Coming to pick us up

Today’s adventure was a visit to a village of the Embera people, one of the indigenous groups in Panama. We had breakfast first and then were to ride in motorized canoes through the mangroves and up the river to the village. We were in the last canoe and it was only half full, but we must have all eaten too much breakfast because we hadn’t gone too far when some of the crew came over to our canoe in a canopied skiff and said we had to transfer to the skiff because our boat was going too slow. Okay, Tami did have a doughnut with breakfast, and then Mike had two, but geez, it was our first breakfast on the ship!

We did proceed faster in the skiff and had a very pleasant ride through the mangroves and up the river. We were fortunate to have Archie, the ship’s naturalist, in our boat and he pointed out many interesting features including huge conical ant nests (let’s hope our ants at home don’t get any ideas), a mangrove hawk, and some oropendola bird nests clustered in one tree.

Termite nest

Heading up river through the mangroves

Oropendola nests

On arrival at the landing where we disembarked, we were greeted by a large crowd from the local village, clapping rhythmically to welcome us. The villagers were all dressed in their VERY colorful finest traditional outfits (tops optional). (See this video from Uncruise.) Then per some sort of local tradition they assigned a child to each of us to hold our hands and walk with us the mile or so back to their village. Tami’s escort kept chattering to her in Spanish (they speak both their native dialect and learn Spanish in school). The only thing Tami understood was, “What’s your name?” Mike’s escort was younger and shyer and just kept glancing up at him until he looked back, at which point she would quickly glance down again. After we reached the village and Mike’s escort was released from her duties, she looked at one of her friends and made a motion of wiping off her hands as if to say “my person had really sweaty palms!”

Greeting crowd

Taking OUR picture

Walking with our hosts

These village visits are apparently infrequent. While there had been one from Uncruise the week before, we were told the one before that had been six months ago. At the same time, the occasional visit is an opportunity for the villagers to make some sorely needed cash, so they had a significant supply of arts and crafts on offer. The majority were very well made woven baskets and trays decorated with designs in any array of colors they make from local plants. Of course Tami wanted to know more about their dye making!

Some of the crafts for sale

They also did some dance and music performances for us. We were particularly impressed with the flute player who, backed by a whole percussion section, played something that struck us as almost jazz. It actually reminded Mike of Jethro Tull.

Dance performance

Flute player – wish he had some CD’s!

We then got a tour of the village. It was fairly good size, with around 480 residents. The houses are mostly platforms on stilts with thatched roofs. Animals are often kept on the ground under the platform. The ladders are logs with steps cut into them that also double as child minders. Pull that log up and those kids can’t get out! There was a small school for the children. If we heard right, they said they have one teacher for 160 children. Not sure how the teacher manages that! Tami spied a few boys kicking around a soccer ball in a lower field. The beautiful game here in the jungles of Panama!

SOCCER! With the school in the background.

Enjoying sugar cane – all kids like sugar!

House in village

Traditional and non-traditional foods

World’s ugliest chicken

Cute kid!

Emergency communication to the outside

Woman who helped organize our visit

Children watching the goings on

As we wound our way down the path from the village back to where the canoes were waiting, we were all strung out in a long progression of villagers and tourists as the villagers escorted us back to the canoes. As we were going down the path, we heard the wailing of a small child behind us. It did not diminish as we kept walking and we looked back to see one of the women holding a small child who was having quite a tantrum. We turned just in time to see her set the child down and we watched as he continued his tantrum. He looked to be about two years old and mom had clearly had enough of this behavior. It was somehow reassuring to see that some things are universal and all cultures have to deal with the terrible twos.

Back to the boats and we climbed into another open canoe. The boats picked up speed heading back to the ship and we saw quite a few white Ibis fly down the path of the river ahead of us as if they were our guides out of the mangroves.

Dugout

Canoe along the river – translates as “God’s Mercy”

White Heron, or Greater Egret

It seemed that we hit open water quite quickly and when we did, we discovered there was quite a swell going. The spray from the waves at first just sprinkled us but soon became much more enthusiastic and by the time we were halfway to the ship we were more wet than dry. It was refreshing! And salty! Well, they said to make sure we kept our electrolytes up. By the time we got to the ship we were completely soaked but we all were having a grand time. Returning to our cabin, we just took off everything and washed out the seawater as we showered ourselves. We now have wet clothing strung all over the bathroom and cabin. Who knows when it will dry in this humidity!

One again in dry, clean clothes, we returned to the lounge for snacks that really hit the spot. There was fresh guacamole and ceviche served with plantain chips, and other delicious snacks. And beer and cocktails, of course. It seemed no time at all until it was time for another excellent dinner. We both had the local fish again. We didn’t quite catch the name. Mike said, “It was black snoopy, or something like that.” We do know it was very good. (Later, it was apparently Black Snook.)

That boat is going to the birds!

Still Saturday but we are on the ship! And what a delightful ship it is with a wonderful crew and such interesting fellow passengers.

Pelicans

Once Tami managed to chase Mike onto the bus, it was a very short ride to the marina. There were large numbers of pelicans flying all around and  the view back to Panama City was stunning. We went in groups of eight to nine people in the skiffs, and even that ride out to the ship was a kick. Many other boats and ships were anchored around and there was some good chop after we cleared the breakwater. But our crew member was very skillful at negotiating the waves. The ship has an interesting system with a platform at the stern of the ship that the skiff can drive directly onto, then the platform is raised and passengers can disembark the skiff without much danger of getting wet.

Snacks and champagne – Mike’s a happy man!

We were immediately taken to our cabin and shown around, then directed to the lounge for snacks, champagne and cocktails, and the obligatory but necessary emergency drill. By FAR the most pleasant and painless emergency drill we have ever done!

Rain clouds over Panama City

At last we had a chance to stop and take a look around and appreciate the views. The sun and clouds were also celebrating the imminent departure of the Safari Voyager and put on a beautiful light show. There were dramatic rain clouds hovering over Panama City that made us appreciate that we were not walking the city streets at that moment, and the setting sun through the clouds added some wonderful orange illumination to it all.

Given such a small ship we immediately started meeting our fellow passengers and learning their names. So many nice people, and we all started bonding immediately. We were talking to one couple and Mike happened to ask what about what they had done before retiring. The husband said he had been a law school professor. So Mike naturally asked which law school. When he replied “Hastings”, we both reacted with surprised looks and had to explain that Mike had graduated from Hastings! We figured out that he had likely been one of Mike’s professors.

As the sun set we finished our cocktails and headed to the dining room for a wonderful dinner of fresh grouper. We had some great sounding choices, but after hearing that they source all their seafood locally through a sushi chef in Costa RIca, from sustainable fisheries, we couldn’t pass up on it. Dinner was followed up with dessert back in the lounge as we listened to our week’s itinerary. This is truly going to be a special cruise with some fantastic stops. We can hardly wait to share it all!

One thing that is different from a big cruise ship is that the big ships have stabilizers. Those stabilizers keep you from noticing hardly any motion. Most of the time a big ship just feels like a hotel on land. A small ship like this, however, actually rolls with the swell, so here we are in bed enjoying a gentle rock and roll to help us get to sleep!

Combine one exhausting day of travel with a super comfy bed in a top class hotel and it results in a great night’s sleep. Peeking outside we could see some clouds and some sun, so it seemed to match the forecast.

No photos taken this morning, but did find this picture of Panamanian tortillas on pinterest.

We made a stop at the breakfast buffet which was a nice combination of some Panamanian dishes and some traditional American dishes. They even had real maple syrup for the French toast with pecans! The stewed chicken and thick corn “tortillas” were delicious, too.The tortillas were quite unlike anything we are used back home! They seemed to be sort of a fried cornbread cake, maybe a quarter inch thick. Here is a recipe that explains them: cocinerita.com/panamanian-tortillas .

We spent a couple of hours checking out the local streets around the hotel and learning how to survive as a pedestrian in Panama City. One good plan of action is to try and find a local to scurry behind when crossing an unmarked street. There are also a few crosswalks mid-street that provide actual safety. There are lots of honking horns and zipping scooters. Drivers frequently seem to give a quick double tap on the horn just to warn that they are there.

Cool church we saw

Great building!

After walking around for over an hour we needed respite from the heat so we found a nice air-conditioned spot for some lunch. We both had corvina fish, but cooked differently. Mike’s was in a light curry sauce and Tami’s was in a seafood sauce with a side of grilled veggies. Both were quite nice and just the thing. The leisurely pace here was nice for enjoying such a good meal.

Mike’s

Tami’s

We are now back at the hotel sucking up our last chance at wifi before going to the ship. We also hope to catch the first hour of the Sounders game via twitter before we depart for the ship. We won’t know the final result until next week. But gotta get that last fix of our local teams! Unfortunately the Reign don’t play until this evening, so that will have to wait.

Actually, due to a misunderstanding about the start time of the game, we were able to catch the twitter feed of the second half rather than the first half of the Sounders game, EXCEPT for the last couple of minutes of stoppage time. The Sounders were down 1-0 when we were called to the bus. Grr! When we lost the feed as soon as we stepped outside the hotel door, Mike tried to run back in to see if there was a twitter update, but Tami yelled at him to not miss the bus, so he reluctantly got back in line (just trying to do it for her after all). No word on the final score until we get back in town! Arrgg! Oh well, Panama awaits! (Later learned the game finished 1-0, as expected.)

Sunrise leaving Seattle

We had originally booked a flight that left at a reasonable hour, 9 am or so. That gave us a 50 minute stop in Houston to change flights. Then we were notified that the flight had been pushed up a bit later, so we would only have 30 minutes to change planes. AAACK! That seemed a bit tight, given that we would have to travel to a different terminal for the flight out of Houston, not to mention what would happen if we were even 10 minutes late getting into Houston! Therefore we switched to the next earlier flight. Unfortunately that meant needing to be at the airport by about 4 am. We did actually manage about 3 hours of sleep before getting up and getting ready for the car picking us up.

We actually arrived in Houston early, yay, but that made for a 4 hour layover. At least that gave us time to have a very leisurely lunch. We stopped in to Pappadeaux, recognized from our previous visit (coming down in March for the first Sounders game of the season) as a well known group of restaurants in Houston. Tami had some very nice fried oysters with some wonderfully delicious garlicky sautéed spinach. We both finished with key lime pie, even though we really didn’t have room left. We didn’t think to take a picture until most of it was scarfed and only dessert was left (even that was missing a bite).

Almost whole key lime pie

After lunch we did make a stop in the airport to buy chocolates (for later of course). Then on the flight we were handed multiple forms to complete for entry in Panama, including a question about bringing food into the country. Hmm, chocolate is one of the major food groups so we decided there was really no choice but to eat ALL of the chocolate. Mike did a fine job with his chocolates, but Tami couldn’t quite finish hers. What a wimp. But we did not want to get in trouble before we even entered the country!

On the second flight we finally broke down and paid for the inflight TV system to help time pass, especially after Tami noticed there were going to be several soccer games on! Unless you pay, and unlike most other airlines we have been on, United offers almost no free entertainment on their system. We were NOT happy when an hour into our flight the system suddenly announced it was leaving its coverage area and the TV programs would end. So much for soccer! All that remained was a few movies, already in progress, and the best of which we had seen previously. We made due with watching parts of movies we were not that interested in, but we were not happy campers.

Going through immigration, we were surprised to be photographed and fingerprinted. Don’t remember THAT anywhere else we have traveled before. So I guess we will now have to behave ourselves on THIS trip.

Walking out of the airport in Panama meant walking into a blast of humidity and warmth, quite a change from Seattle. By way of contrast, we noticed the headline article in the Seattle Times this morning warning that because of our unusually cool spring, going swimming in our lakes and rivers during the first warm weather could lead to thermal shock and death.

We were met by Uncruise staff right at the airport, greeted enthusiastically, and then put on a shuttle to our hotel (because of long flight times, we were expected to arrive the day before the cruise starts). We finally arrived at our hotel and were very pleased with what a nice place it is. We went up to the room and collapsed on the beds. After our chocolate orgy on the plane, we were not feeling up to dinner, but Mike did manage to find a soccer game for Tami to watch!

Spring in Seattle – fixing potholes.

Thunder rumbles and rumbles outside as the pelting rain causes a flurry of cherry blossoms to scurry to the ground. Ah, spring in Seattle after a record-breaking winter of rain. We broke a 122 year-old record for rainfall from October to April and as the headlines said, well, of course we did. As could also be expected, just an hour or two earlier there was bright sunshine and it was finally warm enough to walk down the street without a coat. Briefly, that is.

It is wet out.

Our first thought as the thunder and pouring rain continued through the afternoon was, “Ah, conditioning us for Panama!” Yes, that’s right, we are headed to Panama! We depart verrrry early tomorrow morning to begin our journey south, flying through Houston to get to Panama City.

The other day we happened to see a sister ship, the Safari Endeavor, going through the Ballard Locks. Soon we will be going through the Panama Locks!

On Saturday we will board our home for the week, the Safari Voyager, part of the Uncruise small ship adventure line. We will be making numerous stops on both the Caribbean and Pacific coasts, even making a foray into the jungle, and also transiting the Panama Canal. There will be kayaks, snorkels, paddle boards and skiffs involved. How much they will involve us we don’t yet know. Stay tuned. There will be good food. Plenty of it. Otherwise we wouldn’t be going, as you all know.

As we started checking the weather forecasts over the past two weeks, we learned that Panama has very consistent weather patterns, and the pattern now seems to be thunderstorms on a daily basis, so we thank Seattle for acclimating us to this weather. But while they seem to occur daily, it also seems that they don’t last long. At least we hope not. And it will be humid, and it will be warm.

Preparing for Panama

In preparation we also had to get immunizations. Lots. Typhoid, Hep A, Hep B, MMR. Our consulting travel nurse also initially recommended Yellow Fever vaccination and Malaria medication, but decided maybe they weren’t necessary. We sure hope not! It makes us feel like we are heading out for a year-long trek down the Amazon.

One unfortunate aspect of being on a small ship in somewhat remote areas is that we will have no internet. Yay, no constant checking of email and news, but boo, we can’t update the blog daily. We will try and write our posts as we go and then upload as soon as possible, so who knows when they may pop up.