Fun in Panama - Hannah

We arrived Saturday evening in Panama, and our first order of business, after the kids touched the Atlantic Ocean for the first time, was getting something to eat. We got some local food, very similar to Costa Rican food, but flavored a little differently. We avoided the pig tail and pig feet options, and went with chicken or beef. The service was almost comical in that the man working there seemed quite annoyed at having us there. But the food was good, and relatively inexpensive at four dollars a plate. Unfortunately it was probably our only good food in Panama--the couple of other places we tried were more expensive and not very tasty.

Sunday was a relaxing day. We slept in, then had "church" where we all paired up and chose and taught a short lesson. Dylan and Jonah taught the story of Moses, Julia and Caleb taught about keeping the Sabbath Day holy, and Michael and I taught about the story of Adam and Eve, in response to a previous question from Julia about why God gave contradictory commandments in the Garden of Eden.

We then spent most of the day in the condo swimming pool. It was nice to not feel the self-imposed pressure that we needed to take advantage of the beach. We knew we'd visit the beach again, so since everyone wanted to be at the pool, that's what we did.

We met a nice lady in the pool that we talked to for quite a while. She commented that she used to work at a beer brewery, and I told her I had never tasted beer. After she got over her amazement and shock, she asked a lot of questions about Mormons and their beliefs. She was fairly anti-established religion, and anti-missionaries-bothering-people by going door to door, but she had a lot of questions, was very respectful and at least learned that we no longer practice polygamy. Julia commented afterwards how interesting it was to talk to someone with such a different perspective than so many of the people we interacted with in Utah.

The next day was incredible. We did a snorkeling tour with Bocas Water Sports. For $20 a person, we spent the whole day boating around to various locations. We were joined by our tour guide and a couple--the woman from Argentina and the man from Quebec.

First we went to Dolphin Bay, a warm still-water bay where dolphins often come with their babies. It's surrounded by mangroves and is not a good snorkeling spot because of the many jellyfish, but we were able to see quite a few dolphins in the water.

The next spot was Crawl Cayu, a definite highlight. It was a relatively shallow spot for snorkeling, and we were able to hop out of the boat and snorkel around for an hour or so. We saw all different colors and shapes of coral. We saw sea urchins, sponges, anemones, and all kinds, colors, and sizes of tropical fish. It was like watching an underwater nature show. Caleb said he couldn't think of a word to describe how awesome it was.

The only downside was that Jonah couldn't be persuaded to get in. He had fins and snorkel gear, but he had cut his foot the day before, and was concerned about his band-aid coming off in the water. Granted, he also had a cold and wasn't feeling real well, so things were a bigger deal than they would have otherwise been. But the tour guide kindly kept him entertained on the boat looking at pictures of fish.

We then stopped at this postcard-worthy location for lunch. We only ordered rice and salad to go along with our granola bars, Pringles, and bananas--it was a little pricey. But we did enjoy the beautiful surroundings. It was like having a restaurant on top of a tropical fish tank.

After lunch, we went to a private beach called Red Frog Beach. On the way there, we saw some sloths in the nearby trees slowly scratching themselves.

As we pulled up to the dock, we could see many translucent jellyfish just below the surface. We also saw a caiman peeking his eyes out of the swampy water on the pathway to the beach. The waves at the beach were a little bigger than what we were comfortable with, but the kids did have fun playing in shallower end and then in the sand. Except for Jonah, that is, who by this time was at his breaking point.

 

Our last stop was Hospital Point, another snorkeling spot. It wasn't as impressive as the first spot, but it did give Jonah a chance to nap in the boat while we got in some more exploring.

All in all, it was a very memorable trip. On our way home, we stopped briefly at a cocoa farm to taste cocoa beans, got a tasty Costa Rican lunch, got stuck in an hour-long traffic jam due to an accident, went through the mountain pass in foggy darkness, had milkshakes from Pops for dinner, and arrived safely home. Jonah summed up his experience by saying that his favorite part was buying his new Spiderman toothbrush. I remember when Caleb, at about the same age, had said that his favorite part of California Sea World was the chicken nuggets. These kids crack me up :).

Jonah standing by a cocoa tree