Panama day 3

Today I’m glad to be back to our hotel for reasons I’ll explain later. We woke up early to hit the road. It was beach day and we were heading to Isla Grande. We had heard it would take a good 2 hours to get there so we wanted to head out early, after our unvaried continental breakfast of course.

The road started out gorgeous, covered with trees and all sorts of tropical vegetation to please the eye. It quickly turned nasty. Let’s just keep it short by saying the drive there and back was BEASTLY!!!! The roads are terrible and the driving even worse. We almost got hit several times, and got honked at more times than I can count. I appreciate my sister Nicole because she kept saying, "It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey." Near the halfway mark apparently there was a pretty bad head-on accident which not slowed, but STOPPED traffic completely. It took us 4 hours and LOTS of patience to get to where we needed to go. Imagine taking a jaunt down to St. George and staying for just a few hours—that was today, but much better.

We stopped in Portebelo, a village along the coast PACKED with history, and looked at some fortress ruins that have been there since early 1700s. Christopher Columbus named this port, which aptly means "Beautiful Port". This was Spencer’s toy store. I swear that kid needs to study history! There were pirate raids all the time at this port and it was so neat walking on such ancient grounds. From here we headed up the road to a boat that would take us to Isla Grande. A kid named Tucho jumped on back of our car and claimed us (4 cars in all) for "his". This meant that we were to pay him for watching/directing us to park our cars. He was a funny guy and later took a machete to Spencer’s coconut to open it for him. We paid him $2 per car. "Cheap, cheap" was all he kept saying, meaning it is a cheap price that he was asking of us.

After the short 3-min boat ride to Isla Grande, we realized our drive was worth the wait. The beach was not overcrowded and the water was AWESOME!!! This was my first Caribbean experience and most definitely not my last. The water was about 80-85 degrees and we got to swim with lots of fish, octopus, squid and jellyfish. It was amazing! Later we walked through the village and saw the most quaint, colorful homes I’ve ever seen. Some were very well maintained while others were run-down. The people here have African descent so they look very different from other Panamanians. I thought they were a beautiful people and I even befriended a little boy named Gordo. They all seemed content with life, downright happy, and friendly with strangers. This island is quite small—you could most likely walk around it in an hour’s time. All too soon our water taxi was back to pick us up. We all wanted a few more hours here—if it wasn’t for that dang accident!!!! Upon reaching the dock, we found Tucho swimming, fully-clothed. . . so much for our "watched" cars!

Going back took just as long, but we played games and laughed the whole way with the Morleys and Haggards, which made it seem more bearable. The mood kept changing with each near-death-driving experience that we had, but all in all it was a good day. Amazingly we even caught up to the rest of our group after losing sight of them in one of those near-death experiences and were able to go to a very late dinner at yet another recommendation from Mom, Niko’s. It was alright, but I’m glad to be back here, showered, writing to you and getting ready to hit the hay. Signing off. . .