Parties in the Pool

I learn so much from my days in Mama Rutí's pool, it's where all the action is.


About a month ago there was a kiddie birthday party in the pool and it was sooooo cute! They had a pinata!!! This was before I had Costa Rica plans for my birthday and I thought to myself I'd celebrate my birthday with a pinata.Well, my birthday's well over but I'm still thinking I'll get one for the craic before I go!

The pinata

Another week there was a wedding in 'la finca' (the soccer pitch) behind the pool in the evening. It was so sweet and understated. It felt pretty casual, and pretty idyllic, with a pool party after? Hell Yea...I don't actually know if they had a pool party after but I'm hoping they did!

My creeping snaps, sorry they're blurry!

Getting the place set up for the night

Another Saturday I went to the pool it was the local fish factory's work party. Well this was hilarious! I wasn't hassled all day until they were wrapping things up around five when this guy (drunk) and his wife perched themselves beside me on the lounger and started having the chats. Then it came to medal presentations for their soccer league and low and behold I was called upon to present the medals to the winners. The guy in charge would pass me the medal and I'd give it to the winner and shake their hand, it was hilarious- and mortifying! After that was over I decided I could walk home instead of getting my usual lift with Mamma Rutí, there was no point making a spectacle of myself any longer!


A few weeks later I went to the pool on a weekday. Usually its really quiet during the week, with one elderly man and his coach and then a few odd people. This morning was very different.

I was in the pool about half an hour when a soccer team arrived. Grand. They left me alone. Grand. But not for long....

One of the players was I guy I met at the fish factory party and so he came over and said hello. Grand. Then he wanted to introduce me to his managers (or so I thought), instead I was introduced to, and shook hands with, 30-odd players and their managers as they sat in a giant circle in the restaurant area of the pool. I couldn't escape! I had the usual chats I have here (why I'm here, the colour of my skin, what I think of Panama and Panamanians), and had lunch and a few beers with them, they were actually very nice! They found it hard to believe that there are people whiter than me in Ireland (and I thought I was tanned, so sad)!

Apparently you're not supposed to mix watermelon and beer though, so I only had the one (They were all drinking Panama Light, my fave) since I'd eaten a massive chunk of watermelon earlier! They left around 3pm, inviting me to join them at some wedding party they were going to but I politely declined!

These are just a few days at the pool, the funniest days, another funny day was after we arrived when I was my whitest and these little boys and girls were all curious about me, calling me 'gringa' (only the boys, the girls learned my name) and we played tig in the water.

Finally, I've been asked for my photo in the pool with kids on more than a few occasions too... I would hate to be famous! It really is gas though.

So that's it, feeling very popular by the poolside! :D

Panama Pool Poaching

Crystal clear pool, nom.

So a few weeks ago I went what's called 'Pool Poaching', or what I prefer to call 'Pool Crashing'.

I'd read about it on this guys blog where he gave instructions on exactly where the pool is in a few different hotels in the city and what to expect. He's since gone to even more pools that he gives the down-low on here. How convenient! I'll have to go for round two myself soon!

It was a great day's adventure!

I chose the Hard Rock Hotel pool since it boasted three jacuzzis with actual hot water in them (which is apparently rare in Panama).

Once in the lobby of the hotel I was up the elevator to AS2 where I strolled out onto the pool deck, casual as. I'd the bikini on underneath my dress and had my 'fancy bag' with me to look the part. I picked a free lounger and hopped into the pool straight away.

The place was pretty quiet and after a while I hopped into one of the free jacuzzis. It wasn't long before I had company. I had great chats with a Guatemalan guy (he must be minted was all I was thinking) who'd come for a bachelor's party. He introduced me to his friends and 'the Irish'- yep, one of his Guatemalan friends was GINGER! Couldn't believe it!

Better yet, I didn't have to worry about making up a room number as he foot the bill for my first Corona (yay). I let him in on my secret.  We had the chats with the lifeguard too, who was actually from La Chorrera (he didn't mind my crashing) so we'd loads to talk about!

The Guatemalan Bachelor's Party was headed to Casco Viejo for lunch and invited me but there was no way I was leaving the pool, it was so fancy!

The story's only beginning! 

The #nomakeupselfie timing was impeccable!

There was a group of people sitting where I'd left my bag, but when I went to move it they absolutely would not have me ousted from my place. This bunch was from the States and were gas craic. They looked about 30...but were actually all in their forties (why are they always so old?)...anyway, they were absolute gym boys, waxed chests and all and full of conversation. They were with two girls too that they'd picked up along the way! I had great guy conversation and watched as they took turns to chat up women by the poolside, it was great fun! I learned a few bits about the States too...Apparently the new norm for first dates in the States now is way beyond the casual kiss on the lips. And as for waxing chests? Total social norm too...yikes!

With these boys I had my first Corona Chilada (or Enchilada- at least that's what it sounds like), which is DEEELISH! It's a salt rimmed glass with lime soda that you add your Corona to, LOVE IT!

We were having the chats on the loungers when an employee came by and replaced the pool towel I was lying on for a fresh one, I definitely shouldn't have bothered bringing my own!

I felt like a Spanish pro as I made dinner reservations for the State-side boys. While some of the boys went souvenir shopping before they left I checked out their suite and had my first HOT SHOWER in two months...! I did not want to leave!

I don't think I've even been so excited about hot water!

Serious power shower!!!

I went to Arturo's hostel for the evening and had the craic arsing around on the skateboard, trying and failing to make any progress! Then at like half eleven I went back to the Hard Rock to check out the rooftop disco-bar with the State-side boys and two really nice Canadian girls they'd found in the mean time, they meant business! Anyway, the view from the bar was amazing!

The view from the roof-top bar

It was so different to my usual nights out here though, it was so European, there was no ass-dancing, was a bit stuffy and the crowd a bit old and the girls were all in heels!
I thought I'd leave at a respectable hour but on my way out I bumped into the Guatemalan fellas - the ass dancing crew, so much more fun! At this stage it was too late to get the bus back to La Chorrera so we stayed dancing and having the craic til half three...then I got a very 'interesting' taxi to the bus terminal and got back home before the sun rise- just about!

All in all, for a solo-adventure it wasn't half bad!

All lit up 

Sweet Sixteen...Fifteen...What?

Sweet Sixteen...Fifteen...What?

Here in Panama, for some unknown reason (I've asked everyone) they celebrate fifteenth birthdays. It's their 'Super Sweet Sixteen'.

In the states you can drive a car, here girls get a ring for their fifteenth birthday.
And it's only for girls!

This weekend I was invited to my first fifteenth birthday party. EXCITED!

Alejandra, one of the girls I teach English to, turned 15 on Sunday and so the party was Saturday night. I was intrigued, this was an offer I couldn't refuse!

Friday before the party I got the best invite ever, hand delivered from across the road with a 'plus one' for my 'compañea' (Siobhan).

She likes to surf too :) 

Saturday night came and we got a lift to the restaurant with Alejandra's family. We were told that usually families can spend $2,000 on the 15th Birthday but they were keeping it small- a few close friends and the mother's side of the family (still about 40 people were there I think).

We arrived to Don Luis restaurant and chat with Ajejandra's friends and family. Before there was any sign of food there were a billion speeches- her sister, mother, father and Goddparents all spoke and her cousin sung her a song that I think she'd written herself. It was so cute! They even had a video of pictures from Alejandra's first birthday til now! I was particularly delighted too- I got a special mention in the mammy's speech! I had to stand up so everyone could see me as I was welcomed to Panama and to the del Carmen family. I felt so loved!

It felt very formal but they're all such good public speakers!

But when half eight came and there was still  no sign of food - apart from cheetos (they all eat cheetos here)- I was beginning to think maybe I'd got it wrong and there was no dinner at all...and Shivs and I were huuuungrrrry!

Food arrived when the speeches were finished though. Yay! This being one of the few meals I've had out now, I'm pretty sure people don't come to Panama for the cuisine. It's just a little boring. Don't get me wrong, the birthday dinner was tasty but it just wasn't anything special.

Birthday Dins  

Dessert was some sort of cake too, not that exciting either...
But we did get some Birthday champagne so that was fancy!  


And the party afterwards was so fun, I just wished I hadn't worn a dress so I could join in the action!
The boys and girls played Twister and played with hoola hoops (I could do that, attempt that) and played Just Dance (I chose not to do that). It was gas though, there's no way I could picture 15 year old girls and boys in Ireland playing like together that, they'd be too cool!

They don't play it like we play it either!

We stayed til after ten, when the crowed dwindled, hoping they'd cut the AMAZING cake, but no such luck!

How incredible is this? 

Buuuut when I arrived to give my English class Monday she had two slices of cake wrapped up for me to take home, deeeelighted! It was yummy! The filling was like a toffee flavour and the icing was crackly, how I don't know, but since sweet things are few and far between here Shivs and I made sure to enjoy it!

And finally, Alejandra gave me one of the little figurine decorations her auntie made her as a keepsake, it's adorable, I'll just have to make sure I wrap it up well for coming home!

My keepsake :) 

I think I should get myself an 'I love Panama' t-shirt before I leave!

Alejandra, the sweet fifteener :)

Some family and friends :) 

Cake time! Yum yum yum!

'CrossFit' Craic

 

So I joined the CrossFit White Lion place and LOVE IT!

And it's less than a five minute walk away so no excuse!

It's become my routine every evening now and helps to keep me motivated for the day...it also helps me justify the amount of butter bread rolls (Panama style croissants) I've been eating!

The place is great craic and Jhon 'mi maestro' really knows what he's doing! I even get a 'motivational' text every morning reminding me to come that evening and then another message when he arrives in the evening for the work out ahead.

Three a day, so tasty! 

I can honestly say I've never sweat so much in my life. I think you'd be a bit disturbed if you saw the images...the only up side is the tan helps to conceal how red my face gets! Ha!

And I've been dispensing dietetic advice and learning more about what people eat here too! It's great craic!

So it's not just CrossFit as I thought most nights it's circuit training of some description, usually with push ups and squats- I'd say I've done more squats in the past two weeks there than I have all my life!

Love the special effects!

And I'm getting better at boxing too, I have a whole five 'moves' under my belt at this stage! Happy days!

I'm just so rapid...

Or maybe not...

We had a seminar from Jhon's 'hermano'  Jeffry this week from Costa Rica, the 'Original White Lion', and he and his crew were class (I also cannot wait to go to CR, the talent was sublime!). We did lots of Jujitsu which I'd never done and before coming here I always thought it was kind of weird if I'm honest, but it's actually unreal, the moves are fun and fast and even though I have no coordination I managed to get what was going on. I enjoyed it so much that I am seriously considering joining a club when I get home now but saying that just makes me want to stay here :(

These my pro Jujitsu moves...

And I got a certificate too, delighted with myself! 

The photos are gas too, at the start I didn't know what he was doing and I was like 'I didn't sign no consent form!'  But sure they're not too bad! It's the least pretentious 'gym' I've ever been to, you don't need runners and you can join the class any time. What's not to love? ...Apart from the dripping sweat?!

Jhon keeps planning a training day on the beach too and I get all excited...only for it to be cancelled last minute...but luckily before I got here I was warned that plans never materialise in Panama and haven't been too upset but fingers crossed before I leave (sob) there'll be bum squats on the beach :D

Add caption

So sweaty, so attractive. 

Grey t-shirt on the left...mostly sweat.
My top, all blue...all sweat.

Jhon 'mi masetro' is in the blue, second from the right bottom row
and Jeffry 'The Original White Lion' is in the middle in the black <3 

Back to Baby Infants

Today I had my first taste of ‘working life’ in Panama (yay!). Moníca, whose daughters I’ve been teaching English to asked me to help out in her school because her English teacher can’t come on Tuesdays… of course I jumped at the opportunity!

This is the school sign, I'll get one of the actual school soon!

So I found out about it Monday night and started Tuesday morning 7am, no time to prepare anything but I honestly don’t think I could have prepared for what was in store anyway!

The children are NUTS and the teachers are SO RELAXED, it’s been a whole new insight into the Panama way of life and their psyche! For a fact, if the classroom antics were going on in Ireland there’d be a lot of children ‘sa cúinne’ for being bold!

I realised I’d forgotten so many things about primary school too, like saying your prayers in the morning and evening, having to ask permission to go to the toilet and how much fun it was to draw on the white board (both for the kids and me!)

My first class was disastrous, almost as soon as the teacher left (I thought she was coming back but she never did!) the drama started. One little boy left the classroom to wait for his mammy outside so I’d to chase after him, then when he came back in - after half the class followed him outside- he started throwing toys and Lego around the room and wouldn’t put on his shoes! When the secretary came along (as planned, it wasn’t because I was thaaaaat bad) to help out order wasn’t even restored, and she wasn’t too concerned (she certainly didn’t appear shocked amnyway)! So we tried to sing the alphabet (fail), tried colouring-in (fail), tried to sit in a circle (fail). It was HILAROUS!! If it was Ireland I’d be mortified, but it’s Panama and I have a feeling neither the teacher nor the secretary were expecting too much more from me only to attempt to babysit for the two hours!  

Just one morning and WOW what an insight into the Panama mind-set it has been (and a trip down memory lane too).

The school is tiny too, it only goes to second grade so I was in all three classes before the day was over.

This year's timetable and display

The kids get away with murder here! In my second class it took us an hour and a half to write five English sentences, the kids were so busy chatting to each other and literally rolling around on the floor and climbing their seats. Class just would not work like this at home, I found myself asking how the children learn anything with all action going on around them!

For the rest of the day I was with the temp Tuesday teacher, Carmen and she was so lovely! She told me all about her family and Panama and showed me pictures of both. She must be at least fifty because she’s a granny but she only looks about forty (the usual in Panama). I was also horrified though when the kids asked me how old I was- I should never have asked them to guess, 28??!! Really?! Lesson learned: ‘Must stay out of the sun’ L

Who needs desks?

Took a few snaps of the kids and classroom too, I wouldn’t have done it only Carmen was showed me videos of the kids she’d taken so I figured it was alright! :D It was so funny though because we were doing this in the middle of class with the children having the craic all around us! I felt like we were doing as much dossing as them!  

This is supposed to be a crocodile...

At least the fish and dog are good?

It was fun sneaking a peek in their lunch boxes too, I can’t decide if it’s better or worse than Ireland but there was no chocolate or Nutella for starters! Every single child had either a fruit juice or milk- vanilla flavour and fortified with Vitamins A and C, folic acid and iron- how bad! And then it was either a ham and cheese sambo (with manky Easy Singles cheese) or a scrambled egg sambo (actually pretty tasty) or a hotdog (actually hot, the teacher microwaves their lunch for them!). The fruit was rare enough though, a mango, banana and apple only appeared in three lunch boxes from what I saw. No yogurts to be seen either, instead they had salty snack crackers and Pringles with dips, not too shabby!

When the day finished Carmen and I swapped WhatsApp numbers (It’s never ‘Can I have your number?’ it’s ‘Have you WhatsApp?’) as we waved the children off when their taxi collected them to bring them home! Again, who sends their 7 year old home in a taxi in Ireland?! Gas stuff!

Phew, you’ve made it to the end, sorry it was so long! Also, fair play to any primary teachers reading this, my respect for you has deepened!

Casco Viejo, the Montmartre of Panama, maybe?

Casco Viejo, So Rosemantic

The first hotel in Casco Viejo

I ventured into Panama City by myself last week to go exploring. And exploring was exactly what I did. After eventually getting on the right bus to go to Casco Viejo (the old city, the Montmartre of Panama, maybe) I realised I hadn't a notion where I should get off....the adventure had begun! I stayed on the bus for aaaaages, which had its bright side, we passed the outdoor Olympic swimming pool so I'll be back another day with my togs (there's no such thing as training in any of the pools in La Chorrera)!

Anyway, I thought I'd stay on the bus until it got to the end of the line, since I was sure I was already far from Casco Viejo... I waited and waited, the city became further and further away, eventually I gave up, starved (it always comes back to food), hopped off the bus and crossed over the road to Super 99 to refuel.

The city is that spec in the distance! 

The bus back into town was another adventure. I waited for more than 40 minutes at the bus stop for a bus to arrive (the longest I've waited for a bus here, they're usually so regular). It wasn't idle time though, the lady I sat beside struck up conversation, when I told her where I'd wanted to go, we had a good laugh over how 'lejos' (far) I was from my true destination. Before she got on her bus I had clear instructions on how to actually get to Casco Viejo, whoop!


The bus was certainly a tight squeeze, everyone packed on. Of course I was last on and the door literally closed on me, no joke, it's not like the elevator where the door detects you and opens again, I was actually stuck between the doors! The driver opened it again when he saw me and I squeezed in, shoulder to shoulder with everyone else. We stayed that way for a while and the front door didn't open until enough people had gotten out the back door and we slowly filtered down the aisle. After 20 minutes I had a seat and kept it until I saw a busy looking street and took my adventure off the bus!

Luckily BO is not a problem here! 

This is cosy :) 

Via Espana, the busy street, well I didn't stay there long (that's another story) but found my way to Casco Viejo!

I went to the Mercado de Mariscos first and tried Ceviche, the market is famous for it. It was DELISH!!! I'd go back just for it, it was so fresh, and only $2.50 too, happy days! On our first night out one of Paul's friends described it to us and I thought it'd be slimy fish but it was actually so so so goooood! From what I understand its fish cooked by soaking in the acid of lemons with freshly diced onions. I got a prawn one but there are all different types.

Ceviche...Yumeeeee!!

Then I explored Casco Viejo, it really is very pretty and had its own character, with a mixture of luxurious houses and expensive restaurants but also old derelict abandoned houses. I'd been twice before but only for discoteca-time in the dark and by day it really is a different experience, it's very touristy though so I wouldn't call in the 'real Panama'.

But while there I managed to get a few snaps of the beautiful clothing of the indigenous women (Kuna Yala). They wear loads of bracelets on their legs for good luck (from what I've been told) too.
There is another indigenous group and their women wear a full-length dress that's much plainer (Ngöbe-Buglé), I'll try get a snap of them too but click here to see what their clothes are like.

Kuna Yala indigenous clothing

My way home on the bus that evening was entertaining too. I had a seat to myself, but not for long. While there were still other seats free this guy sat down beside me, I had a feeling he was curious about me and it wasn't too long before I was proven right. He looked at me and smiled, I smiled back, he did it again, I smiled again, the next time he spoke. 'Do you speak English?'  Ahaa, so he speaks English! It was gas, he's an electrical engineer teaching in one of the universities in the city but he lives in La Chorrera. I don't know how many times he told me he was so happy to speak with me as he practised his English. Then he asked to shake my hand, so I shook his hand, thinking it was going to be a 'nice to meet you' -handshake but he didn't let it go!!! We were still holding hands 20 minutes later while we talked until I fished out money for the fare, phew! He was gas though, I'll just have to chalk it down to experience, still loving Panama but no holding hands next time!!!

The buses I love so much

Some more snaps from the day's adventure:

The market I stumbled across

I think this is an entrance to Casco Viejo, the old tracks were for the train that doesn't exist any more

The cool kids hanging out, I just love the tree though!

For some reason this picture keeps changing?

The traditional hats that were all over the place in Casco Viejo but I haven't really seen people wear them!

The fish market

This guy ordered for me, he was one cool dude! 

It's jamarama every day of the week at the fish market