Canal and Cooking

For some reason I woke up incredibly early this morning and didn’t think I would fall back asleep. Tom was stirring as well and we decided to get up and go for a walk. I was interested in getting steps, but I also wanted to see the sunrise. We were walking by 6:10 and headed towards the beach. It’s the first time I have been down to the beach when the tide has been so far up. It’s a completely different landscape! We snapped a few photos as the sky was starting to turn brighter and then got walking. We walked around the complex for more than an hour, but hadn’t quite reached Tom’s goal of 7 miles when I suggested we walk past the beach to see what the tide looked like. It had already gone down quite a bit and was leaving a trail of treasures behind. I told Tom he could leave me there so I could continue my walk on the beach, and he should circle back in a half hour so I could rejoin him for the rest of the walk. I’m glad I did because I found a few treasures to include a reddish piece and a yellow heart. The yellow heart is too perfect to be shaped that way by the sea, but I do think it is a form of glass and not plastic. I was still excited to find it, especially with Valentine’s Day coming up. The only thing that would have made it more perfect is if I would have found it on Valentine’s Day. Tom only had a half mile left when he picked me up so we walked just one more mini loop back to the condo to achieve his goal.

We got back to the condo to find that Pete had also been out walking, although we hadn’t run into him. We made some scrambled eggs and toast and just relaxed for a little bit. I went out to the back patio and laid in the hammock in the shade for a little bit, before I got up to research snorkeling tours for tomorrow. We had discussed going to the Pearl Islands, but I found that a roundtrip ferry ticket to the largest of the islands was $110/person round-trip and we would still have to buy a tour once we got there, and it didn’t include lunch. We would have to be checked in for the ferry by 6:45a.m. for a 1 1/2 – 2 hour ferry ride. This didn’t seem like a good option so I kept surfing and found a catamaran snorkeling tour out of Portobelo. Portobelo is an almost 2 hour drive from where we are and that is the side of the country Tom and I are staying for 3 days before he goes home. We would have to drive right through the city where we are staying to get there, but if we could get the tour for the 9 of us we thought it might be worth it. It was $130/person and I was about to book it when I noticed I was on a third party booking site and not the actual tour company’s site, so I went to the actual site and found it was $120/person on their site. Unfortunately I couldn’t book directly on their site and could only send an inquiry, but it said their normal response time is less than 1 hour. With our plans for Tuesday hanging out there waiting on a response from my inquiry, we got ready to go on with today’s adventures.

The first stop of the afternoon was McDonald’s. No we didn’t go there because we were starving and didn’t have any food in the house, we went because we always find it interesting to check out McDonald’s in other countries to see what items they might have that we don’t have in the United States. Items I noticed that were different were the Frosted Blueberry Cheesecake pie, the McCrispy chicken drumstick, and the McDouble Gourmet sandwich (it appeared to have two different types of cheese and grilled onions). Tom and I split the McDouble Gourmet meal and was only disappointed that they didn’t have any soft drinks. I don’t know if they never have soda, or if it was just temporarily not available, but they gave us a bottle of water. I thought the sandwich was actually pretty good. While at McDonald’s I got a response from the snorkeling tour company and it sounded like it would be a go and the price had dropped to $110/person. I responded right away that we would like to reserve and asked what information they need to do so. She replied within 5 minutes and asked if we had a Panamanian bank account or Revolut,n26. I replied 2 minutes later that we had credit cards. At that point she didn’t respond right back, so wanting to get this off my plate, I tried calling. Nobody answered but I got a response right away on WhatsApp that she couldn’t talk at the moment because she was in a meeting. I sent another message that we could do PayPal but I would be driving for the next half hour. She sent another message about utilizing PayPal, but didn’t provide her PayPal information. By the time we got to our next stop when I could respond and ask her for the PayPal information, she replied that now they only had 6 spaces left! UGHH!! That was so frustrating. I was in the process of communicating with her and trying to solidify and someone else must have used the booking site to secure the spots. In an effort to save money, it actually cost us the experience. If I would have just bought it online to begin with it would have been done and we would know what we are doing tomorrow. I guess you win some and lose some.

Next on the agenda was the Panama Canal and the Miraflores Locks Visitor center. We met Vicente and Peyton who had gotten a taxi from their AirBnB. It cost $17.22/person to go into the center. We received 2 tickets with one being for the visitor center ($10) and one for the IMAX movie ($7.77). I thought it was interesting that the tickets had separate prices on them, but you are not given an option to buy them separately. You apparently cannot a la carte your visit. We made our ways to the viewing platform and got there just in time to witness a set of the lock gates being opened and a small sail boat and a ginormous shipping container boat making their way through. The timing really couldn’t have been anymore perfect. The next showing of the IMAX movie was 2:45 and my guidebook said it was 45 minutes long. We had a cooking class booked 20 minutes away in Costco Viejo at 4:00. I theory we could watch the movie and make it to the class in time, but not knowing the traffic and parking situation, we were a little skeptical if we should do it. I really did want to see the movie and ultimately myself, Tom, Vicente and Peyton went to the movie while everybody else headed over to the cooking class. At least if we were going to be late, half the group would already by there to let them know we were on our way. Morgan Freeman narrated the 3D movie that covered the history of the canal, expansion of the canal, and other points of interest in Panama. I thought it was well done and it was over by 3:20!

We found our way to the cooking class with only one small detour and thankfully no wrong turns down one-way streets. We may have witnessed 2 police on 1 motorcycle stop a car in front us possibly for drugs, but honestly that’s just what Vicente thinks he saw. We found free public parking next to the pedestrian walkway we had walked for the geocache on Saturday and was at the cooking class by 3:58.

We found this Afro-Panamanian cooking class through an email Linda received from AirBnB’s experiences. I didn’t realize that not only can you reserve a room or house through AirBnB, but people offer up experiences/tours that you book through AirBnB. The cooking class was held in the home of David and Nina. They have renovated their apartment to build out an open-air kitchen that extends out their balcony. They normally accommodate groups of 6, but when we booked we asked if they would be willing to accommodate our group of 9 and they agreed. David is originally from Kenya and Nina from Norway. They were both so incredibly friendly and welcoming. David has a smile that just lights up the room. Unfortunately I cannot remember the exact names of the dishes we helped prepare, but Linda should be receiving an email with the recipes. The hands-on cooking portion consisted of chopping vegetables, making the empanada dough, rolling it into balls and then later flattening it, filling it, and sealing it. Almost immediately I learned something. He showed us how to cut a bell pepper so that you don’t waste anything. You simply push the stem down into the pepper and then use your hands to tear the pepper open. The seeds all stick together and there is no wasted pepper. I had never seen this technique before but thought it was brilliant. The cooking instruction lasted for about 2 1/12 hours and then David took over to fry the empanadas and prepare the rest of the meal. In addition to the empanadas we had a coconut milk lentil soup and an African meat and rice dish. I thought all of the food was very good.

At 7:00 three other guests joined us for their AirBnB Dining Experience (we got to experience both the cooking and dining … the 3 new guests were eating the food we helped to prepare). One lady from Ecuador was there by herself, while two other young ladies from the United States joined us. The girls from the U.S. were about 21-23 years old and they were friends that met in college. They had come to Panama for 5 days to celebrate Carnaval and were heading home in the morning. Vicente and Peyton were sitting at the end of the table with them and they shared tequila shots and conversation. Towards the end of the night the American girls invited the guest from Ecuador and Vicente and Peyton to go out clubbing with them. Vicente and Peyton made the spur of the moment decision to go for it (as well as the lady from Ecuador). Luckily David had a spare room that he AirBnB’s out that wasn’t being used that they got for $30! So affordable! I’m so happy they are getting to experience the Panamanian nightlife and to go out with the people we had just met. I feel like that’s what you should do in your early 20’s. Go out and have a good time and be safe. The fact we know where they’re sleeping tonight put’s all of our older person’s minds at ease. After spending the evening with them, David and Nina feel like family . I can’t wait to hear about their night tomorrow.

The rest of us were beat and got back to the condo by 10:00. Without having a tour secured for tomorrow, our plans are kind of up in the air. Pete and Laurie were discussing taking Ryan and Angie to Portobello to see if they can find a tour when they get there, while I’m tossing around driving to Punta Chame which is a beach town an hour and a half away. I guess we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Stats of the Day:

Steps: 17,677
Time Stuck in Traffic: 0 minutes
Pieces of Sea Glass: 21
Amount of Sweat at Cooking Class: Felt like gallons. . .it was really hot!!