Don´t Wear Shorts In Panama.

We are here in Panama. Larry, Jeni, Pat and Myself. It was somewhat of a mini-journey to get here, but we arrived. Surprise, it´s festival week. Town is packed, lodgings are all full to capacity, and the party goes long into the night. The festival: it´s for Flowers & Coffee. I didn´t know that flower and coffee fans were such partiers, but hey - we are in central america...any excuse to drink is fully exploited. I feel lost without my Lonely Planet Panama book - I swear, these books are as valuable as gold when you are traveling in a foreign country that is, well...foreign to you. Found a cute eclectic totally random hostal to stay in last night. It was a tad cramped, Pat and I sharing a twin bed, Jeni in a twin next to us...Larry bunking up with two guys across the hall. I party outside went long into the night, and it was as if the very festival were in our own room. I slapped on some headphones and drifted off to sleep. The ladies weren´t as lucky and had a rough nights sleep. The good thing about our random abode is that it has HOT water. I´m talking scolding fucking hot, hotter than boiling water. And if it´s not boiling hot, it´s ice cold. All in all though, I was stoked to have a hot shower - because it is COLD here. I packed for a tropical location, silly me...no pants, only shorts...but thankfully I threw a pashmina and a long sleeve cardi in my bag right before I left. We went out to dinner last night and for a stroll through town and I wore shorts. Not a good idea. I was getting stares from old ladies, young men, little children and mama´s hauling around their army of kids. Bah. Goddamn shoobie! Who knows, maybe they were staring at me because I had mascara all over my face? The mirror in our bathroom is for someone who is about 6 feet tall....standing on my tippy toes I can barely even see the top of my head.

The plan was to go horseback riding today and to the hot springs, and tomorrow to go white water rafting - though I think that plans have now changed. Pat has a friend who lives up in the mountains, about an hour or so from where we are now. She thinks he would be hospitable and let us stay at his house. It would be nice...I doubt that there is a loud drunken music flower-coffee festival going on in his backyard that would require ear plugs and a strong dose of Nyquil.