Finally, after looking forward to it for ages, I was finally on my way to Panama for Cousinpalooza 2010!
I got selected for a ton of random checks at the airport (I think quite simply because I was early), where a guy checked my suitcase handles for explosive material, and at the gate they went through all of my bags. Annoying, but I guess they're just trying to be careful...
On the flight, I watched "Bright Star", about the romance between John Keats and Fanny Brawne. We'd visited Keat's old home in Hampstead over the summer, so I was curious to see the film. It was actually quite remarkable, to think of how hard it is these days to find someone you can fall passionately in love with, but at least if you do, you can be assured that you'll be able to marry them. How awful then to see the story of Keats and Fanny, where they were madly in love with one another, but couldn't marry because Keats was too poor to support a wife. How lucky we are, that we as women are no longer dependent on a man to support us, that we can marry a rich man or a poor man, where the only requirement we have left for marriage these days is love.
Also a story of reality, but much more inspiring, was "More than a Game", the story of LeBron James' high school basketball career. It was entirely a documentary, putting together footage of his early high school games with interviews with all of his teammates later on in life. Given that I'm not that into basketball, and I knew how the story ended (we all know what happened to LeBron James after high school!), I was surprised how into the movie I got!
Once I made it to Miami, I breeze through customs, and quickly found my way back to where I was supposed to be. I was just annoyed however when I took money out of a Bank of America ATM, and it gave me $50 bills, which my cousins had specifically warned me were useless in Panama. And given that it was a Saturday, the Bank of America in the airport was closed, so I was stuck with $100 of useless money. So I went to Subway and bought a sandwich, and then on the other side of security, bought a bottle of water. I was kind of annoyed that I had to spend $10 on useless stuff just to break my $50 bills, but at least nobody put up a fuss, and then since they only had food for purchase on the next flight, I was all stocked up with food!
The flight to Panama was uneventful, although it was really freaky as we came into land, as I couldn't see any lights out the window of the plane AT ALL. It was just this endless sea of black, as the plane kept getting lower and lower, and it looked like we were just diving into a sea of black. It was only at the very last minute that the runway popped up under the plane, just in time!
I got through customs relatively easily, and then outside I was greeted by the crowds, everyone was there to meet me! We exchanged lots of hugs, and everybody laughed at how I was dressed in jeans and a fleece. I was warned I should strip down as much as possible, and as soon as I stepped outside, I knew why. It was just like walking into the hottest, muggiest, wall of heat you can imagine. Yet it was glorious, to realise that I was finally here in Panama!
My cousin Marie had rented a car, so she, Hillary, and Katie got in the rental car, where I got into the old car affectionately known as "The Beast" with my brother and cousin Brendan.
As we drove along, it was fascinating to see all of Panama City lit up in front of us, as I would never have expected that this tiny Central American country would have so many high-rises. Yet, as we got closer it became apparent that the majority of them were still dark and under construction. Half of the Panamanian skyline seemed to be construction cranes!
Then, as we continued to drive, my cousin got totally lost. At one point, we drove into a neighbourhood where we surrepticiously locked our doors, while trying to find a way out as quickly as possible. You definitely don't want to be the only white person in a brand new rental car (or even an old, beat-up truck) in some parts of Panama City!
My cousin kept thinking that he could find his way out of it if he just drove towards the canal, figuring that we would eventually hit the canal and then find our way to Camp Clayton, where my uncle's house (where we were staying) was. So you can imagine our surprise when that genius plan failed to work out, and we found ourselves on the Puente de las Américas over the canal!
We then kept taking random, unlit, dark roads through the jungle, desperately trying to turn around and get back over the bridge. It was totally wild, just driving down these dark jungle roads, hoping desperately that we might come to a turn that would let us come out and go back across the bridge.
Eventually, we actually did make it back across the Puente de las Américas, and then someone had the bright idea to turn on the GPS in the rental car, and we actually made it back to Ciudad del Saber in Camp Clayton, and finally to the house and to bed!
We then stopped by the local grocery store to stock up on supplies, and then came home to have a simple dinner of chicken, ratatouille and vegetables. Given the hour, we spent way too much time sitting around, drinking wine and Panamanian beer, but eventually crashed into bed. My brother, cousin Katie and I were all crashing out in a "bunk room" made up of single bed cots borrowed from the neighbours. Not the most comfortable things ever, but we were so tired, I don't think any of us cared! And it was so hot, with only one fan going, we flopped down without even pulling a single sheet over us, just lying on top of the mattresses sweating in the heat!
In the morning, after a quick breakfast, we loaded up the rental car and got on the Pan-American highway on our drive to Pedasi. It was a four-hour drive with no radio or iPods, but surprisingly we easily filled up the time with just talking and catching up.
We finally made it to Pedasi, checked into our hotel, and then asked the proprietress of the hostel for a recommendation for where to go to lunch. She directed us to a restaurant called "Isla Iguana", which was a nice enough place, although the food was totally forgettable, the service slow, and they mixed up our orders, so that no matter whether you ordered chicken or fish, everybody got chicken! Oh well, we were too short on time to make them fix it, as it was time for us to go back and meet a guy to take us out in a boat to Isla Iguana, an island that was a 15-minute boat ride offshore, that the US Navy apparently used during WWII for target practice. Hence, the island was completely uninhabited, because it was covered with unexploded ordinances. We were well advised to not stray off the well-worn paths on the island!
We made our way down to the shore to meet the guy with the boat who was supposed to take us out there, and I have to admit that it didn't look entirely seaworthy. It didn't help either that just a few minutes into our trip, the engine sputtered and died, and the guy had to work to get it started again. Yet, eventually he did, and 15 minutes later (and some struggling Spanish conversation later), we made our way to the island.
It was a gorgeous uninhabited island, covered in coral that had apparently been killed by a very warm El Nino storm in the late 1980's. It had hermit crabs crawling all over the place, who would suddenly freeze and curl up into their shells as soon as you approached them. We spent some time snorkelling (there were some absolutely beautiful blue fish), and just enjoying wandering on the shore, listening to the "tinkle, tinkle, tinkle" of the coral as the waves came in and the coral tumbled over itself, sounding like chimes.
Eventually, after the sun set, we hopped back on the boat and went back to Pedasi to look for dinner. We wandered through town looking for a restaurant the proprietress of the hostel had recommended to us, but when we got there, it was closed. We wandered back through the town square and watched some kids who were playing sports in some covered indoor sports arena for a while.
We then went to another restaurant, but as soon as we sat down, they told us that they were closed too. Finally out of ideas, we ran to the local market, where we dashed through in a hurry picking up all of the interesting junk food we could get our hands on. We then went back to the hotel with our stash of Oreos, weird SPAM-like ham, American cheese, bread, Doritos, and tons of other junk food.
We then also encountered an American couple on their way out for an evening walk, and ended up talking to them for a while, enjoying hearing the man's stories about living in Panama (we guessed that we was a retired NYC cop), and giggling about how he was the only person we'd ever heard say "Fuggedaboudit" in that quintessential New York way that you don't think really exists outside of the movies.
Finally we were stuffed and sick on junk food (I suppose there's a reason your parents don't normally let you eat dinners like that), and so feeling all hot, sweaty, and sticky, we retired to our rooms and into bed!
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