So actually l’m already halfway through my second week in Panamá, but let’s ignore that for a second. Also, l’m going to update you guys first on this week and post about my last week in Guatemala later on. I will be so badly behind otherwise.
And l will be writing in English from now on so that my new non-Dutch-speaking friendos may understand 😉
A good beginning
Everything went well on my journey to Panamá. Until I arrived there. Apparently there is an immigration check-in where they want to know who you are, what you do, why you are here, how long you will stay, those kind of things. They also wanted to know where l was going to stay.
Which… l didn’t know. I know of course where l was going to stay, which is at the apartment of Martín, another one of the guys from Animal. But because Tomás was going to pick me up at the airport and bring me there, l never really asked for the adress
Now you have to know that it was crystal clear that this lady that l got did NOT enjoy her job AT ALL. Eye rolls and sighs and monotone, bored voice, that kind of person. So she ABSOLUTELY needed my adress here in Panamá. And when l told her that, yes, l would call my friend to ask him the adress BUT MY CELLPHONE DOESN’T HAVE SERVICE SO I’M SORRY BUT I CAN’T, she sent me back up the stairs with the message to come back when l had it.
Okay then, guess I don’t have another option. Checked my phone when l got upstairs, hoping to see at least one filled out stripe. There was none. No connection. Great.
So l asked someone if l maybe could use their phone for a second, but instead I got some coins to use the payphone. It’s then that I realized that l actually never used one before, because they simply don’t exist anymore in Belgium.
A one-minute call was just enough for me to grasp the adress. At least, more or less. Because eventually the one l gave to the lady turned out to be totally different from the actual one, and probably non-existent. She didn’t even check it. I could’ve said anything.
So eventually l got to where l had to be. It was really nice to see Tomás again, and l met Martín and Christian, who were super nice as well.
I immediately got to see almost everyone the first night, since l got invite dto a totally spontaneous jamsession at Christian’s place. Some of the Animales apparently play in a band, and daaaamn they’re good! It was amazing to see how they create music, how someone suggests a melody or a beat and then the others just go with it, add, alter. Feel. And then it slowly it starts to become a song.
Oooh how badly that l wanted to play along with them! But unfortunately l don’t play well enough to improvise as they do, so l just sat there, listening, smiling all the time because the vibes were amaaaaazing!
Barro Colorado
Tuesday, thursday and friday were pretty quiet. Actually l totally didn’t mind, the past few weeks had been so packed that it was nice to have some time to myself.
Wednesday however, wednesday was reaaaally cool. As in REALLY. So, maybe you know, maybe you don’t, but Panamá has got a lot of jungle. Panamá also has got the Panamá Canal (if you don’t know that, shame on you, you should).
When the Americans made the Canal in the beginning of the 20th century, a gigant lake was created for the ships to pass in the highland of … . A dam prevented the water to flow away to the see, and thus it flooded all the lower parts of the area. Only the tops of what once were hills remain, and became islands.
One of those islands is called Barro Colorado. And goddamn l was soooo lucky that Animal had a project going that needed footage from the island, and that they gave me the chance to go with them to get it. Just google the thing real quick and you’ll immediately understand my excitement.
It was amazing. I didn’t even mind carrying the tripod, which is really heavy if l may add, all day through the jungle because it was soooo worth it. The two of us ( it was only Christian and l) got a private guide to show us around, which made it even better because he explained us tons of things that we never would’ve known otherwise.
I might have gotten a little too excited at times when l recognized something from my classes on plants that l had this year, but who wouldn’t? Although I often couldn’t remember the name anymore, which was actually quite frustrating. I’m definitely going to check them out when l get back home.
The most impressive we saw, and heard, that day were without doubt the howler monkeys. Along the ‘smaller’ sounds of the jungle, like birds and cycades and who knows what, the WOOO WOO WOOO from the monkeys made you really feel like you were in the jungle jungle.
The weekend
I had double luck that day. On the boat to the island, l got into a conversation with the girl sitting next to me. Her nam was Weronika, originally from the States, but with a Polish background that explains the spelling of her name. Along with a lot of other people, she was here for research on the island and it’s surroundings. We talked a while about biology and stuff, which was pretty cool. At the end of the day we took the same boat back, talked some more, and then she invited me to come over during the weekend. And so I made a friend!
Which led me to make more friends, because 1. Gamboa is like a small community of researchers where everyone knows each other and where a lot of activities are going on, and 2. Weronika is like, the most social and spontaneous person ever and definitely knows everyone.
So l spend most of the weekend cooking delicous food with her and her roommate Makenna (these girls have TONS of inspiration for food), and exploring the foretrails around Gamboa together with their friend Jonah.
The craziest thing we saw this time was not a monkey or a sloth, nor the butterflies (though they are pretty cool as well), buuuut… a caiman. That scared the living shit out of Jonah, poor him.
We were searching for frogs at a nearby pond at nighttime, because that’s when they come out of the water to climb into the trees. You know these typical red-eyed wallpaper frogs? Those cuties were all around.
So we were walking around, pointing our flashlights here and there in the hope to spot some, when suddenly a freaked out Jonah comes running towards us, exclaiming that “Guys, there is a giant crocodile over there and I WAS STANDING RIGHT NEXT TO IT!”
In the end, the animal wasn’t giant nor a crocodile, but it was still a pretty big caiman just sitting there in the water, with no fence or anything to separate us. Considering that Jonah had been prodding around in the water with his foot to get some frogs to jump around just a meter away from the caiman’s teeth made it pretty understandable that he needed a moment to recover.
Craziness for sure.
Soo, that was about it for my first week in Panamá! See you guys next time (whenever that may be 😉 )
X Klaartje
Almost forgot to mention: living on the 26th floor of a giant skyscraper next to the ocean for a month? Check!
GuatePanama 