Day 4

Day 4
On this day we left David and drove to Bocas Del Toro.















This was our hotel in David.
Bocas Del Toro is on the Caribbean side of Panama. The drive was amazing and interesting to say the least. I guess Panama had a 100 year storm and it washed out like 20 places along the mountain road. In Panama they really don't mark the dangerous areas on a road. The most we saw was a pot hole traced in yellow spray paint. There were no blinking lights or signs telling you that, OH HALF THE ROAD WAS GONE!!! Holy crap!!! You would be driving and then all of a sudden the road would be GONE!

Like this.

And this.

Yeah this is where the road was supposed to go. It got washed down the cliff. luckily the other side of the road was still in use.....barely!

Some more fences. These were just branches that they put in the ground. Now they are trees! I thought it was amazing. This is how it looks all over the country.

A lake we saw on the drive.

If you look close you can see huts. I think the Guaime or the Kuna Indians live in them. You see these huts along the entire drive in the mountains. Most of the houses were right off the highway. I would see a four year old and a two year old just walking along the highway. It was crazy to me. You would never see that in the US. The kids were totally used to it though.

And then there was this little friend. Cade was using the restroom and he went to go get some water(that is how they flush their toilets) and this huge spider was under the water jug. So naturally Cade went and got ME.

HOLY HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cade thought maybe it was a tarantula. I said no honey that is NOT a tarantula. Well come to find out is a Banana Spider aka the wandering spider. Don't worry it is only the most poison es spider in all of Panama. Up until now I hadn't really seen to many bugs. Well from this point on I was officially bug freaked out.

When Cade started poking at him he got up on his back two legs and was swaying back and forth. He was a pissed little sucker.

He was striking and mad as all get out. Cade told the gas attendant to do whatever he wanted to do with him. He squished him. Good choice......creepy goose bumps!!!!!!!!!!!

So we finally got to this little town on the water. It is called Arihan. When I got out of the car I stopped and said, "Um, honey.....where are you taking me." This city was really really run down and sorta creepy, so I had to take a pic. The water around these homes was filthy and disgusting. I will explain why is a min.

So we go in to this little purple and yellow place with all the BARS on it. Sweet.

Then we took a water taxi. Here are some pics from the boat ride over to Bocas. The little shacks in the pic above are TOILETS! You read me right....POTTIES. They go poopie right into the ocean. I think we saw a terd floating when we were waiting for the water taxi.

Homes along the way.

A ship wreck and my husbands mitt he calls a hand.

Finally we arrived to one of the most beautiful places in the world. The island of Bocas Del Toro. We checked into our hotel quick and then went scuba diving. Yes people I went scuba diving. It was the most amazing fun beautiful fun wonderful experience ever. I get the pics back from our underwater camera tonight and will post them as soon as I can. I LOVED IT!

Gettin' ready to go.

Dinner that night. Such a fun day!!

Day 3

On this day we went to the city of Boquete which Cade HATED because he said there were to many white people and not enough Panamanians. In fact the Panamanians call it Greengo Landia (Greengo Land). Which I thought was really funny! So we don't have any pictures from there because Cade didn't like it that much. Later that night Cade and I visited one of his areas called Las Lomas. It was neat to see where he lived and the people he knew.

This was one of the houses that Cade lived in as a Missionary.

The sink that Cade washed his clothes in.

The kitchen of the house.

This is pretty much what all of the houses look like in Panama. The green house is actually a nice one in comparison.

This is one of the homes of a girl named Nilka. She gave me the bracelet pictured below. I was actually telling her how pretty it was and she took it right off and gave it to me. I also complemented her shoes and she took them off her feet to give to me. I told her they didn't fit right so she wouldn't give them to me. I can't believe how generous and loving she was.

Gabriel and Susan and their kids. (A family Cade taught)

Some of the ward members that were there when Cade was serving. The girl in the blue dress gave me these.(below) She formed them out of paper machete and then hand painted them. She gave them to me when we were visiting her family. I love them!!

So fun to meet all of them. Visiting the people Cade baptised and knew in Panama was one of my favorite things to do while we were there. Love it!

Day 2

We flew to David, Panama on this day. David is one of my favorite cities in Panama. It is a great location to go out and tour other cities from. The first city that we went to was Volcan. It is city on a volcano and is one of the most lush beautiful places I have ever been to.



















Throughout the whole country people set up tables and sell things they have made most of the time by hand. This lady was selling typical candy, jelly, and bread. All were so yummy!





































This man and his daughter were selling empanadas (sp?). They were soooo good!


















You can't tell very well, but this mountain side goes up pretty high. They just grow their crops right up the sides of the mountains.

Lesson #5
The food in Cerra Punta is amazing!

A typical treat in Volcan. They layer fresh strawberries with home made whipped cream. Yum!!

Misty clouds

In America these little shacks would be deemed unfit. In Panama these little shacks are their homes.

For fence posts they take a branch of a tree and stick it in the dirt then run wire along them. Unless you burn the branch it will grow back into a tree!! I will have pics of the trees later. Even through they burn them it is so lush in Panama that plants grow on them. Amazing!

Famila Vega

These are some of the people Cade baptised in Concepcion, a city close to David.

I don't remember their names...Cade will you get on and write their names!!

This is Lidieth and Raul. I love this girl. In real life she looks like a Panamanian Jennifer Garner. Cade baptised her as a missionary and when we went to visit them she introduced Cade to her husband Raul. Right away Cade recognized him. It turns out that he interviewed him for his baptism. Fast forward 10 years and it turns out that they got married in the temple!!! It was neat to see that the hard work Cade did in Panama was well worth it. We ended up going out to dinner with them. Even though I didn't even understand a thing they said I still had a great time. As we were leaving for dinner she comes out with this pearl necklace to give to me. I didn't want to take it because I could tell it was probably the nicest piece of jewelry she owned. I hoped she didn't use it when she got married. I couldn't say no though! I seriously almost cried. A lot of the families gave me gifts when we came to visit. Here are people who have almost nothing and yet they gave me the nicest gifts.

Lesson #6

The people in Panama are so warm and welcoming. I love them!

This necklace is now one of my most cherished things that I own. What a sweet girl!

PANAMA Day 1

DAY 1
WOW!!!!!!! Is all I have to say after our trip to Panama. It took this Cali girl and put her in a world she had never seen before. It is so different from the US in so many ways. It was nice not to go on a typical vacation. I have been to Hawaii and places like that and to be honest it is just like going to somewhere nice in CA. Panama was a true adventure and eye opener for me. My sweet Hubby planned EVERYTHING from A to Z. He really showed this girl a wonderful time. So here are some pictures from our trip. The whole time Cade kept asking me what I thought and most of the time I was speechless because I was trying to process things and take the country in. So finally here are my thoughts sweetie!
















The entire trip we were going going going to as many places as we could. No rest! :) So we got off the plane checked into our hotel and went directly to the Panama canal. It is an amazing place. From what Cade tells me it looks a lot different now that Panama owns it.

The huge tanker ships wait their turn to enter the canal. They have to pay at least 3 days in advance to enter the canal. One of my favorite things was to see all of the ships waiting. It is amazing how huge these ships are.

The dirt road in the distance is where they are building another canal so that larger ships can go through. I think they said that by going through the canal instead of going all the way around South America it saves 2 weeks and $100,000 (I think).

So on one side the water is high. If you look to the back of the picture it is a HUGE ship, but you can't see it because they have lowered the water lever on that side.

A tanker going through.

I took this close up because you can see the little trains guiding the ship through. I think those special made trains cost like 2 million dollars each or something crazy like that.

They also had a really nice restaurant at the canal. This is our view from lunch.

Panama Viejo ruins

You climb some stairs to the top of the tower pictured below and this is the view. It is of Panama city. I think they have at least 15 new sky scrapers being built.

A Panama market.

Panama Lesson #1

Bring your own T.P.!

If you don't you will be left high and well I was going to say dry, but that doesn't work...you know what I mean! If you don't will have to ask some and that is just embarassing!

This is called Agua de Pipa. It is a coconut. To serve it up they take a machete and wack off the end of it. Then they take some kind of kitchen tool and make a hole into the middle, stick a straw in it and give it to you. It was really good. This was Cade's favorite thing to drink when he was serving his mission. Funny thing though. At home Cade doesn't like fruit or fish. In Panama he LOVES fruit and fish. Sounds kinds fishy to me!!

I think the coconut was almost as big as my head.

On the was back from the ruins we stoped by the temple. We were going to go through a session later that day, but they were closed, so we took a rain check for the following Saturday. What a beautiful temple it is. It is literally set in the jungle! I think it is amazing that Cade helped there be a need for this beautiful temple by serving and baptising the people of Panama. I seriously don't know how he did it. It is sooooo HOT ALL of the time.

The temple grounds. It was so amazing.

Panama Lesson#2

You will not DIE in a taxi. It just seems that way.

We took taxi's on this day. HOLY CRAP! They drive like crazy people. I know they have traffic laws, but NOBODY obeys them.

Panama Lesson #3

Taxi drivers are CRAZY and they honk constantly.

You think people honk a lot in LA? Not even close to how much people honk in Panama.

Panama Lesson #4

Nobody in America should EVER EVER whine about what they don't have or how hard their life is in any respect.

Even after one day in Panama the poverty was shocking. I can't even describe it to you. Count your blessings and be grateful for every single thing you have because I can guarante you the people of Panama have 10 times less that you do.

Day number two to come....