Thursday, December 25, 2008

Surfin´

Alyece Says:

Back in Panama City, Erin and I thought it was time for a little more excitement and experience beyond the hostel world. So we tried our hand at Couch Surfing! For those of you who are unfamiliar with couchsurfing.com, it´s a website service where people anywhere in the world offer other travelers places to stay in their homes/apartments for no charge. Erin and I applied to a few people with available ¨couch space¨ in Panama City who seemed legitimate from the testimonies of their past guests who can vouch for their good character, or non-creepiness. A friendly young Panamanian dude named Adrian offered to put Erin and I up for a few nights in his family home, which was in a nice neighbourhood just outside the city. His parents were on a holiday so we were bunking with him and his grandma. We were really lucky because Adrian, who is an engineering student on his break from school, was extremely hospitable and went out of his way to make sure we got the most out of our stay with him. He kept us fed, took us sight-seeing, helped us with our Spanish, and even gave us Meringue dance lessons in his living room... (Adrian attempting to teach me how to spin)
(Fez playing us his own Spanish songs)

Adrian took us to Casco Viajo, the older colonial part of the city, where there were some beautifully restored buildings and some ruins left as they were. (These adorable little girls walked right up to us to pose for the camera) (and what historic part of town is complete without the Red Bull tent and patio set?)
(how romantic...just appreciating the downtown skyscrapers of Panama City, aka ¨Mini Miami¨)

(They´re actually playing Christmas Carols)(Snuck a photo of a Kuna woman making jewelry under a table in the city)
Next, Fez and Adrian took us out to the Panama Canal at Miraflores Locks. Erin and I were pretty pumped because we arrived at the perfect time of day; there were lots of boats passing through the canal.

It was a little unsettling when one boat came through carrying highly dangerous, explosive materials and we were continuously warned over the loud speakers ¨no open flames¨ as the firetrucks waited below as it passed.

Because it´s both of our first Christmas away from our families, this holiday season Erin and I have been trying to pretend for the most part that it´s not actually happening... Which is relatively easy when you seem to be wearing your bathing suit more than any other article of clothing. It definitely doesn´t FEEL like December in sweltering Panama City, besides the array of Christmas lights and deco´s around town. In keeping with our ¨non-holiday¨ philosophy, after we made dinner for the boys, we went to see ¨Four Christmas´s¨ at the local movie theater... which didn´t help... We spent the rest of the evening having some chips, salsa, and drinks on Adrian´s front porch. (Erin´s color...similar to that of Fez, the Latinos)
Erin and I definitely had a wicked couch-surfing experience. We were lucky to be able to actually stay with local Panamanian people, to learn more about their customs and culture here, and to experience the city with people who KNOW the city. And we also recommend Adrian to anyone looking for a great place to ¨surf¨ while in Panama City ;) He actually invited us to spend Christmas with his family, but we didn´t want to impose so we went back to Tony´s hostel in the city, which is a really nice hostel with AC, comfortable beds, big kitchen, hot water, and free Internet, so it´s not so bad :)

We wanted to stay busy on Christmas Eve Day so Erin and I decided to go shopping for New Years dresses. (We´ll be spending New Years in Rio and apparently we´ll stick out like sore thumbs if we aren´t wearing all white). So we chicken bussed it to the biggest, busiest monster-of-a-mall in Panama City... on Christmas Eve Day... smart move, right? The mall was something other than ¨tranquilo.¨ We did find our dresses, but in some stores they wouldn´t let you take white clothing in the change rooms because it´s easy to get dirty... so there I am out in the aisle of a swarming department store on Christmas Eve rush day stripping off my clothes... and my dignity.

Mistake #2... As if we hadn´t learned our lesson, Erin and I walked into the big super
market to pick up some food to make dinner... on Christmas Eve Day.... We lasted 30 seconds in the store.

Back at the hostel, we shared some drinks with Tony, and also served up drinks to the front-desk staff... until the manager showed up.


I whipped up an exquisite Christmas Eve dinner for us: vegetable soup fresh out of the package.

Our Canadian buddies, Gates and Ben, who we had already said goodbye to and parted ways with several days earlier, both postponed leaving the city and decided to spend a few more days playing with Team Canada. They joined us for drinks at our hostel and the five of us did what anyone would do on Christmas Eve... went downtown to the bar-scene. There is a popular street for nightlife in Panama City called ¨Calle Uruguay¨ where all the good pubs and clubs are located. However, for some reason, most of the bars were entirely empty... Some of the bars had cover charges from between $10-$30 so we looked for one that was free to get into. We spent our night in this one pub playing pool.(¨She looked SO Bad with Make Up!!¨)


(no bar is complete on Christmas Eve without a drunk Santa)

Erin and I caught a cab home at 3am.. which turned the 5 minute drive back to our hostal into a half-hour excursion across the city. Our driver drove us to the entirely wrong side of town, but we were both falling asleep in the back seat so we didn´t notice until he pulled up in front of this fancy hotel on the waterfront. We woke up and politely asked him to turn around :)

On Christmas Day, or for us, non-Christmas Day, Erin and I enjoyed a breakfast together and called our families. We hit up the 24 hour super market for some food and spent the rest of the afternoon preparing a big dinner. Gates and Ben switched hostals to join us. With limited kitchen resources, Erin and I made a massive dinner of vegetables, chicken, and yes, laugh all you want, rice and beans. We even made turtle brownies for desert, which we baked in a soup pot. The four of us had a really lovely dinner together and we were all thankful to be spending Christmas with such good company. (Team Canada sharing the holiday love) (Working away at the stove) (Domestic Ben cooking the chicken to perfection) (In the Christmas spirit one dude shared his Cuban Cigar with us)

After stuffing our bellies and feeding the staff at the hostal, we still had leftovers... which we´re having tonight for dinner :) We spent the rest of our evening playing drinking games together - one last round of King´s Cup ¨Team Canada¨ style. The game got pretty intense with all of the crazy rules and actually required a much too high level of mental alertness and focus for a drinking game.
(Poor Ben got picked on, one of the rules was that any time anyone in the game had to take a drink, Ben had to drink as well. And every time he drank, he had to remove the little man from his glass, make an animal noise, and then stand up and give a toast and speech to the table... His speeches were actually very heartwarming... well, at least while he was still able to formulate sentences)

All in all, we had a wonderful non-holiday complete with good food and good friends - a solid way to end the amazing Central America chapter of our trip. Tomorrow we are on our way to Brazil to conquer South America... and we´re very excited!

We´ll write again soon on the other side of the equator ;)