Trip to Panama

Roger and I had the opportunity to visit Panama on an awards trip thru work. It was a great cultural experience, as you can tell. One of the activities that they took us on was a tour of the Embera Indian village. The only way to get there was by dug out canoe (with an outboard motor attached). Here they were demonstrating some dances for us.

This young indian girl was applying some henna marking to this bald head!

We bought this sling-shot from this indian and he was showing us how it works.

The women cooked up a lunch for us of fried Talapia fish and some fried plantains (like bananas). The fish was pretty good and crunchy - we just had to watch out for bones.

The Indians had a market set up for us to buy some of their crafts. The handmade baskets were beautiful as well as the wood carvings. Roger ended up buying a carving of a jaguar that he has in his office.

When we arrived on the island, the children ran up to us and grabbed our hands. This little boy grabbed my hand and wouldn't let go (and he didn't have a stitch of clothes on). It was pretty sad because as I squatted down next to him, I noticed that all his teeth were rotted out and he was only about 2 years old.

This is a small village of only 58 people that still live like they did hundreds of years ago. The children were sooooo beautiful and precious!! It broke my heart to think that none of these people have ever probably heard the gospel.

We also had the chance to go down the Panama Canal and receive a real good history lesson. I must have slept thru that day in class because I sure didn't know much about it. The canal was finished in 1914 and it still functions the same way it did back then. Only about 35 vessels pass thru it a day. They have to pay the fare 24 hours in advance and wait out at sea until a pilot comes on board to direct their vessel thru the canal, sometimes waiting several days for their turn. Waiting a few days is worth the wait since it would take them a minimum of 21 - 45 days to sail around South America. The canal is fed from the lakes that are kept full by 9 months of rain. The entire 50 miles of the canal is fresh water until it mixes with the ocean on either end.

Here our tour boat was in one of the locks that lowers (or raises) the water level 35 feet in 8 minutes using gravity and valves - no pumps. We had to go thru 3 locks to make it to the ocean. As you can see from the picture below, Roger was trying to avoid the "farmer's tan", but instead got burned where he missed with the sunscreen (scalp, hands, ankles and toes) - pretty funny looking.

We tried lots of new things to eat - even octopus!! It was pretty rubbery!
While visiting the Indian village, they took us to a waterfall in the rainforest where we could swim and cool off - I tho't it was too cold but Roger took a swim.

We visited a butterfly nursery and they loved Roger's bright yellow bag. It was cool to have them land on you so you could see them up close.
We took an ariel tram up into the rainforest for a bird's eye view of the canal and the beautiful forest.
At our resort, they had these canopy beds along the beach and we relaxed on one for an afternoon nap.
Our resort, Playa Bonita Intercontinental Resort, along the ocean and near the opening of the canal.

Our resort at sunset as we were collecting shells.

The last night at the Farewell Dinner Roger even got up and joined in on the dancing!
This is the view from our room and Roger is holding his "baby", the handcarved jaguar from the Indians.