Overload

So I've gotten so far behind that I don't even know where to start. Half of my problem is...I don't feel confident enough to blog about our trip to Panama because I couldn't do near as good a job at blogging a trip as Anna Connelly! No joke. silly ain't it Anna! So I'm not even gonna try. Here's lots of pics and some fun memories.



Of course going to Panama, we had to stop and see....the Panama Canal. For some reason I thought it was just a long canal dug through the place, but it's not. As you can see in the picture, it's a series of locks that ships go through. We learned that all ship building specifications are that of which to fit through the Panama Canal. Captains have to pay $50,000 just to pass through the locks. The gates that you see in these pics are the original gates put on there around 1920's (If I remember right). They say that it takes less time to empty one lock out so the boat can pass through than it does to fill your bathtub (about 8 minutes). It was pretty interesting.




Next we landed ourselves in a place called "Portobello." If anyones ever heard about Brad and I's travels, they know we don't like the normal "touristy" areas. So pretty much everywhere we went we had the locals staring at us.


The door to the room we stayed at.






This cute little dock was right outside our door.







































The town of Portobello was nestled in a cove, and on both sides of the cove were the ruins of their defense structures. Whenever unwelcomed visitors came they would receive cannon blasts from both sides.











































Next we went to a nearby island called "Isla Grande." It was a bit more apt to receiving visitors. We did a little snorkling there and had a guy that looked like a younger Morgan Freeman take us on a little tour around the island.


































(doesn't he?)






In researching what we wanted to do on our trip, we found out that a place you don't want to miss when going to Panama is the San Blas Islands. So after Portobello we made our way to a town called Miramar. We asked the locals if someone could take us in their boat to The San Blas Islands. We found ourselves in a little boat for a two hour ride into the ocean. There are approximately 400 islands that make up San Blas, and most are uninhabited. There are a few however, that are, and their residents are called the "Kuna Yala" indians. It was pretty interesting, when we first arrived, we weren't exactly sure what we had gotten ourselves into because there was only one place to stay on the island of Por Venir (where we were) however, it did include electricity...that is until dark, when they turned the generator off. There was a little runway for a small airplane to land and that was pretty much it. We made ourselves at home, for dinner, the options were pulpo(octopus), Pescado(fish), or pollo(chicken). Pulpo was out of the question, and we didn't see any pollos runnin around, so we decided our safest bet was the fish. So that's what we had for the next three meals.




















We asked asked one of the locals to take us around to the neighboring island to have a look around. He first took us to an island called "Wichub Wala." There were about 400 people living primitavely on the island. We walked around for a while and whenever we snapped a picture, we were met with a hand asking for $1.









After a sweltering night with chirping geckos climbing all over our walls, we climbed into a little boat again to check out some of the other islands. On our way to "Isla Perro" there was a torrential downpour.> Our guide was bailing water out of the boat while trying to navigate to the island that only moments before was in plain sight. The rain only lasted a few minutes and then we were safely there. Isla Perro was awesome. There was just one family that lived there, and they shared their coconut drinks with us while we walked the beach and snorkeled the nearby ship wreck.


You can see the snorkel lines on my face in both these pics




Here's the ship wreck



One of the funnest aspects of the trip was that we didn't go alone. This is the first vacation that Brad and I have taken with someone else and it was great. As you can see in some of the pics, that Brads little brother Sheldon, and his new wife Shae, came with us. We also had another couple with us, Darrell and his wife Joanne. They aren't as young as we are and still kept up with our every move....they were troopers.

By the end of the trip, we were exhausted.


On our last day, we went on a little hike in the rain forest, and when we got to the top, there was a look out area where we got a fantastic surprise.

We couldn't have found the temple on the ground if we had tried, but here, on top of the world, it was a beautiful sight. It was a great conclusion to an awesome week.

The boys ended the week with a toast