In case you don't know what Carnaval is, it is basically Latin America's way of celebrating Mardi Gras. Carnaval is celebrated at the end of the festive season that started on Jan. 6 and it marks the beginning of Lent. The festivities go on all weekend, with extravagent parades and food and general merriment. The Carnaval celebration in Panama City, Panama is THE 2nd biggest festival IN THE WORLD, only following Carnaval in Brazil. I'm thinking Bocas del Toro, Panama will hopefully be full of a little Caribbean-influenced Carnval, which I will attend as my 22nd birthday present to myself. I AM SO EXCITED! I can't wait to see all the cultural influences that this place has - Caribbean, African, Spanish, and English being the most prominent. I know it will make for a good celebration with some most likely marvelously fresh Caribbean seafood, my FAV.
We found a neat little hostel to stay in on Isla Bastimentos, just a short taxi-bus-hostel-bus-walking-taxi-watertaxi-watertaxi trip from San Jose! HA! This is going to be so complicated getting there but SO worth it (I'm hoping). The entire island of Bastimentos is covered in national park rainforest, and our hostel is right in the middle of it all. The island is about .6 miles across where we are staying, and you can do anything from rainforest hike to snorkel!!! I'm excited to see the unique wildlife and people (but maybe this time we won't wake up to howler monkeys at 5am!). We leave tomorrow afternoon at 4, so I will be out of touch until Monday night, but I will try to update ASAP about our trip when we get back!
On a total side note....funny story. People here greet each other with kisses on the cheek, kinda like Italian people do. I am getting used to it with Oky of course, but the other day after school, I was waiting in the cafeteria when one of my sweet students came up to me. I thought he was going to whisper something in my ear when he kissed me on the cheek to tell me bye! I was so unprepared! Especially since you can barely even hug your students in the U.S. without getting a warning! Haha
Another totally funny random story. My goal when I came here (among many others) was to not look like a tourist at some point. The more touristy you look, the more of a target you are, so I didn't want to be a target. I figured I could maybe pull it off once I got a little tan. On my 1 month anniversary of being here (I know, laugh at me, I keep track) we went out to eat at pizza hut, which is actually really fancy here, and the server was super surprised when he figured out I didn't speak Spanish because HE THOUGHT I WAS A TICA (a local)!!! YAY mission accomplished! I don't look like a lame-o tourist with a "please steal my stuff" sign on my back anymore!! :)
Also, these are m sweet kids (minus one) after our Valentine's day celebration! :D :D :D YAY!
Alright, dinner's ready. Oky's made us "authentic" Chopped Suey hahaha Asian inspired Spanish food or Spanish inspired ? We'll see...I'm mighty honnngrryyy!
PURA VIDA,
Jessica
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