Pedro Cuadro!

My darling Peter visited :-).

So, scuba class started and I am pumped. We get certified this weekend in the coastal town of Portobelo (like the mushroom) with 2 open water dives deep into the nice, warm water of Panama.

This past week was the JAZZ FESTIVAL in Panama but unfortunately, we didn't see the big festival part on Saturday night because we were in paradise land (I'll get to it later). Instead, we indulged ourselves in many ways at a shmancy Jazz club in Casco Viejo on Thursday night. The live performers were incredible but the club was all reserved seating areas so instead we had to drift to the walls/bar to groove. I can't count how many times we complained to the owner that there wasn't enough room to dance. But it was a cool night, and I have a new hat.

The morning after this late night, Rina, Peter, and I somehow got up at 5 a.m. to go birdwatching in Gamboa (a nearby rainforest). This idea had originated several days prior because I wanted Peter to be able to see the rainforest while he was here, but our days are so busy at UTP that we decided to wake up early and go BEFORE work to birdwatch, and we hired a special taxi to pick us up so when the loud car honk came at 5:30 am on Friday, we didn't have much of a choice.

This is actually kind of a funny, bizarre story. We're in the taxi and it's totally dark outside and we're completely out of it from the late night and painfully early morning, all passing in and out of consciousness during the ride. We arrive and when we get out of the taxi and walk a few steps into the trail, we sort of slowly realize that we're in the middle of the rainforest, it's really dark outside, we have no flashlights nor binoculars, and we don't know how to birdwatch. ...I don't know, I found it amusing. So instead we just wandered/laid on the ground/listened to the terrifying sound of howler monkeys until it got lighter outside. It ended up being a great idea. We saw about 7 wild pigs cross the trail in front of us one by one and spotted a howler monkey from a distance. Trip=success, especially because Peter and I were able to sleep in a bit afterwards since Suz let us take the day off so I could bring him around sight-seeing before his departure. Woo!

So, now I will go into Peter and my day exploring Panama (this entry is quite massive).

I shall organize this by PLACE!

The Causeway

We walked along the Causeway (strip of pretty land made by all the land dug up to make the Panama Canal) and had lunch at an outdoor Italian restaurante. I drank the best orange juice of my life.

Panama Viejo

These are the remains of the oldest European settlement on the Pacific coast of America. These were really, really cool ruins.

Baha'i Temple

We visited the Baha'i Temple afterwards but got there at 5:58 and it closes at 6 pm. Our taxi driver (sweetest man ever) tried to get the guard to let us in anyway, but he did not allow this and so we only got to take a photo of the outside. But it was still beautiful :-)

And that was our day off/Peter's day of seeing Panama!