Last Panama Update (#18)

 August 23, 2020

hey there folks...hope all of you are well and safe, no matter where you are.....i am sorry it has taken me some time to get in touch, but life, as i am sure you understand, has been a bit crazy and busy....from leaving Panama with a week's notice, to moving in with my mom in the States and being here for the summer, to starting my new school in China on-line in the past two weeks, from my mom's basement......just crazy times.....but things are moving forward and i have received permission to head to china....but there are tons of hoops to jump through for this to actually happen...and flights are few and far between, as china has really restricted number of flights allowed to come in...from all over the world....so i could be here another 4-6 weeks....that is a best case scenario...but we'll see happens....i did decide that i should do one more update about my last year in Panama....as there were some cool things that happened along the way in the country......

my trip out of panama was fast and furious, as i needed to pack up my stuff, and store it, close accounts and things, sell my car and hop a humanitarian flight back to the states....and all of this pretty much happened in a week and a half....it was insane....the humanitarian flight from panama to houston was terrific...not crowded, excellent care and following of rules and this happened on june 12, the official last day of school....however, the flight from houston to newark was mind-blowing....as was the houston airport....panama's airport was literally empty...hand washing stations and hand sanitizer everywhere, no stores open....only food and water from a vending machine....it was freaky.....houston...was fine through international, all of that is shut down....but domestic to me, coming from a country that had been in a very strict lockdown for three months, was crazy....all flights were leaving from 2 terminals (not 5)....so it was crowded...there were probably 20 flights leaving that friday night from the same terminal as mine....everyone had a mask...but how you wore that mask or did not wear that mask was surprising...and then most surprising of all was that the flight was completely packed....every seat taken....and some folks just could not be bothered with wearing masks....the flight attendants were excellent....and the precautions taken by the airline, except for filling every seat, were great....but it was very disconcerting....so i quarantined myself when i got to where my mom lives in a hotel for ten days, because i felt if i was going to get covid, it would have been from that experience....luckily, when i took a covid test, it was negative....which meant i could move in with my mom....which is where i am currently....but i am keeping my distance from many folks, because if i test positive when i arrive in china, they can put me back on the plane and ship me back to the states....and i do not want that to happen....so forgive me if i have not really reached out here in the states to visit.....anyway....on with the last year in panama....which was filled with fun in-country trips and celebrations....at least until lock-down in march...it was the weirdest goodbye to a place, in that i could not say goodbye to people or my students in person....couldn't even do a drive-by wave, as i was only allowed out of my house for two hours on monday, wed, fri....from 7:30 - 9:30am....but enough about that...on with the pictures....

when i got back to panama last august, it was whale season....so just like last year, i decided with some friends to go on a whale watching trip one day of the weekend.....the trips always go on the pacific side and head to pearl islands....this is when we were arriving....beautiful water and warm to jump in and swim....and this year, not many jelly fish....woot!!!!

the whale spotting number and proximity was not as close this year as last...but still very impressive....this is actually a shot taken by one of my friends of one of the babies breaching....it was a great day and i am so glad i decided to do this again....

i also took the time to go to a flamenco show that happens in my neighborhood twice a week, that i had never attended....i got to see these folks play and dance twice before the shut down....amazing!!!! they are from spain and are masters of their craft...and the guitarist was quite possibly one of the best i had ever seen play live...and if you know anything about me, i have seen thousands of live shows...so that really is saying something....he was incredible....and this was just on a tiny stage at one of my local bars....

of course i took another trip to see the panama canal....both in the day and this one is a shot from my trip at night to the restaurant....not such good food, but an amazing view....the engineering behind this amazing set of locks, is just incredible....it was great to be able to take people who visited me to this place...as it really is impressive and i never got tired of seeing the ships go through....and my favorite parts are the mechanical mules that escort the ship all the way through the locks...sooooo cool!!!

as many of you know, i turned fifty last september...and my mom and a colleague of mine actually worked out a way to get flowers sent to me at school from my mom on my day....the balloon is from my very good friend, and it was a lovely surprise at school....some of the kids saw the balloon later, as i left it in my office, and they were shocked that i was 50!!!!! hahahahaha....good genes keep me looking young....

to celebrate my birthday, i rented a beach house and was allowed to invite 50 folks down to celebrate with me....this is looking back at the house....12 of us stayed for two nights and then on the saturday, 50 people came down to celebrate...it was a blast..

the walkway you saw in the picture above, went directly to the beach....and we had a pool....this is me headed to the beach when we first got there....panama city would be in the distance in the top right of the picture and if it had been clear enough, we would have been able to see it....

this is everyone who could make it down to celebrate....the cakes made by my friend sarah, were to die for...everyone had a lovely afternoon hanging, chatting, eating, playing in the pool and ocean...and it was only 90 minutes from the city....it was a terrific way to celebrate my birthday....

this is the crew that stayed with me for two nights....such a fun bunch of people....it is interesting to note that out of these folks, only four people are working for ISP this year....personnel and overseas schools are things that are constantly fluid....it is like having family all over the world ;)

november is panama month....three times in their history they took their country back in november....so it is a big celebration month....over at the city of knowledge the met, another international school, puts up flags to celebrate....i love this view....

november is also "movember".....and i was at a fundraiser for prostate cancer down in the old section of town called casco viejo...as you can see from this great shot, taken by my friend chris, it had just rained....as november is still the rainy season in panama....chris has an excellent eye for scenes such as this....

as part of the celebration, we always have faculty who dance in a performance, as well as kids...my friend and colleague luz always dances....and she is wearing a panamanian pollera from her outstanding performance....this is me with my science colleagues...with whom i missing working...

thanksgiving was actually excellent timing this year, as one of the panamanian holidays fell over thanksgiving....so we actually had thursday off...a rarity....so a bunch of us got together to have a traditional meal...some of the folks in the picture are not from the states, and this was actually their very first thanksgiving....a blast was had by all.....

and before we knew it, it was december.....panama, as i have said in the past, really does lights and festivities for the month of december quite well....the theme this year was "i am panama, i am christmas"....the lights were great, but due to budget cuts were a bit less around the city....but it was fun to celebrate the holiday panama style.....

also in decemeber, a few friends of mine and i rented a HUGE house for a weekend, up in the mountains surrounding panama city...we went to a spot called cerro azul - a gated mountain community...filled with enormous houses (noriega used to have one there), trails, waterfalls, streams and weirdness.....

this was the trail we decided to explore....and it kicked my butt...it stated it was an easy in and easy out trail to a set of waterfalls....it was completely vertical down and then back up....easy....NOT! and it rained, so it was slick and difficult to get back out once we made it to the bottom....but we did it....was it worth it??? i won't answer that...but the stream at the bottom was pretty.....

there was a lookout at the top of one of the hills....and if it wasn't so cloudy, behind me you would be able to see part of the panama canal....it was a nice overlook in a weird community....

this was the huge house the four of us stayed in....it was crazy, because it had beds....and two couches and a huge dining room table, but little else....we had no idea it did not have furniture or art or things to make living easy....but it was quirky and interesting and was ok for two nights....definitely would need to ask more questions next time....but many of the properties are for sale in this community...or they are filled with folks who do not want to be found....we met an interesting guy from florida who fit that description quite well....what an adventure.....

after the decemeber holiday, a new museum opened up, which focus on the "mola" of panama....the mola is a traditional textile that was/is part of women's clothing in the kuna tribe....mola in the traditional language means "shirt" or "clothing" and they are all hand made....

they did a wonderful job in this free museum of showing the history of how the textiles are made, the different styles historically and how they were designed to celebrate all aspects of life of the kuna....as a going away gift from a friend, i received a mola with my name in the center that she had made for me....so lovely! (thanks sue 😊)

i returned to panama a week early to do a dive trip to the national park of coiba, on the pacific side of the country....this national park is known to have large animals of the ocean come through in january and february and i was sooooooo lucky to be there at this time....this shot above is the sunset from the airbnb place i was staying at.....

i was soooo lucky because i got to dive and swim with whale sharks on three of my six dives.....on the last dive the whale shark wanted to stay around us and we dove with it for about 40 minutes, it decided it wanted to hang with us at the surface for even longer....they are HUGE, but vegetarian, filter feeders, so nothing to worry about....this was definitely a check off of my bucket list....i have not dove since january at this point and am really missing being underwater, but someday again i will get back in and under....til then...it is pretty cool that this was my last dive to remember.....

january was also spectacular because we finally were able to connect with the ISS and the two women aboard it - christina koch and jessica meir....both of whom worked in antarctica....and i actually worked with christina at the south pole and we were friends.....it was a plan set in motion from april of 2019...and it was incredible to have it actually all come together this past january...above are all of the kids who asked questions and ran the Q&A....

the PR the school launched with this was amazing...and these are billboards that were set up for this once in a lifetime experience.....it was incredible....plus, i was chosen about three days before the event to do the introduction of our school to the ISS...

above you can see me doing our check-in and start with mission control in houston and with the ISS...it was so awesome to see this happen and be apart of it....a memory of a lifetime...if you would like to watch the interview....it is available on youtube here, and starts around the 25 second mark- https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=nNoPtqg8P_k&feature=emb_logo. each kid did an amazing job...and how cool is it to have your friend acknowledge you from space....i will never forget it....

at the end of january, we also took our 8th grade class on an overnight trip to one of panama's many islands....it was a team building and science focus and a great time was had by everyone....we even had a bonfire with s'mores, which was a first for many of our students.....

in february i made what was my last trip to el valle with some friends....this is a town that was built on an extinct volcano...it has hiking trails, beautiful views, places to go birding and some of my friends have a place there.....it was a lovely weekend get-away....

and the very last weekend in march that panama was "open" we took a trip to another resort on an island on the carribean side.....of course we stopped by "black jesus" in portbelo on the way....this black jesus was thrown into the ocean when panama was taken over by the spaniards....but it floated back in...it was thrown out a second time, and floated back in....at the third attempt to throw the statue in, the townspeople asked the spanairds to leave it in the town if it floated back a third time....it did float back and has been in portobelo ever since....

this is a shot from that trip of the last time we got to hang out with the four of us.....who knew such crazy times were ahead....at least we relaxed, had tasty food and got out of the city for a night before everything went into super strict lock down....

this was the sunset that night....we also spotted the ISS flying above as we were on the island that night, wondering what the future held in store for each of us as we knew things were about to get crazy....

and then lockdown happened...and panama's lockdown was much more severe than anywhere else for longer than anywhere else....it is actually still happening and this coming monday will be the first time they are lessening the rules....numbers have not been good there...but the economy is sooooo messed up now.....but after lockdown started, my life was filled with puzzles, walking in my parking garage, classes on line and sunsets from my balcony......

this was one of our crazy first assemblies with the whole middle school.....we did this only once and learned it was not the correct thing to be doing....march to the beginning of june was definitely filled with trial and error along the whole learning curve of how to teach and be successful on-line....i do not like teaching on-line, but have become much better at it...although, my students knew me before we started....this time around i have to build relationships and get to know my students all from on-line....so very weird and challenging.....we'll see how i do.....

i will say the sunsets from my balcony on many nights were incredible...as was the applauding and cheering for front line workers....but staying in a 2-bedroom apt for days on end, by myself, and not being allowed outside except for 6 hours a week, was very, very difficult.....

and unfortunately this was how i had to end my year....no face-to-face goodbyes with my students....many of who i had known and worked with for 2-3 years....very few face-to-face goodbyes with my colleagues....it was uber strange....this was my parting cheers to a bunch of folks who came to an on-line goodbye party.....just weird....and a very small feeling of closure....bleh.....

as i stated at the beginning of this update...i hopped a humanitarian flight out on june 12th....this is what the panama airport looked like on that day.....i am in my "mola" mask and blown away by the emptiness of the airport....it was never like that......

and here is a shot of me and mom after i arrived in PA and was staying in a hotel....she came to have lunch with distance and a mask.....it all ended well......and i still am in PA, waiting to get approved to head to china....

and so ends my contract and time in panama....and so begins my contract for china.....i am really hopeful that i get there in the next 4-6 weeks, as the school seems amazing and has gone out of its way to take care of me and keep me as an employee...many international schools have had to cut employees due to numbers of students dropping around the world....families are staying in home countries and businesses have learned that people can do a lot of work on-line.....so i am super appreciative that i still have a job and a school that wants me.....

i do hope you enjoyed my final installment of my time in panama...it really is a lovely and diverse place to visit....i loved the panama canal, the mountains, the rain forest and the beaches....i will miss people who are from panama and people who are not, and do hope that paths will cross again somewhere in the world....it was the right place for me to be for the past three years and i wish my students and friends all the best in this coming year....crazy times, crazy times.....

i also hope that i will be able to continue the blog from china and be able to take you traveling with me once again in the future....but who knows when that will happen....i will be in touch at some point and as always, feel free to contact me and ask questions or just say hi.....

finally, i hope each of you is safe and healthy and making good choices for yourself and those you love....enjoy the rest of you summer or winter...and i will catch y'all on the flip side....

peace out and have a fab day 😎

Panama Update #17 - Carnival in Brazil - last trip before quarantine

April 10, 2020

hey there folks from quarantine in panama....i know some of you know i have decided to stay in this country for the covid-19 pandemic, but not all....so i have decided to stay here due to the response panama has made to this virus and not come back to the states.....i do not foresee myself coming back until possibly christmas....as a message was sent to all americans abroad stating that possibility....and this is a hard thing to face...as is watching what is happening in my country, state and hometown from afar....and being very worried for family and friends....please make good choices, based on science, and data....listen to dr fauci....and not others in charge...wear a mask and gloves, for someone one's sake, but also yours...and really....just stay home!!!!!

here in panama, we have been on lock-down for four weeks as of today...and our lock-down has progressed quite quickly....four weeks ago all schools closed and we started teaching on-line....then the airport closed, as well as all non-essential businesses closed...then parks, pools, social gathering places, trails and the way to the beach and the mountains closed (to stop this from spreading faster to the interior communities)...then to only being allowed to be out shopping for two hours a day for groceries or the pharmacy based on the last number of your national id and no alcohol for sale....to now only being allowed out two hours a day on specific days of the week due to me being female (mon, wed, fri)...all of this to slow down the inevitable spread that will happen here....so the health care system does not collapse.....all good steps to help this country and its people make it through this horrible time...so much more restrictive than what is happening in my home country....but if it helps this progress at a manageable rate, and helps save lives, and helps me and the folks i know stay safe and not get sick....i am ok with it....

is it difficult????  oh yes...but on some level, i have been trained well.....from wintering in antarctica to living in countries where supplies and food was scarce at times...i know how to deal with this...as well as my mom knowing how to talk on skype and friends knowing how to use meets and zoom and skype all before this to stay in touch easier....aspects of my life has made this much more doable....the part that is really tough though, is the teaching the kids on-line....i am not very good at being a virtual teacher....they, as well as my colleagues, are who i miss on a day-to-day basis....i still laugh with them, teach them and i still see them, but this is nowhere near the same as teaching in person....and i know this is a huge struggle for many teachers....you make it work...but it is just hard.....

at the moment i am actually having a stay-cation for spring break....very rare for me..i was supposed to be visiting my 90th country diving - belize.....so i have decided to send out my most recent adventure to brazil during carnaval, just two months ago...before any of this really was front and center for my life....i mean i was following everything in china, because i am really hopeful i am still headed there come august, but it was not in my face every minute of the day, like now.....as for china...yes....i really am hopeful i will get there...i figure, they may be one place that really will open back up for school in time for the next academic year when i look at what is happening there now....and my visa is still moving forward sort of, and i had a virtual packing inventory take place this week with a moving company here in panama...and schools are opening back up there in about 2 weeks (shanghai at least).....so yes, i do hope that happens...but i know it is not a guarantee with what is happening elsewhere in the world.....so it is time to relive what used to be....and what i am not sure will ever be quite the same again....it is a weird to think about how my life, my profession and everything about my world may never be the way it was....we'll have to wait and see i guess....so until then...let's head to carnival in rio and iguazu falls, brazil...what an amazing trip....

Rio de Janeiro....cool town...and just crazy during carnival....everyone, and i mean everyone is dressed up in costume of whatever they wish for however many days they wish....we were there for three days and it was crazy....one of our days we went up to the peak of sugarloaf....you take a few gondolas up to the peak....as you can see above....

once up there we wandered around and checked out the view of all of rio...they made some nice walking areas and i loved this wish tree with the orchids....these are the two awesome women i traveled with...louise and emma....

this is the view from sugarloaf, a monolithic granite and quartz mountain on the edge of the atlantic ocean, that overlooks the city of rio....you are looking at one of the most famous beaches of rio - ipanema beach.... here the song the girl from ipenema really does come from....

the street art above is one of the many pieces done on the lead up to the most famous steps in rio, which you will see in the next picture....this was one of my favorites, as it shows the world and was created using name of people for the different countries.....no idea if people added their own names or it was done by the artist...but i liked that overall image....

this is a shot of the famous steps in rio - the escadaria selaron - they are a set of mosaic steps - with tiles from all over the world - that were created by an artist who did not like how run down they were....he worked on them up to and including the time of his death....he was actually found dead on the stairs...in about 15 minutes of being at these steps i found tiles from most of the places i had lived in the states and around the world....it was incredible...and extremely crowded, which is why you do not see a picture of me on the stairs....but they were really cool....

this was one of our first carnival parties...we were headed back up sugarloaf mountain to party at a vip party...i know...me and vip....pretty darn funny...the can is tonica from a company called antarctica in brazil....i loved all of the antarctica cans i saw....took pictures of many of them....of course there is vodka in the tonica....the stuff on my face...yep, its a decal...easy on, and easy off...and fun to wear...

here you have the view from the vip party....the little light in the distance at the top is from jesu christo - or the christ the redeemer statue....which we went to see the next day....but rio is definitely a pretty city at night...lots of water and lights and surrounded by mountains....

one of the most recognized statues in the world is overlooking rio - christ the redeemer - considered one of the 7 new wonders of the world (the 6th i have seen in my life)....it was a long trip to get there with a lot of waiting, but worth it....if only to see the masses of people laying on the ground to take a picture of the whole thing- it was hilarious....things i did not know....the face of this statue was created by a romanian....it is made of reinforced concrete and soapstone....the statue is just slightly taller (30m/98ft) than the width of the arms (28m/92ft)....and that you can take a train up the side of the mountain to go visit it.....it had a spectacular view as well :)

this view from the christ the redeemer statue is looking out over the famous copacabana beach...which is right where we stayed in rio....it was actually a wide beach with huge surf...but much of the time we were in rio it rained, so we never made it into the water....

and then we went to the best part of carnival in rio in my opinion...the competition of the samba schools....holy cow....if you ever get the chance to see this competition, do it!!!! emma, louise and i were soooooooooooo excited about this part of our time in rio!!!

there are more than 70 samba schools in the rio area and they all perform over the days of carnival...they are a group of dancers, drummers and marchers.....they get one hour to perform in the samba-drome....which you can see below....above you see the mestre-sala (literally the "master of the room") and porta-bandeira ("she who carries the flag")....they are in the front section, but not first for the samba school....as they carry the flag of the school.....and have lots of rules for their performance...

above you see the length of the samba-drome to where our seats were....we were about 2/3rds of the way down the stadium....and across the way you can see the blue section of the stadium and that is where the second set of judges sat....so we got to see all of the performers...it was incredible....everything you see in this picture on the floor of the stadium is the same samba school....they come up with a theme filled with dancers, floats, a samba song played by live musicians and amazing costumes....it is unlike anything else i have ever seen....

this float was a play on how tv presenters are just representations of fake news and what the public wants to hear....the puppet in the front moved and the screen was a huge LED screen...with dancers all over it...can you see their copper costumes????    amazing!!!!

this float was the start of a samba school that looked at climate change and how humans were contributing it....this opened and closed and went up and down, and was stunning colors....we really liked this samba school's presentations, but they did not make it to the finals....we watched the last evening of the semi-finals....so these schools really were incredible....

being the marching band alumna, i had to include a picture of one of the marching bands that played the samba music for their school...in most cases this was the same song over and over with different sections (bells, percussion, horns, etc) taking the lead....these bands were incredible and the choreography that went along with their playing was outstanding....so much fun to see the live marching/samba music being the backdrop of this cultural event!!!!

the samba school that performed 3rd had a huge amount of fans....people throughout the sambadrome were waving these white & red flags to celebrate this group....they did make it to the finals the next weekend and were very traditional....their theme was the first african-brazilian clown and his pathway through life....

as you can see from this float, he worked his way through the circus and was a well known performer...so all of the floats and 45 performing groups were related to the telling of his story....and again it took the school one hour to get through the entire sambadrome....simply stunning....

this float was one of the first for the 4th samba school....which focused on architecture of the ages...you might be able to tell that the "head" in the center of all of the people on the float looks like a statue from earlier in this post....christ the redeemer....and it was...it went up and down and the arm span was accurate....but not the height....still it rose at least 25 feet....

these performers above were an example of part of the dancing groups....but there were not tons of steps for people in these costumes....so many of the people in sections like the one above in a school were actually tourists....that is how they get enough people....you can pay to be a performing member, and you go to the school a few days before the performance and learn the few steps of your part....maybe i will do this someday....as it was a mind-blowing amount of people in each school.....

the float above was one of the last ones i saw before i had to head back to the hotel to catch my very early flight.....this picture was taken at 2:30 AM.....the performances by the schools do not start until 9:30pm and each is an hour with about 30 minutes in between....this is not an early evening by any means.....but wow!!!!! what an amazing evening!!!!!!

from rio i flew to iguazu falls...i stayed on the brazil side, but this set of waterfalls is located where three countries come together - brazil, argentina and paraguay....although the falls are only in brazil and argentina...and both sides are very different....i also visited the bird park on the brazil side...loved these wings....just call me macaw dani!!!! hahahahaha :)

iguazu falls are the biggest set of waterfalls in the world...and i was told by one of my guides that they were only at 50% capacity due to it being the dry season....whoa!!! the different sides show very different views....the brazil side gives you an overview of most of the falls...except on the last bit of walkway, where the picture above was taken.....

this is actually the more common shot from the brazil side...as it gives an overview and looks toward the argentinian side....beautiful...this was the side i visited first....

the next morning i headed across the border of argentina and checked out that side...i got on a boat as well, to see the falls up close and personal....we actually "drove" directly into the falls you see on the left side of the picture...the big one with all of the water....we got drenched...it was awesome!!!!

the argentinian side was also built on top of the biggest fall - called the devil's throat...you walked out over it and were able to take some pictures....and i was so fortunate for the sun to come out and then got a double rainbow....overall, i liked both sides, but i am glad i did the argentina side second, as it was a bit more up close personal and overwhelming!!!!

this last shot is a panorama of the devil's throat....so much water....and remember, this is only 50% capacity due to the dry season....i have a hard time "picturing" more water in these falls.....

the other thing i visited was the world's most energy producing hydroelectric dam - called itaipu dam located between brazil and paraguay.....it was huge!!! (yes, i have been to the enormous dam - three gorges dam in china)....in 2016 itaipu produced 103,098,366 megawatt hours surpassing china as the dam that produces the most power....it does not stay at that level....but when that was accomplished it was the number one producer of hydroelectric power...and this is considered one of the 7 new modern world wonders according to civil engineers....two world wonders in one trip....go brazil!!!!

and for my last shot it is me with the national drink of brazil...the caipirinha cocktail.....quite tasty and found everywhere....but i did prefer the one made with vodka more than the one made with cachaca....but overall they were yummy and you could find them everywhere.....

and there you have it...my carnaval (correctly spelled for the country i was visiting) trip to brazil....which is a huge country and only seeing two cities of it was nothing...maybe someday i will get back to this country.....it was a lovely week and i would recommend it to anyone...once we are flying and traveling again.....

if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me...and please, please, please take care of yourself and family and friends in this crazy time of covid.....i am hoping to get back to traveling sooner rather than later, but i know that i have been so fortunate to be where i have been and to have seen what i have seen....fingers crossed i will get back out there traveling....and that i make it to china to teach for the next academic year and that maybe some of you will meet me there or meet me somewhere else along the way.....hope you are well...i hope to get out one more update about this year in panama....more soon....i hope...

have a fab day :)

dani