Day 2 - Rainforest/Beach

Today, we traveled more than two hours out of the city through the mountains to El Valle de Anton. Mountains rose to the clouds accompanied by the dormant volcano pointed out to us by our guia, Juan. Our first stop was a tourist attraction for thermal spas and mud massages. Our group went to a location to get their faces mudded. The mud hardened after 15-20 minutes and was meant to exfoliate and clean the skin, leaving it soft and refreshing. The locals seemed to enjoy the yellow, brownish water but though we were assurred by Mr. Mejias that the water was clean, we were not that anxious. Our next stop was the hightlight of the day.

The Canopy Adventure proved to be a great experience. Though it was short, most of the students thought, "Where else are we going to do this?" We got on our harnesses and hiked up the rainforest to the nearerst ziplining location. Hiking the irregular steps and rocks, walking across the swinging bridges just made our anticipation grow. In the end, we all got our adrenaline fix of zooming through the trees like tarzan flowing through the air like a bird. The area was full of scenic locations such as a beautiful waterfall, greater than the one from the Chagres River National Park. That is justified by the fact that this specific rainforest is in high elevation since we spent couple of hours driving up mountainous terrain.

Our next stop was a busy marketplace. It seemed like a crossroads between the inner city and the mountainous Anton Valley. The scene was most simliar to a flea market with an area for verduras y frutas and also artifacts, decorations, and clothing for tourists. The place was great for haggling and we got the chance to lower some prices using Spanish; it was a very rewarding experience to communicate effectively and on top of that try to reach a bargain--que ganga!

Last but not least, we ended our Sunday adventure at the beach. Panama has two types of beaches; white sand and black sand beaches. The pacific side of the Panama, i.e. Panama City, has black sand and the Atlantic side has white sand. The black sand at the particular beach we visited also could be explained because of the volcanoes nearby the mountainous areas. When we first arrived, we traveled along this strip of large rocks as far as we could. In a matter of minutes, the water level started rising around us and more waves began coming in. High Tide! During the course of our visit, we had to relocate our areas of leisure as the pacific ocean swallowed more land. Some areas were quite dangerous because the water hid large rocks that people would walk and trip over causing injuries. However, being university students we enjoyed the thrill...with mature control of course.

Sayeef Mirza

Jonathan Casanas

Richard Slama

Billy Halaby