Windows are Good!

My sister came to visit me in Panama. And our first stop was Las Lajas, a 13 km long beach on the Pacific side.
Eva, my boss, recommended that we stay with a German couple that has a bar at the beach. The rooms are very cheap, only 5$ per night per person. And since I didn't want to spent much money, I liked the idea. However, when we arrived we were a bit confused about the definition of "a room". It was on top of the bar and it didn't have any windows. I didn't mind that it only had a mattress and otherwise very simple furniture. But with the location being directly at the beach, the "room" was incredibly sandy. The sand was just everywhere: in the bed, in our bags, on our skin.... The owners of the bar also didn't have any windows in their room. I mean, it was kinda fun to live so close to the nature and beach for 2 nights, but I doubt that I would like to live like that for 2 years.

Well, the view was georgeous though, the Pacific warm and the beach empty. So far I haven't seen a crowded beach in Panama.

During the weekend we were there, the German couple had organized a Oktoberfest with tyical music and food. The food was absolutely delicious, especially after not having had German food for nearly 2 months! And since my sister lives in Munich and has been to the Oktoberfest many times, she taught me the funny dances to the typical music: the dances are so easy because you also have to be able to do them after 4 litres of beer. However, the Panamanian guests of the bar were quite shocked when they saw us dance. I guess, they don't know what fun is.

That was hot!

The next day, Dania, Sofia (my new collegue) and I went to the hot springs in Caldera. Those springs are natural hot springs which are heated up by the volcanic activity in this area.
After walking/hiking on bad roads and knee-deep mud, we saw the the hot water pools which were fenced in by stones. You could see some air bubbles filled with sulfur coming up, but it didn't smell bad at all, fortunately. And they have their name for a reason: they are really hot...nearly too hot to bear. After a few minutes in the water and a ton of photos, our faces were all red and we were ready to jump into the cold river close by.

Unfortunately, we had to go back after only two hours because we had given the taxi driver a certain time to be back. We didn't know that it would be so cool and relaxing. But Sofia and I already agreed that we'll go back soon and next time we will have lots of time because we will hitchhike.

Crazy girls!

I decided to show Dania the Pipeline Trail in Bajo Mono.

Unfortunately, I couldn't borrow any car, so we had to take the taxi and told them to be back at a certain time because in Bajo Mono the phones have absolutely no reception.

We were both really excited to have a shower under the waterfall, but since it wasn't very sunny, we very soon found out that the water was way too cold to go down all the way. Since we still had a lot of time before the taxi would pick us up, we had a crazy idea and took the most amazing pictures ever. But I can't show them to you! :-P

On our way back, we decided to go back down and walk along another trail for a while because we still had lots of time.But then it started to rain. At first it was just a drizzle, but then it rained heavely and, of course, we didn't have an umbrella or a rain jacket. We couldn't even find any shelter under the trees either and a few minutes later we were completely soaked. But then we found an old greenhouse which at least gave us some shelter from the rain. So, we sat down, covered ourselves with towels and ate cheetos while waiting for the rain to stop or the time to pass. However, the rain didn't stop and we started to freeze. But then we saw something really funny, well...actually something cool. Some indigenous people passed and they had natural umbrellas: huge leaves...very smart!

Fortunately, the taxi was on time and we were so glad to be taken back to the dry house!