Kuna Yala Islands

 This is where Hollie and I spent our post-semester week of vacations (three days of it, anyway). 

Gorgeous, right?

This lovely little spot in the Caribbean is called Kuna Yala, but is also known as the San Blas islands. It is the home of the Kuna people, natives of Central America. 

There are 360-something islands in the San Blas archipelago, forty-ish inhabited. 

If you are interested in seeing a little Kuna history, wikipedia has some info that looks like it mostly agrees with what we heard from the Kuna people. Also, here is another tale of the islands if you care for more reading material.

At five o'clock in the morning, Hollie and I were picked up from our hostel in Panama City and headed out to the islands. 

Picture from here

Our driver, Junior, was a very nice guy, Italian who had lived in Miami, and now has a business doing 4x4 tours throughout Panama. Another couple came with us as well, a very friendly pair from Georgia. Although the road used to be pretty terrible and it was more common to fly in to the islands, the road is now very nice. In fact, the entire way there the whole road was significantly better than the majority of the roads in Costa Rica. As of three months ago, there is even a bridge that eliminates the need to cross a river before you get to the islands. Although is was a pretty curvy road, overall it was a very comfortable trip. 

The very comfortable road.

 Once on the coast, we were herded towards a motorboat and sped off to avoid the terrible mosquitoes that plague the mainland cost. We really had no idea what we were doing, exactly, but our host, Germain, was very helpful and knowledgeable. We were dropped of on a very rickety dock, right by the over-the-ocean toilets and shown to the house. Quite a nice little place, actually not that little at all. The ground floor had hammocks and a cooking/eating area, and the top floor had four bedrooms and a common area with hammocks. We ate breakfast of bread and nutella and then headed out to the beach.

The island we were staying on is called Carti (this is the site for the hostel, if you care to see) and it is one of the most populated islands. The whole thing is full of little thatched roof houses, right up to the waters edge. Plus the whole-in-the-dock toilets that dump straight to the ocean surround the whole island. So it wasn't ideal for beach time. Germain, however, was great about organizing trips to the other islands, and we spent all day out on the beaches of the other islands. 

They were gorgeous, and practically private islands, with just a handful of us on them. We snorkeled, swam, laid out in the sun, and chilled in hammocks under the palms. What a life, right?

 This was our lunching/hammock spot. Germain is setting the table.

This is the couple from Georgia, Brad and Paige, and our boat driver.

On our first night in Carti, there were three other guests. One was a girl from Holland beginning an 8 week volunteer trip, and another was a married couple, a Mexican artist and an Estonian philologist who was collecting poetry in native languages. The artist put on a workshop for the kids in the neighborhood, and I went to take pictures for him. He did some fun and quick modern art with acrylic paint, spatulas, and lots of water. It was fun to see all the kids so fascinated.

In our hostel the night before the workshop, showing us how it's done

Isn't the tiny little canoe funny! It looks like a toy!

The Kuna people are famous for their traditional fabric art called Molas. They are place mat size embroidered designs with layers of fabric had cut and sewn. You can see them hung between the palm trees here, and below they incorporated the cat from Aristocats.

This spot wasn't an island, but just a big shallow area of the ocean with a white sand bottom and a bunch of lovely star fish.

We had lobster twice in one day! Delicious!

The couple from Georgia, our driver, and us on the dock on our last day in the island.

 Once back in Panama City, we stayed the night in another very nice hostel. The next morning we took one of these lovely pieces of art in to the bus station. These buses are called 'little red devils' and all have very unique paintings and even lights.

The bus ride back to Costa Rica (on a considerably more comfortable, if less colorful bus) we crossed the canal and were able to grab some pictures. It really wasn't that exciting, no big ships or anything. But it is what Panama is famous for and all. 

Our whole time in Panama was quite enjoyable and everything worked out great. We met some really nice people, relaxed on some beautiful islands, and had a great experience.

Panama!

Soon after classes ended for the semester, Hollie and I headed off to Panama. We took a bus out of San Jose late Wednesday night, and we arrived in Panama City Thursday afternoon. Yes, that's correct. About 15 hours of travel all together. The three hours that it took to cross the border didn't help any.

But things definitely improved after that. We left the bus station (which is also a giant mall) in taxi for our hostel. We quickly realized how unprepared we were when the taxi driver had never heard of our hostel, and we didn't have the address with us. Ooops. Casco Viejo was the name of our hostel, but also the name of an area of town. So we drove there, the taxi driver asked for directions, and eventually found it. The people there were very nice and helpful, and although at first we had doubts about the surrounding town (it did look pretty sketch) we soon discovered it's charm. Apparently that part of town used to be the ghetto until about five years ago, when US investors saw the potential of the old architecture and the oceanfront property, and bought it all up. It is now a strange mix of swanky restaurants and artsy boutiques scattered between abandoned building and scary looking apartments. We walked around until dark, looking in the funky little stores and taking dusky pictures.

Then we spent the night in this lovely vibrant room.

The next morning is when we would begin our real adventures. At 5am we were getting picked up to go to the Kuna Yala (aka San Blas) islands.

Stay tuned for the continuation of our adventures...

Last few days of school

Monday the 9th was my last day at Roblealto, the school I helped at for the semester. Definitely a bitter-sweet day. After being in the fifth grade class three months I finally felt like I knew all the students, knew more or less what I was doing, and like I was actually making a difference. And then, of course, I have to leave. I felt like Mary Poppins, leaving at the change of the wind. 

My very last day went very well. I taught English class one last time, very off the cuff, but it worked. The rest of the day was pretty normal, but for the last half hour got to have a party. All the kids had cards they wrote me, a couple of the girls had dance routines they prepared, we all ate hot dogs, and it was lots of fun! Mostly we just took goofy pictures and the kids danced around to the music. Unfortunately, due to privacy rules, I can't publish any pictures of the students here. I do, however, have pictures of their notes.

Notes on the white board

All the notes and the poster they gave me.

Back up on campus, we had a little school left. Mostly I furiously worked on finishing up everything I needed to do for my projects for my education credit and my independent study. But I also managed to squeeze in a few fun things. One of them was making a Tres Leches cake with Kata. She was kind enough to gather all the ingredients (since I was too frazzle-brained to remember them) and Lindy was kind enough to let us use his kitchen. It turned out to be downright delicious, if I do say so myself.

We shared it with the campus staff and other students for coffee break. Fun times.

Kata cleaning the pan. It was that good.

Adam and Justin liked it too

Diego, Rosie, Amy, and Juan

 From left to right: Juan our cook, me, Rosie the cleaning lady, Diego the maintenance guy, and Amy

 

It was a fun little party!

Coming soon to a theater near you

Very shortly there will be blog entries about my last week or so here in Central America. This will include my adventures into Panama and the gorgeous Kuna Yala islands. However, my 13 hours on a bus and very few hours of real sleep have finally caught up to me, and the nexts posts shall wait until the morning. Goodnight!

NBD 2011

One of my good friends I met here at Whitworth South, Kata, has a lovely tradition she brings from Wheaton. This tradition is a day of things Never Been Done. 

The title really says it all. It is a day in which, mostly spur of the moment, you do thing you have never done before. 

This year, she was kind enough to let me participate in the tradition!

To start the day off right, we decided to get the Micky-D's breakfast special: scrambled eggs, gallo pinto, and platanos maduros. Breakfast of champions. And something never been done. We had never eating gallo pinto at McDonald's.

FYI: Gallo pinto is the ever popular rice-and-beans combo here (black beans) that is super common for breakfast. And platanos maduros are ripe plantains (as opposed to the starchy, usually served salty, green version) fried and slightly sweet. Delish!

And that was the end of our planned "Never Been Done" activities. But while at McDonald's, we ran across another. Until this day, none of us had seen the golden arches on jeans. Now we have.

 

After finishing our super classy breakfast, we decided to leave our mark on the city of Heredia. In the form of thumbprints on a wet part of the sidewalk. Also NBD.

After wandering around and shopping a bit (thrift shopping in Central America was another NBD thing for me) Hollie decided to get a piercing. Gettin' crazy now, huh!?

She had actually been thinking about getting the top cartilage pierced for a while, so it wasn't entirely spontaneous. But it was a very new experience in the the piercer did not use a piercing gun. Apparently "Pistols are for amateurs." Or at least that is what the sign said. The sign that Kata and I saw, but Hollie did not. I wish I had a picture of the look on her face when the (very pierced and tattooed) man took out the five inch needle and asked if she was ready. She did a great job, though, and didn't even make a noise while he pulled the needle all the way through. Hollie says it was pretty painful, but it looks cute!

That afternoon, just before I had to get back to the host family, we ended our day of NBD with smoothies. Yum!

Dessert in a bag!

So, if you thought Fridays were the best school day before, you should come to Roblealto!

Every Friday they only have a half day of class, which means the students (and the teachers!) leave right after lunch! So much more free time! (Of course, I have yet to do anything remotely productive with it...ooops)

Also, every Friday lunch includes a "postre." Hurray for dessert!

Granted, you have to be a little opened minded when it comes these desserts. The arroz con leche (rice pudding, more or less) is delicious, without a doubt. Last week was green jello with a thick layer of condensed mild on the top. Oddly enough, it grew on me. By the end I think I actually liked it. Today, our postre was in a bag.

Before you make any icky comments about what it looks like (yes, yes, I know what it looks like), keep in mind that I actually ate this. And it was good! Mostly yummy juice, with delicious bits of mango, watermelon, apple, and I don't know what else swimming around in it.

It reminded me a lot of those slippery water tube toy things. I don't know what the heck to call them, but you know what I mean? Those things with the glitter and plastic things inside that always exploded two day (or less) after you got them. Yeah, these...

This picture is from oriental trading. Go figure.

So, keep an opened mind. Don't discount dessert just because it looks like a cheap child's toy. Or vomit (there, I said it). It was actually quite good.

Two weeks from today...

and I will be in the soggy lovely green Oregon once again!

Don't get me wrong, I am very excited go home, see family and friends, and start my exciting summer. I know when I get home I will be 100% completely happy to be there. But right now I am in Costa Rica, and I am 100% completely happy to be here! I can't believe my semester has flown by so fast! Two more weeks from right now (exactly!) and I will be in the Portland airport. Crazy! 

But there is a lot to do between now and then, for sure. 

All of these must have a page of review/reaction and also be compiled into an 8 page paper. In Spanish of course. 

Do you think maybe if I stack them artistically enough, they will magically do the work on their own? I thought not. Oh well, worth a shot.

Also, within the next few days, everything that you see here...

And here...

The new desk I have for two days!

Not to mention everything that is in here...

I have lovely flowers again!

needs to go in to here...

Yes, I know. Good luck with that, Anne. But I will do it, just you wait. And yes, mom, I will do it the night before. Like always. Its tradition. 

So, now you know what my next few days have in store for me. Tomorrow I'm going to Roblealto for the penultimate day of classes, spending my last Friday night with the family and packing, and then we go back up to campus, where I will furiously finish up my writing. Wish me luck!