TGIF

This week did not feel like a shortened one. It was long. And grueling. I'm tired. I'm glad it's the weekend. Short weeks are hard. They always are. You have to cram 5 days of work into 4. Not fair. Such is life.

So - cool thing: one of the chicks that I cycled with in France last year decided to do a tour of Canada. She's from Dublin, Ireland. And she's in town this weekend. In fact, I picked her up in Kingston and brought her to O-town with me yesterday. The planner she is, she'd asked me my schedule and I gave it to her and suggested that if she wanted to see Kingston she could meet me there since I'd be there this week. So she took the train from T-dot and toured Kingston for a day while I was working. So I'll be hosting her this weekend. In between riding, of course. Tomorrow a good sized group of us will be riding out to Pakenham. Should be a nice ride. We often head east because some of our riders know good roads out there. And we always have a good time no matter where we ride. It's always nice to learn new routes though. Sunday I'll be cheering on a bunch of my friends who are running the half-marathon. And they think riding 100K is nuts!??? ;) Kidding. I think it's great. Which is why I'll be cheering for them.

I want another 4-day, ride my butt off weekend. That rocked! I'll have to plan some this summer.

Photo of the baby racoon we found up at the cottage I visited last weekend.

Rejuvenated

Wow. I can't remember ever having a weekend that left me feeling the way this last one has. I took Friday off work - although, I have to admit, since I didn't have my computer the whole week and just got it back Thursday late-day, I did catch up on a few emails Friday morning... BUT after that, I headed out to Gatineau Park and did a loop with Ruth. Then I came home, packed up and cleaned up a little, and then headed down to Kingston. I had a fun evening with Shannon and her hubby. Next morning Shannon and I got up and rode to their family cottage with her brother. Her husband drove the car out later with our stuff. It was a really great ride from the edge of Kingston out to Otter Lake. The weather was great. We stopped a couple of times and took some photos. It was all rolling hills, so my legs felt it after doing the hills the previous day, but in the end it still felt really good. We did a few less km's than I'd anticipated, and none of us minded. Next day after a little work around the cottage (we found a baby racoon) and a trip into Newboro, I headed home and had dinner with friends and went out to one of the local clubs - although it was pretty quiet on Sunday night. Monday I did another really great ride with 4 other friends from the regular crew. The wind was crazy and I was happy to have our two strongest pulling into the headwind - although I think the crosswind was the worst. Despite some asthma (allergy season is upon us) on the hills early in the ride, the last 20K felt really good. Even the headwind at the end was a challenge, but felt good. When I got home I spent the rest of my day cleaning like a mad-woman. One of the people I cycled with last year in France is doing a tour of Canada (she's from Dublin!) and is meeting me in Kingston this week and driving back to O-town with me. So I had to clean my place! It was the motivation I needed to do it.

So, with all of the riding and fresh air, and cleaning my place I finished the weekend feeling really great. I didn't touch my computer. As a result, this morning I woke up at 6 AM and got up without any problem! Wow! And I didn't go to bed early either. So, what's the trick? I don't know, but I need to figure it out. I want to become more of a morning person and this morning gave me hope that I might be able to do it. Maybe I just need to have 4 day weekends all the time. Wishful thinking?

Ahhhhh!

So far such an amazing long weekend...

Friday I took the day off and did a loop of Gatineau Park with one of my friends. Then I packed up and headed down to Kingston. Went out for a great dinner with my friend and her hubby. Next morning my friend, her brother, and I biked to their cottage near Smiths Falls and the rest of the day we just relaxed in the amazing weather. It was a really amazing ride. The weather was as close as you might ever get to perfect. Her family welcomed me in to the cottage and we had such a fun time. We even had blueberry pancakes this morning for bf. Today we drove into the little town we went through on our way there, Newboro, and had a fun time at the little shop they had there. We spent a half an hour in their massage chairs. lol! Now I'm back in O-town and plan to ride tomorrow, although the route has yet TBD. I happened to have chosen the best days to ride, as right now it's cold and raining, but tomorrow is looking sunny and warm! Woo-hoo! Still one more day left! :)

Happy Long Weekend!!

MTL, Cycling - you know, the usual

This weekend I went on a quick road trip with my sister! We've never done that before. Our destination: MTL. Our purpose: Cirque du Soleil and shopping. And we did a good job of it! We hit H&M on our way in (my first H&M experience was in Milan with Cookies a few years ago). This was my sister's first visit, and I do not think she was disappointed. Needless to say, we left with a heavy bag each. Then we headed downtown for a bit more serious shopping - Simon's, shoe shopping, Zara, Mango, and BCBG. I got a dress for Stef's wedding at the last one. I haven't bought a 'real' dress, maybe ever (high school grad perhaps?). That place was insane! I came away with the dress and while the saleswoman was really nice and extremely attentive, I wasn't buying the $250 shoes. Then Cirque du Soleil... I counted, this was my fourth show. It's a brand new one called Kooza and I have to say - the BEST one I've seen yet!! WOW! We were on the edges of our seats for many of the acts. My sister said her hands were sweating. The stuff they did left your jaw on the ground. If you haven't seen a show, do it - it's always worth the money.

Then Monday night, a last minute offer to ride with a couple of the strongest riders in our group. I haven't ridden with them yet. We did about 50k and it was really great. I pulled for quite a while in the wind and was strong. And Frank noted that I kept up with them on the hills - I'm stronger than last year. :) Today I stuck to my promise to Jessica that I would cross train and I went to the gym (easier to do when it's raining). And with an offer to get to the park on Friday afternoon, I decided to take the day off! Extra long weekend - woo-hoo!!!

Boyz

So, last night I was dressed in my cycling gear, had just finished pumping up my tires, and was almost out the door when the phone rang. It was MizB.

She said, "Do you want to go to Poncho Villa for a drink?" - uh, oh.

I asked, "What's going on?"

"Oh, nothing. Jen and I are going there, do you want to come?"

So, I said I was just about to head out on my bike, but I could meet up with her and Jen later, depending on how long they intended on being out.

She said,"OK. I think he's going to move", referring to the most recent bf. Uh-oh.

So, I changed back into my 'street clothes' (the ones I wear when I'm not hitting the pavement at 30kph - ha, ha!) and got picked up and we had margaritas and daiquiris on the patio. I'm such a cheap drunk, I had one and my legs felt funny (it's the tequila - we all know someone who isn't allowed to have it anymore - right Weakley??). The girlz were laughing at me - it was 'mucho grande' though. Then we got this idea and the three of us headed down to the market to have our palms read! I've never done that or anything like that before. It was fun! The lady wrote all of the stuff on our hands. She wasn't too far off on quite a few things too. Actually she was bang on for a few things for each of us. I think it cheered MizB up, but the news is: the boy is moving. Sigh. Too bad.

Altruism

I'm into finding different words instead of always using the same ones, so there you have the title of this post. When I worked as a student at Nortel in the summers we used to do the newspaper crossword at lunch and on Monday we'd pick one of the words and use it all week. Yeah, we were geeks, but it was fun anyway. In fact, it often meant a lot of laughter over the course of the week. But I digress, as that's not the purpose of my post...

Funny. The other day I was talking to a physician I call on about traveling (he travels a lot and is always interested in hearing about my plans). I told him about the idea of a trip where I can give back. Something about the poverty in Panama put that idea in my head I guess. He cautioned me about crime and disease with a couple of stories of other physicians who have traveled to really crazy places to help. I said that I guess in some ways I'm still pretty idealistic. I'm often conflicted with being pretty jaded, having had some tough experiences in life, and still being a little on the idealistic side deep down. I wanted to share something with whomever reads here, because it touched my soft side. It reminds us that when you do nice things, it does make the world a better place because people are reminded of the fact that we are all human. These days people frequently forget that. Like aggressive drivers, and bad cyclists (I had to add that - don't worry, I'm not holding on to it - I'm laughing as I write that part).

So check this out, and be sure to read the post on the Breakfast Fairy and the follow up post.

Content

I'm surprised how quickly I was able to think of another adjective starting with the letter 'c'. That's me right now. I'm going to have an epsom salts bath and do some serious stretching. This morning I did strength training with Jessica and even though she knew I was going to go climb hills this afternoon, we still did squats with a kick (no weight at least) and hamstrings. Yikes! When I got to Fortune Lake hill my quads were burning before I even started. But I made it!! Luckily that hill has a few flat spots where you can recover a bit and I actually recovered really well on those parts. I have this funny thing about riding, where I seem to be strongest in the last leg of a ride. So after Fortune Lake I seemed to be able to stand up and climb fast on the short hills. Weird. There is this nice, quick, moderately steep climb right before you get back to the Gamelin parking lot and Ruth and I climbed it standing doing 30kph!!! I was shocked when I looked down. The descent right before didn't hurt to get our speed up. And one more thing about today's ride was that Pink Lake, while still very challenging for me (granny gear territory), didn't seem as bad as my imagination leads me to believe. I think after a summer of Gat Loops I'm going to crush that f-ing hill! The wind was something fierce today too. We did not go as fast as usual on the big descents for fear of being blown over. Seriously. And there were trilliums everywhere in the forest. I don't think I've seen them like that before - the whole forest floor covered in them. Very pretty.
So, as you can tell, my bike is back in working order. A very nice bike fairy fixed a broken spoke for me. :) Tomorrow - Tour Nortel.

Crusty

No longer a description for my leg, arm, and right hand. The last of the wounds seem to be healed. It's my mood that I'm describing this evening. After spending two long and very busy days in Kingston I was happy to have received a phone call during my drive home to get out to the Gats and climb some hills. I got home and changed and prepared my bike as quickly as I could and then got out the door equally as fast. On my way out I noticed my back wheel was rubbing against the brake pad. In fact, I couldn't move the bike forward. I fiddled with it a bit and figured I could quickly fix it when I got there (while in the back of my head I was also thinking something might be wrong because I couldn't easily fix it at home by loosening the skewer and realigning the tire). So, I battled the traffic and got to the park. Upon meeting up with my friends I asked them to look at the wheel and tell me what they thought - at this point I'd been frigging around with it and was considering loosening the brake pads (even though I had that little voice in my head saying: "don't be a dumbass"). As I described to another person later: 'after much deliberation and expert discussion from 3 only-semi-mechanically-literate cycling chicks', we decided I should not be descending hills at high speeds with a warped tire. And hopefully it's just the tire. So I came home and sulked. And then I got to responding to some work emails that really pissed me off. So I had to save them and look at them again later when I was in less of a crusty mood to be sure I wasn't being unreasonably bitchy. Yeah. At least I have the sense not to whip off the types of responses I'd like to sometimes. That and earlier today I even thought of a very witty and equally nasty response to a voicemail I received. Where do days like these come from? I'm just glad I don't have them often. You know, getting knocked off my bike the other week, I was calm (in shock, mind you), and unreasonably nice to the person who did it to me. Then some days, you just want to tell people like that to piss right off. Yep. Crusty day. Crusty Bex. What else can I say? At least I have friends who then pick me up for dinner and encourage my unusual decision to have a margarita. Tomorrow is a new day. I'll find a new adjective then.

Philanthropy

Week-long meetings tend to burn me out. Not to mention ones when lots of new things are coming down... like some new additions to software to learn, facilitating training, giving a presentation to my colleagues, meetings about how my job is going to change (we're expanding), etc, etc. The cool thing we did last week was VTI Day. This day used to be reserved for head office employees only until about 2 years ago when they started having our national meeting in April and we got to join in the festivities with the rest of the company. Each year is different and this time they set up the biggest tent I've ever seen in the parking lot of the office - apparently it took about 5 days to set it up. They gathered us together at the lunch hour and sent us all off in groups on different buses to places we'd chosen ahead of time to do community service. I went to the YMCA daycamp with 40-50 of my closest friends to set up the camp for the new season. We painted picnic tables, the pavilion, cleaned out the offices, the shed, set up the canoes, and cleaned up the walking paths, etc. of debris and garbage. After returning to the big huge tent at HO we all sat down to a very nice dinner and they presented employees with awards of recognition (for which they were nominated by their peers). The MC was a Canadian comedian (I don't know who - I don't pay attention to those things). Then Tom Cochrane came out and gave us our own private concert! Crazy night. Crazy day. It was a lot of fun.

After the trip to Panama, I started feeling a little burnt out from traveling. When I've thought about it I still get that feeling of longing to see the world. But with all of the work travel in the last year, and everything else I do, I haven't been able to imagine physically going anywhere. I started thinking about just sticking around town for a while - at least this summer. Ride my bike, do some tours that are within driving distance, etc. For the first time in several years I don't have any idea of where I might travel to next. I'd like to do an overseas bike trip with some of the people I cycle with, but I'm not sure if that will come to fruition. I guess part of me is waiting to see what might happen there. And then this week after participating in the volunteer day at work I started to think about visiting places that I want to see and experience and while I'm there, give back to that community. So I started looking into that kind of thing. My next trip might be quite the departure from what I've been doing up until now. And with that, I have started to think about where I might go next! But that would be next year, and first I have to see how work goes since next year will be a pivotal one for the area in which I work. I'm not sure what time of year I might travel. For now, I'll keep you posted on the small bike trips. Those should be fun as well. You don't have to go far to have an adventure!

Pill Hill

So this is me procrastinating (or maybe just multi-tasking as per my usual behaviour) on finishing up some work for a presentation I'm doing Friday here in the Meadowvale area of the Big Smoke (ref in title). Maybe I should explain for those of you not 'in the know': this area is called Pill Hill because there are a ton of medical and pharma companies' HQs located in and around this neighbourhood. And as much as I like go-carting (and I'm not joking - I've only done it once and it was a blast), my leg is still much too sore to be bumping around in one of those, so I ducked out early from the Playdium with a few other colleagues so I could come back to the hotel, get some work done, and get to bed early. They actually have a fantastic gym here and I got up a little after 6 AM today and got a workout in and plan to do the same tomorrow. I'm missing far too many rides this week as a result of being away. Everybody better not get too much of a head start on me... I want to be able to keep up to you! Even though the weekend is looking pretty jammed, I'm going to try to get out to both rides with the gang. Wish me luck!

Let the interesting tan lines begin!

This is called procrastinating on getting ready for the meeting I'm leaving for tomorrow. I was out for a really nice ride today and one of my friends mentioned I should write about my crash last week. I'll be brief, as I don't feel like re-hashing it a million times over and I want to try to forget about it now... in short: a real a-hole of a cyclist came up behind me as I made a left hand turn (thankfully at the end of my totally amazing ride), and clipped me. I think it was my back tire. And I went flying across the oncoming lane. I got road rash on my leg, arm, and hand, and some scrapes on my knee, but otherwise I'm ok.

What I'd really rather write about is the amazing weather we've been having and as a result, some great riding. So, my first time out was last Saturday in some colder weather. Then this week I got out Thursday, then only an hour yesterday to make sure my bike was in working order and I got some of my jitters out before heading out with 4 others today. We only went to Manotick and back, but it was really good. And it was challenging in the end because the wind was fierce today! On the way back it ended up being Ruth and I on our own with a tailwind doing 38kph down the airport parkway. :) So I hope to get more km's on this year than last, and I also hope not to zero out my second odometer by accident again. But just in case, I'm going to log my km's so I can keep track. I've seen how other people log their yearly km's and see their progress over the years. I want to do that. Last year I got in just a little under 4000 km. This year I have a lot more tours planned, so I should easily surpass that.

Random Photos #2

Coming home from a long day on the job. Portobelo.

I love this photo.

The view from our cabin at the B&B near Isla Grande.

I was literally standing on our porch when I took this.

The largest size of ship allowed through the canal. At the Gatun Locks. This is the one that paid $195K to cross the canal. I guess it's cheaper than going around a whole continent.

The market in El Valle d'Anton.

El Valle d'Anton

Random Photos

Panama City skyline from Casco Viejo (from the Presidential Palace, in fact - the guards let us wander around on the grounds). The water there is toxic because they dump all of the sewage into the ocean. That's the Pacific Ocean there, btw.

In Casco Viejo: one of those building with all of the guts torn out like I told you about in an earlier post.

These are the ruins of the Spanish fortification on the Caribbean Sea, San Lorenzo (near Portobelo). Pretty nice eh? They built them to defend against the pirates.

Examples of the typical public buses that transport you everywhere. They were old school buses brought in from the US. Each bus driver commissions a 'bus artist' to paint their bus with symbols, pictures, quotes, sayings, etc (quite a lot of it religious), so they are each very unique. In the city, most of the buses blare loud music. I had the privilege of riding on one in Panama City. It costs 25 cents.

I'll post more pictures on the weekend. Between this and crackbook I'm spending way too much time on this computer. I've got to go to bed.

San Blas

8 AM flight meant waking up at 5:30 AM... most mornings during this past trip were quite early, in fact. We had a bit of a problem at the airport: the woman at the desk didn't want to serve us because we are white. So, after she told us that the flight had already left (6:45 AM, and as I said, it was an 8 AM flight, plus she hadn't even asked which of the 4 flights we were intending on taking), and Lisa yelled at her for a bit in Spanish, we finally got checked in.

We flew there on Aeroperlas (you have the choice of Aeroperlas or Air Panama - AP was sold out) on a small , 15-seater prop. I was scared sh#$less on the way there, since we decided to sit at the back, beside the doors - where I could actually see through the holes, and feel the air from outside through the less-than-well-maintained seals. And I've flown on "Scareskin" (Bearskin, for those who aren't so acquainted) on a much smaller plane before, so that says something. This is what was going through my head:

Is this plane pressurized?
Oh, no, I guess we don't fly high enough for that.
S#*t, am I going to get sucked out of the door?
I'm not ready to die.
Ok, I'm not going to die. Have faith. The pilot is good. He's good. Nothing's going to happen.
Is this plane pressurized? No. I think I've already established that, considering the fact that I can feel the air coming in that we're not. It's ok.
People skydive out of planes and the door is open then. Yes, that means that we do not need to be pressurized. Yes, that's the kind of height we're at. Yes, I can see skydiving at this altitude. Ok. We're good. We're not going to die.
OMG! The lady beside us is sleeping away through all of the crazy dips and huge bumps we're taking. She seems to be used to this. Ok. that means this is normal and all is well in the world.
If I die, I hope it's quick.

We had some bumpy weather, so the back was not the ideal spot. Found out later, from Marilyne's bf (who works for Costa airlines) that Aeroperlas has the worst rep for crashes - nice. Glad we made it in one piece. Here is our plane:



If you look through the windshield, you'll see the airstrip upon which we landed:
And here is the 'airport'- an airstrip on the edge of the mainland and a dock for the very small boats that the Kuna use to ferry travelers and goods:

But when we arrived, the bumpy plane ride, followed by the moderately bumpy boat ride in questionable boats was all worth it:

I've uploaded all of my trip photos - you can also use the link on the right as usual (Photos). I may post some of my faves here and explain some l8tr...

I had a really, really wonderful time. I had to sleep a lot the past few days to recover though, and I'm super glad, as usual, to be home. :)

Teaser

I'd been laying in the sand on our little island in San Blas, letting the waves wash over me again and again, cooling me off, watching this scene, and I started thinking: "I've got to capture that, if there is any possible way to." So I got up, went to our little grass house and fished out my camera, laid back down in the sand, careful not to let the water get my camera wet, and snapped this picture. Returned my camera back to our lodgings, and went back to my position of relaxation and serenity in the water and sand...

Final Leg

As per usual, I will be returning home from vacation tomorrow tired. I rarely take the type of vacation that allows true R&R. Luckily, I have the remainder of the week off! But enough of that, you are probably all wondering what I've been up to... and the answer is: a lot!

Our travel plans had to be rearranged at the last minute, as we were awaiting confirmation of a few different reservations to get to San Blas. The flights were all sold out, and we had to scramble to get our flight booked and our lodging arrangements rescheduled. So, instead of spending time in the Caribbean islands at the end of the week, we went on the weekend and just returned this morning. So, maybe I'll start there and go backward. San Blas... what can I say? If you ever dare to venture down this way, do not miss it! All of the beautiful tropical island postcards out there - this place is it. It's an archipelago of islands on the Caribbean coast, primarily inhabited by the Kuna indigenous people of Panama. The island we stayed on was very small - we walked around it in no time. There are only 4 families living on our little island and one of them is in charge of this little 'hotel' consisting of 2 huts (sorry to Lisa - they are houses, but nobody back home will get the picture if I do not call them that), and a little kitchen house where they prepare food for us. There is no electricity, no running water. We lived on the beach for a day and slept by the ocean. You will see the pictures when I get back... oh my god!!! Amazing. I'll also write more on the experience when I'm back, as I don't have enough time today.

At the end of last week we took a trip to the mountains and a village called El Valle d'Anton. I was happy to be there and get some relief from the heat and pollution of Panama City. We spent two days there, had a great dinner at the hotel and restaurant that Lisa's soon-to-be former landlord owns and operates (the place is renouned and for good reason). We lazed around in the hammocks at the hotel we stayed at, went to the zoo and saw some pretty cool animals, and shopped at their famed market for local artisans' wares. The town is full of retired Americans, and is good at welcoming the tourists. It's really beautiful too. We ate a traditional Panamanian meal for lunch the day we left: corvina (sea bass), fried plantains, and rice. Awesome food! My first time eating fried plantian. Upon our return on Saturday, Lisa's roommate had taken posession of her new car, so we got to take it out and had dinner together.

I'll be back soon...

Crossing the Isthmus

Back in the city again... we spent the last couple of days driving. We drove across the isthmus from Panama City on the Pacific coast, to the region of Colon on the Caribbean. The driving was just exhausting. I don´t know the exact kilometers, but it´s not that far - maybe 80-100 km. The roads are terrible though, and as a result it takes forever. There were so many potholes and crazy stuff going on all around us. You have to be on your toes at all times. After two days of driving here I was just completely burnt out and last night I slept like the living dead.

We visited Portobelo (in the Colon province), a famed city for the yearly religious procession that occurs to visit the relatively small catholic church there to see the black Jesus. From what I was told, people make this pilgrimage with others lashing them and pouring hot wax on them the whole way. Personally, I think the walk there (from all over the country) in the intense heat of this place would be taxing enough without having people physically abuse you along the way. I guess I´m not all that masochistic. There are some old Spanish ruins of a fortress built to defend the Caribbean coast there. It´s very nice. But there is also a lot of poverty everywhere you go here, and Portobelo was no exception. It´s hard to see the way people live here. There are a lot of slums and it´s not very safe in a lot of places. In Portobelo we stayed at a bed & breakfast owned by a couple from France. It was built on a steep hill overlooking the sea. There was one main house and 2 small cabins. We stayed in one of the cabins. They were so nice, and our view was breathtaking. Unfortunately I did not sleep well at all because I was worried all night that the monkeys might break in, and every single noise on the tin roof startled me. The power went out (as is typical in that province - they lose power all the time) so we had no fan and it was swelteringly hot. But I should reinforce that the place was really, really nice. I realized that the rainforest is so noisy... there are a million animal sounds at night. Not like at home where you hear some crickets, frogs and that´s about it when you are out in the wilderness. In the rainforest (which we were surrounded by out there) there is a whole new shift at night - during the day it-s humans and other animals that make all of the noise, at night there are just as many to take our places.

The next morning we drove to the city of Colon. This is the ´free trade zone´on the Caribbean entrance to the Panama Canal. The city is very dangerous, so we only skirted it in the car with our doors locked. The reason for heading there was to visit the canal locks at the Caribbean sea at Gatun Lake. The lake is man-made, as is the whole of the canal. We watched a few ships pass through and were lucky enough to see an example of the largest ship that is allowed to pass which carries 5000 containers. It was from Holland. The ships have to pay tariffs to pass. The tariffs are based on the load of the ship, as well as its size. This ship was the heaviest load and the longest allowed. They had to pay $195,000 to cross the canal. The ships are pulled through the locks by these little engines on tracks using long cables. I have tons of pictures, so you´ll see. There are plans to widen the canal locks to accomodate larger ships which carry up to 8000 containers. I think they said the construction was to start in the next year. We were tired after the visit and so we headed back on the precarious drive back to Panama city which took several hours.

A few things to mention that I hadn´t in my last post... everyone here drives. Very few people walk. Nobody bikes (too dangerous with the traffic and too hot). Even those who cannot afford a car have one as they buy on credit. The taxis are ultra cheap - $1 to go most places, $1.25 if you are 2 people, $1.50 for further drives. So like us coming here to the internet cafe (only a couple of blocks from Lisa´s apt), we walked, but will likely take a cab home because it´s just too hot. They really like everything American - skyscrapers, products, fashion, etc., but they seem to have this love-hate relationship... everywhere we go we seem to get discriminated against because we´re ´white gringos´(americans). It´s kind of annoying. I got pretty pissed about it when returning the rental car this morning. They think anyone who is white is American. And you don´t get that wonderful big eyed smile when they find out you are Canadian. You are a foreigner, and you are white. That´s it. But otherwise, most people here can be pretty nice. I´ve had some really good fish here, but haven´t had much in the way of traditional food (really just rice and beans - and lots of meat). Like I said, loving to emulate American pop culture, they are into the fast food and what-not like crazy. Luckily Lisa has found several healthy restaurants that don´t fry every single thing and who actually don´t scoff at the sight of a vegetable. I´ve eaten some really great fruit here - the little bananas, the regular bananas, local oranges, mangoes are in season (must buy some), avocadoes are in season (ditto), and I´ve eaten a ton of coconut. It´s so good here! I even got to drink the coconut milk out of the fruit itself at the B&B two days ago. Yum!

Today we will relax in town a bit, and the plan is to fly to the archipelago of San Blas in the Caribbean tomorrow.

Ciao!

Latin America

I´m here, aclimatised, but sweating profusely. It´s very hot and humid here. And apparently this is super dry! The rainy season should start in a couple of weeks and the humidity will go through the roof at that time. My travel day to get here was interesting, with a 7-hour lay-over in Atlanta. I met a woman from Toronto in one of the concourses - there are 6 of them: A,B,C,D,E,T. I visited them all partly to get some exercise, partly to entertain myself. When I arrived here it was late - around 10 PM. Stayed up late catching up with Lisa and meeting her roommate, who is francophone as well, so I was speaking French - looks like this trip I will be practicing my French a lot! :) Lisa´s got a Panamanian bf, and Marilyne is dating a Mexican, and last night we were sitting around talking with 3 different languages being spoken and various people translating various things for others. One of the guys only speaks Spanish, the other Spanish and English, the three of us girls all speak French, Marilyne speaks French & Spanish, but only a little English, Lisa speaks all three, I can make out some things they are saying in Spanish, but not a lot... it was a totally hilarious experiment in cultures colliding. We would get mixed up in languages and burst out laughing.

You will get a kick out of what I did on Saturday... Lisa and her roommate have to find a new apt, so after buying some groceries, Lisa and I headed out to meet up with Marilyne to look at apts - we saw4 of them in all. So I really got to see what living in Panama City is like. We walked a lot, but we also got rides from a few people, which I thought was just hilarious. Panama City is pretty small, so we were standing on the street corner hailing a cab, when a friend of Marilyne´s pulled up and offered us a lift. Then at the apts we visited, the landlords drove us around to them, and home again after. Lisa and I headed out later in the afternoon to a place called La Centrale - a very, very, very crowded and dusty pedestrian street lined with ultra-cheap shops. We bought a few extra towels and cheap sandals. Then we walked down to the old city: Casco Viejo. UNESCO has designated it a world heritage site because a lot of Panama City has been leveled in order to build all of the big skyscrapers that you see in most pictures. If they hadn´t made it a heritage site there would probably be nothing left of it now. What´s so fascinating is that the exterior, the facades, of the buildings are being preserved and the insides, the guts, are being completely ripped out. I have some pictures of that. They then restore the exterior and completely rebuild the interiors. Those old colonial buildings had been left to sit in squalor for many decades before the government set out to bring the old town back to life. Before heading back to Lisa´s apt, we stopped in at the main square in Casco Viejo and took in a bit of a Caribbean drum concert with some of her friends.

Sunday we rented a car - not an easy feat. Things generally move slowly around here, so I think we spent over an hour just waiting to be served. Car secured, we drove to the Pacific coast to a beach called Santa Clara and spent the whole day there. According to the locals, it´s the best beach on the Pacific (I´ve been told the beaches on that coast aren´t half as nice as the ones on the Caribbean). The beach was very nice and we were blessed with a fair bit of cloud coverage so that this ultra-white Canadian girl didn´t burn (well, except for my knee-pits, which I obviously missed with the sunscreen). My extremely white skin has been attracting a lot of attention down here. There aren´t a whole lot of foreigners. I´ve seen a few Americans, and know a couple of French girls, but that´s about it. We kind of stick out like a sore thumb. Driving here is complete insanity. Luckily I´m not a nervous driver, as I will have done a fair bit of it here by week´s end. Yesterday was a 2-hour drive to the beach and the same back. Crazy roads, big pot-holes, drivers not heeding any sort of rules at all, slow drivers, insanely fast drivers, near misses several times around me... nerves of steel, I tell you. That´s what you need to drive here. I´m doing well on that front. Got back to driving stick too.

So, this morning Lisa had to do some work and get some emails sorted out and what-not before we head out to the Caribbean coast for a couple of days, which gave me the chance to update all of you. Later this morning we´ll be heading over to the locks on the canal and then we´re going to a place called Portobelo. I don´t know much about it yet, but will update again when I get a chance. Later in the week we will fly to a place called San Blas, and also take a bus to another place whose name escapes me, but I believe is on a crater in the mountains. Heading to a part of the rainforest is still possible, but not 100% certain. We will see. Lisa´s had a lot of trouble with parasites while living in the indigenous community where she studies, and it´s a very long and difficult voyage, so we will not be going there as there isn´t quite enough time and she doesn´t want me to get sick (and frankly, neither do I). So, until the next time I´m able to update you... hope the weather is steadily warming up back home and take care of yourselves!

Post for Anthony

Ok. This is just hilarious. As I sat here and could only get through the first 51 seconds, cracking up the whole time... this is for my colleague, who told me I needed to download this to the iPod and (head banging included) rock out to it in preparation for my trip...
Thanks AM!