Panama City

Well I wound up staying in Panama City alot longer than expected. I have been here for a week and have been awarded a free nights stay here at the Voyager Hostel for 7 days of staying here. Not a bad deal.

While here in Panama City I have seen the canal, which was amazing, as well as the zoo, which was depressing. There is an eagle here in central america called the Harpy Eagle and it is most abundant in Panama. Its wingspan is about 2 meters+ (over 6 feet)and around a meter tall and it is the largest bird of prey in the world. The zoo has a couple of these creepy amazing birds and it was cool to see them but it was really disturbing to see how unhealthy the pumas were. They are kept in small cages with very little room to move about and get exercise by walking back and forth in dizzying circles around their cages. They were fat, weezing and had open sores on them. I havnt been to a zoo since I was little and I now remember why I don't like zoos. I think that if a zoo is to be in place, it should only be in place to facilitate reproduction of endangered animal species in good conditions. Anyways, enough about the Zoo.

I hung out with alot of partying travelers here and ona couple mornings, I was a bit worse for the wear. I know my way around the city real well now and where the best deals on pretty much everything are. It's a pretty fun city (a very large city). Panama City is the second largest banking country in the world, second only to the Swiss. It is also supposed to be one of the mnost corrupt countries in the world, due mainly to the fact that over 60 banks are represented here and supposedly control he flow of cocain and other drugs through the canal/country.

I did alot of research with a couple people I met here to find out if we could make it to Columbia via ship. After alot of searching we found ways to do it. They were eitherreally expensive or really cheap and sketchy. One of the p[laces we went was Colon (on the east side of the canal). this is THE most dangerous city in Panama and muggings are quite regular occurences. We took peoples advice and got a taxi as soon as we got off the bus and got out of the city immediately after finding out what we needed to know at the Yacht club. When you walk down the streets there, everyone who passes by you tells you to watch out and be really careful. The other people who dont say anything are the ones who will probably mug you. After all the researching, I decided against going to Columbia and decided to head back up North, surf a bit and meet Becca parish.

I am now heading out to a beach called "playa Venao" where I hopefully will by a sufboard for cheap and surf for a week or so while camping for free. I need to decrease my spending to less than $25 per day and this will probably be a good place to do so for a little while before heading up to Costa Rica (which is supposed to be the most expensive central american Country). I met alot of awesome people here and have amde some friends from all over the world that I hopefully will keep in contact with. It is hard though, because you meet so many cool people and there is no way that you can keep relationships with all of them.

I porobably wont be updating for at least a week, so until then, Chao!

Feliz Cumpleaños Para Mi!

If I used correct spanish grammer in the above title, it was purely coincidental, my spanish es mui malo.

So I turned 22 today and I didnt even remember until about noon when I saw the date. I started my first dreadlock today. I cant say it went particularly well. I ripped out alot of hair and it wound up really short consequently. Luckily I did it in the back. But I wont be making anymore by myslef. Its far too hard to select the correct amount of hair using the bathroom mirror and the mirrior on my compass.

Lief Hansen (Many of you remember him from Orcas Island. He is now a counselor of a Camp in southern washinton state). Anyways, he is quite an awesome guy and I recieved an email from hi mthe other day. he had some very nice words of encouragement for me such as the following:
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Think about what you are most passionate about learning from in life -- seek those people, places and experiences out. Interview people, learn from them, dance with them -- be bold Zack. Life is fragile, short, and you never no what might happen.

Look forward to hearing your stories!
-Leif
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I found that very motivating and inspirational and thought I would share it with you all.

Panama Pais - "La ruta por descubrir" (the path less traveled)

So After Ric dropped me off at the Purple house, I headed to Boquete, a small town up in the mountains with a very comfortable atmosphere and temperature (the most comfortable temperature and humidity I have felt so far). Here I spent a couple days hanging out and talking with fellow travelers. I then went on a hike for a few hours to some shabby waterfalls.

The next day I went on the most intense hike of my life (and trust me I have done alot of hiking). The hike started at 11:00 at 1700 meters up Volcan Baru (a 3478 meter volcano that has been dormant for 500 years). I met a team of biologists with a film crew on the way up who were studying the local parasitic fungi. I talked with them briefly over a snack and headed out past them. My backpack weighed around 40 lbs and I was getting very tired from climbing the unrelenting steep 4x4 road. I wound up having to stop briefly every 50 meters or so. I reached a campground 1km down from the top at 7:00 PM and passed out as soon as I could. It was quite cold up there, around 35 degrees ands I didnt sleep too well. I got up for the sunrise, took some pictures, talked to some Panamanians who had camped out on the top and headed down the other side. The trail down was beautiful and went through jungle and bamboo for quite a ways, but it was super steep the whole way down except for one 300 meter stretch of unwelcomed uphill climbing. It took me four hours to get down the other side since I was going pretty quickly and then I had to follow a road for a few more km to the nearby town of Bambito. My knees have never know so much pain! I then took a bus back to boquete because i couldnt handle the hike back around the volcano to Boquete. I met a couple from California and they ended up doing the volcano hike as well.

I left Boquete and headed back to David where I stayed for one night and then headed to the Carribbean Island chain of Bocas Del Toro (Mouth of the Bull) where I met the couple from California. We met more travelers there and we all toured around the islands together. The Islands are very beautiful and we had a great time minus the mosquitos, sand flies and sunburns. We took a tour of the islands for $15 a piece and got to see dolphins, snorkel and go to the mnost beautiful beach I have ever seen; Playa Rana Rojo (or Red Frog Beach) which has red poison dart frogs. I spent four days there in Bocas before heading out to David for another night and then to Panama City to meet up with some people from the states. One of those people, Bob, was my boss at a restaraunt I worked at in Texas with my sister and brother-in-law. The other person is a man named Terry who owns property on the island of Taboga. Terry is a friend of Bob and I met him at the restaraunt as well.

I am in Panama City right now, and planning to go see the zoo and the panama canal as well as seek out beeswax so that i can start dreadlocking my hair since it is driving me nuts and I dont want to shave it off just yet.