-loading flash-frozen tuna from japan....to be sold all over panama as sushi and such....it took them nine hours to off-load all of the tuna they brought....and each tuna was as tall as the man standing on the truck...wild...
while on the ship and on the dock i got to see the bridge of the americas from a very different angle....i have traveled over this bridge to get to different places down the pacific side of the country and i have seen it from each end....but this is the direction to see the cargo ships heading toward the canal from the pacific ocean....as you can see, i got to take a shot of one of the big cargo ships coming up to go across the canal....these things are enormous!!!!!!
november here in panama is a very busy month....it is called the month of state-hood or patriotism....mes de patria....because this is the month panama was liberated multiple times from other countries who were in charge here....the colombians, the spanish, another group that took over a huge chunk of latin america....so it is a month of festivals....here you can see some of the kids from school dancing some of the traditional dances in traditional dress....i love this shot because of the smiling 8th grader who is second in line....middle schoolers usually do not show such emotion at a school function...so it made me happy to see this....
the shot above was the closer for our presentation and is a great representation of what is happening over the next two weeks here in panama....carinvale....the parties started just last night....queens and floats and bands....and water fights everywhere....this is what carnival/mardi gras seems to mean here...i am hoping to see some of this stuff over the next week and into saturday of next weekend....hopefully i do not get drenched....
this is shot of some of my colleagues who performed in the fiesta de patria...love the costumes and traditions...all lovely people :)
during the month of november there were panamanian flags everywhere....one school even decorated their entire front field with panamanian flags....it is a month of patriotism to the highest degree....which was a pleasure to see and experience....
one of the other places i finally made it to was the biomuseum here in panama city....i went with the STEM class, so we only looked at the structure from the outside....and then i sang here with the choir i was a part of for our christmas concert....an impressive frank gehry building that was opened in 2014....it is still being completed inside....the outside of the building is to represent the diveristy of colors and life found in panama....gehry's wife is panamanian and it is said he created this museum for the love of this country and his wife...i still have not seen most of the exhibits....but am hoping to sometime this semester....
on our way to the pacific beaches one time, we stopped to take a picture of the chinese gate, which is on one side of the bridge of the americas....this gate represents 150 years that chinese people have been here in panama....many chinese helped build the canal and many stayed when it was completed to have families here....there is quite a strong chinese presence here in panama...and has been for a very long time....
just one of the many beaches i have now been to down the pacific coast....lovely sand...and no real threat from the tides here...as there is quite a big beach in this section and no walls/cliffs along the water's edge....it was a wonderful day and coconuts were enjoyed :)
people have asked just how much rain we get here in panama....and my response is a lot!!!! i think we had only 10 non-rainy days from when i got here in july to when i left in december....and it really wasn't until 2 weeks ago that it stopped raining as much....the shot above is showing you just how much rain is pouring off the red roof...look at the stream between the red and aqua colored buildings....it is just amazing...as are the thunder and lightening.....
at the beginning of december i headed to new orleans for a weekend of science teaching training....i had not been in NOLA since the Y2K new years party i went to...it was wild being back...plus, i was lucky and got to see bourbon street all decorated for xmas....loved it....and the training wasn't bad either ;)
on my way back into panama city from new orleans, i got a phenomenal view of the city i live in....people have no idea just what the skyline looks like....so i took this shot from my window seat on the plane....lots of tall buildings here....
another weekend trip i made in december was to an island here in panama in the pacific ocean with my friend and past colleague, cat...as she came to visit...it was actually me and the four canucks traveling together....in the background on the left side you can see the catamaran we took from the city out to this island, called contadora....its about a 2 hour ride....very choppy...
this was the beach we came in on....as you can see in the distance...still the rainy season...but lots of fun anyway....the sun was out every day for a bit...so that was a plus....
a bucharest reunion....we realized we had not seen each other since our xmas trip to israel....but like many friends, we just picked up where we left off from....it was a great long weekend of fun and i was so excited cat came to visit....
this island has been used for the show survivor....actually many of these islands in the area have been...they are the shows that deal with the pearl islands....this one was featured in the 2007 season....or so someone in our group thought....having never seen survivor, i was no help...on this island was a demolished casino/resort that used to be one of the best here in panama...it was owned by a colombian drug lord, who was shot out of the sky in his plane about 7 years ago....since then his widow has done nothing with the place....so people have ransacked for anything worth money...leaving behind this shell....which we drove through with our golf cart....too much fun....
here you can see a shot of the canucks....and the backdrop from the fire pit where the tribal council had occurred during survivor when it was here...i cannot say i was as excited about this stuff as other members of our group....but it was cool to see them get excited....
these next two shots are from the xmas day game of the eagles vs the raiders....a repeat of the previous super bowl the eagles were in....except this time the eagles won...foreshadowing???? i hope so....
this is me and my brother before the game, where our seats were located....yes...it was cold....yes...it was amazing....yes....the eagles won!!!! and now i need to go prep for the super bowl....fly eagles, fly!!!
of course i had to end with my traditional shot....this is me, chillin' with a local panamanian beer, balboa, on contadora....after a rough day of playing at the beach....woot!!! this is the life....so i hope you have enjoyed this slice of panama and the eagles....next update will contain more panama sites and possible some things from my next trip....next week....to roatan, honduras....where i am hoping to get my re-cert for diving and relax and enjoy the time at the beach....
off i head to watch the super bowl and cheer on the eagles from panama with a bunch of like-minded folks....i hope you enjoyed this update and remember, if you have any questions, shoot them my way...i am hoping that the next update i send out, the eagles will have won and you will have had a great adventure of your own....until then....
peace out....
dani
