PanaMANIA

I arrived in Panama City with three of my fellow classmates (Lori, Liz, and Bekah) on Thursday the 24th. After getting settled in our hostel, we walked around town to try to get ourselves somewhat acquainted to the city. Our first priority was food, so we stumbled across a place called Crepes and Waffles. I had a Popeye Pita, which had a bunch of spinach and veggies and egg in it. It was delicious and filling, but not filling enough to prevent me from ordering a dessert crepe. I ordered a dessert crepe that had chocolate sauce on the inside and outside, strawberries and bananas on top, and whipped cream and ice cream on the side. It was delicious and I want another one. Or another several. After eating, we continued to walk around town. After coming across skinny raccoons eating cat food by the shore, a self-proclaimed American "iphoneographer" and some girl giving us dirty looks, we got lost trying to find our way back to our hostel. It probably took us over two hours to make our way back after asking a couple of people which direction to go in, but alas, we made it back safely and called it a night afte planning out the next day's activities. On Friday, Liz unfortunately wasn't feeling too well, so she stayed behind at the hostel and waited for a couple other group members to get into town while Bekah, Lori and I ventured to a place called El Valle de Anton about 2.5 hours from the city. The valley is the result of an extinct volcanic crater. We ended up hiking up a mountain and took a dip in a freshwater natural pool, hiked down and ate lunch at a lovely place called Bruschetta, and then went for mud facials and dipped in the "hot springs" that is actually now more like a hot pool. All in all, it was a fun, adventurous day and it was a nice start to our trip. We took a bus back to the city where we met up with the rest of the group, including Liz, Jenn, Chiara, Amanda and Laura. The eight of us went out to dinner at a placed called Azule, where I had a delicious risotto with chicken. In case you haven't noticed, many of my thoughts are about food because this is very important to me. I love food. On Saturday morning, all eight of us plus Dave crammed into a van with all of our luggage and headed over to Clayton, the City of Knowledge, where we met up with the rest of the group. The accommodations in Clayton were great and we had a nice weekend of doing touristy stuff around the city such as shopping around markets, exploring Casco Viejo, and checking out the Panama Canal. Our drive from Clayton to San Felix wasn't as long as I expected and we arrived in the afternoon at a beautiful compound. The grounds are really nice and although it is certainly a different style of living than what I am used to, I think we are all accommodating well. So far, it has been a good experience. The country itself is pretty, especially when we got into the mountains and countryside. I love seeing all of these random animals on the roads as we travel. Trying to interact with the people is interesting, to say the least. Very few people speak English, so communicating can be very difficult and frustrating at times. Despite this, the people here seem very kind and humble, which is a welcome sight coming from America.