Panamá: day 3 (I think)
Our second or third day in Panamá found us at the Bahá’í House of Worship. That we even went here is all thanks to Kim — I had no clue it was there! There are only eight around the world (you can see a list here), so it’s cool to have been to one. I’m not Bahá’í by any stretch of the imagination, but I do know quite a few people who are, and I love them dearly.
Something we failed to realize about the temple is that we’d need to be dressed appropriately — neither of us were really thinking “wear clothes that are appropriate for holy places” when we were packing. We weren’t thinking “wear super skanktastic, ultra-revealing shit” either, but we didn’t really have extra body-party-concealing clothing stowed away in our bags for the trek. However, the woman at the temple had plenty of garments for us to choose from, so we managed to not be too offensive. Go team!
We also went toward the Canal Zone, and our journey there included a car ride that in turn included listening to Radiohead and “Don’t Look Back in Anger” by Oasis — both of which were perfect. We roamed a forest in the area that allegedly plays host to tiny monkeys that can really freak you out. I say allegedly because I was only told the story, and did not in fact experience anything like this…but I believe! The forest was excellent but we were tired and hungry, so the most exciting thing we did was watch a dude dive to the bottom of a pool for shrimp (I think) and then hold one. LET ME TELL YOU, those suckers have crazy little legs that can really freak you out, if, say, you’re not really into holding shrimp (or whatever).
The Canal was really cool, even though there were absolutely no ships going through it — at all. We were told by our friends that this was the first time they’d ever seen it ship-less. I’ve been reading about the expansion of the Canal, but other than that I knew only scant details. I’m glad we went!
Something we failed to realize about the temple is that we’d need to be dressed appropriately — neither of us were really thinking “wear clothes that are appropriate for holy places” when we were packing. We weren’t thinking “wear super skanktastic, ultra-revealing shit” either, but we didn’t really have extra body-party-concealing clothing stowed away in our bags for the trek. However, the woman at the temple had plenty of garments for us to choose from, so we managed to not be too offensive. Go team!
We also went toward the Canal Zone, and our journey there included a car ride that in turn included listening to Radiohead and “Don’t Look Back in Anger” by Oasis — both of which were perfect. We roamed a forest in the area that allegedly plays host to tiny monkeys that can really freak you out. I say allegedly because I was only told the story, and did not in fact experience anything like this…but I believe! The forest was excellent but we were tired and hungry, so the most exciting thing we did was watch a dude dive to the bottom of a pool for shrimp (I think) and then hold one. LET ME TELL YOU, those suckers have crazy little legs that can really freak you out, if, say, you’re not really into holding shrimp (or whatever).
The Canal was really cool, even though there were absolutely no ships going through it — at all. We were told by our friends that this was the first time they’d ever seen it ship-less. I’ve been reading about the expansion of the Canal, but other than that I knew only scant details. I’m glad we went!
We went back to our rooms to sleep, and then went out that night to see Señor Loop play (note: the two awesome photos below were taken by Jorge Arango, our new friend who tells me he doesn’t have a website for me to link to. Just noting!). This experience was all kinds of crazy. Much to our very enthusiastic delight (can you say that?), they played The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, and The Strokes in rapid-fire succession before the band came on. At some point The Clash was played, and if they had followed it up with Oasis I think they would have hit on all of our high school jams. We entertained (I think) the people around by very, very loudly singing along, and then proceeded to get incredibly intoxicated. I have to note this because I usually drink like… a handful of times a month. Maybe? I mean, sometimes there are two or three nights in a row where I have a glass of wine, but then there are also weeks in a row in which I don’t drink at all, so the fact that I was able to drink three drinks and a beer or two in one night and was still coherent and able to walk around was impressive. To me.
We met a lot of awesome people at the show, including a guy that said he was DJing later (was he? I have no clue), a French guy who had his Spanish-speaking friend translate his questions for me into English (he said he thought I was European, which I’m going to believe even though it’s probably not true), and a few other dreamy characters. After seeing the band play we went to a friend of our friends (is that confusing?) and stared at the lights playing on their walls for a few hours. I mean, we did more than that, but the lights are what I remember the most.
Kim woke up the next morning with “Jeff Buckley Just Like a Woman BobBobBob” in my handwriting scrawled down her left arm, so I think it’s safe to say we had a good time.
We met a lot of awesome people at the show, including a guy that said he was DJing later (was he? I have no clue), a French guy who had his Spanish-speaking friend translate his questions for me into English (he said he thought I was European, which I’m going to believe even though it’s probably not true), and a few other dreamy characters. After seeing the band play we went to a friend of our friends (is that confusing?) and stared at the lights playing on their walls for a few hours. I mean, we did more than that, but the lights are what I remember the most.
Kim woke up the next morning with “Jeff Buckley Just Like a Woman BobBobBob” in my handwriting scrawled down her left arm, so I think it’s safe to say we had a good time.
