San Blas / Guna Yala

This trip has been planned for the most part in order to get me to South America (my 7th & final continent!) before I turn 40 next month. I've been hearing amazing things about Colombia since it's now safe for international travelers, AND I've long had my eye on a Panamanian island group called the San Blas. And THEN (isn't this exciting?) learned that there are organized boat trips running from Panama to Colombia via the San Blas. Too perfect.

So in the wee hours of the morning after our last day in Panama City, we joined a group of 25 for the 4WD ride across Panama to Carti (technically passing into the beginning of the forbidding, impassable jungle of the Darien Gap) and set out on our four-day voyage through the San Blas to Colombia. The first island we stopped at (for lunch on the first day) looked like this:

And no, I'm not kidding with this. It just kept going like that. Pristine white sands, amazing blue waters, paradise islands everywhere.

Each day we traveled 2-3 hours further south in fiberglass boats among waves that left us all pretty sopping wet and perhaps in need of a chiropractor...but it was still kind of fun, especially since sea sickness didn't haunt me. On the first night we stayed on this island...

...and slept (surprisingly well) in hammocks.

The two following nights we also slept in hammocks, but in island villages of the indigenous Guna tribe, which is a totally fascinating, strong, independent culture that I knew nothing about before this and loved learning about.

A toilet, islands-style; they just build a platform over the water and your stuff drops straight down. The fish take care of the cleaning up!

One of the two boats our group of 25 rode in.

SUCH a cool experience!

Next stop: Colombia!!!

Panama!

Welcome to a new adventure!

I took another break from what's left of the Wisconsin winter and hopped a couple planes down to the steamy metropolis of Panama City!

It's crazy to realize, but when I was here for the first time, 16 years ago, non of these skyscrapers existed. Now there's a beautiful promenade along the shore where you can enjoy the night lights, along with a lemon-flavored shaved ice, Panama-style.

The biggest reason for spending five days in Panama City was to visit my friend X, who lives here. With her, I visited the Biomuseo, a VERY cool natural and anthropological museum of Panama and Panamanians (next time you see me, ask my how, in some sense, we are all Panamanians, and I will be excited to tell you about it!

There was also a trip to the canal, at which we got to watch some boats moving through the Miraflores Locks.

Also, and afternoon/evening spent in Casco Viejo, appreciating the picturesque sights of the oldest part of Panama City...

...and even witness a very exciting worker's rights march.



As if that wasn't already enough, then X took us (SR had joined me along the way) out to her family's condo near the beach at Farallon...

...AND for a walk on a jungle trail in Gamboa--though those darn sloths stayed hidden from us and the howler monkeys waited till we were back in the parking lot before starting to frolic and howl. Oh, well, it was still magical. THANK YOU, X!!! You are a gem!

Eleuthera

A belated ode to the week my mom and I recently spent in Eleuthera, Bahamas!

Thanks to generous family friends, we rented this lovely little house at a steal...

...and had beautiful Ten Bay Beach right in our backyard.

It was a wonderful walking beach, and I roamed it back and forth endlessly, one of my favorite things to do.

Huge, washed-up jellyfish!

And amazing sunsets.

Though most of our time was spent relaxing around the house and beach, we also took an afternoon jaunt over to the uber-touristy enclave of Harbour Island.

Very fun to do as the (tourist) locals do and rent a golf cart in which to tool around town.

My favorite part was definitely the pink sand beach.

But the old colonial houses were also fun to see.

Back on Eleuthera we did some other exploring.

A gorgeous, relaxing week. The charmed life continues!!!

Aside from this week in the Bahamas, it's been three months since I got back Stateside and have been tooling around visiting family and friends here. So it must be just about time for another international adventure. I'll be back in less than a month with an update from southern climes...

Quick hello; "A Cutting"

Hi there! A break from my break in posting because I'm very excited to have just had some writing published in Switchback Magazine, an on-line publication of the University of San Francisco. At the moment, if you click here, you can scroll down to the nonfiction section and then click on the title of my piece, "A Cutting." (It's a throwback to the Madagascar years!....) Not sure how long it will be until they put up a new crop of pieces, though so hopefully this link will work long past when my name disappears from the homepage. :)
Thanks for reading, and hope you like it!

See you back here soon...

...when more international adventures ensue at some point down the line in 2017! Probably not until March or April. In the meantime, I'll be soaking up the family-and-friends time Stateside. Enjoy the rest of 2016 and the start of the new year!