Panama: Alonso, Paulino and Gabo, Oh my! (Day 2)

Today was the second day in Panama for my students. Although we spent our evening yesterday in the rain, today was BEAUTIFUL and we only saw about 30 minutes of rain as we left the hotel this morning. There are so many things that I have to share about today and it is already 10:40p.m. Stay with me if I begin to ramble on because all day with 10 middle school students can do some interesting things to my mental state. 😏

This morning we started out with our hotel's continental breakfast. Pork sausage, eggs, croquetes (fried corn nuggets), tortillas and Panama steak strips with bell peppers make up the plate below. Students also had the option to go in a more comfortable direction and may have chosen cereal and muffins. I remind the kids that they should try everything that is placed in front of them, just for the sole fact that they may never have another opportunity. (They may also be surprised to find a new favorite!) I am personally a fan of the croquetes!

At 8:05 we boarded the bus and met our new tour guide Gabriel, also known as Gabo. He is from Panama and knows a lot about the history of the country. He took us to a museum that taught the students about the first European settlement in the new world. Students saw old artifacts used for cooking, healing and even corpses that were uncovered during the excavation of the ruins. After learning about the history of the area, we were able to take a tour of the ruins. Check out the pictures below. These ruins are located right along the pacific coast and are considered ruins because at one at one point it  fell victim to fires, pirate looting and the slave trade. Students were interested in the ways of life, the flora and fauna that covered the area as well as the structures of the ruins themselves. In one of the photos below, you can see the tower built as part of the first settlement to the right and in the background you have the beautiful skyline of modern day Panama City. I love this picture because the contrast of lifestyles and time periods is very evident.

   

Students had a chance to explore the area, and take a picture with a rubber tree. Yes, this tree plays a hand in making rubber gloves. (That was punny in case you didn't notice. If you had to reread it to get it, you might need to branch out a little or leaf your sense of humor behind. The misspelling was intentional. This is what I meant regarding my mental state being affected.)

 

 

After visiting the ruins, we took the bus to an area known as Casco Viejo. This is an old but newer European settlement in the "New World". Students were able to see and understand the process of restoration. 

   

During this part of our tour, students were able to witness the great melting pot that is Panama. They saw French architecture as well as Spanish architecture and Indigenous forms with a mix of modern Panama styles due to restoration projects. The picture above is of a building in Casco Viejo that has yet to be restored. There are buildings like this one all over the area. The panorama picture below shows the corner that it is on and the buildings around it. You can see that all other buildings on this street have been restored. This one is waiting for the right buyer. Take a moment to think about how much this real estate might cost in the middle of Casco Viejo, an area that is open to tourism, has a mixture of Spanish and French architecture, is on the coast, near the canal and a very short drive from modern Panama City. To give you an idea, many other buildings in this area now have restaurants in the bottom and have rooms to rent on the upper level. Have you made your guess? The building pictured above would sell for approximately 4 MILLION DOLLARS and would take around another 4 MILLION DOLLARS to renovate and restore. Wow.

  The pictures below were taken on a boardwalk right outside of Casco Viejo. Students practiced Spanish while talking with merchants and purchasing bracelets. Students also had an incredible view of the Panama skyline from here. The random fire hydrant picture was taken because I thought it was a great visual representation of the various cultures melting together in Panama. Although, after I explained my reasoning, I asked a couple of the students why they took a picture of it and they said that it is actually very different than the fire hydrants we have in Goddard, KS. They were not just referring to its color, but to how it is made mechanically! I have a daughter of a fireman in the group.

   

After taking another short walk around Casco Viejo, we stopped for lunch at a small restaurant that specialized in TACOS! They had a side room with a pool table that was just the right size for this fun group of youngsters! We ordered juice, ate several different types of tacos, drank fresh tropical juices and played pool for about an hour.

 

After lunch, our next stop was the Biomuseo. This is a museum designed by an artist from France who had a vision of sharing the wonders of Panama with young children and students. He created the  colorful and majestic building you see below. Within the museum, students learned about how Panama was formed through volcanic ash millions of years ago. They discovered the reasoning why Panama is one of the most diverse countries when it comes to wildlife. The assimilation of animals between North and South America occurred in this area. Using audio guides, digital platforms, 70 million year old fossilized rocks, and life-size animal replicas, students were able to imagine what life was like millions of years before their existence. They even located an animal that roamed around Kansas and Oklahoma during prehistoric times. (Students are pictured with a life size replica of this animal below.)  Some of the other highlights from this museum include a sloth more than three meters tall, shark jaws that could swallow us whole, a multi-screen nature show and a #sepfiespot for taking pictures in front of the Panama City Skyline. Prior to entering the museum, we stopped to take a glimpse at another rubber tree and click our heels for fun!

 

After finishing the Biomuseo, students used Spanish to purchase ice cream, practiced the real-world skills of using an ATM to obtain cash and sat outside to enjoy the view of the yachts in the marina where we ate. Students saw a puffer fish, a school of minnows and three different kids of tropical fish. We didn't find Nemo...or Dory.

 

Next it was time to take a break from listening and get active! We took a short drive along the Amador Causeway and stopped at a local park.  This park held a slash pad that we explored with every inch of our bodies, a workout area where we toned up and a playground that technically only one of my students could play on due to an age restriction. I was able to see a lot of the "kid" in my students as they chased one another, played crazy games and bonded outside. I am a firm believer, as I sit in my bed and type on my computer, that both kids and adults need to spend more time outside, not only to enjoy the world around them, but to detach from technology and truly communicate with themselves and others. The bonding today was beautiful.

Next, after posing for some last minute sunset photos, we loaded the bus to head back to the city for dinner. We were not in the car but 5 minutes when our guide, Alonso, began yelling at Paulino to stop the bus. I, being the worry wart that I am, immediately thought one of two things: we hit someone or something with the bus or we had left a student behind. Knowing that I had done a head count, the shouting could not have been a result of the latter, so we must have hit something. Then I heard the words from Alonso's mouth, "Vi un cocodrillo!". For those of you who do not speak Spanish, that translates to, "I saw a crocodile!". Paulino pulled the bus over to the far right lane, turned on the flashers and opened the door. We all chased Alonso out of the bus to stand along the edge of the causeway to spot the crocodile in the water. This is such a rare opportunity to see one swimming in this body of water! Kudos to Alonso for being able to spot such a rarity from a moving tour bus filled with loud youngsters and get us all off of the bus in time to see it! If you look closely at the picture of backs below, you can see the crocodille to the left of Lauren, the student in the blue shirt. This is only his tail. By the view that we had, he must have been at least 12 feet long! Next up, snorkeling! Nevermind, that is not for another 5 days, he will be gone by then!😆

 

Last but not least, we ate dinner as a group at a restaurant named after a machine that is used to crush sugar cane. Our dinner meal is shown below.

 

Interesting Tidbits Students Learned Today:

(These were interesting facts that were given on tour, but do not necessarily have a picture to accompany them.)

1. Traffic is extremely bad in Panama City. Over 50,000 cars were purchased in the past 2 years. Several of the issues for why traffic is getting worse are that the population is growing at a tremendous rate, the public transportation system is ineffective so many people are buying more and more cars to make their own way to work, and many errands that are done online in the United States, like paying an electric bill, ordering items, etc., are not effectively moved to an online system yet. These thoughts gave me pause. I didn't realize how many things that the ability to pay online could impact. The government is trying to get things streamlined, but it is not something that just happens overnight. This is also something that made me stop to think. How many systems in the U.S. are digitally bound and how did this just happen? Is this a good thing? Just something to make you ponder. 

2. There are around 4 million people in the country of Panama and 1.7 million of them live in Panama City. That is 45% of the population. The total population was 2.8 million in 2010. The growth of the country is very evident. The economy has also grown by over 11% in the past year. Does anyone know what the economic growth in the U.S. was last year?

3. The school year in Panama is from late-February or early-March to December. Students all wear uniforms to school. The color of pants is determined by their year in school and the emblem on their shirts determine one school from another. Schools also provide band to students as an elective. The students in band have two large parades every year that last an entire day and are events for the whole family. As we drove around in downtown Panama City, we discussed a school that had been purchased and moved to build another skyscraper. This is just another example of expansion. Down the road several blocks there was a private school that had not been destroyed and was still functioning as a school. When asked why that school was spared, the response was the power of the church and its longstanding traditions and the money that the stakeholders for the private school possess. Interesting. 

4. Soccer is the second most popular sport in Panama with baseball taking over as the first due to many Panamanian players moving to the U.S. to play baseball. Ping Pong, volleyball and other sports can also be played through the school.  

5. Panamanians celebrate 6 different holidays in the month of November! This is the month of parties!

Fun Quotes made by Students Today:

Student A: Who's laugh is that?     Student B:  It's a parrot!

You know what goes with traffic jam? Peanut butter. 

I should get 10 hundred stickers today, I spoke Spanish like 4 times! 

They give me bully all the time.

Student A: I see a pufferfish! Make it puff!  Student B:Do you know that it kills them? 

Student A: Well that doesn't make any sense. Why would you chose a defense mechanism that kills you?

Some of my favorite people are here. 

This is like licking Wal-Mart. 

Knock. Knock. Knock. Azuuuuuul.

Funny Quote Disclaimer: To the untraveled reader, these daily quotes may seem a little, strange or grotesque. To the Student Going Global, these quotes accompany stories that will have them talking for hours upon returning and are a part of memories that will last a lifetime. I would love to explain the context of each quote in this blog, but that would steal some of the mystery, suspense, and future conversations that I am trying so desperately to create between my readers and my travelers. 

It is now 12:49AM and our day begins very early in the AM. I hope that you are enjoying reading these adventures as much as I am enjoying sharing them and my students are enjoying having them. Please feel free to comment on the blog posts! I would love to have your feedback! 

Until tomorrow...

Heather Potter - Student Travel Group Leader