Panama Update #16 - Mexico City (Day of the Dead) & Cozumel (Diving)

February 16 - 28, 2020 - i have been trying to get this finished for the past two weeks...hopefully today is the day :)

hey there all....this.is.2020.....thanks to barbara walters for that line 😉 i hope everyone has had a great start to their new decade....a few folks have been in touch about my plans for next year with corona virus and all, but i am still on course to head to beijing, china next year to teach....some have asked if i am worried....and my answer is no....it is a flu....a scary flu because china does not tell the world the truth about things and will not do things to lose face....but it is a flu.... i do find the uproar interesting.....so yes, i am still going to china for the next school year and am very excited about it and my next teaching post, as the school is rather impressive....will china bounce back from this???? i do think so, but it may be rough going for awhile to get things up and running like clockwork again....but again....it is a flu.....thanks for the concern and if my plans change, i will let folks know....but for now it is full steam ahead with my plans and trying to get my ducks in a row.....

things here in panama are busy, busy, busy and i am hoping that my next update is about here....but i am about to head to rio de janeiro, brazil in a week for carnival and then iguazu falls for the second half of the week after the samba parade i am attending.....so i assume that will be an update that will want to be written about the carnival craziness and amazing falls in between three countries.....so i am not sure when i will write about panama....maybe that will be my last update from here....with highlights from the whole year......because it has been fun around here.....

but this update is about where i went for my november break....mexico city for day of the dead and cozumel for diving the second half of the week.....i went with a great bunch of folks and below you will see pictures from both experiences....day of the dead in mexico city is like no other i bet and it was incredible....i wish we had made it to a cemetery to truly see the historical and traditional celebration, but the parade and the floats and the artwork were spectacular....and the food....just wow!!! if you are any kind of foodie at all, you need to get to mexico city and eat your way through it!!!!  on with the pictures...there are quite a few....enjoy....

this is the main cathedral square of mexico city....in the plaza of the constitution....we had breakfast at a restaurant overlooking it....so this is earlier in the morning....in the afternoon this space was heaving with people....i am sooooo glad we got to see it before the crowds and crowds of people were there...as the main parade ended here....

this was the view as you entered the square...this piece of art here was representing all of the different areas of mexico....it had murals made of seeds and plants, paintings of important people who had died and dioramas of the different areas of mexico....there were tons of skulls, pan de muerto (special bread for this weekend), marigolds and people dressed up....also, tons of street foods, which i was so happy to see and experience, as that is one thing i feel panama really lacks....

this was a family who had come from NY to participate in the dia de los muertos celebration in mexico city....there were many folks who dressed up and even more folks who painted their face with a skull....this is said to represent a chance to overcome the fear of death, act recklessly and get up to mischief, as you should not be doing those things throughout the rest of the year....many people mix flowers with skulls....as you can see on the guy's amazing suit!

there were tons of street performers as well....these folks are dressed in the traditional day of the dead costumes and the gentleman is playing a type of a hurdy gurdy, or crank styled instrument....the woman is wearing a catrina styled dress and a flower head-dress....the gentleman is in a guayabera suit, which many mariachi bands wear for concerts....some people also wear these outfits to symbolize their dead relatives that they are honoring.....

this is one of the many altars in the main cathedral in the plaza that you can light a candle to remember the names of the people who have died....one of those candles in there was lit for my dad by me....he would have loved the music and the parade and especially the food....

outside of the cathedral, this is one of the many altars that was set up to remember people....the altars usually have things on them to represent the elements of water, wind, land and fire...plus, food and drink are on the altar for the spirits....marigolds and monarch butterfly representations were everywhere as well....as they are symbols to help spirits find their way to be celebrated by their living ancestors....the symbolism throughout this celebration is enormous and i am sure i am forgetting things....but i hope you can see just how important of a celebration it is to mexico and other places in central america....

the parade was a ton of fun....it had a very cultural and local feel....nothing very swanky...but people were definitely celebrating....this celebration used to only be in cemeteries and private homes, but after one of the james bond movies, it has become something grander and more public....this was only the fourth ever parade in mexico city for this celebration day....

there were floats and traditional dancers and skeletons everywhere to celebrate those who had died before....and marigolds everywhere....so very colorful as well.....

some of my favorite characters were the puppeteers and i loved the ones of the skeletons and their skeleton dogs.....the dogs would come over the sniff around....the puppeteers were really good....

here are the folks i was traveling with in mexico city....megan, rachel, david and i......it was a bit colder than panama, so we are wearing sweatshirts and shoes and socks...it was so great to experience fall....and of course, it was not cold enough to say no to ice cream :)

later that night we went to see a production about la llorona....it was overly dramatic, hard to follow in spanish, rather cold and very long....but gave us jokes for the rest of the trip....even though it is not a funny story....she is known as the weeping/wailing woman, who drowned her two sons in a river because she was unloved by her husband who cheated on her....she was not allowed into heaven until she found the souls of her sons and brought them with her to heaven.....she is used as a scare tactic to get young children to do things....like...do this or the weeping woman will catch you.....

we got on one of these boast for about three hours in the cold on the evening of the day of the dead to watch a play about when the spaniards took over mexico and it ended with the wailing woman "drowning" in the lake....it was both under & overwhelming....but the coffee was warm and the elote - or mexican corn on the cob was delicious.....

sunday we took a walk down one of the main avenues and came across all of these floats that had been in a different parade....they were either outlandish animal things or skulls....this one of the animals was one of my favorites....

this was one of my favorite skulls, as it was covered in stars and the hands over the eyes....i don't remember its name, but it was stunning....

i think rachel's face says it all....i am pretending to be attacked by the pincers in the front of this animal/insect/bird piece of art...i have a feeling my picture was taken by other passersby, as the gringa getting eaten....too funny....rachel was not as amused as i was....i think.....

here is some of the tasty elote or corn you can buy on the street.....there also was tons of fruits and tamales and pan de muerto and fried potatoes and drinks....it was street food heaven!!!!

this was a mandala sort of alter set up outside of the national theater, where we were headed to see the amazing folkloric, mexican ballet group....of course it was made from seeds, nuts and corn and marigolds all over it....

the folkloric ballet was incredible...if you go to mexico city and they are performing, i strongly recommend you go see them....just wow!!! it was traditional dancing from all over mexico and the caballero above, or mexican cowboy was amazing with his lasso!!!!

in the same performance there was a couple that tied this ribbon into a bow, only using their dance moves with their feet.....it was awesome!!!

this group was amazing to watch....they had the traditional catrina dresses and the men were in the traditional mariachi suits, guayabera....just their spinning alone was enough to make me dizzy...

much of the music of this amazing show was done live....either by drummers or mariachi....the musicians were incredible and all had special suits for their part of the performance....fiddlers, guitarists, buglers and drummers were the highlights for me....especially the buglers....wow!!!!

and then we did a food tour in the main central market and literally ate our way through....in most cases they were able to accommodate a vegetarian....not when we had the hogs-head tacos....but i skipped those....and let me tell you, mexican tacos put tex-mex tacos to shame....here you can see the start of morning....the first set of grilled tacos were made here....

of course we went to a mole stand....and who knew there were so many types of mole????? it was incredible...usually a mole sauce has some type of fruit (my favorite was the apricot base), chili pepper, nuts and possibly other spices like black pepper, cinnamon or cumin....this stand was incredible....

this is prickly pear cactus for sale, known in mexico as nopal....it was used in many dishes starting from the time of the aztecs....today still it is a staple ingredient for many dishes....we had it in tacos and as part of salsa and salads....yummy....

this was the window of a candy store....you just looked through the windows to find what you wanted and then ordered through the middle window....lots of options....loved the windows....so colorful and sweet!!!

we saw this car on the way to one of our dinners....i just had to take a picture....i am sure it has had many taken....no idea if it really ran, but i think it would have....cooooool!!!!

after the day of the dead celebrations finished we were off to cozumel to dive....cozumel let me relive a place i visited in college when i did a spring break trip to cancun....yes....for those in the know....it was senor frogs we went to....still the same as it was a long, long time ago....

one more joined our crew to dive together....so now it was david, rachel, megan, linda and i.....david was very excited here at senor frogs....as the majority of us were having tasty margaritas!!!! ole!!!!

on one of our dives we had to weave through some rocks....it was one of my favorites....we saw many things on our ocean dives...eagle rays, frog fish, nurse sharks...and the best part was, very few lionfish....it was a great two days of ocean diving....

here we are underwater getting a shot of the crew on one of the dives that did not really have a current....i am on the very right....i have decided that i really love diving and i seem to be almost better underwater than i am above-water....it is one of my happy places....

our final day diving was my favorite though!!!!! we went diving in a freshwater cenote...that had a halocline....here you see me above....you can't even tell i am in water....diving in freshwater was sooooo much different than when in salt water....it is so clear and really plays around with your buoyancy....also....when you breathe out, your bubbles get trapped along the ceiling of the cave and look like liquid mercury....totally freaky!!!! the light behind me comes from the way out....and we always to could that, because none of us is cave certified....the fun part for me was the halocline - when a salt water river runs at the bottom of the freshwater...it was warmer, more dense and made everything look fuzzy....as i dove i kept playing with the salt water....i would pull it up into the freshwater just to watch it sink back down....the DM thought i was dancing or something....but i LOVED cenote diving....i will do it again in my life, of that i am sure....just amazing!!!!

this is a shot of the water as we were taking the ferry back over to playa del carmen from cozumel....just stunning....lovely place to dive....

and of course my parting shot....dani and a beer....not just any beer though....a mix of salt, lime, tomato juice and beer....a bizarre, but tasty beer to have in mexico...especially if you like bloody marys....salud!!!!!

so there you have it...my trip to mexico city and cozumel over my november break....thanks for patiently waiting and here's to me getting the next addition out soon....as i am just finishing up my brazil trip for carnaval and to iguassu falls....it has been incredible....more soon and i hope all of you are diligently washing your hands....

peace out....dani

Update #15 - Havana-na-na-na

December 1 & 28, 2019

it's the last month of 2019....oh what a year it has been....pretty devastating in my life, but with rays of sunshine throughout....for those who do not know, this will be my last year in panama....it has been an interesting ride to say the least, but it is time for me to move on....and i am officially letting all of you know that i will be headed back to asia....china more specifically....yes, i am surprised by this as well, but the school that has hired me is one-of-a-kind....and i have friends who work there who have said this to me repeatedly.....so it is exciting....starting august 2020, you will be able to find me in beijing....working at the western academy of beijing, more affectionately known as WAB... you should look at their website....as it is a quite impressive campus and even more impressive to me is the program i will be working within....https://www.wab.edu/....check it out!!!!

i do have quite a bit of time still in panama and plan on visiting as much of here as possible...plus, i do have some amazing travel plans in the second semester for this region of the world....rio for carnival and iguazu falls, both in brazil....and diving in belize.....but this semester has been pretty spectacular as well....and the first destination in this semester was havana, cuba for a five day weekend....what a soulful, laid back, stuck in time sort of place...look below and you will understand what i mean.....

this is me on the plane headed to cuba.....soooooo excited for what lies ahead....

this is the newly renovated capitol building in havana....they finished it in time for the 500th anniversary of the founding of cuba by the Spanish...it is a a beautiful building....havana seems to be a place of continual, but very slow renovation....but much of the island runs slow....that's island time....

the old cars in havana always made me smile....i know my dad would have loved this about the city...when they are owned by the government taxi service, they are cleaned up and functional....but there are people not hired by the government that are still using these cars as well...but the ones around the capitol are definitely government run....loved the colors....

the other thing that always was present when we were in old havana was music...it was everywhere....i loved this band because the woman actually played a clarinet...i never got a shot of that, but it certainly made me smile....

one of the things i had to do was sit with this woman who was chewing on a cigar...she was willing to read my fortune, but it would have been in spanish and i would have missed half of it....she did have tarot cards and due to the doll next to me and the chewing of the cigar, i figure she also practices santeria....an afro-cuban religion combining catholicism and african beliefs brought to cuba by african slaves....she had an outstanding laugh.....

it is all about the cars in cuba....they are everywhere in old havana....i was always on the look out for a 1957 chevy...my dad's favorite....the cubans said all of the gringos from the states loved that car....so they were more difficult to come by....

above is the fountain of neptune....given to havana by italy....it actually was used as a source of water for boats moored against it....but was decommissioned in 1871 and now just looks over the city with the fort behind it across the river leading out to the ocean....

this is from the revolution museum, housed in what used to be the presidential palace...it was really interesting to see the history of cuba from the cuban perspective....just a bit different than what i was taught in history class....it covers the revolution from the 1950's when batista was ousted by castro up to today.....the building it is located in is stunning.....

of course within the revolution museum is all of the story about how castro came to power, where he was from on the island, the men that stood by his side - camilo cienfuegos and che guevara, and how they took the island back for their people.....i learned quite a bit from this museum....

this was my favorite piece of public art in havana....she is facing the sea down along the malecon....her name is primavera, which is translated as "spring" in spanish...the artist says she was created to represent the spirit of the ballerina Viengsay Valdes....a cuban national ballet dancer....

this building sort of represented some of the feelings i had while in havana...it is a place of old glory, that is being renovated for the 21st century....but only where the tourists go...this building is along the malecon (the sea wall that stretches for 8 km in havana) where people walk and sit and gaze out over the sea towards the states....as you can see, it is being held up by another archway from somewhere else....the buildings are old and falling down, but the past has held them up for a very long time and it will take effort to bring them down....it is a wild place....

this is an image from one of the main squares in old havana...no one seems to know what the meaning is behind it....it is a naked woman, riding  rooster, holding a fork...but she does have on a pair of stilettos....its is your decision as to what you think that means :)

the public art in havana was some of my favorite....it was so creative...like this wall piece, where the hair of the singer is actually created by 45 records....the store it was on the wall of had some really old tvs and radios and such throughout its shelves....it was a step back in time for sure....

this is a shot of me and a statue of ernest hemingway....at one of the bars he frequented the most...el floridita....this was his favorite bar for the daiquiri he used to drink.....not very similar to daiquiris in the states....less fruity and more rum filled....one of the bartenders had been there for almost 50 years....simply amazing....and they had the best plantain snacks of any bar.....yum!!!!

more cars....and still looking for the elusive 57 chevy.....

above is the hotel nacional de cuba....which opened in 1930....this is the symbol of history, culture and cuban identity....visitors to cuba must get a special license to stay here as it is a national hotel...and the cost is quite extravagant...many past dignitaries and artists have stayed here....we just sat on the veranda overlooking the sea and enjoyed the house specialty, a mojito!!!!

on the outskirts of havana there is a part of town that has been reclaimed by a mosaic artist, called fusterlandia....created by jose fuster....who wanted to create public art spaces similar to gaudi in barcelona...he started off by turning his own house into a work of art and then proceeded to change the face of his entire neighborhood.....

his work has been compared to picasso...and is nicknamed the picasso of mosaics....i loved the colors and his use of all space...both in his house and around his entire neighborhood....

we visited fusterlandia on our car tour that took us around Havana and its outlying areas....this flower girl was located on one of the balconies of the house....what an extremely creative place to hang out....i loved it....

this is david and i on our old car tour....our driver was actually an engineer who worked for the government, but became an old car tour operator and driver to be able to afford his life in cuba....as an engineer for the government we was not able to make end's meat....driving tourists around has been more profitable for him....i asked why so many of the old cars were pink, and he replied because the women who visit cuba would prefer to ride in a pink cadillac....good business i think :)

this is a view looking back over the outlet to the ocean facing havana....this was taken on the top of the old fort overlooking havana, called the morro castle....we just stopped for the view on our car tour...

this is the view looking the other way from the fort....this a view towards the east side of the island and if you turned just a bit to the left and looked out over the water, you would be facing the united states, a mere 90 miles away....i never really realized just how close cuba is to florida.....

just like many parts of the world, havana has an imagine park...named for the famed john lennon song...and a statue of course is there.....he used to have gold rimmed glasses, but they had been stolen so many times that cubans employed an around the clock security guard to protect them for a couple of years....but then gave up, so the glasses were stolen one last time....

like many catholic countries, cuba of course has a national cemetery and most graves are in mausoleums....fidel castro is not buried here, as it is not where he was from....i had a beautiful day to walk around and see some of cubas most historical people....

i found it.....a 1957 chevy....that was in excellent condition....not a convertible though, which was a bit f a bummer....but of course, i had to take its picture in honor of my dad....he would have loved it :)

and the final shot....dani and a national beer....an amber to have to get out of the rain....tasty! and cheers to you from me....

so there you have it....my trip to cuba....four days in havana-na-na-na.....a place filled with soul and character, but one where the common person really struggles....if you have money or work for the government or are a tourist, cuba is an amazing place....but while we were there there was a gasoline shortage....and lines of cars, a 100+, were waiting for a tank....when a tourist old car pulls up, they jump to the head, fill up and go along on their merry way....difficult to watch....i also visited a grocery store....they did not really want to let me in, but i just wanted some water....it was interesting to see what was not on the shelves and what was....all food seemed to be "white" in color....white bread, white cheese, white pasta, white rice....and the thing that got me was how little of this food was even available.....

do i think people should go to cuba....i do....but make sure you try and give back to some folks and not just the government....the music and dancing and smiles make it worth it...and i am so glad i made it before wifi is available everywhere....time seems to move slower and you are definitely disconnected.....

i am hoping to get my next update out sooner rather than later....as i was in mexico city for day of the dead - dia de los muertos - and then did some amazing diving in cozumel.....again...a wonderful trip...more on that soon....happy holiday season to you and yours, from me and mine....
dedicated to my dad....peace out....
dani