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6 Month anniversary, and WE ARE IN SOUTH AMERICA!

21 Sep

It has been 6 months today since we started our travels in Latin America. We have lived in the tropics for two full seasons, and to be honest there really has not been much difference in temperature or rain since we arrived. It is much easier to feel time pass when the weather obliges with differences, and it is shocking that back home in Wyoming snow will start falling soon if it hasn’t already (to be fair, snow has been known to fall in June as well out there).

H and I spent the day today reflecting on how much has changed since our first days on the road back in March, and we are sure that not only are we now more comfortable with our Spanish skills, we are better at traveling together, we know more about ourselves and how we react to situations that we couldn’t fathom before, and we now know that getting to the end of South America is actually possible even on our ridiculously limited budget.

As our 6 month mark, we decided we wanted to pull together a guide to the Central American countries that we have been trekking through for half a year. We were hoping that anyone who has traveled and has tips or tricks to share, leave them in the comments section and we will update the page accordingly. Fantastic idea, right? Yep, I thought so too. However, all I have is an outline compiled from H’s daily notes, and really nothing more right now. But do not fret, I will be working on it little by little as we go along, so feel free to leave comments!

Enough of that sentimental 6 month reminiscing; you are undoubtably more interested in how we happened to arrive in South America, correct? Well, I had begun to feel skeptical that our boat would be filled, or even exist to a certain extent since our captain had not yet purchased it… No boat, no definite confirmed or interested passengers, and our phone had just run out of minutes from our attempts to sort all of this out. So we flew. Yep, after all that work for weeks (a month?) I gave up on our dreams of sailing through the San Blas, and persuaded H that we should just show up at the Albrook domestic airport in Panama City and see if they had room for us in the flight to Puerto Obaldia, the last city on the border with Columbia. We (and everyone at the Villa Vento) were quite sure that we were unlikely to make it on the flight, so it was more of a practice run for when we would try again on Tuesday (the flights are only once a day on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday). We purchased the last two tickets on the flight.

The flight itself was wonderful: we were on a small 6 row plane (much like the ones we used to take back and forth from Casper as children) that looked like it was straight out of an old photo of rich travelers (if only I had my furs and cigarettes with me), jumped elevations at the slightest breeze, and had little to no seat belt requirements. The view of the Darien jungle and Caribbean islands was breathtaking on the way down, but that didn’t hinder me from chatting about it incessantly to the poor English chap who happened to sit near me. Once we arrived we all drug ourselves through the adorable town of Puerto Obaldia and began talking with our fellow passengers about Colombia (as they were mostly headed home) while the incredibly slow-moving officer looked at everyone’s piles of paperwork to get out of Panama.

We, however, did not have piles of paperwork, turns out you can pretty much get out of Panama and into Colombia by just answering one to two questions, handing over a copy of your passport, and smiling. We joined our new Colombian friends onto a lancha (they bartered the price for all of us; it’s good to be on friendly terms with the locals!) and sped to Capurgana to see to getting our entry into Colombia. Immigration was closed for us until later that night, so we checked into Hostel Nelly on the beach, set up our tents, and then joined our Colombian and English friends for a lunch.

Capurgana is a small beach town nestled in the Darien. There are no roads and therefore no vehicles in the small fishing village. There are, however, horse drawn carriages. So adorable! The town is beautiful and surrounded by lush jungle. We spent two days in the area and happened to befriended a local who decided to take us out on a motor boat date to Sapzurro, another breathtaking no-road town. It turns out that Sapzurro is even more picturesque, with a small but pleasant waterfall. Our date provided us with a coconut (which he obligingly filled with tequila), two pipas (the green coconut that has more juice), various flavors of ice cream, fresh baked bread, and interesting conversation! We spent quite a bit of our time relaxing on the beach while our date moved large bags of various materials on and off a boat.

At one point our date had to move an entire pile of earth down the beach so he left us with a Panamanian so we would not get bored. Once the guy started insisting on taking us to a nude beach and informing us how beautiful the children he would impregnate us with would be, we decided to hike back to Capurgana just the two of us. The climb was ridiculously steep and muddy, but at the top we came upon a gorgeous viewpoint and crossed paths with a man who claims to be God… We then joined our English and Colombian friends in some wine and great conversation on the beach at sunset.

After such a wonderful day we decided to take a three hour launcha to Turbo, a 5.5 hour bus to Monteria, and a 5 hour van ride to arrive in the romantic city, Cartagena! It is true folks our hearts have been stolen in this city! Stay tuned to hear more.

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More photos here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.270123703106156.62190.264156350369558&type=1

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Panamá vs Canadá

12 Sep

My day began like any typical day in our Central American lives; ending a 1900-0700 shift with customers asking where the water was?! Turns out that all of Panama City’s water system was shut off due to the new metro system construction. I had to quickly make signs saying to use the downstairs bathroom (where we had a simple system to allow for flushing: a huge garbage bin of pool water and a smaller metal bucket for transferring pool water to the back of the toilet when finished) and close the four bathrooms upstairs before the mass of morning bathroom use could fully develop. Luckily, we were fully booked the night before so I had the pleasure of following the early risers around and flushing the toilet with water hiked upstairs in buckets. The pool then became everyone’s shower and I decided to fall asleep for a few hours.

After waking from a nap and R finishing our volunteer day shift, we cleaned ourselves in the pool, put on as many shades of blue as possible (we didn’t want to be mistaken with our northern neighbors… So backwards!) and decided to make our way to the Canada vs Panama futbal game (we allowed for 3.5 hours of travel time, thinking we would be there incredibly early; turns out we needed every minute)!!!

It is important to explain the passion Panama has for its team. Leading up to the event 100’s of Panamanian fans were spending several evenings outside of the Canadians’ hotel making as much ruckus as possible in hopes of making sleep impossible. This included the obvious drums, encouraging the passing cars to honk, revving motors on motorcycles, chanting, and lasers pointed into windows from adjacent buildings, all of which we could see and hear from our hostel. When a Panama game is happening, everyone walking around the city is showing their support wearing their team’s jersey or a red scarf; their futbol is taken seriously and they want to participate in the 2014 World Cup.

After sitting and waiting in traffic for 2.5 hours on a bus we had finally reached the sea of red jerseys and quickly joined the hundreds of fans flowing toward the stadium! We were all first lined up in a narrow line talking and feeling a level of relaxation, albeit moving fairly slowly. This environment quickly changed when more red kept appearing from all directions and the crowd soon realized that we weren’t moving inside the gates quick enough for everyone waiting in line to see kickoff. There was a massive flooding until we were all standing right on top of each other so close that hands needed to be kept in the air so no one would catch an elbow to the face. People began to chant “cuando cuando” and use the mass of people gathered to put pressure on the gates. One fan even tried to jump the fence. Anxiety and desperation kept building to the point where military officials began to calm the crowd by spraying pepper spray into the air (we now know our pepper spray will do wonders when used on attackers). This only calmed the crowd for very brief moments, but we somehow were shoved/pulled/caught/escorted by military arms through the gates and into the arms of the waiting security officials in a weird daze…. we had finally made it in!

We quickly ran up to find thousands of fans banging on drums, blowing whistles, stomping on the stands, and generally making as much noise as humanly possible. We found a seat quickly and settled into the game that had already begun. Men all around us were ordering trays of 12+ beers at a time and everyone was chanting. Then the first goal was scored! We all jumped up and down screaming in excitement, and everything in everyone’s hands was thrown into the air landing on some other screaming fan. It was impressive as all of the food and drink of thousands of fans all took to the air at the same moment and then showered back down on the crowd; the celebration continued for a good 5 minutes and then relaxed back to banging on drums, whistle blowing, and chanting. The passion was toxic and we made a fan wave go around the stadium at least 3+ times (it is very difficult to pay attention to a wave and the futbol game!).

Half time was spent in the proper Panamanian fashion: playing music as loud as possible through the speakers, completely different sets of music on the various drums around the stadium, dancing in the stands, and reloading on more trays of beer to enjoy the second half. One of our neighbors was curious why we were cheering for Panama; he was sure that we must hate Canada for some reason. For all of our Canadian friends: we do not hate Canada (in fact we really enjoy y’all) we just love the passion for futbol!

As soon as the game began our banging on drums, whistle blowing, and chanting began again! We all went even crazier with the second goal!! R and I were literally soaked from head to toe in Panama beer. It was amazing and everything I had hoped for in a futbol match. As soon as the game finished, with Panama the victors, the crowd went crazy! Everyone was dancing and screaming and loving life. We stormed the streets honking horns to make the noise of our chant “Panama Panama”! We had won and we were all trying to get back to our homes.

R and I were so jazzed from the game we were dancing and singing with the locals as we exited and then decided to hop on my favorite type of transportation, Los Diablo Rojos! It was all lit up and blaring music, how could we not want to take this bus!? Well, it took us to who knows where, where we jumped onto another bus to find ourselves in the middle of El Valle (or so we think, all we know for sure is that we were located very far from the city). We went to the bus driver asking if he was going to Albrook. He looked at us and asked where we were trying to go, telling us to stay on the bus.

We made one detour at his family’s shop for a soda and cigarette and then realized we were in transit and he was just talking us to Cinco de Mayo because he was a sweet guy!

All in all this was a wonderful day full of awesome Panama. And in case you were wondering we came home sticky, covered in beer and food particles, in the middle of the night to still have no water! Another pool shower!

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