Surf's Up!

 This past weekend we decided to head for the beach for a little relaxation.  We went to visit our fellow Peace Corps volunteer Sally in her town near Cambutal Beach on the south coast of our peninsula.  Neither our town nor hers is near a major road, so we had to take five different trucks and buses (and six hours!) to get there.  Friday night we stayed at a lovely hostel with a view of the beach.

The view from the hostel

A nice place to relax!

Saturday morning we woke up to steady rain.  After all, it is the rainy season here from May until December.  Fortunately the rain stopped after breakfast and by mid-morning the beach was sunny. Sally and Steve borrowed a beginner surfboard, and Heather went along to document the event.  Steve had not been surfing since the early days of the Southbank School in London, during their outdoor education weeks.  That was 30 years ago!  His goal was just to stand up on the board.  He was happy that he was able to get a few rides and stand up three or four times for a few seconds!

Steve and Sally get ready to surf!

While we were there, three men showed up and set up their motorized parachutes with a big fan located behind the operator.  The gasoline motors were pretty loud, but it looked like fun.  We probably won't try it though, as trees and power lines could be a problem if the wind picks up!

Getting ready to launch

These three disappeared into the morning sky

There were some nice little cabañas on the shore.  Maybe on a future visit we will try them.

After the surfing, we headed to Sally's town a short distance inland.  She introduced us to the families in her town and took us on a tour.

It's never too early to start to ride!

This iguana project is supposed to take some pressure off the endangered iguanas in the wild.  The owners will either eat or sell them.

 The big event of the year in her town was the baile (dance) on Saturday night.  Sally was not able to attend last year due to a Peace Corps training event, so she really wanted to see this one.  The baile started early with a cantadera, which is part singing contest, part poetry slam.  Two men start out, each singing a décima, which is a ten-line song with eight syllables per line and a certain rhyming scheme which has to be followed.  One singer starts out with a décima with a particular theme, usually something simple like the characteristics of men, women, or love.  The other singer has to decide if he agrees with the first person or not, usually not.  He offers a décima of his own.  They alternate for several times, each one trying to outdo the other.  One will make some arguing points, and the other will rebut and offer opposing points.  After the first couple of rounds, they have to make up their décimas on the spot, which to us seems like a very difficult thing to do.  These guys, however, have lots of experience and make it look easy.  All this goes on for a few hours before the dancing begins.

The man in the dark blue is thinking up his next décima while the other man sings.

You may have noticed the bottles on the table in the last picture.  There was a lot of drinking going on, which is normal for a baile.  Beers were 75 cents each (three times the store price), which made them accessible to all.  The real bargain, though was the seco, a kind of rum made from sugar cane.  A liter of seco only costs a few dollars.  Usually it is mixed with ice and a soft drink, but we saw a lot of people drinking straight from the bottle.

There are lots of seco bottles around

We were happy that we were able to drink a beer or two in public without a problem. In Chepo, it is illegal to buy liquor anywhere, so we don't drink in our town.  At the baile, however, the townspeople expected us to drink.

Around 11 pm they cleared away the tables in the center of the area and people started dancing to Panamanian tipico music, which was quite lively.  The main instrument in the band was the accordion, which was accompanied by a bass guitar and three drummers.  They alternated between a male and female singer, and both were quite good.  In order to dance, men each had to pay $5.00.  (We thought this price was a little steep - after all, $5.00 is almost seven beers!),  A bright green paper was stapled to each man's collar after paying.  The price was really $5.00 per couple, as the women weren't charged anything.  The dancing was very popular, with the dance floor filled to capacity for each dance with couples of all ages.  We left around midnight, but the band kept going until around 3:30.

On Sunday morning, we left early so that we could be home in time to watch the US-Panama soccer final of the Gold Cup (Central and North America).  We went over to our neighbors' house with two flags (one of each country) to see the game.  At half time we made popcorn for everyone, and they made us a delicious dessert from local fruits.  We felt badly for our hosts when the US scored the goal and went ahead.  They took it pretty well.  "Someone had to win," said one of them.

In mid-July the University of Panama celebrated 75 years of their English program with a week-long congress at the Panama City campus. Heather and a few other Peace Corps Volunteers in the Teaching English program made presentations at the congress.  Steve tagged along and we spent three nights in the city. We met up with lots of Peace Corps friends who were in the city for various reasons. On Saturday night we had tickets to see Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida, the musical.  We  were so excited to finally see the inside of the National Theatre where it was held, and the production of Aida was first class.  

The National Theater of Panama

We found out last month that the Peace Corps will be coming to Chepo for in-service training  for six nights in September.  The most recent group of environmental volunteers (24 in total), arrived in Panama in February.  They have been in their communities for a few months now, so they have had time to decide which projects will be best for their sites.  They will be training here in making stoves, reforestation, gardening, and other topics.  Steve has a lot of organizing to do in the meantime, as host families have to be found for everyone, and lunches and training activities arranged.  We are honored that they chose our town for this important event.  Now we just have to make sure it all happens smoothly!

Well, that's it for now.  

Steve and Heather