hey there folks....time for another update....from some place else in Central America....although I have to say, this time it did not feel like central america.....i went for a week to roatan, honduras, to re-certify my scuba diving....what a lovely place to visit....plus, we spent an afternoon in el salvador waiting for a flight (we did get out of the airport and visit parts of the city and a volcano....so i think that counts for a country visit)..however, before that, in january, my wonderful friend david ing came by to say hi and visit panama....he was my second guest...and right after coming back my amazing friends katy and owen came for five days....and then two weeks after that, my lovely friends julia and jamal came by and then i went to bogota and medellin, colombia with my terrific genevieve.....so it has been a bit of a busy two months since i last checked in.....and....
THE PHILADELPHIA EAGLES WON THE SUPER BOWL!!!!!! YAHOOOOOOO....followed by the villanova wildcats winning the NCAA championship in basketball....and now the flyers and sixers seem to both be doing well too....i seriously think this is a sign from philadelphia teams telling me they will win championships, but only if i am not living there ;) so i am taking this as an omen to not live there again for a good long while....i am sure the sports fans of my friends and family are happy i am making this choice......go philly sports teams.....
anyway....below are some pictures from some people's visits and from my trip to roatan, honduras and a quick stop in el salvador....what a lovely island roatan is....but it was a bit strange....my friend carla and i traveled together and our friend tracy was there to dive as well....plus, another colleague was there with her family....so there were quite a few of us on the flight together.......it is a haven for retirees in honduras....and i learned why....it is a lot warmer than canada and the states, the diving is rather cheap, as is the accommodation and there are direct flights....at one point we were at a bar, and we were the only folks without grey or white hair and EVERYONE was speaking english....it was wild.....it was quite surprising was that everyone spoke english....even though spanish is the language of honduras....just not in roatan....however, spanish seems to be making a comeback....but it was weird to land at the airport, speak english with everyone and pay for things with dollars.....just wild....so the first few pictures are of here in panama with david....and then roatan, honduras, followed by a few of el salvador and a few shots of katy and owen and i....
while david was here, we of course needed to go see the canal....and i finally got the chance to go to the new locks, and not the old ones....the ones for the super tankers....plus, we took a ferry across lake gatun first...you can see one of the super tankers, literally right in front of the ferry....of course, when david and a i hear the word ferry, we always think of the seattle ferries....this is not comparable, but it was cool to be on there with a diabolo - the bus you see to the right in the picture....but literally, the super tanker in front of us....it felt like you could reach out and touch it....crazy....
this is a view from the viewing tower and museum for the new locks....we literally made it for the last 30 minutes the museum was open....but we saw a super tanker going through and saw a sloth in a tree in the parking lot....so all around it was a complete score!!!! as you can see above, these locks are very different from the old ones that i posted in one of my first posts....these locks are enormous and the ships that go through them are enormous....and remember, when you go through the locks, you pay by weight....this ship was huge and must have had a pretty big bill....each of the blocks on the deck of the ship is a millvan....so now you can see just how huge it truly is....amazing engineering....
yes....this is david and i here in panama city....we realized it had been about 5 years since we had seen each other....and how cool is it that he came to visit me here....we spent some time visiting the canal (a few different ways), he went to bocas del toro for the week....and we had some amazing dinners out...this was from our night out in casco veijo...it is always awesome to catch up with friends who i do not see often, yet pick right back up where we left off.....so glad he made it to panama.....
after david's visit, i headed to roatan, honduras with my friend carla....we were mainly going there to re-certify scuba, so i do not have a ton of pictures....i will tell you that the diving was excellent and it was a wonderful place to dive....roatan has an incredible 80 dive sites around the island...and i saw some amazing things...from nurse sharks, to lamprey eels, to two types of turtles, to my favorite, eagle rays....it was an incredible adventure...and i even got to do a dive in a place called the spooky channel...simply awesome....i do not have an underwater camera, so no pictures from the dives, but they were spectacular and filled with life and living, healthy coral.....it was awesome....
we also stayed in a pretty sweet place....the shot above is the view we woke up to every morning....no beach, as those are lava rocks and would rip your feet to shreds....but the place next door let you snorkel right from their deck....it was incredible....and really, how can you go wrong staying in a place called cocolobo.....
of course we had amazing views of the sunsets during happy hours at a different bar each night...this was the view from our first night,,,,the boat you see in the picture is actually the dive shop's boat i dove with....sun divers....it was terrific and i was sooooo happy to be underwater again.....not going to let a lot of time pass before my next dive trip.....let's see where i go :)
we did not dive on our first full day on the island and instead went for a walk to the beach next to ours....on the way we passed this sign...seemed appropriate for the moment.....
stopped and had lunch from the upper deck of a place on the water and took this shot of west end "town", where we were staying....although we were not in the center of town....which was perfect
on the walk over to west bay, we had to cross over this pedestrian bridge.....it was wild, as there was a little half canal it crossed over, but you could not walk on the grounds to get around the canal, as it was a resort....so they built this bridge for people to be able to cross the canal....wild....
while we were in roatan, it rained every day....so one morning, as it was raining and then clearing up, i was privy to a rainbow from our deck....good sign for the diving filled day ahead.....
and after the day of diving we came back for another amazing sunset while sitting by the pool of the hotel....lovely shot....
on the last of our nights in town, carla, tracy and i went to the favorite restaurant of the locals....and it was amazing....they even had a mule in a copper cup....perfect end to a perfect stay in roatan....
roatan was pretty cool in that it had quite a few recycled art shops and one of them specialized in metal works...the place we stayed even had one of their signs....thanks for a great stay cocolobo....
on the way back to panama, we had a lay over of seven hours in el salvador....so we contacted a tour company and asked if it would be possible to leave the airport and do a quick trip around san salvador, the capital of el salvador....as we were in the center of town, at the national palace in the historical center, this bus pulled up...and what they were doing was registering people to vote for the 2018 elections....lots of people lined up when they opened their main doors....it was cool to watch....
this is a shot of the main historical square and the main cathedral of san salvador....the inside was lovely and a huge part of it was dedicated to a priest that had been killed - oscar romero.....he was made a saint by pope john paul the second...as he was a voice for those who had no voice and had been killed by a bullet shot through his heart when he was saying mass on the altar...pretty gruesome, but fitting that the church holds memorial to him....it was also a murder that happened while the USA was involved in war in el salvador....supposedly the US was going to find his killer, but in the end they never did (and it has been said it was because they financed the killer)....interesting story....
from the center of town we headed out to the san salvador extinct volcano...on our way up the volcano we past quite a few trucks carrying this many people...it was insane and very steep....and if you look closely you will see in the middle of the back, holding on is a little kid coming up....he is to the right of the guy wearing shorts....talk about holding on for dear life....amazing....but it was a really steep climb, so any way you can get to the top, you will make work....
this is carla, tracy and i with our guide at what is left of the summit of the volcano....we were actually almost 2000m/6500ft (approximately) above sea level....you could see all the way down to the caldera, but it was not smoking...as this volcano is extinct....for the moment....
on our way out there was a very nice museum, where they let you try on clothes and hats of the local folks....i think this is the first time i have worn a skirt since my brother's wedding....so that is saying something :) i love that my antarctic tye-dye t-shirt matched my skirt :) well planned i say.....
this was a view of the city from the volcano....as you can see...more mountains in the background....san salvador seemed to be surrounded by them....a quick trip to a cool city steeped in culture....
then katy and owen came to visit once i was back in panama and we took a trip to the beautiful area of el valle...it is a town that is in the center of an extinct volcano....see a trend :) el valle is known for hiking and being cooler in temperature than in panama city, plus it is home to some tasty pizza, rum, macaroons and cool people....here katy and i have gone for a walk to find the square trees...using our hands we are showing you one of them...there were only two....so the walk was great, but the trees were underwhelming....
one of the cool folks we met in el valle was daniel....he is an italian living in el valle....owns a restaurant....it was hilarious watching katy, owen (who is fluent in spanish) and i try and figure out daniel's spanish with his extremely heavy italian accent....but man, the pizza was incredible....
el valle is also home to a butterfly haven...it is actually run by a guy from pittsburgh...i was actually quite impressed with the huge variety of butterflies and how much information the butterfly garden taught people....it was incredible....and of course we spotted the amazingly beautiful blue morph....they had quite a few....including the large one above ;)
the last night katy and owen were in town, we headed into casco veijo for some dinner and rooftop drinks....i love the art at this rooftop bar called tantalo....it was wonderful to have them come by and visit me here....we have now met up on three different continents....only four more to go :)
and of course there had to be one last shot from roatan....specifically from the bar everyone knows...sundowners....this was a tasty coconut, lime and rum drink....it was as big as my head....and the woman who served it to me was from canada....roatan was just a crazy island, with amazing diving and sunsets....so glad i made it there.....
so there you have it....my update through february....it has been a fun couple of months and in my next update i will include some other trips i have taken here in panama....another set of friends who came to visit and possibly pictures from my trip to bogota and medellin, colombia....what cool places they were....i hope you enjoyed the pictures and as always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me....hope those of you in the northern hemisphere have a great start to spring and those of you in the southern hemisphere have a great start to fall.....happy april!!!!
have a fab day :)
dani
