Panama

Hi everybody! We just got back from an AWESOME week in Panama. We met up with our friends Joe and Steve (and our new friend Mark!) in Panama City and then flew to Bocas del Toro for a week on the beach.


The first thing we did when we got there was head to the beach. The second thing we did was watch Joe dislocate his shoulder while swimming.

It's happened a few times before and so it wasn't a total shock, but he's always had to go to the hospital to have it re-set. The only problem was that we were about 45 minutes from "town" in Bocas, and a plane ride from the closest real hospital. Here's Joe right after his shoulder got dislocated:


Here we are using wikipedia and YouTube to try and research how to re-set a dislocated shoulder:


Here we are actually trying to re-set it:


and... SUCCESS!


We felt pretty cool after that. (I think most of the credit actually goes to Joe, because the hardest part is relaxing your muscles enough to get the bone re-set - at least that's what wikipedia says).

The rest of the week was fantastic and for the most part injury free (except when Joe and Steve went horseback riding and Joe's horse decided he'd had enough and laid down while Joe was still on his back, resulting in a largely black-and-blue finger). We spent the time surfing and hanging out, and it was awesome. We stayed in a really beautiful house that was right on an incredibly pretty and completely empty beach, and we made the most of great company and a great spot.







Hilarious side-note: We needed someone to rent surfboards from and take us to surfspots, so the owner of our house recommended a local guy named Clay. It ends up that Clay was a retired country music musician and song-writer from Texas (wrote for George Strait and Barbara Streisand, among others). I highly recommend his album "Rumor Town"*:

*I have not actually ever listened to Clay Blaker or Rumor Town

Our main mode of transport was Ron's truck (Ron was the owner of the house we stayed at). Here's Claire, Mark, and Steve:


One day we took a boat to a nearby island and explored a cave - the only camera shots I got are these pics of bats that I took right at the entrance (I had to leave the camera outside because much of the cave was in chest-deep water - pretty scary!):




There were tons of cool animals right outside of the house (that's a howler monkey on top):



My dad and Lynda got into town on Thursday morning and so we've been exploring Santiago for the past couple of days. Tomorrow we head out on the road to spend some time in Cajon de Maipo, Santa Cruz, and then Zapallar. Hopefully we'll have some good pictures and stories for our next post.


The days are already starting to get shorter, and I guess that's good news for everyone up there in the northern hemisphere. We hope you're keeping warm!