Some of Dan's photos from our Ecuador/Panama trip

Round 1: German Shepard v. Crab

Dan is feeling better :) We spent the last 4 days in Bocas del Torro, which is a cluster of islands on the Carribean side of Panama. I really like this town. We stayed at a great little place called Cocomo on the Sea and they had kayaks for us to use whenever we wanted. One day we kayaked around the island and out to "the pointe" where Dan had fun in the huge waves. One day we ventured to a beach called Starfish Beach. We had to take a taxi to a certain part of the island and walk through some jungle and mangrove areas to the beach. There were many huge starfish! It was pretty cool.

There were some really good restaurants in Bocas. Our favorite is called Buena Vista. They have the yummiest vanilla icecream drink and taco dip. On our way to dinner one night we saw a German Shepard in the middle of the road that was messing with something on the ground. We got closer and realized that it was a big crab. The dog didn´t seem to know what to do and kept barking at it and the crab was swinging it´s claws! I was shooing the dog away and eventually it left the crab alone. The crab actually put up a pretty good fight!

On Monday we went on a snorkeling trip to Dolphin Bay, Coral Caye, Red Frog Beach, and Hospital Pointe. We got to see wild Dolphin´s jumping around and little red frogs that exist only on that particular island. Young local boys catch the frogs and keep them to show to tourists...I didn´t like that part. I set off in the jungle to find one myself, but I didn´t have any luck. I hope that there are tons of them still free in the wild and that they have good hiding places. The visibility during snorkeling wasn´t the best because of all of the recent rain (damn rain!), but we still got to see some good stuff.

We are back in Panama City and we head home tomorrow. I´d love to see more of the country, but it will be nice to get home after being gone for a month!

Thanks again for all of your notes :)

Peace,
Nikki & Dan

Feeling like Tarzan & Jane...

Apparently, in Ecuador, booking a plane ticket and paying in advance doesn´t mean you will get on the flight. We were at the airport 1 hour and 45 minutes in advance and while in line at least 20 of us were told that our flight to Panama was full. We were like, "are you kidding me"?? We had a hard time grasping this concept. They eventually put us up at the Hilton in Quito for the night and gave Dan and I each $500 vouchers for the airline. It´s a Colombian airline, but we found out they fly to Aruba and Mexico, so we might actually be able to use them! If not, at least we got to stay in a super nice hotel for free and got 3 free meals there. It was funny because we ate at 6pm, 10:30pm, and 3:45am in order to get all of our free meals. Not to mention, we sat in first class and were greeted with Mimosa´s.

We got to Panama City the following day and went to see the Panama Canal. We were at the Miraflora Locks. There was an enormous container ship passing through and the cost was over $200,000. The average ship pays $35,000. I guess it´s a lot cheaper than going all the way around South America.

The next day we went to a city called El Valle, which is about 2 hours outside of Panama City, to go ziplining. At the site is also another gorgeous waterfall, which we hiked down to, and a mountain fed spring for swimming, which we swam in. We were so happy to go swimming! After that we did the ziplining and it was very fun to fly through the jungle.

I had been reading about the San Blas Islands and we were hoping to visit them for a few days. Making reservations to go there is not easy, especially if you don´t speak spanish. I was told to wait to book a place until we got to PC. When we were able to get info from local travel centers, the prices were outrageous. We ended up talking to a guy who worked at the hotel we stayed at and he said he could book a trip to the islands for us, only we would be staying with a Kuna Indian family. The Kuna Indians are an indigenous tribe with their own laws, religion, language, etc. They own the San Blas Islands, which consist of almost 400 islands, mostly unihabited. Up until 10 years ago they were still using coconuts for currency! Most of the women dress in traditional Kuna outfits with their wrists and calves decorated in beads. They also have gold rings through their noses. The women sew something called Molas and are very proud of them.

We were told by guides and travel agents that the only way to get to San Blas from PC is to fly, but through our arrangements we were going to be driving through the jungle in a Land Cruiser. We were definitely in the jungle and it was quite an adventure! It took about 4 hours. At one point we came to a river at least 100 feet wide and as deep as the windows on the Landcruiser. Dan and I looked at each other like, yeah, right. Then, we headed right into it and made it to the other side pretty easily. Our driver entered the river by going with the current and then made a sharp turn to get us across. I was impressed. Next, we were picked up by a motorized hand dug-out canoe and taken to the island where we would be staying.

The island where we stayed is part of the Carti cluster. It is the size of a football field. There is no electricity or running water on the island. There is one light that is solar powered. We had our own little hut with a sand floor, a small bed, a hammock, and, let me think, uh, that´s about it. The bathroom was at the edge of the island. We had to walk across rickety, uneven boards to get to the "toilet" which was a make-shift wooden seat that had a hole going into the water. (I seem to have this theme going with using large bodies of water for bathroom duties when I travel to third world places.)

It was a pretty crazy experience to stay with an indigenous tribe! They cooked us 3 meals a day. The first dinner they served us was some type of mystery meat. We didn´t want to offend them, so Dan and I were conjuring up a plan to put the meat in a hand wipe and throw the meat in the ocean. We were saved just in time when Aaron (our Kuna tour guide) came over and asked me if we were vegetarians. The next night we got king crab and fish. They cooked the fish whole...head, eyes, everything, and put it on a plate. It was a good thing we brought Ritz crackers and Fruit Loops with us. Although, like Dan said, the food they eat must be okay because there is a woman who is 104 years old living on the island.

That first day we were taken by boat to a small island and left there all alone. What a great feeling to be on your own private island! It was sunny and we snorkeled and relaxed. The only thing we had to worry about were falling coconuts (150 people were killed last year from getting hit on the head). That night we played travel Scrabble (thanks, Terri) under the solar light and it was a hit with some of the Kunas, especially the kids. The kids would pick my letters from the bag for me and then read my letters out loud so that Dan could hear. It was pretty funny.

The following day Aaron took us to Needle Island and it was the most picture perfect island. Again, we had it to ourselves, except for 3 kunas minding their own business on the other side. We got a chance to snorkle again, but shortly after that a huge storm hit. We had a big hut to hang out in for shelter. It´s amazing that absolutely no wind gets through the spaces in between the bamboo. Even in the hut we slept in, no wind got through. (We plotted to cut a window in one of the walls of our hut because it got so hot at night, but we decided that might be disrespectful.) Anyway, we were entertained by a guy paddling in a canoe and he was making absolutely no progress. He could have easily let the current pull him over to the island we were on, but for some reason he kept on trying to go somewhere.

That night 2 more tourist arrived, Anna and George. They are from Spain and only speak a little English, but we had a good time with them playing Pass the Pigs. We were sitting at the table playing and all of a sudden one of the Kuna women put a rabbit in the middle of the table dressed in pink satin! (see photos) We were laughing so hard. Then, another woman brought over a duck that was all dressed up. Aaron translated that they have a "dressing up the animals" contest. This explains why earlier I saw some women trying to put a dress on a cat.

After watching the stars, we went to sleep. We were leaving the following morning. Dan woke up feeling terrible, but was a trooper during the Landcruiser ride. It was so bumpy for him :( We told them that we had to leave early to get to the airport to catch a plane to Bocas Del Toro, but time doesn´t seem to be of much importance around here. We missed our flight, but it actually was okay since Dan was sick. We were able to change the tickets and we will leave for Bocas tomorrow instead.

I hope you are all happy and enjoying summertime!!

xoxo,
nikki

San Vicente de Paul Orphanage in Quito

Hi guys! We had much better luck leaving Puerto Lopez. We took a bus and then a short flight to a city in Southern Ecuador called Cuenca. We really love this city! It's an old colonial city with beautiful architecture and cobblestone streets with a big river running through it.

Our luck with the weather has been awful! We went to see the remaining Ingapirca structures and it was cold and it drizzled. Actually, we were disappointed with the whole thing all together. The structures weren't anything special to look at. I guess if you are a history buff it would be worth checking out, but it didn't do much for us. As Dan and I have been saying a lot here in Ecuador, maybe it would have been better if the sun was shining. On the bus ride back we were sent on a detour up through the mountains because of another landslide (we found out later it had something to do with a gold mining company messing up the water). Nothing like in Baños, but still a landslide. We had to go around it in the bus. Dan said to me, "There's nothing like driving on an off-road-vehicle trail in a city bus". It was very bouncy and a bus in front of us got stuck. Loads of fun.

We woke up the next day in Cuenca to the sun blazing and we were so glad. We walked around the city and shopped and ate and looked for velcro. Dan needed some for his camera backpack. We had a good laugh at ourselves trying to describe velcro to people. We actually found some! $0.35 a yard...not bad!

There´s definitely no shortage of sweets in Ecuador. Literally every 20 feet is a shop with pastries, ice cream, or cake. Our plan to tone up a little on our active vacation has back-fired. For lunch the other day we had banana splits.

We are back in Quito now and have had 2 more days of sunshine! Dan and I had so much fun picking out things for the kids at the orphanage. Thanks to the staff at Mason and Trombly Schools where I work in Michigan we were able to get so much stuff! The lady at the orphanage said they mostly needed baby hygiene items as well as school supplies. We got tons of baby wash and shampoo, desitin, q-tips, wipes, etc. We also got tons of crayons, pencils, markers, paint sets, glue, alphabet and number puzzles, things for the teacher, etc. We even had enough left over to buy them fun stuff like stickers, girly hair clips, trucks, basketballs, and legos. Things are so much cheaper here! We went to the orphanage with the stuff and they were very happy. One of the nuns took us on a tour of the orphanage while Louis, our driver, translated for us. There are 110 children there ranging from a few days old up to 18 years old. We didn´t stay long because I always hate to intrude or disrupt. It was nap time for the babies so we didn´t go in that area. There was a little boy, also named Louis, who was following us around. What a cutie. He´s 4 years old and he´s developmentally delayed with minimal speach and he´s just a tiny little thing. Both of his parents have Downs Syndrome. I think he´s eventually going to catch up and be just fine, though. I took him around on the tour with us. It was cute, when I told him my name he said, "NeeKee"!

We leave for Panama tomorrow and we are crossing our fingers for good weather.

I hope all is well and thanks again for the comments!!

Peace,
Nikki & Dan

Ridin' 13 deep in the back of a pick-up...

we decided it was time to leave Baños, only there was one problem. Part of the road around the mountain collapsed from all of the rain and there was no transportation in or out of the city. We headed to the bus terminal anyway...hopeful that we were misinformed. Unfortunately, what we were told was true, but at the terminal we met another couple (James from the UK and Chantel from Holland) who were just as unhappy about being stuck in Baños for up to 4 days while they fixed the road. Chantel is fluent in Spanish and she was talking with whomever she could about finding a way out. She had heard that it might be possible for us to get to the damaged part of the road, go around on foot, and then get a ride on the other side. Somehow, she was able to orchestrate all of this for us! Another couple from California and a girl from Colombia were also up for the challenge. The group of us jumped in the back of a pick-up truck with our backpacks in the drizzling rain. A few locals jumped in with us. We road around the mountain for about 20 minutes until we got to the spot. We were laughing and nervous and wet. Keep in mind that we are still in the middle of the steep Andes :) We got to the spot and they weren´t lying about the road actually falling out! Check out the picture that is in this blog somewhere. We were told it could be over a mile walk, but luckily, it was only about 200 yards. I have to say it was a little nerve-racking going across! There was a guy with a huge video camera taping us and we are assuming it was the news. After we walked across we had to figure out how the hell we were going to get to the next town to a bus stop. We found a truck that would take us and we all jumped in...and so did several locals. We counted 10 of us in the back and 3 up front. One guy had only one leg in and one leg was hanging over the outside of the truck. Dan said he swears he will never again laugh when he sees a truck overflowing with Mexicans.

We got to the next town and hopped on a bus. A few bus rides later (on one of the buses we were stopped and the whole bus was searched by police with machine guns) we ended up in a town on the Pacific coast called Puerto Lopez. I can imagine that with the sun shining and a lot more people, this place would be a great spot to stay at for a while. But, it´s overcast and somewhat of a ghost town right now. We are staying at an awesome hostal called Hosteria Mandala. It is by far one of the coolest places I´ve ever stayed at. It´s eco-friendly and all of the furniture is made of some type of beautiful wood. It´s very eclectic with hammocks everywhere and an enormous garden that has paths winding through it to get to the cabins. It´s right on the ocean. We just love it! Today we´ve been lazing around in hammocks and reading.

Last night we met a couple from Canada and hung out and drank local rum. They are eventually going to Panama, as well. It was really great to talk to them and compare stories.

Anyway, I hope you all have sunshine back home. :)

Take Care!

Nikki & Dan