Panama!

The week before last was crazy with final papers and presentations, and then last Wednesday we had an exam, so I was of course cramming for that. I think it went well -- cross your fingers! It was all about concluding treaties, the International Court of Justice, and the use of force. It's crazy how much I've learned already.

Then we had Thursday and Friday off, and you know how I just can't stay away from the beach! :) Actually, I tend to take every opportunity I have to get out of Ciudad Colon. It's a really small town (one traffic light, I think), and we're close enough to San Jose, but San Jose doesn't have a lot going for it. I'm realizing that I miss big cities, big time. I'm too close to roosters and muddy roads all the time. I miss street cleaning, and people rushing off to work in suits and high heels, and tall buildings, and meeting friends for a drink after work. But I don't miss it so much that I don't appreciate what I have going here. I love learning what I'm learning, and I love getting to know the local culture and seeing as much of the region as possible. I'm just going to be happy to move back to a city after my year is up.

Speaking of traveling as much as possible, a fellow classmate Jessica and I decided to travel over the long weekend. We went to the Carribean coast again (to Puerto Viejo) hoping to avoid the rain, but we weren't so lucky. But it was still great just to be by the beach and to be able to relax. We spent Thursday and Friday in Puerto Viejo, but then we decided that, since we were only about an hour and a half from the Panama border, we should go for our last two days.

I'm so glad we went! It was such a great experience. First we took a bus to the border, where I got a new stamp in my passport. And then you have to walk across a bridge to get to Panama. I think it's the first time I've walked over an international border. The bridge was this really old, rickety railroad bridge. Here are some pics of it:


On the other side of the bridge there are these taxis that take people to a harbor (about 15 minutes away) where boats leave for Bocas Del Toro -- our destination point. Bocas Del Toro is a collection of islands right off the coast of Panama in the Carribean. So we took an hour-long boat ride to the main island. The first half hour winds through a river, and then it opens up to the sea, where we wound through some of the islands. It was really beautiful. Some places had little huts on the water that you could rent:



We arrived on the island (Isla Colon), ate lunch at this little place on the water, and then found a hostel for only $8 a night per person. We were walking down the main street with all the shops and restaurants when we ran into a local guy named Robert. He offered to take us on a boat to one of the other nearby island for only $2 each way, so we took him up on the offer. (By the way, everything in Panama is in U.S. currency. Someone said they used to have their own currency -- Balboas -- but now U.S. currency is the official currency for Panama. Weird, huh?)

So Robert took Jessica, me, and this British guy to an island called Bastimentos -- which was the best cultural experience I think I've had since I got here. This Robert guy used to live on the island, so he knows everyone on it, and he introduced us to about half of them. The part of the island we visited is where all the locals live. They're all Afro-Carribean and speak a different kind of English (as Robert said, it's like English but not proper). There was this main cement walkway through the town, but no cars or roads. It was so lively -- it seemed like the entire town was out and about. There were boys playing baseball in a field:


There were guys playing dominos:


And there was a funeral, so half the town was dressed up and gathered at one house and at a pub down the street celebrating the dead's "passage into the next life," as Robert put it. We actually talked to a nephew of the man who died. He and several others in town said the man died of a broken heart because his son had recently been stabbed and killed. Here's a pic of some of the people gathering for the funeral celebration:


And here are some other pics of the town (I took about 50):




We went back to the main island after a little while and then left for San Jose early the next morning. It was quite an experience.

Back to the beach

I just can't stay away from the beach. Since I was sick, I was waffling back and forth on whether I was up to a weekend away, but late Friday night I decided to go for it. I went with two friends (Michelle from school and her Rotary friend who's also from the States and studying in Costa Rica, but at a different school). We went to Cahuita, which is on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica -- a first for me (all the other beaches I went to were on the Pacific). The Caribbean is great this time of year because it doesn't rain all day like it does here in the Central Valley or the Pacific side. In fact, it didn't rain at all when we were there.

Cahuita is absolutely beautiful, but the trip started out a little rocky. Since I waited until the last minute to decide whether I was going, I bought my ticket at the last minute and learned about a little thing called "de pie," which was stamped on my ticket. It means standing room only. A four-hour bus ride with no seat. It turns out several people were without seats, and we ended up sprawling all over the aisle of the bus -- at one point I laid down in the aisle and actually fell asleep. And Michelle offered to switch with me for a leg of the trip, so it wasn't so bad.

We roll into town around 2 p.m. and start popping into hotels looking for a room. In the half dozen or so towns I've staying in so far, I've always been able to just go there without a reservation and find a room for $10 to $15 per person a night. Not this time. Monday was a Costa Rican holiday, and apparently everyone went to Cahuita. We went door to door looking for a free room, and everywhere was full. By this time we were exhausted and tripping with sweat (it had to be close to 90 degrees -- way hotter than San Jose). We kept running into a few other backpackers who were in the exact same boat as us. After an hour or so we finally found one place that "sort of" had a room. There was some weird story about how some guy (I think who worked at the hotel) had the key to the room, but when he came back in an hour, we could access the room. And the shower was not totally put together when we got in, but they came in and fixed it. So all of that was a little weird, but we were happy just to have the room. And it turned out to be a beautiful place! It was this little duplex-type cabin that had a kitchenette on the first floor, and then a little second floor with three beds (sleeps up to five people). It was right on the water and had a porch with a beautiful view. Here are some picks of the place:



The next morning we woke up and went snorkeling. Landlubber I may be, but put a life vest on me, and I can pretend to swim with the best of 'em. We took a little boat out into this bay area -- and by little boat I mean something that looked like a big canoe with a clip-on motor. It was a sunny day, and we snorkeled over a large coral reef area with tons of bright blue and yellow fish (and some weird spiky fish and something that looked like a brain). It was really cool.

And then the guide dropped us off at the tip of the shoreline so we could walk an hour back through the state park on a path that followed the beach, and we saw a bunch of monkeys on the walk back!

But I'm back in town now and this week is incredibly busy. We have a moot court thing on Friday, so we're all very busy preparing for that, plus we have a different paper due Friday and our final exam next Wednesday. Plenty to keep me busy!

Sick

Well, I'm officially sick sick sickedy-sick. It started with a sore throat and moved into cold sweats and the whole shebang. Despite the apparent prevalence of dengue in the area and my dozen mosquito bites all over my body, I'm pretty sure I don't have dengue fever. It crossed my mind, but after extensive Google research, it appears that dengue symptoms include vomiting, joint pain, and -- get this -- it feels like someone is pushing on the back of your eyeballs. Ow. So I just keep thinking "well, at least I don't have that."

I've been going to classes this week, but I think if I feel the same in the morning, I'm going to have to stay in bed. I might venture out for Jell-O and ginger ale, though, because I'm craving those. Luckily I had chicken soup on hand. (Thanks, Mom! That was in the 2 tons of food you send back with me. haha.)

More random thoughts strung together

On Thursday I went to dinner at one of my professor's houses. He had everyone in the class sign up for different nights so that we went in groups of five or six. I'm still so amazed how open and inviting most of the professors are. It was really a lot of fun. He and his girlfriend fed us lots of food and wine, and by the time I got home, I thought it was 9:30 or so, but it was actually close to 11:00, so that's definitely a sign of a good night.

Saturday night was also very cool. I went to this Lebanese restaurant in San Jose with a couple girls from school -- it has this really cool lounge atmosphere with great food. It was kind of hard to find -- as one would expect in the absence of addresses. Two of us took the bus into San Jose and all we had to go off of was a street name (Calle 22), which runs really close to the bus stop. So we started walking along Calle 22 and asking people if they knew where this restaurant was, but no one had heard of it. On about our fifth try, we stopped in this little market, and the guy didn't know exactly, but he stepped outside the store and asked a possibly homeless man if he knew. Sure enough, this guy seemed to know, and he told us to follow him. We weren't too sure about this plan (it wasn't a very good neighborhood), but we stuck to well lit streets and Michelle got out her little pocket knife -- just in case. He actually did bring us to the right place, but as we expected, he asked to be compensated for this guided tour. I was honestly grateful that he showed us the way, because I don't think we could have found it without him, so I gave him a dollar. Sort of like a pedestrian taxi. :)

Anyway, it's Monday now, and we're back in classes. Tomorrow we start learning about the law of the sea, and I'm procrastinating doing my reading for that one. :) After lunch today, one of the Natural Resources students took some of us on a tour of the trails around campus. I had no idea there was so much land around the school! There are some hiking trails you can go on that take two or three hours (we didn't have time for that). And there is this area with about four or five ponds and these statues and benches for picnics. And the Natural Resources students are working on creating some butterfly gardens (apparently you plant these trees that butterflies are attracted to, and they flock to the area). It's incredibly beautiful. I'll have to do some more exploring and take some photos. I might have to wait till it starts drying up next month, though. I was up to my ankles in mud today.

Well, I guess I should start reading about the law of the sea. Sigh.

A good day

Sorry it's been a little while since my last post. I'm slacking off a bit. :)

Soooo, on Saturday I went to the Multiplaza (big Westernized shopping mall) with my friend Michelle and saw a movie called La Vida de los Otros. It said it was in English with Spanish subtitles, but it was actually German with Spanish subtitles. Because I speak neither German nor Spanish, this posed a problem for me. Luckily, Michelle does speak Spanish, so she had to whisper the Spanish translations to me throughout the whole movie. The theater was pretty empty, so I don't think we were too annoying. It turned out to actually be a really good movie, from the parts I understood, anyway. Then on Saturday night we went to a party that some of the students threw at their apartment, and that was a lot of fun!

Today was a good day. The class this morning was about the authorization of the use of force, and it was actually really interesting. And then after class, four of us arranged to have massages! This woman comes to your house and gives hour-long massages for only $16. Such a good deal! It was awesome. And then I came home and found out that I got an internship I applied for. It's a volunteer (aka no money) position as Press and Communications Officer for the Human Rights Center, which is a small organization on campus run by one of the professors. I'll be writing press releases and updating the Web site and writing stories about some of the visiting professors. It should actually be a lot of fun.

I should run, but I'll try to be better about updating this more often!