Hola! Bienvenidos a Panama! This is your narrator, Cassandra, and I will be your omniscient guide throughout this story.
It all began around 11 o'clock yesterday morning- when we actually woke up from our comatose state (Sarah, COMATOAST !). We found directions to a Zip-lining company in the Panamanian Highlands and with nothing else to do, we grabbed a bite to eat, put on our swim suits and crammed into the car.
The landscape is a change of pace from the relatively flat, warmer climate where our home is situated. It's a combination of rolling rills, verdant country side and a cooler climate. Our trip took us through and into a 2,000 foot elevation crater, now called "El Valle de Anton". If one had a few million dollars handy, you might be tempted to buy a home.
When we arrived at our destination, they loaded us down with Swedish seats, cables and carabiners and started us on a mild hike through the jungle. Our guide basically only spoke Spanish, which gave me an excuse to speak some Spanglish and to act as a translator. Most of the time I nodded my head in understanding towards him and kind of did the whole shrug my shoulders things with my family.
Finally, Zip-Lining. It's sweet! They hooked us up and let us go! There were a series of cables, so not just one long stretch. The third series of cables took us over "El Chorro Moro", an 88 meter tall waterfall on "el rio amarillo". It was beautiful and we took some rather stunning pictures. Even mom did it, although I think she saw more of the back of her eye lids than the scenary.
On the way back to our humble abode, we stopped in the village center at an artisan block. Earlier that morning we had pulled names for Secret Santas, and this gave us the opportunity to find our gifts. There were hand-painted wood sculptures, molas (traditional embroidered purses), platters, figurines, and even hand-painted feathers, as well as dresses, necklaces, earings, purses, knives, etc. The lady who soled me a purse was an Indian, commonly called a "Kuna". It's traditional for women to bind their ankles with embrodery to make their calves tiny. It looks awfully painful to me!
Wildlife loves us for some reason. Dad found a hermit crab yesterday, named Hermie (...and Chris dropped it), a broken butterfly attached itself to me for a good hour yesterday, hiking, zip-lining and everything, Chris caught a gecko, named Gary (...and dropped it), and we stepped on/played with a giant golden frog in the pool (very beautiful, and it didn't pee!!). Oh, and finally we chased/got chased by blue crabs on a midnight swim. Chris caught one....and dropped it. Save us (or save them from Chris! :)