Panama Part 1 - I am blessed...

As I get ready to leave Boqete, I realize that I haven't written a single thing about being in Boqete. So much for not getting behind on blogging. I do have a good excuse, though (if there is any such thing...) 

I HAVE BEEN BUSY!! (Good excuse, right?)

The only problem now is that I have five days worth of pictures and words and no one is going to take time to read about my crazy life. ;P

(Looks really crazy, I know.)

Okay, now that the photos have your attention and you are dying to have explanations, ill start at the beginning. :)

(A boy with a box full of chicks)

Friday, January 10th -

After a long, exhausting day of travel, we arrived in Boqete around 8:00 pm and were greeted by loud music, tons of people, countless vendors lining the streets....and every hostel overbooked. Not exactly what I was expecting, or looking forward to after traveling on a bus for 12 hours. (Note to self: make reservations. Just kidding. Never going to happen.)

We walked around town asking where hostels were, and they are shooting off fireworks. There were soo many people everywhere. I told Kayla that this was definitely not normal Boqete - I remembered it being an incredibly quiet, peaceful little town. Aparently, true to my Central American experiences, I happened to arrive in town on the first day of their crazy once-a-year/attract-people-from-all-over-the-world festival. This one celebrating flowers and coffee (Sounds really exciting, right?)

Finally, we found a hostel that offered to call around and found us a hostel that had available rooms. It was $14 a night, so pretty pricey, but at that point we were just glad to have a place to stay. We gave the okay, and a few minutes later a guy arrived on a motercycle to take us to the hostel.

At this point, Kayla was cranky and tired and sick of traveling and noise and people and just wanted to sleep, so when a stranger arrived on a motercycle to take her away (only one extra rider at a time!) she was less than thrilled. I assured her it was fine and it was normal in Central America to get on motercycle a with strange people (Err, something like that.) 

He took her to the hostel, and a few minutes later he came and picked up me and my beastly travel backpack and we sped away through the crowds of people and smells of flowers mixed with fried chicken (mmm nummy :P) not gonna lie, the ride was a little sketch going a little out of town, but we arrived safely to a cozy little hostel (with really strange art.)

Kayla crashed right away, but I was too excited and wanted to see what was going on back in town. Some people I met that were staying at the hostel invited me to go with them, so we walked back to the fest grounds.

I'm pretty sure I've said this before, but Central Americans are crazy partiers. Always. We paid two dollars to get into the grounds where there were flowers and vendors everywhere. Aparently they ship in flowers and coffee from all over the world, and that is where they have the contest for the world's best coffee. Normally, that kind of thing would only attract an older crowd, but to get more people they also had a carnival and a stage where they had the typical concerts for the younger crowd. We went in the concert for awhile, but it was definitely not Central American dancing going on. We didn't stay very long... 

I guess I'm an old kid, but I think I'd rather look at flowers and drink coffee. Ha. Anyway, it's always interesting to see how different people and places celebrate what is important to them.

I headed to bed, but the music was so loud that even from our hostel a little ways away (up a hill) we could pretty much feel the bass. It's so strange to fall asleep to that, then wake up at 3:00 am and it's still going on. Yawn...

Saturday we pretty much just walked around town, looked at flowers, and recovered from our day of traveling. The hostel was wonderful, looking down at the town and up at the mountains.

They also had a back porch and hammocks in the shade...perfect place to chill after the long bus ride.

They also had a super cuddly kitten named Tarzan that liked to eat me...

 

And really sweet staff.

This guy had actually built the hostel an started it himself. He built all the beds and everything, and was constantly checking in with the guests making sure we were comfortable and had everything we needed. He even offered to take Kayla to get some aloe for her sunburn, but we happened to find some and a sweet woman generously gave her a leaf...

Kayla was overly excited to finally heal the terrible beach sunburn...(it's seriously THE WORST. Nothing from Wisconsin comes close.)

Saturday night we were invited by our Boqete friends to come to youth group with them at a church in a neighboring town. We caught a taxi (after waiting forever because there were soo many people) and hopped in...

You can't see it, but there are (not kidding) about 10 people in the seat behind us. It was pretty crowded in that taxi.

After the taxi ride, we met up with my friends (I had met them last year when i came to Panama and visited their church) and it drove with them to the youth group in David. It was incredible to be there with them and see the youth worshipping and so on fire for God. When they saw us there, they announced a welcome and almost every single person in that room came and greeted us, welcoming us, and shook our hand or gave us hugs. I'm pretty sure that is how church is supposed to be when new people come...

After that, a local girl Kayla and I hadn't ever met before took us and our friends to McDonald's and bought us all ice cream. It was so great to visit with them and fellowship and just to be with friends with so much in common with us - even though they live in Panama. 

I am blessed. :)

(To be continued...)