Panama and Costa Rica: Tranquilo Bay, Selva Bananito & more

Today was a long day. I made the mistake of working out (which means getting up pretty early). I worked pretty hard on my legs so I kind of felt weak the entire day. I made sure we were at the airport pretty early. For the Missoula airport, an hour is usually pretty good. We were there about an hour too early. I guess one can never be too careful. After a nice breakfast we were off. I have decided that I hate flying. I am not scared or anything. I just hate that for an entire day, a person is forced to breathe recycled air, touch and even sleep on things that numerous other people have touched throughout the last 24 hours and that one must smell jet fuel every flight they board. I think that is were half of my hate for flying comes; the smell of jet fuel. In fact, it was so strong when we took off from Salt Lake that I got sick. It was kind of embarrassing. Plus, I haven't done that since I was 12 years old. Now I understand that flying is a necessary part of travel and I like to travel so I guess the price of flying is worth it. Needless to say, I was very happy when we landed in Atlanta and overnighted there. It was nice to have the break as I know on the way home; it will be an even longer day. We got the shuttle to the hotel and took a taxi to Ruby Tuesday's. After a nice meal and a little Monday night football, we were set to rest for the evening. I am so excited for our trip. I just can't wait to get done flying and finally get there!

Today we are headed to Tranquilo Bay. We are getting married there today. I am so excited. It is something we planned right before we came. We thought it would be just like us to "elope" in Panama. The only person that knows are my co-workers and my mom. It will be such a surprise for the rest of the family. We ate breakfast at the hotel out on the water. Very good breakfast . Jim and Jay arrive at the dock at 10 AM. The boat ride to Tranquilo Bay is about a 1/2 hour. It is again nice to be on the water and the scenery is beautiful. Crystal blue water and gorgeous, plush islands. Tranquilo Bay itself is also very beautiful. We arrive at their boat dock and then walk on a board walk through the marsh lands. Jim and Jay show us where the dinning area and where they live (same building). I finally get to meet Renee, Jim's wife, and their two kids Body and Tres. After exchanging so many emails back and forth, it is great to meet her. We are then escorted to our bungalow. Tranquilo Bay has 6 bungalow type rooms. Each one has a porch with two hammocks, one or two beds depending on accommodation needs, and private bathrooms and showers. They give us the farthest bungalow so we can overlook the water. It is beautiful. The bungalow isn't located directly on the water. It is on a bluff that faces the water. The room inside is beautiful. It is very roomy and has a homey feel. It feels more "Americanized" than our other places but the comforts of home are a welcomed touch after being in the Jungle and thinking I had bugs crawling on me at night. The rooms have air conditioning and fans. The bathrooms are beautiful and the showers are roomy. You can drink the water from the tap as it is filtered rain water. We get a chance to freshen up before it is time to have lunch. For lunch we had taquitos, rice and salad. It was very good. Now it is time to go snorkeling. I am so excited. I have never really snorkeled before. We load up all the gear and head out. Jim is going to be our guide. He parks the boat near some reef and gives us a brief overview on how to snorkel. We get started and we follow him for awhile while he points different things out. After about 10 minutes, we realize the current is very strong and we have drifted pretty far from the boat. Jim decides the current is a little too strong and that it would be better for us to find a different spot. When we find the next snorkeling spot, we all split up. It is so neat to see the beautiful coral and the cool fish. When I have to clear my snorkel, I am so nervous to step down because I am afraid I am ruining the coral. So that is a little bit of a challenge. I know Kurt and I both swallowed quite an amount of sea water. We saw all of the tropical fish you would see. It is so cool to watch them dart in an out of the coral. Jim found a puffer fish and pointed it out. This thing was pretty creepy. It is tucked in between the rocks and it is all puffed up. It just stares at us from the safety of its little cove. Then we split up again. I am wondering around looking at things when I came upon a shark. Now being from Montana and living my entire life there, I really don't have experience with Sharks. My first instinct is panic. I surface to see how far Jim is. He and Kurt are pretty far away. I don't know what to do. So I decided my best bet is to try to get closer to where Jim and Kurt are. I start swimming as fast as I can (thank goodness for flippers as I can swim a lot faster). While I am busting my butt to get to safety, all I can hear in my head is the Jaws music. Then it occurs to me that my rapidly kicking feet and legs looks like food to the shark so that causes me to panic even more. Finally, I reach Jim and Kurt. I tell them about the shark and Kurt is fascinated. Jim must've read the horror on my face because he tells me that the shark is called a nurse shark and they are harmless. Good to know (after I have pretty much just had a heart attack). Kurt and I decide to go see if we can find it again because Kurt is interested in seeing it. We swim together holding hands and all I keep thinking is 'I wonder how many other couples can say they went snorkeling on their wedding day and encountered a puffer fish and a shark'. This is such a neat experience. In order to make it back to the lodge in time to get ready for the wedding and get married at sundown, we have to start heading back to the lodge. Kurt and I get ready and then meet everyone at the main lodge so we can head out the island where we are going to get married. We take the boat to Zapatilla Caye. When we arrive, Kurt and I are surprised to see everything the staff has done for our special day. They set up an aisle with coconuts and tea lights, an archway at the end of the aisle made out of palms and made two bonfires at the beginning of the aisle. They also planted two coconut trees at the end of the aisle in our honor. Kurt and I could not have imagined a more beautiful setting for a wedding. The best part is that I never dreamed my wedding would be like this. It was absolutely perfect. When we return to the lodge we have some appetizers and toast to our wedding. Dinner is a curry chicken dish with rice and we had homemade chocolate ice cream for dessert. The dining room has a very homey feeling and the entire atmosphere is very relaxed. I felt like we have known Jim, Renee and Jay all of our lives and that we were sitting down for a family dinner. Very neat. Upon our return to our bungalow tonight, we found our room decorated with flower petals. It really made it feel like a honeymoon. What a wonderful way to end a perfect day!

Last night in the middle of the night, there was a huge thunderstorm. I can't believe how intense the storms are here. They feel so close. I am scared of lightening so the storm made my adrenaline rush. It is beautiful to watch the lightening strike over the ocean. Today we start the day with a hearty breakfast of fruit, eggs, cereal and coffee. Our day is filled with adventure. Jim is going to take us out and show us some of the activities that Tranquilo Bay offers their clients. We start our journey by going to some nearby islands that are inhabited by native tribes. Our first stop is an island where the villages is located on a hill right on the water. I am amazed at the simplicity of life in this village. The people live in small huts. I don't think they have running water or plumbing. They speak a native Indian language that I am not familiar with. Some of them also speak Spanish. We meet up with one of the locals and he takes us on a hike to the top of the island. On our way, we see women washing their clothes in a stream. We also get a lesson some banana trees and other native plants and trees. It is very interesting. When we reach the top of the hill, we see an old tower. The tower was used for transmitting when the United States first occupied Panama. It is so neat to see the history. It seems very random that amongst these people, is a large tower used by the US. Our next stop is another island with another village. This village is more spread out. The school is located on the water but then the rest of the people live dispersed throughout the island. As we land at the boat dock, the children rush to greet us. It is so fun speak Spanish with them. They are very intrigued by our arrival. One of the their favorite things, Jim tells us, is to have their picture taken with a digital camera. They don't know what they look like so they like to get their picture taken and then look at the screen to see themselves. So we stay at the dock and visit with them and take their pictures. We continue on our way. We hike through the island to get to a white sandy beach on the other side. I am not sure why we didn't just boat up to the beach. My only thought is that it is too shallow to get the boat all the way to the beach. Also, Jim maybe just wanted us to meet more locals. While we are hiking, we have a few kids trail behind us. I feel badly because I am not sure if we have just interrupted school of if they were done for the morning. At any rate, I enjoyed interacting with kids. One kids runs home and brings his kitty to us so we can see it. Pretty neat. The white sandy beach is beautiful. It is very private. We are the only ones there. It is kind of weird because it is just Kurt and Jim and me. So we just hang out and play in the waves. I think it would've been more fun if maybe just Kurt and I could've hung out at the beach by ourselves or if we had surf boards or boogie boards to play with. We were only there about an hour. It just felt a little awkward. But I am sure if there were more people at the lodge, just hanging at the beach for the afternoon would've been really fun. Next, we head to another island with trees so we can have a picnic lunch in the shade. Lunch is sandwiches, fresh fruit, chips and homemade cookies. A true picnic lunch. After lunch, we go sea kayaking, This is a really fun activity. I was nervous because I had never sea kayaked before. It is surprisingly much easier than maneuvering a river kayak. We kayaked to a cave that is in the middle of rocks. This is a little challenging as we have to go in the cave when the tide is going out so that we don't hit our heads. I was kind of freaked both about getting into the cave and actually being in the cave. Once we are in the cave, you can see a bunch of bats at the top sleeping. I kept waiting for them to start swarming my head. That didn't happen luckily. It was neat to be in the cave but I couldn't stay long. To get out of the cave, you also have to wait until the tide is low. It was much easier getting into the cave than out of. Our next adventure is to go dolphin spotting as we head back to the lodge. This takes some patience as you have to wait for them to surface. After staring at the water for awhile you start to think the waves are the dolphins surfacing. Your eyes start to deceive you. Once we spot them, we try to take pictures as they surface. You have to be quick on the draw to capture them at the exact moment that they are surfacing. Jim said usually they get pretty close to the boat because they are curious about the boat. They only got close to the boat once. After awhile we don't see them anymore. Jim decides he will see if the dolphins will play with us. So he maneuvers the boat in the area where we see them to see if they will swim next to the boat. We tried for about a half hour without any luck.

Last night there was another phenomenal thunderstorm. This one seemed worst than the one the previous night. I actually had enough courage to sit on our porch and watch it. This took a lot of guts for me because the lightening was darting across the sky. I was sure we were going to get hit. Today we are headed to Boquete. I am excited for the next destination. I haven't planned anything for our time in Boquete so it will be nice and relaxing. We take the boat back to the EcoLodge boat dock that we took the first day. We tried to spot more dolphins along the way. We actually get to see a mother and her baby surface. This was pretty cool. As soon as the mother sensed us following her, her and baby split. Chalito our driver for the journey to Boquete is right on time. I try to interact with him and practice my Spanish, however after speaking English for so many days at Tranquilo Bay, it seems my Spanish speaking skills have left me. The trip to Boquete takes about 3 hours. The road is through the mountains which makes the trip very beautiful. The only drawback is that it is a very windy road and about an hour into the drive, I start to feel a little car sick. We stopped for about a half hour and that is a welcomed break to get some fresh air and stretch our legs. The town of Boquete is beautiful. It is a very plush mountain town. It reminds me of some of the small mountain towns in Montana only Boquete has rain instead of snow. Our accommodations are wonderful. We get our own private apartment complete with kitchen, TV, and dinning room table. The shower is big here as well. We decide to go check out the town and grab a bite to eat. We ate at this little cafe that actually looked pretty dingy. I was a little nervous to eat here but we really didn't want to look for another place to eat. Besides there were a lot of locals so we figured it must be okay to eat there. The food was actually pretty good. After lunch we decided to find an internet cafe to connect with the people back home. We also wanted to let our friends and family know the big news about the wedding and send pictures of the big day. The rest of the evening we just relax in our room. It is nice to have some time to ourselves and to not have anything planned.

After a relaxing evening last night, we wake up very refreshed today. We have breakfast in the courtyard of the hotel. It is very relaxing and breakfast is very filling. Since Boquete is known for its coffee, we decide to take a coffee plantation tour today. We toured the Kotowa coffee plantation. It was a very interesting tour. We got to see the coffee bean from the very beginning and then follow the process until it becomes coffee. With it being off season, it wasn't quite time for the coffee harvest to be harvested. So we really didn't get to see the plantation in its prime but it was still very interesting. At the end of the tour, we got to sample some coffee and try to see if we could taste the difference in the different roasts. The tour was a little pricey but I thought it was well worth the cost given all of the information we learned about the coffee business. The rest of the afternoon, we just explored the town, checked email and relaxed. We were going to try and play golf but it started to rain. The rain is beautiful. It really comes down. Overall, I really enjoyed our stay in Boquete because it was so relaxing.

Today we headed for Panama City. The drive to the airport from Boquete takes about 45 minutes. You have to drive to the town of David. I was amazed to see all of the new development springing up on our way to David. There were a bunch of gated communities going up almost every 10 miles. Panama is becoming a popular destination for retirees, hence the gated communities. We talked to your driver about the growth to get his opinion about it. On one hand, he thinks the development is good because it will bring more business for him therefore more money. On the other hand, with more Americans moving to Panama, bigger US companies are going to move into these communities, which in turn raises the cost of goods for everyone. For many locals, higher prices for things like groceries and clothing would be a great challenge for them. Nonetheless, it was interesting to get a locals opinion about it all. Once we arrived in David, we connected with our flight to Panama City. The flight to Panama City is about an hour. It was a very beautiful flight. Panama is so green. I am glad we got a bird's eye view of the country. We also were able to see the Pacific and Atlantic oceans at the same time which were very neat. After we arrived in Panama City we met up with Kenny from Tecal tours to begin our Panama City tour. We started our tour with a visit to the Museum in the old part of Panama City. This museum explains the conditions of the country when the first settlers arrived and how the country developed from there. Then we head to tour ruins from the first buildings ever built in Panama. This was so cool. It is amazing to think we were viewing buildings that existed a hundred plus years ago. I climbed up an old bell tower that was part of one of the first churches. From the top of the bell tower I could see all of the ruins in this particular area. The interesting thing I noticed as we drove in this area of the city was that the ruins are pretty much right in the middle of the city. We would drive around and see some old ruins on one block and then on the very next block, there would be restaurants, businesses and apartments. Our next stop was to go to the newer part of Panama City. We then headed to the "white house" of Panama. It is so crazy because you can walk right up to t he office where the Panama president's offices are. Normally the president would live in this building too but Panama's current president has young children and wanted them to have a more relaxed atmosphere for home life. The only security near this particular building is guards at the beginning of each block and then a security guard inside the building. Not quite as tight security as the President of the United States. Very very interesting. Also located in the office building of the President are Herons. They are just free to roam about the building. I thought this was a nice touch. When we are finished with lunch, we head to the Miraflores locks. We first toured the museum and learned about the construction of the Panama Canal. Given the time frame of when the canal was constructed, it is such an amazing site to see. After we tour the museum, we get a chance to watch a boat go through the locks. This is a very complicated process but it works flawlessly. It takes about 45 minutes for the boats to go through the locks. It is crazy how large these boats are and how much cargo they carry. The boats have to shut off their engines and be pulled through the locks by locomotives that are located on either side of the boat. Then they drain the water on one side of the locks until it is even with the other side. Then the locomotives pull the boat through and they raise the water level again and the boat continues on its way. Kenny told us that the ships are becoming increasingly larger and can't get through the canal. Because of this, the Panama Canal is going to have to be remodeled or else it will become obsolete. Already they have to unload some of the larger ships' cargo and put the cargo on a train. Then the train goes across the length of the canal with the cargo. When it gets to the other side, they unload the train and put the cargo on another ship and it continues on its way. When one thinks about the time and effort it takes to do this, it is easy to see why the Panama Canal is such an important landmark to Panama and many other countries.

Today we started at about 5 AM. We had to be at the boat dock at 6 AM. However once we arrived, we found out that the boat actually didn't leave until about 7. We are headed to Barro Colorado. This is an island that was created when the Canal was flooded. We ended up being on the tour with a student group. I didn't realize until later but Sundays are not typical days for tourists to go on the tour, hence the student group. The boat ride to the island is about 45 minutes. It is pretty neat because you are in the canal where some of the large ships pass through. One really doesn't realize how large the boats are until you are right up next to them in a small dinky boat. The large ships seem to be the height of a skyscraper. When we got to the Smithsonian Research Center located on Barro Colorado, it seemed like there was a lot of wasted time while the staff got organized. We had some time to grab some water and have a snack. Then we watch a slide show of the potential bugs and animals would we see on our tour. Initially, I was very excited to go on this tour because I thought we would see a ton of wildlife. After we had been walking in the jungle for about an hour, we decided that we were all jungled out. At this point, it really wouldn't matter what type of animals we saw. We had been in the rainforest and jungle enough on this trip and so we were ready to be done about the first half hour. I think this is largely due to the fact that we had a really busy two weeks with activities planned almost every day and that we had so many early mornings. We were at the end of our ropes. We did end up seeing some wildlife we hadn't seen before (monkeys) and some that we had seen every time we had been in the jungle over the last two weeks (frogs). When we saw the monkeys, they were right above our heads and there was a baby too. So we did end up getting some great pictures. After the tour, we ate lunch in the cafeteria. It was kind of weird because it felt like we were at school. There are a bunch of class rooms and researchers at the Research Center. It was not what I expected. Lunch was very good and we were happy to just be sitting and relaxing. We were suppose to go to the museum and gift shop after lunch but it was raining buckets and none of us felt like getting wet. So we just hung out and waited for the boat to leave. Overall, this tour was kind of a waste of time for us. I think had we not spent time in the jungle previously, we would've enjoyed it a lot more. Given the early hour and the many delays during the day, I think we would've preferred to sleep in and explore Panama City on our own. Tonight we were desperate for some "American" food and good beer. So we went to TGIFridays. We ended up watching one of the games from the world series so that was pretty neat. It was nice to have a relaxing evening. I have heard that the night life in Panama City is pretty fun. With me being pregnant and given our early morning and long day, we were happy to have some nachos, beer (ice tea for me of course) and a baseball game.