Rollin' on the River

I'm going to start this post off with some news.
1. I am back online, there is once again internet in the house!


2. We have a new student. The first six weeks have past so the first student left and a new one came.


3. My camera is broken, probably irreparably so. Luckily, I was able to get all the pictures off so there will be pictures in this post. I will try to get a new one before the week is up.

So now that there is a new student, we can officially start going on all the excursions that were promised to us in our package. The first one was an excursion to the Chagres River, where we would get to see an indigenous tribe, this time the Emberá tribe.

This trip got off to a rough start. We had to wake up early on a Friday so we could meet the tourist bus at 8 and take off for our destination. I was fine, and got to the school at around 7:30 and waited with Vanessa. But the other student, the one who's been here not the new one, had a birthday that weekend. And when you have a birthday that falls on a weekend you drink the whole time, that's just logic. So he and the new student, who live in the same house, had been drinking way into the early hours of  Friday morning, weren't exactly feeling up for the trip. Vanessa tried to convince them to come out anyway, but the birthday boy protested he was just too hung over.

This is how I remember it.

Then the bus showed up, and it was run by this husband and wife team who spoke pretty good English. Vanessa told the wife that the boys were too sick too come with us. The wife was a friendly, but firm middle aged woman who told us that was unacceptable in both English and Spanish. So she convinced Vanessa to call back and get at least one of them to come, which she did. The woman explained as we went to pick them up that this sort of thing happens all the time, since the trips are always on the weekend and in the morning.

 

You're going to go on this tropical excursion whether you like it or not!

Fortunately, by the time we got there both boys were ready to go though extremely hung over. The drive wasn't too bad. A little bumpy, but not as bad as driving up a mountain. Since I was beginning to see dogs everywhere I knew we were in the country. And so we arrived at the Chagres River.

The woman with us told us many times that the River isn't very deep. This time of year it's about half the size it normally is. Usually it goes up near the trees and unfortunately I couldn't get a picture to convey how big that would be. Still even at half mass the Chagres is impressive and pretty.

There wasn't much waiting around, as soon as we got out of the car it was time to get in the boat. They were these very long wooden boats that have motors but still need a man at the helm to steer. The boats were too long for me to get it all in a shot while I was still on the quickly moving boat, but that doesn't mean I didn't try.

No...

Not quite

Almost there

Damn!

Being in a boat remains an awesome experience and I don't think it even matters what kind of boat it is, so I might have to take up some new hobby when I get back home. Everything is so damn beautiful here.

 This thing looks like a bear from the front but from the back it looks like a turtle

Kingdom Hearts is going to sue somebody...
 

We  passed the village that was going to be hosting us, but we weren't stopping quite yet. First we had to go see the cascada (waterfall). I was excited by this since we didn't get to see the one at La Iguana. So after a little more time in the boat, the river was too shallow to keep going and we needed to get out at walk.

This was a less strenuous hike than the last one I was on. It was a bit slippery but I had on sneakers so it was fine. Then we got to a point where we had to walk through the river at certain points. I didn't have a problem because I'd also brought a pair of sandals. The boys were not so fortunate and had to go barefoot in this place where there were very jagged rocks. My old buddy was more hungover than the new guy and now he had to be in pain when he walked. It really wasn't his day.

So after a bit of a tumulus journey, where I was surprisingly keeping up with the Emberá guide we arrive at the cascada.  It was breathtaking I don't think pictures do it justice.

 Water road to waterfall.

 As soon as I could I changed into my bathing suit so that I could swim. I didn't even care that it was beginning to rain. It's been at least a year since I've actually been swimming (beaches don't count). Once I hit the freezing cold water I was positively giddy, I think it freaked everyone out a bit.

As most people know I can't actually swim (and didn't want to get my hair wet beside that), but the water wasn't deep enough that I couldn't walk around.  Unfortunately, it seemed like the water got too deep in the middle for me to actually go nearer to the waterfall.

It was like pulling teeth to get people to come swim with me. The husband driver swam I don't think his wife brought a bathing suit. Vanessa, it wasn't so much that she didn't want to swim as she wasn't allowed. It was weird, because I think she wasn't comfortable being in her bathing suit around people (not just us there were other tourists) without her boyfriend being there. I found this very interesting, but I didn't want to pry. I don't know if this is an aspect of Panamanian culture or if it is just how Vanessa feels.  Her boyfriend is a white guy that lives in Maryland, but it's not out of the question that this is his stipulation. Either way it  stuck with me.

The boys were on the fence about swimming at some point while the rain was coming down, they decided they would, but only the new kid actually did. I don't have a lot of picture from this because I was in the water but Vanessa got some pictures that I'll have to get her to send to me. But I do have a few.

So I didn't really care about the thunder and heavy rain but the wife told us we would have to leave before it got worse. They had rain ponchos for all of us. As I'd abandoned all of my things on a nearby rock, all of my things were now absolutely soaked. I donned my poncho and began to hike back.

The path back was crazy muddy now and my helpful sandals were actually a hindrance now, I also had to go barefoot. In the end I don't think it was very helpful. It seemed like every few seconds I nearly slipped and fell down. I tried everything, walking in the leafy parts grabbing onto branches, and still I was having a bunch of near misses. And I keep banging the hell out of foot when we had walk through the water, because now it was too muddy to see the bottom of the river. Eventually the guide took pity on me and had to literally hold my hand to help me get back to the boat.

And then the boat was in sight. I made it. The guide let go of my hand and the words "Muchas Gracias" were barely out of my mouth before, -BANG. Wipe out, I fell right on my ass.   

I shook it off and got back into the boat.

Then it was off to the village. After we put our things down we went to another little hut. A man told us about the village and the tribe as the women cooked for us. I got all up in their business taking pictures of their kitchen area.

The food was excellent. We had tilapia  and patacones which we ate out of a leaf. They presented us the food as soon as it was done so it was piping hot.

After the main meal there was dessert, which was fruit. Cantaloupe and the sweetest pineapples you've ever tasted.

Also I had a banana but I didn't take a picture of that.

After the meal there was some free time. Well actually they did the presentation over for another group and then there was free time. We got some body art done. They kind of just paint this ink on you with these little cool designs. Sort of like a less permanent henna. I was the last to get mine done. I'm pretty sure it's a flag of some sort but it's not Panama's or the US's. It's hard to tell because it's just black ink, but you tell me, isn't this Jamaica?

During the free time I met a dog but he wouldn't let me pet him. The dogs here were all sort of skittish. They'd let you close, or they'd approach you, but that was about it. I felt like they were sort of polite, they wouldn't growl or bite you. They would just sort of look at you sideways and be like, "Excuse me I have another appointment. This guys appointment was apparently a fish bone under the hut.

I took some pictures of their handicrafts.

Then I talked to some other Americans who mistook me for a Panamanian at first, which happens fairly often here actually. After a little bit of that, the man from earlier told everyone to sit down because it was time for the show. They were going to preform some dances for us.

The first dance was the dance of the nieque (a sort of tropical wild rabbit) which I think was to promote health. I got some video of it.

Then there was the dance of the mono (monkey) I don't know what that is supposed to promote but it had a catchy song that is still in my head.

Then there was the Emberá Rumba 1. That was this cute dance where couples dance together in a circle. At first it was one couple but slowly others started to join. And there were these two toddlers that weren't so much dancing as they were holding hands and walking around the circle. And another man was hand in hand with his wife on one arm and a very tired baby sleeping on his shoulder.

After the Rumba 1 it's time for Rumba 2 which is the same dance except they invite visitors to join as well. So I got to dance too. Once again Vanessa has those pictures of me and the host guy doing this Emberá Rumba so I will have to get those from her too, though I'm sure I look really goofy in them. 

Soon after that it was time to leave the Emberá and the Chagres. The whole thing really only took about a half a day but it was very refreshing. If I ever come back to Panama I'd visit again.

That night I got to experience the Panama nightlife again, for a continuation of the other student's birthday celebration. Nothing worth writing up. It was fun enough at first until it wasn't, you know how those things go. This is how I broke my camera, still I might be convinced to put some pictures up on facebook. Until next time here's a picture of animal I occasionally have to have a standoff with on my way to school: