Panama Update #51
September 21, 2008
Nikki returned this morning after completing her 3rd week aboard the research vessel. She was on the other side (Caribbean) of Panama from where we live. They explored the Kuna Yala (San Blas) region, going almost to the Colombian border. They slept on the boat but during the day went on geology expeditions in the water and jungle. She has many stories to tell about cutting their way through the thick jungle and seeing all sorts of enormous spiders, millions of gigantic ants and gigantic ant rubbish piles, monkeys, snakes, all sorts of colorful plants, huge trees with big thorns in the bark, vines, and crocodiles. In the water she saw dolphins, flying fish, needle noise fish, gigantic corrals, and much more. Maybe she will share her experiences some time first hand in the blog. Today she caught up on her emails and was generally feeling good and in good spirits. She wasn't land-sick at all like she was when she returned the time before.
Yesterday I led the Yoga/Meditation at the Center across town. Someone going there from this side of town gave me a ride. She is a Jewish woman from Jamaica who is married to a man from Trinidad. She came to Panama originally because of a job transfer for her husband. She was dropping her son off at a synagogue near where we were going for some Saturday activities. She and her family had just returned from a 2 week trip to Israel that was a family reunion of about 75 people from all over the world. It was a nice, friendly crowd at the Meditation of about 20 people. It was a diverse group of people including native Panamanians to Yoga instructors to first-time practitioners to people from the US to people from Europe and Poland. I am not sure how they all heard about it, but it was advertised on a couple of websites. Here is one webiste if anyone wants to follow the Panama social scene: http://www.panamasocialcalendar.com/month.php (click on Sept. 20 at 2:00 PM for a description of the Meditation session)
