Basking on Beautiful Beaches in Bocas del Toro, Panama

I think I’ve found my new favorite vacation place. Spending the weekend on a beautiful island in the Caribbean off the coast of Panama was the best way to refresh myself for the last few months of the school year. Leslie and I decided to call it our happy place and to think of it every time we are stressed at school or missing our families. Anyway, I’m going to tell you about this trip because I highly recommend it if you want a beautiful, warm, fairly cheap vacation place, but I need to start at the beginning.

Busses: The distance from my house to Bocas del Toro really isn’t that much, but the roadways here are not as direct as in the states and taking busses always takes longer. We left our house around 12:30 in the afternoon on Friday to get to the Caribbean bus station in San Jose. It takes one bus and one taxi to get to the station. When we got to the booth to buy our tickets we were told that the 2:00 bus was sold out and we’d have to wait until the 4:00 one. Nothin like sitting in a bus station for a few hours. The bus trip was pretty long but painless. I spent the first few hours having a great conversation with my friend Jessie who was came with us. The bus made a few stops but we weren’t going to get off until the last stop. We rolled into a little border town called Sixoula around 10:30. By the time we got there we were the only ones left on the bus which in itself is a little disconcerting, but we hopped of the bus in the rain hoping to find a place to stay. It turns out that Sixoula is little more than a bus stop. It had a few bars, one restaurant, and one “hotel” that was hidden down a dark alley. The place was sketchy but we didn’t have much of a choice so we paid for two rooms which were just a few feet bigger than the creaky double beds in them. The bathroom was down the hall and around the corner and I counted 6 lizards on the way to brush my teeth. I also woke up during the night several times to the sound of something running across the roof. I hope it was only a lizard and not a rat or something else. Even with the company we all got some sleep and were grateful to wake up to sunshine. (which we hadn’t seen in over a week) We packed up our stuff and walked through “down town” towards the border.

Border Crossing: This post would not be complete without explaining the experience of crossing the Costa Rica-Panama border. If the experience of spending the night in Sixoula wasn’t sketchy enough we proceeded through town to the border which you cross by walking across an old train trestle with boards missing all over the place. One the Costa Rican side there was a little building where you got your exit stamp and filled out a form for why you were leaving the country. Pretty normal, but I was disturbed to see a woman who obviously hadn’t showered or changed her clothes for days standing off to the side rambling in Spanish. I didn’t catch all of what she said because most of it didn’t make sense, but I did here her say that she was being kept there because she didn’t have her documents. Then I realized she was handcuffed to the fence. Someone else in line with us asked her if they had given her any food and she said yes, but that’s about all we could do for her. Hopefully she got everything straightened out ok. Thankfully she wasn’t there 2 days later when we came back across the border.

Bike Rides: We were so grateful to finally make it to our hostel and we were so excited that it was so much nicer than the one in Sixoula. Our hostel was literally right on the water but didn’t really have a beach at all, however it had a large dock with hammocks, a bar/restaurant, and lots of tables and chairs. It was by far my favorite hostel I’ve stayed in. It was a great place to chill and enjoy the beautiful view and it even had live music one of the nights we were there (music got louder and more pitchy as the band consumed more alcohol) :) After checking into our hostel that first day and taking a little power nap we walked through town to find a place to rent bikes so we could ride over to the other side of the island where there are really nice beaches. Bocas is a pretty popular place so it took us 3 or 4 tries before we found a place that had bikes for the 4 of us. We were told that the bike ride to the nicest beach took about 1 ½ hours and since we had to be back by 6 to return the bikes we took off at a pretty good pace. The scenery was beautiful and the temperature was perfect. There is a beautiful little road that winds all the way around the island right along the beach. After the first 15 minutes of riding the road turned into dirt/sand/gravel which made riding a little bit harder but thankfully it wasn’t too muddy. We stopped at a few cute little beaches but found one farther down that was gorgeous and empty. We parked our bikes and dove into the water so excited to be at the beach at last!

Beaches: You know in all those sappy romance movies where in the last scene the guy and the girl making out on this romantic tropical beach? Well, that’s what these beaches looked like. Gentle waves. Clear bluish green water. Tropical fish. Palm trees. Clean sand. Coral. Beautiful shells. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.

Buceando (snorkeling): I had never been snorkeling before and was kind of hesitant to pay $30 for the tour that we heard about but when everyone else decided to go I decided to suck it up and pay for what I hoped would be a cool experience. That was a great choice. Snorkeling with these guys was awesome! The couple that took us was a woman from Cuba and a man from Spain that had moved down to Bocas to start their diving business. They had invented a plastic shield type thing to use to snorkel behind a boat. These shield things were attached to the back of the boat and had handles to hold onto with. So we didn’t have to swim. The coolest thing was that we could use the shield things to steer where we were going and it was almost like scuba diving because we could dive under the water just by tilting the shield down and when we ran out of breath all we had to do was tilt it back up and we’d be at the service in a couple of seconds. Such a cool way to snorkel! We were able to see lots of different types of fish, coral, and even a big mantaraya (a stingray).

After doing the tour behind the boat we all boated out to a beautiful little island that had tons of different types of birds on it. Our tour guide said, “ok, you can all hop out and swim,” so we jumped into the water and snorkeled around the island seeing more fish and watching the pelicans dive down from the palm trees into the water. We continued on from there to a different beach called Playa de las Estrellas (Star Beach) because it was known for having tons of star fish. We ended up only seeing one, but then we got to try out the tube device they had. Compared to all the tube rides I’ve done at Hood Canal this one was pretty lame, but I was just excited about the idea of tubing in the Caribbean ocean in Panama. :) It would have been awesome to be able to ski there, but it is almost unheard of down here. But all day as we were boating around I was just longing to ski because the water was so warm and so flat it would have been perfect!

All in all it was an amazing trip that I am so glad I took. Crazy new experiences and beautiful country. It was kind of tough to come back to work the next day especially because we are in the worst part of rainy season and it rained night and day for 13 days. (the longest it’s rained here in over 40 years) It made me have more sympathy for Noah because even the sound of the rain was starting to sound super annoying to me. Thankfully the last few days have been better and we are even seeing the sun a little bit. I can’t believe that we have less than 5 weeks left in the school year! And, my family’s going to be here in 45 days!

Heart to Heart

So there have been a couple things on my mind over the last few weeks that I feel like I need to share with you so you can have a real understanding of what my life has been like here not just the adventures I have had and the trips I have taken, but the day to day stuff.

1. Although there have been many great days of teaching where I feel affirmed in my choice to be a teacher there have also been many days where I’ve come home and cried because I feel incapable of doing this job well. I know that I am incapable of doing any of this without God, but I often choose to wallow in self pity rather than ask God for guidance and support. This job is harder than anything I’ve ever done and I often feel like I am not meeting the school’s expectations or the expectations of the parents. The language barrier sometimes seems so big that I feel like I cannot communicate anything to them without using Spanish which leads me to number two.

2. I think God is using the language barrier to humble me. While I know I am improving in my Spanish I feel like I’m making such slow progress that sometimes I don’t even want to try anymore. Mostly everyone is very nice and patient with me when I’m speaking Spanish and occasionally people compliment me on how my Spanish is improving. I am getting more comfortable talking with the other teachers and staff here which has been a really good thing because I have gotten to know several of them more during the last few weeks. However, because many people here speak English, if they here you struggling with Spanish they will switch to English to try and help you out. This is nice for convenience sake, but I can’t help feeling frustrated when I’m searching for a word in Spanish and they “give up” trying to understand me and switch to English. I know that this will change as I practice more and get better but I feel like I should have made it farther by now now that I’ve been here about 3 months.

3. The decision about next year has been weighing heavily on my mind the last few weeks because I need to make a decision within the next 2 or 3 weeks. As some of you know already I am strongly considering committing to another 5-6 months of teaching here. I didn’t know the option of teaching only half the year was a possibility until Leslie and I talked about it one day then talked to our bosses about it also. As much as they’d like us to stay for an entire year, they know it will be hard to find replacements for us and would rather have us stay for 5 months during which they could be looking for replacements for us. I was really wrestling with this decision about a month ago and felt like God wasn’t giving me clear direction because I was leaning toward one option one day and the other the next day, but since thinking about staying another 5 months I’ve been very much at peace about it. Nothing is settled by any means, but I feel confident that the decision is in God’s hands (and the hands of the school directors) and that if God wants me to stay he will show me that through what the directors decide.

4. I have also been struggling a little bit with ungratefulness lately. I think that part of the problem is when I’m feeling homesick I think about the things in the states that I don’t have here. Also, there are so many fun things to do here but many of them are very expensive. I’ve gotten to do a lot of cool things since getting here, but there are so many other things I wish I had time and money to do. The other day while Leslie and I were sitting waiting for a bus we were talking about or housing possibilities for next year and trying to figure out if we could afford to move to an apartment or house off the school campus. When we broke it down we realized that we make less than $5 an hour when we’re at school. That doesn’t include the 2-5 hours we spend working on grading and lesson planning ever evening or the work we do on the weekends. Although that’s a little depressing when I think about trying to save up money for airline tickets or weekend trips to the beach I have everything I need here and I need to remember that I’m here for the experience and to make a difference in kids’ lives not to make a fortune.

5. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know some of the teachers better in the last few weeks. They are starting to be more comfortable with me and joke around with me. Spending a whole day with them this week on our staff trip to the beach helped a lot. Hanging out at a nice resort in Puntarenas was completely different from being around each other at school. I loved seeing all of my coworkers in a more casual environment. I’m hoping that as this year ends and as next year begins I will be able to get to know them even more and that I will feel more a part of the school staff.

So that’s what’s been on my mind the last few weeks. Basically I want you to get a feel for the ups and downs that are a part of my life here. God’s been teaching me a lot through these ups and downs and I’m working on being grateful during the downs as well as the ups. :) Thanks for all your prayers!

Another one to add to the list

Well, I don’t think I should have said what I said about Friday because on Friday afternoon I had my first near death experience. The school day actually went pretty well and directly after school I decided to head to the grocery store so I hopped on the bike that Leslie and I share and took off for the store. A little ways down the road I realized I forgot a helmet which in the states wouldn’t be a big deal but with the traffic and crazy drivers here it makes me nervous to be without it. However I decided just to keep going, but when I got about half way to the grocery store the whole pedal on the left side fell off and my foot slipped off and hit the front tire causing me to crash in the middle of the road. Gracias a Dios there were no cars right behind me and I was able to grab the bike and the pedal and get to the side of the road in time. An old man walking by stopped to make sure I was ok then he proceeded to walk with me towards the center of town. We talked for a while and he asked me if I had learned how to ride a bike in the states and I proceeded to tell him that I learned when I was very little but the bikes I rode in the states didn’t break when I rode them. He was nice, but a little strange and when we parted ways he gave me his phone number and tried to interest me in renting an apartment from him. Oh the interesting people you meet in down town Belén. So, I walked my bike to the store, got my groceries, and managed to coast most of the way back to my house where I cleaned up my scrapes. Besides a few scrapes on my arm and some nice bruises on my chin and on my legs it was mostly my pride that was damaged, but I am very glad that God protected me from crazy Costa Rican drivers.