We thought we´d lose weight coming to Panama, seeing as we were set to spend almost an entire week hacking our way through virgin triple-canopy jungle. But there´s a little shop in every mall in Panama City that has thwarted our plans to trim our waistlines.
Gelarti, an ice cream shop found in the Albrook Mall, the Multicentro and the Amador Causeway offers an array of tantalizing treats that varies with each location. On one of our many shopping trips, Chuck introduced us to the crepe wrapped quesadilla style, filled with nutella and fruit and topped with a heaping scoop of ice cream and chocolate syrup. It´s enough to feed two people, definitely worth the $3 price tag and the increase in cholesterol.
We indoctrinated Kevin the first night he came into the country, and he´s been hooked ever since. But even more than the crepe, he loves their mochaccinos. Every time we´ve stopped at the mall, some unexplanable gravitational force has pulled us there. So, even though we suffered on the island, don´t expect us to return to the U.S. looking all emaciated and weak. With all the sweets we consumed, we´ll be lucky if we haven´t gained weight!
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Friday, March 17, 2006
We´re a go
Monday, March 13
We had some housekeeping issues to take care of Monday morning before we could leave for Coiba. For one, we still hadn´t found our guide, Mali Mali. Chuck had called all his contacts, and we got a hint that if we went by Panama´s environmental authority office, we´d find someone with Mali´s cell phone number.
After a scavenger hunt of phone calls, we finally got ahold of him. He said that he´d been waiting for our call for the entire weekend, but since he hadn´t heard anything, he had taken other work. Without Mali, who works for the ANAM station at Coiba National Park, we knew we´d have to go through the Panamanian bureaucracy to get a permit to be on the island. So we headed to the ANAM office. Chuck used his social skills to pull some strings, and we soon had paperwork verifying the authenticity of our expedition.
So we headed off in our Toyota rental car to Santa Catalina, a surfers´ haven in the southwest coast of the Panama isthmus. Until sometime last year, you needed a 4-wheel-drive vehicle just to pass the road down to the small fishing village. The road has since been paved, and the village has burgeoned into a small town where you can do some great scuba diving, catch some good waves, and more importantly, launch an expedition to Isla Coiba.
On the way down, Chuck played "miss the pothole" and the rest of us soaked up the great scenery. Brahma bulls littered the pastures on either side of the road. The countryside boasted rolling hills clothed in vibrant shades of green. The drive down there is no Sunday cruise, but the going gets easier when you hit the newly paved segment leading into Santa Catalina.
Our first order of business in SC was to find our boat captain, a guy named Casey whom Chuck had met on his last trip to Panama. Casey was expecting to take us to Coiba today, but our permitting problems had pushed our expedition back a day. We hoped he´d still be able to lead us out to Coiba Tuesday.
Chuck strolled up to Casey´s house, a 2-minute walk from Scuba Coiba. Casey´s wife told us that he had found other work because we had been late. Sound familiar?
So we got to work finding another boat captain. It´s interesting to see how God worked this out. Chuck had been in Santa Catalina a week or two ago shooting a story about a internationally known Panamanian body surfer who got saved in SC and is now a strong believer. While shooting the story, Chuck met a young guy called Chambon, a friend of the body surfer and also a brother in the faith. Chuck found Chambon, who hooked us up with a guy named Rolo, an entrepreneur in the area who owns some popular cabanas and a boat. After a lot of explaining and planning, Rolo agreed to be our captain, and we were set to leave in the morning.
For our last meal we went Bianca´s, one of the two nice restaurants in Santa Catalina. With outdoor dining complete with reggae background music, hammocks, and great lighting, the place has a great ambiance and some pretty good food. I´m of the breed that believes you should experience another country if you´ve spent your money to go there, so we tried the octopus ceviche as an appetizer. Chuck enjoyed it, but if your taste buds are American, I´d say try it at your own risk.
While waiting for our food, we plotted our course across the island. The conversation was dripping with bravado. We talked about sleeping under the jungle canopy while programming our GPSs and looking at the topographical map Chuck had gotten for us.
After our meal, we checked in at the Oasis (better link to come later), a quaint hostel situated directly on the beach. The rooms were small and far from luxurious, but the view was amazing. We had spent too many nights in the city. Out here, every star twinkles, and they look so close that I could blow them out like a candle. After packing my gear for the expedition, I sat in a lawn chair on the beach and read my Bible under the light of the full moon. Every so often, thunder swept up over the deep, roaring like a jet engine taking off.
All this blessing, I thought, and this isn´t even what we came for. We´d jumped through a lot of hoops, and the mission was finally a go. It´s great to serve a God who knows our needs before we ask.
We had some housekeeping issues to take care of Monday morning before we could leave for Coiba. For one, we still hadn´t found our guide, Mali Mali. Chuck had called all his contacts, and we got a hint that if we went by Panama´s environmental authority office, we´d find someone with Mali´s cell phone number.
After a scavenger hunt of phone calls, we finally got ahold of him. He said that he´d been waiting for our call for the entire weekend, but since he hadn´t heard anything, he had taken other work. Without Mali, who works for the ANAM station at Coiba National Park, we knew we´d have to go through the Panamanian bureaucracy to get a permit to be on the island. So we headed to the ANAM office. Chuck used his social skills to pull some strings, and we soon had paperwork verifying the authenticity of our expedition.
So we headed off in our Toyota rental car to Santa Catalina, a surfers´ haven in the southwest coast of the Panama isthmus. Until sometime last year, you needed a 4-wheel-drive vehicle just to pass the road down to the small fishing village. The road has since been paved, and the village has burgeoned into a small town where you can do some great scuba diving, catch some good waves, and more importantly, launch an expedition to Isla Coiba.
On the way down, Chuck played "miss the pothole" and the rest of us soaked up the great scenery. Brahma bulls littered the pastures on either side of the road. The countryside boasted rolling hills clothed in vibrant shades of green. The drive down there is no Sunday cruise, but the going gets easier when you hit the newly paved segment leading into Santa Catalina.
Our first order of business in SC was to find our boat captain, a guy named Casey whom Chuck had met on his last trip to Panama. Casey was expecting to take us to Coiba today, but our permitting problems had pushed our expedition back a day. We hoped he´d still be able to lead us out to Coiba Tuesday.
Chuck strolled up to Casey´s house, a 2-minute walk from Scuba Coiba. Casey´s wife told us that he had found other work because we had been late. Sound familiar?
So we got to work finding another boat captain. It´s interesting to see how God worked this out. Chuck had been in Santa Catalina a week or two ago shooting a story about a internationally known Panamanian body surfer who got saved in SC and is now a strong believer. While shooting the story, Chuck met a young guy called Chambon, a friend of the body surfer and also a brother in the faith. Chuck found Chambon, who hooked us up with a guy named Rolo, an entrepreneur in the area who owns some popular cabanas and a boat. After a lot of explaining and planning, Rolo agreed to be our captain, and we were set to leave in the morning.
For our last meal we went Bianca´s, one of the two nice restaurants in Santa Catalina. With outdoor dining complete with reggae background music, hammocks, and great lighting, the place has a great ambiance and some pretty good food. I´m of the breed that believes you should experience another country if you´ve spent your money to go there, so we tried the octopus ceviche as an appetizer. Chuck enjoyed it, but if your taste buds are American, I´d say try it at your own risk.
While waiting for our food, we plotted our course across the island. The conversation was dripping with bravado. We talked about sleeping under the jungle canopy while programming our GPSs and looking at the topographical map Chuck had gotten for us.
After our meal, we checked in at the Oasis (better link to come later), a quaint hostel situated directly on the beach. The rooms were small and far from luxurious, but the view was amazing. We had spent too many nights in the city. Out here, every star twinkles, and they look so close that I could blow them out like a candle. After packing my gear for the expedition, I sat in a lawn chair on the beach and read my Bible under the light of the full moon. Every so often, thunder swept up over the deep, roaring like a jet engine taking off.
All this blessing, I thought, and this isn´t even what we came for. We´d jumped through a lot of hoops, and the mission was finally a go. It´s great to serve a God who knows our needs before we ask.
Thursday, March 16, 2006
China 2006 Trip Narrative
So, I've finally done it. It has taken me nearly two years, but I've finally compiled all my China 2006 blog posts into a chronological compendium of travel goodness. If you were on the trip or are just interested in missions in China, please take a gander. The dates denote what day the post was written, not the actual timing of the event. The trip was a month-long excursion across four provinces and countless cities and towns. There's tons of stuff I didn't even write about. To view the previous year's trip, go to China 2005 trip narrative. 8/18/06 - Enter the Forbidden City
8/20/06 - Heavenly Peace (Tiananmen Square)
8/22/06 - The Chairman's Image
8/22/06 - Mai Dang Lao
8/30/06 - The Temple of Heaven
8/30/06 -The Great (Long) Wall of China
9/4/06 - The Other Side of the Wall
9/6/06 - Beijing's Summer Palace
9/6/06 - Beijing Duck
9/6/06 - Bumpass, Virginia
9/6/06 - The Return
9/7/06 - Chinese Breakfast
9/21/06 - Platforms
9/21/06 - From the Ground Up
9/26/06 - The Office
9/26/06 - The School
10/10/06 - Evaluations
10/12/06 - Devotions-1
10/12/06 - Meals-1
10/17/06 - First Day of Camp
10/25/06 - Music Class
10/26/06 - Meals 2-Dico's
10/26/06 - A Ray of Light
10/29/06 - Web Developments
10/29/06 - A Good Day
11/13/06 - Hurdles
11/13/06 - Peacock Lake Park
11/14/06 - Recreation
11/20/06 - Rain for us, Rainforest
11/21/06 - Meals 3-Burma
11/21/06 - Rooftop View
11/26/06 - China Travel Articles
11/26/06 - Double-take
11/26/06 - A Gentile Sabbath?
11/26/06 - Leisurely Labor: A Sabbath Rest in China
12/2/06 - Holy Days
12/20/06 - Party Time
12/22/06 - A Change in Climate
Monday, March 13, 2006
Driving with the Devils on Sunday
This morning, we had a devotional time during which we read some Psalms, sang some songs, and prayed for God to show himself powerful by helping us find our guide, the elusive Mali Mali. I find myself in a new country, but God´s teaching me the same old lessons about dependence and desperation that he taught me in China. Without Mali, this trip can´t take place, and without faith, we can do nothing but worry. As I said before, I´m glad that we serve a Sovereign God.
Today we checked into the Hotel Europa, or "Euro Hotel," as it says on the sign. Sadly, our free stay at the Country Inn and Suites has come to a close, and we´ve moved into a noisy streetside room with four twin beds and a barely functional air conditioning unit. But the internet is pumpin´good, and this should be our last night in the city (fingers crossed).
After settling in, we went and bought more groceries for the trip. We´ll definitely be the most nourished adventurers ever to come through Coiba. We have enough food to feed all of Central America!
Other than riding "diablos rojos" (red devils) for the first time today, nothing extremely exciting happened. Like every other day, Chuck pulled off some crazy driving maneuvers and we rode through dangerous neighborhoods for no apparent reason. Living here for a few days, "danger" and "risk" have become relative terms.
But there is no ambiguity in the word "dormir." I mean...sleep. Darn Spanish. I need some rest. I hope to post again before we leave for Santa Catalina. But if not, I´ll have a lot to blab about if and when I return from the Coiba.
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