Seriously Authentic

One year ago my family was on Spring Break in Panama. My hubs uncle and aunt owned a small bed and breakfast on the Pacific coast of the country about 4 hours south of Panama City in a town called Pedasi.  They have since sold it, but it is a beautiful part of the country if you ever feel inclined.

Tio Jack aka Papa Noel

Uncle Jack relied heavily on his wife and their hotel manager to converse with both the guests and the locals in Spanish for him. As far as we could tell he could only say "si" and "mi familia" in Spanish.  But the locals loved Uncle Jack. He is a delightful (word of the day), jolly sort of guy and has a strong resemblance to St. Nick,  hence his Panamanian nickname of Papa Noel.

On our first day in Pedasi we followed Tio and Tias (uncle and aunt in Spanish) down to the beach which is about 2 miles down a country road. This was Good Friday which is a major holiday for Panamanians. The beach was packed, we had to dodge the small motor boats driving up onto the beach (no docks) to drop off and pickup passengers to go over to Isla Iguana off the coast.  We lost Tio and hubs to some locals drinking beer. (Hubs ONLY Spanish is "un cerveza, por favor" which came in quite handy) The beaches in Panama will remind you of the Jersey Shore in the 80s minus the hypodermic needles. The concept of trashcans, let alone recycling is a very foreign concept in this part of the world. The beaches were covered in litter from ocean dumping, so lots of plastic floating and washing ashore.

The girls splashed in the water a bit and then after dodging a boat full of locals, a 2 liter of coca-cola and a plastic quart of motor oil, they were ready to call it a day, approximately 8 minutes after we arrived.  Tio offered to let the girls ride in the back of his pickup truck back into town. Since this is illegal in the US of A, we figured what the heck, let's let them live a little.  Approximately a half mile into the journey, Tio spotted some indigenous indians walking back into town. Since he is Santa Claus, he stopped to offer them a ride. All twelve of them. They just started climbing into the back with our girls. Hubs and I were in the car behind them and literally saw the fear of God in their eyes as the natives started piling in on top of them. I just kept clicking away! They may be scarred for life, but talk about a life story! Have you ever ridden pitbull with a dozen indigenous Panamanians?

Excited about riding pitbull in a truck, notice the hitchhikers, the brake lights and
that my kids have no idea what is about to happen. 

There were 6 others sitting with my girls that you can't see.