Survivor: Las Perlas Edition... Who will be voted off?

I'll begin by sharing some pictures of a few of Genevieve's morning friends :)  As you can imagine, our walk this particular Thursday morning was not all that aerobic, seeing how we had to stop at each set of animals, and there were many more than this!

Some lady comes and puts cat food along the wall of the Cinta Costera.



two more!  We see these two regularly :)

Genevieve loves seeing the kitties and doggies in the morning!

annnd another one...

On Thursday, James' friend Crafton came to visit us for the weekend.  He arrived in the early afternoon and James was at the airport ready to give Crafton a speedy tour of Panama City!  They went to the Miraflores Locks to see the canal and then to Casco Viejo to grab a drink before heading back to the apartment. 

The next morning, we headed out to the Causeway to catch a ferry to the the Pearl Islands (southeast of Panama City), more specifically, Isla Contadora.  While pearls can still be purchased from these islands today, that isn't why people visit them.  You can see the beautiful waters in our pictures as well as the fact that it felt like we were the only ones on the beaches the entire time we were there!  In addition, numerous books and websites boast the fact that the Pearl Islands is the location of two seasons of Survivor (the 7th and 8th season, I believe is what I read) and is the only place where Survivor chose to film not one, but two seasons.  In any case, we were ready to spend some time on some beautiful beaches!
The ferry ride was around 2 hours on the way there and luckily, Genevieve slept for at least half of it (so did James and Crafton). 

The dock outside the Balboa Yacht Club

Crafton gets breakfast out of the back of a truck...a giant sandwich filled with eggs, ham, and cheese. 

Getting ready to head to Isla Contadora

 The Americas Bridge

no surprise here folks... resting up for a day of playing on the beach!

As we pulled in to Isla Contadora, we noticed something interesting about the island...no boat dock...hmmm, were we to swim to shore?  Certainly they hadn't mentioned this on any of the websites, guidebooks, or even in the travel office where we paid $81 per person for a ferry ride over!  Phew, just as we were starting to wonder if we were even at the correct island or not, we saw several smaller fishing boats pulling up and docking next to the ferry, ready to take us to the main land.  Good, because while we brought our bathing suits, we hadn't expected to hit the water that early :) 

On the small fishing boat that takes us to shore!

The Isla Contadora/Saboga Ferry!

Once we got to the mainland and gathered our stuff from the boat, we walked up the beach to a thatched hut with a map of the island next to it where we found Tony, one of the owners of the Contadora Island Inn...where we'd be spending the night!  Luckily for us, Tony not only had his golf cart parked nearby, but he also had another golf cart for us to follow in (you see, somehow he thought that when we made the
reservation, it was going to be for two adults...James and I...and two children, Genevieve and Crafton, haha).  Tony said he was going to take us on a tour of the island and then to the hotel, so we loaded all of our bags on the two carts and started our island adventure!

From left to right:  Tony (one of the owners of Contadora Island Inn), Crafton, Annie, Genevieve



And we're off!

Tony's tour was a relatively quick one (seeing how the island isn't all that big), but he showed us the homes of Julio Iglesias (well, the home he bought but doesn't live in now), the Shah of Iran (who briefly took exile on the island), and Panama's Vice President.  He also showed us how to get to several beaches (there are 13 beaches in all on the island)...Playa Larga (long beach), Playa Suecas (Swedish Beach...he only explained how to get here seeing how you have to walk from Long beach and it is the only nudest beach in all of Panama), and Playa Ejecutiva.  Finally, we made our way to our B&B.  There, we rented a golf cart for the 2 days we'd be there so we could get around the island.  Little did we know the golf cart we rented ended up being the loudest on the island and required multiple pushes every time we wanted it to go forward or backwards.  ANYWAYS, we were here and ready to hit the beaches!  We quickly changed and headed out! 

The spider in this picture is actually bigger in real life than it appears on your screen...not kidding!  It is one of the golden web spiders and was in a web outside our room!  (Thankfully not inside the room!)



Crafton rides on the front of the cart as we head to the grocery store!

On the way to the small grocery store, James convinces Crafton to attempt to swing on some vines... it took Crafton a few tries to find some vines that didn't break when he pulled on them...


Sure, why not stop to swing on a vine?



Tarzan?

Fire dance?  Or falling?

We have beer...it must be time for the beach!

After making it to the small super market, loading up on beer, water, and pringles, we headed to the beach for a little while until the restaurants opened for lunch!  We decided to check out Playa Larga.

Playa Larga (long beach)

The old transit ferry for the Contadora Island Resort, closed 3 years ago due to a family dispute about what to do with the resort and who should receive money for it.  Amazingly, this beached ship looks 1,000 times better than the pillaged resort!

Where is Mommy's nose?

Tons of little hermit crabs!

Genevieve discovers her love for sour cream pringles...

James and Crafton out in the water!

Do we have this island to ourselves??  Sure feels like it!

We hung out on the beach for about an hour before packing ourselves up and heading to a small, local restaurant for lunch.  There was no menu.  We had the choice of chicken with rice or paticones (fried plantains) or steak with rice or paticones...both of which you could get lentils with.  We all ordered the chicken.  It was really, really good for simple fried chicken, rice and beans!  We were all very impressed, especially for how cheap it all was!  After lunch, we headed back to Playa Larga for some more beach time!

Iguana scurrying up a tree amongst the "ruins" of the Contadora Resort

James and Crafton did some snorkeling while Genevieve and I took a nap on the beach.  It was during this time that our new and expensive "waterproof" camera died (and by new, I mean, less than a month old!).  Word to the wise, DO NOT buy a Nikon Coolpix waterproof camera...it is a waste of money!  Thank goodness we can return it to Costco!

Once the boys were done snorkeling, we decided to walk over to the "nudest" beach just to check it out and see what all the fuss was about.  Of course, there wasn't anyone there (well, not where we were...we did see a couple head out to the water clearly not wearing any clothes, but they were really far away). 

That evening, we took our little golf cart to Villa Romantica (one of the nicer restaurants on the island) for dinner.  The restaurant was supposed to open at 6pm, but once we were seated, the waitress (who spoke no English at all) told us that the kitchen didn't open until 6:30pm.  She took our orders, but our food didn't come until probably closer to 7:30pm...which, I normally wouldn't care, but with a 13 month old, it gets a little dicey! Luckily for us, a cat appeared and entertained Genevieve until we were finished eating.  In most places you eat, the appearance of a cat might be kind of gross...here, it was a blessing!  Thank you stray cat for amusing my daughter!

View from our table at Villa Romantica :)

The next morning, we had a wonderful breakfast at our hotel of scrambled eggs, a giant pancake, fruit, and coffee!  Then, we took our crappy golf cart to a new beach!  Playa Ejecutiva.  Despite a few fishermen getting ready to head out for the day, we were the only ones on this small beach.  The water and sand were amazing.  

 Crafton and I took a walk along some of the adjacent rocks for some even more gorgeous views!

The tiny speck in the center is Genevieve playing with her Daddy in the ocean :)

This was either one HUGE home, or 3 smaller (yet still huge and gorgeous) homes right on the beach!  Amazing!

Another one of the Pearl Islands just a stone throw away!  This water was amazing!

Crafton, admiring the view

 Once we returned from our walk, Crafton and I were the first to set out snorkeling the reefs along the rocks we'd just explored.  Luckily, Crafton had a working camera (thanks for letting me steel your pictures!) :)


See the long, thin fish at the top of the picture?  I am pretty sure this is what the boys thought was a barracuda.  It isn't one, but not sure what the name is!



I spotted this little guy resting at the bottom of the ocean...

That is until Crafton tried to get a better picture...here he is fleeing the scene! :)

Another puffer fish!

Crafton goes exploring...he finds a rope to swing over the water, but then sees some more of those long thin fish that might be barracudas and decides not to jump. 

James and Genevieve on the beach

Our family!

Mommy and Genevieve

Around 11am, we head back to our hotel to shower, pack up, and check out.  We leave out bags at the hotel and drive over to the same restaurant we ate at the day before.  Today, you can order chicken with red salsa or a fish fillet.  James and Crafton chose the fish fillet, while I chose the chicken.  Once again, both were excellent!

Contadora Island Inn

 



An exhausted Genevieve takes a nap on Daddy's back while we wait for our Ferry to come to take us back to Panama City.



Some fish under my seat on the small boat back to our ferry.

Genevieve says goodbye to Isla Contadora!

G and Daddy

Mommy, Genevieve, and another one of the Pearl Islands

Entertaining Genevieve with some songs :)

Genevieve gives Daddy a grumpy look

She then demands that we go back to the island! :)

View of the ships either waiting to enter the Panama Canal or having just exited.

Panama City in the distance!

That night, I stayed in with Genevieve so James could take Crafton out to experience a little Panamanian night life!  Crafton left Sunday afternoon.  It was a quick trip but we are so glad that he came to visit and hope he had a good time!!

Now, while we have been having fun island hoping and such, there are other parts of Panama that we previously visited on our trip that are experiencing turmoil.  Along the Pan-American Highway in the Chiriqui providence (Where we went to David and turned off to go to Boquete and Bocas Del Toro), there have been protests and riots by one group of indigenous people.  After talking to a lot of people at work about it, this is the information James has gathered:  About 1/3 of panama is indigenous land.  Unfortunately, Panama did not do a good job of researching the land before they gave it to the indigenous people.  The indigenous land throughout panama has precious metals and oil on it.  The Panama government is allowing a Canadian mining company to mine the copper on the indigenous land, and the government isn’t giving the indigenous people any of the money.  The president made some promises to them that he hasn’t kept, so one (or two) of the indigenous groups in the Chiriquí area are protesting copper mining on their land.  In addition to protesting, they decided to block the Pan-American highway with large items of trash, trees, etc.  The President has been hesitant about using force to remove the blockade because early in his presidency he used force to remove a protest and a lot people were injured and he received a lot of criticism.  However, it is now getting to a point where he has to do something.  On Sunday morning, he sent a large police force up the Chiriquí and removed the protesters from the pan-am highway.  During the process, many where arrested and one died.  So now that one died, everyone is upset about that.  They came back in stronger numbers now and the pan-am highway is again blocked and there are some protesters in and around panama city.

 So while the indigenous group involved (the Ngobe-Bugle) are clearly upset, their blocking of the Pan-American highway has caused issues around Panama.  Areas west and east of the blockade that rely on food trucks to bring them supplies of other areas of Panama are suffering.  On a minor level, we have noticed many foods (produce items) in the local super markets in Panama City that aren't available because they are grown in region near Boquete but are currently unable to be transported.  We have received several "ALERT" type emails from the US Consulate (I signed up to receive such alerts before heading to Panama) just warning US citizens not to go in those areas and to be cautious because riots could take place in Panama City as well.  While this is not something that we are concerned about happening in the city, we will obviously follow the news and stay clear of any such cases of rioting/protesting.

On a lighter note, several people have informed us that the Bachelor, which aired last night, took place in Panama.  According to my mom, the ladies were taken to the exact same Embera village that we went to.  And I guess then there was a date to one of the San Blas islands for one of the girls?  I don't really watch the Bachelor so I may be getting this wrong, but I am eager to see the episode when we get back to the states! 

Until then, feel free to fill me in! 

Love to all!  We'll be home soon!