Opa!

Well we have already had a full day of touristing in Athens. For those unaware I am helping to "chaperone" (don't worry, I'm using the term loosely) a student trip from my university. So far, so good--we only lost one person climbing around the Acropolis today and surprisingly I managed to find them. Gold star for me.

I also got to hang out more with Fylenia the otherday and we had lunch at her local tavern, aka her mom and dad's place. We also got to make tourist history by making me probably the first tourist to ever take a drive through the hills outside of Athens (where we saw snow!) and then we went for a walk to look at houses and window shop in one of Athens' richest and oldest suburbs. Overall, it was 24 hours full of fantastic food and fun with Fylenia!

Some pictures below:

Our breakfast mixture of Greek yogurt, apples, bananas, exotic raisin-y things, honey and tahini. Delicious!

We found a house that was built around a tree

Fylenia's mom with Nida, Fylenia's dog. Also, in true Greek mother style, she insisted that I try a special Clean Monday (aka like "Fat Tuesday") Greek desert. It turned out to be helva, which is the Greek version of the Arab helwa! I was so excited to see helwa that she packaged up the rest of it to send with me to eat this week in the hotel. I'm telling you, this family is awesome. 

Postcards and magnets on Fylenia's fridge

I let the group go ahead into the Acropolis Museum while I chilled on a sunny spot of grass. Unfortunately I got shooed away after about 10 minutes...

Olive trees in front of the museum

Random Athenian buildings

Odeon of Herodes Atticus

Parthenon

View of the ancient agora and part of the big city that is Athens

A shot of the Erechtheum

On The Road Again

Yesterday I saw a guy trying to parallel park in a tight spot. There were several guys watching and when he hit one of the cars they all yelled, opa! 

What is the point of this story? That's right--I am in Greece!

Kalimera (good morning--one of the 3 Greek phrases I actually remember!) from Athens! 

I made it! My flights were long (I didn't get much sleep stuck in a middle seat between to guys for 8 hours),  but uneventful. It's funny to me when I have long travel days how when I finally get where I am going, it feels like a surprise to be there (I mean after about 20 hours in transit it should sink in that I am going somewhere different, no?). But I am so excited to be back in Athens. I was here in July and it feels both like I was just here and that I was here about 3 years ago. The best part is that I had a soft place to land when I got here--I am staying with my Couch Surfing friend Fylenia. I stayed with her last time I was in Athens, and even though we only met for a couple of days, she feels like an old friend. 

We spent the evening catching up on changes, chatting about travels (she recently spent a month in India!), playing with her Cretan puppy, drinking tea and chowing down on one of the largest and best salads I've ever eaten (including lettuce, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, mushrooms, raises, apples, sunflower seeds, and cheese--YUM!). She is such good company that I made it to almost midnight before I crashed. 

All I can say is that I am in a happy place. I woke up contently snuggled in my sleep sack (I'll explain more later) and under the covers (because people, winter has not left Greece! Thankfully Fylenia gave me a heads up to bring some warm layers. I even saw snow on the ground! But I hear the sun is on the way soon!) Anyway, it is good to be on the road again, and it's good to be back here in Athens. 

And one funny story to close: when I got to the metro station by Fylenia's house I needed to give her a call to let her know I was there. There's no public phone, so I just asked a nice looking lady if I could use  her phone. Her boyfriend took over, dialed the number up and was super nice. After he said, you are from Texas, right? Um, yes. How did he know that?! He said my accent gave me away. And then he asked where I was from? Dallas? Fort worth? Yes again! It was one of those moments where you look down to see if you forgot to take off your name tag. He said he was from Mykonos and meets a lot of tourists, so has learned accents. So to everyone who says I no longer have a Texan accent, apparently here is the proof! (As for me, I am still baffled!)

{Also, if you are wondering how I am sending out this blog, check this out: 

Yep, that's the (ridiculously beautiful and fancy) replacement computer (which hopefully my student insurance is going to cover!). I don't know if it will turn out to be a good or bad idea, but I have it here on the road with me--so looks like the blog might live on after all!}

Baile Folklorico

By happy chance I was in Boquete during a region wide (I think) celebration that brought in baile folklorico (traditional dance) and music groups from all around. Everyone got dressed up, paraded through town and then took turns dancing in the town square. It was a misty and cool day, but I loved taking it all in.

I was amused watching all of the dances thinking back to my experience with baile folklorico. When I was in high school I got placed in a native speaker's Spanish class because of scheduling conflicts or general incompetencies, or I don't even know what. Needless to say I was not a native speaker and was lost the whole time (embarrassing myself on several occasions). I finished the class without learning a lick of Spanish (but with a decent understanding of how to put accents on words). Anyway, when it got close to Cinco de Mayo, my teacher thought we should get in touch with our roots and learn some baile folklorico. My protests of not even being hispanic fell on deaf ears and I ended up spinning around in big skirts with the rest of my class. 

More pictures:

The tiny kids were my favorite. 

Good Vibes In Boquete, Panama

Where do I even begin on Boquete? I only planned on going for a couple of nights and ended up staying for almost a week. Boquete is a small town, and even though it is a well established stop on the backpacker trail and has its fair share of expats and NGO workers, it also boasts some beautiful scenery, lovely gardens and the best coconut flan I have ever tasted (why, oh why didn't I take a picture of that?!). 

I hiked, strolled through beautiful gardens, visited a coffee farm, saw live "gypsy music," observed a centennial parade, almost sold our soul and/or a passport to rent and watch Volver again (love that movie!) and also got a brief chance to volunteer: I got to spend a morning doing puzzles with mentally handicapped indigenous children, and then got to participate in what my host for the day Jenni deemed PX90 real life--turning a slab of concrete into gravel with a pickax inside a green house. I learned about smokeless stoves and aquaponics and offered up the only piece of useful information I could muster--that plant there is okra and it is best eaten fried. (I couldn't believe with all the collective knowledge they had there that no one had eaten okra. Southern girl to the rescue!) The entire time I was with their family I was amazed by the smart way they went about trying to assist the bottom tier of the economic structure. (Check them out at here.)

Boquete was also the first place I have ever been kicked out of a hostel. The people in charge told me I could only stay for one night because the place was full from then on. This was fine, but also perplexing because there was hardly anyone there. The next day I double checked and she told me again that it was full, so I moved across town. My friends in that hostel assured me that the hostel has not been full. I still have no idea what that was all about, but it made for some nice jokes. 

Speaking of friends, I met a ton of amazing people in Boquete--in the hostels, in the gardens and volunteering. I generally say the best and worst parts of traveling alone are all the people you meet. In Boquete they were definitely of the good variety. 

Some pictures below:   

The beautiful gardens in Boquete came with the reminder that I am allergic to seemingly any kind of plant these days. I got to make a fun trip to the pharmacy after this one for some allergy meds. 

Colorful buildings

I stopped in for mass one day and heard a sermon on the creation story. The priest used a metaphor of God going about creating like a pregnant mother preparing a nursery for her unborn baby. It was a surprising place to find a metaphor that was both feminine and compatible with an evolutionary take on creation. After spending a solid month this summer doing nothing but writing papers on the first 12 chapters of Genesis, I loved it.

Check out all those SPAM varieties!

In a photographic failure I somehow neglected to take a picture of the tricked out Diablos Rojos (repurposed  yellow school buses) in Panama City, but I did capture one in Boquete (and actually rode this one all the way back to David). But just so you get an idea of  how much more awesome the ones in the city were, if this one passed me on the street in Panama City, even with the fins on top and dual exhaust, I would have just let it pass and waited for a cooler one to come by. 

Machetes for sale in the corner store

A typical meal for me in Boquete. I ate in this cafeteria at least once a day, every day. All that goodness for about $2.50. 

So many gardens! So many pretty flowers!

My grandmother used to grow these. 

I trekked out to the hotsprings, which turned out to be a whole ordeal. It took me forever to find this sign. (And then forever still to get there from this sign.)

Oh yeah, did I mention I rode a bull? For more than 8 seconds too. 

(It's true. I don't always make brilliant decisions.)

The pharmacy where I got my allergy meds had all kinds of stuff in it. I suggested it as a possible place for a friend to find a copy of the new Girl Who Kicked the Something or Nother book. When we got in there I remembered, oh yeah--all those books I remembered seeing in there were all copies of the Santa Biblia (Bibles). Oops. They did have an EXACT replica of the scarf I was wearing though. Which was especially strange because I bought it at a Moroccan market in Brussels. 

OK, so that is a glimpse at Boquete! Next up, a few pictures from the parade/centennial celebration and my coffee tour. 

David, Panama!

{The ambitious agenda for today is: to do laundry. Don't ask me why after 2 months of hand-washing and hanging my clothes to dry everyday I am so unmotivated to do laundry when I have access to a washer and dryer. But such are the mysteries of life. To compensate I am sitting around in my Strongbad hoodie hugging my mug of tea (its COLD outside!) and listening to hands down the best pandora station I have ever made. I figured instead of staring into space I could at least keep going through some pictures and catch yall up a bit more. So here we go!}

After my brief stay at Farallon, aka the beach with no normal place to stay, I hitched a ride (yeah, yeah, I know, but his name wasn't Stu) to Penonome, Panama. Penonome, besides being a trabalengua (tongue twister), means--the chief is dead (one of the many things I learned from my talkative driver). From there I grabbed a bus to David, Panama. Originally I was just going to stay the night so that I could wake up early and get a bus out to Boquete, but after getting there and getting settled I knew I was not going to be ready to hop on yet another bus the next day. Even though it was sweltering (David is well known as the hottest city in Panama) and turned out to have zero tourist sights, it was still a nice place to get my city fix, relax and read for a little while. Unfortunately I don't have too many pictures of David--I didn't feel like whipping out my camera in most places. Here's a few though:

Looking down one of the streets. I will say I actually really enjoyed peeking into all of the old tailor shops. 

The city's one museum, which is housed in an original colonial home, ended up being under renovation. The architect did let me into the courtyard to snoop around a bit though.  

Still the museum/house

In the few days I have been home I have gotten lots of questions on how I budget/saved/afford to travel long term. Although I did have a nice dinner at a Lebanese restaurant in David (I saw the restaurant in the Lonely Planet guidebook and it might or might not have been one of the main reasons I chose to stay in David...) this is an example of how make my money stretch--a 25 cent meal of (nostalgically delicious) roman noodles.

On a related note: I also bought a small packet of curry powder to take my noodles from 25 cent average to 50 cent gourmet (saute some onions, add the curry powder then stir in the drained noodles--you won't be disappointed!)  but lazied out and just ate them straight out of the microwave. Ever the penny pincher when traveling I tucked the unopened curry packet into my backpack for the next stop. Unfortunately, for about a week every single piece of clothing in my bag (yes, all 7 of them) faintly smelled like curry. Oops.

And finally, this picture was taken in the courtyard of my hostel in David--The Purple House, which I would recommend. Everything in the hostel is purple, but they have binders full of tourist information/guest recommendations, artisan crafts for sale (the profits of which go straight to the artists), volunteer opportunities, drinkable tap water, and an former Peace Corp volunteer owner (who on the phone mistook me for a Spaniard! Granted it was a short conversation, but until I gave her my name on my credit card she thought I was "bien espanola." (For some reason my Spain accent is much stronger on the phone than in person. Don't ask why...) But after the disaster in Farallon, it was a small victories.)    

Also, at the entrance of their courtyard they had Hebrews 13:2 painted on the wall which was a happy reminder.

OK, that about wraps up David. Next up is Boquete!

{And seriously. This is the best Pandora station ever. It was perhaps a stroke of luck, but I feel like a genius.)

I Am Alive!

Guess what? I am alive! And well! Oh-so-well to be exact. As you have probably noticed the blog went into a coma when my computer stopped functioning. I won't lie...It was kind of nice to drop off the grid. But, after a final goodbye to this guy: 

{(the active and smoking) Masaya Volcano and Lake Masaya} 

I took 3 buses, 2 taxis, two plane rides and a 2.5 hour drive to get myself to Abilene to be in my good friend's wedding. I was incredibly lucky to get to take in the hospitality of new and old friends in San Jose, Denver and Abilene along the way. I won't lie though--reentry has been a bit overwhelming. After almost 2 months in Central America, the U.S. seems to move in hyper speed. Thankfully the metroplex has plenty of fine Spanish radio stations to help me ease the transition. Really I shouldn't even say transition though--I will only be here for 3 more days. On Wednesday I fly out for the rest of my trip, starting in Greece! I can't wait to meet up with couch surfing friends there and spend the week with the Logsdon group.

Anyway, there is lots of planing and errand running (and Mexican food eating) to be done before Wednesday (including hopefully picking up my computer all fixed up...) but I thought I might run through some pictures from Panama and Nicaragua while I have access to my parent's computer.

Enjoy!

The main drag in El Valle, Panama. Absolutely lovely small town. 

La India Dormida, still in El Valle. The outline of the mountain is said to look like a sleeping indigenous girl.  

Random hearts painted on the road 

 Patacones! I am pretty sure I stopped in and ate various things from this restaurant at least once a day during my time in El Valle. 

Not a great shot, but the little zoo there had tapirs, which were odd elephant/hog/mini-rhino typed animals. 

Hi sloth! So cute! Love those guys!

I decided to hop over to a recommended small town beach, which turned out to be a difficult to get to. Once there I found out that the only lodging in town belonged to a sold out resort. I finally was directed to a dirty hotel right on the beach. It was a mess, but sufficed for one night. The silver lining was the beautiful beach. Also, the sand had sparkly specs in it, so all of the people who had been laying in the sand walked around glistening in the sun--I surprised myself by noting that they were like dark skinned vampires. (If you haven't seen Twilight, you probably won't get that. Which is probably for the better!)

Boquete, Panama!

Coffee cherry and beans. You can suck on the unprocessed beans, which taste like hard candies (but, as my guide said--don't bite it or you will get diarrhea). They also make you really hyper. 

Senor Tito! He is the owner and maker of all the coffee fun up on the coffee plantation I visited. And even though he boasts the second best coffee in all of Panama (which is saying something) he made and served us cups of coffee. We loved him. 

OK, and I give up. There are way too many pictures and stories and places to share. Maybe more installments before Wednesday. But no promises. Because like I said, the US is overwhelming...and I need a nap!