El Nika's Championship

With Kellee's family we watched El Nika (a Panamanian boxer) successfully defend his super flyweight (?) championship against a Mexican boxer. The crowd was so happy when he won that I was hit in the head by a beer cup. We even sat at the super fancy tables by the ring and along the tunnel where all the groupies looked for the boxers entering/exiting.

head love

I am not the only one who loves the bald head.

a perfectly tied bow tie

I tied Jim's bow tie absolutely perfectly the first time. Here is proof.

Marine Ball 2009

A great time was had by all at the Marine Ball this year. Thankfully, we stopped taking photos before it got ugly....

Chillin' in Bocas del Toro

We took advantage of some of the many American and Panamanian holidays in early November to visit one of our favorite places in Panama, Bocas del Toro, with John and Cindy. Bocas is a little community on the Caribbean side of Panama near Costa Rica. It has a nice backpacker vibe and really good food (as it goes in old Panama). These pictures pretty much show what we did, aside from sitting in hammocks. In the final photo, in my hand I have a tamale - I was trying to save it from the fish.

Music of Bocas

On our last day in Bocas, as we lounged on the dock of our hotel, we enjoyed listening to the neighbors next door who were playing the guitar and singing. This seems to be quite a tradition in Bocas - the last time we visited, over Christmas last year, we heard a lot of playing and singing. It is pretty hot, and most people don't have A/C, so they spend a lot of time catching the air outside of their classic Caribbean-style wood houses, which usually have wide porches on the first and second floors. Click on the photo below to listen.

Ngobe village near Bocas

We had the opportunity while in Bocas to visit a Ngobe (pronounced NO-bay) indigenous village called San Cristobal which is just about a 10-minute boat ride from Bocas del Toro. It is a Peace Corps site where a great volunteer named Piper is working on a tourism project with a group of Ngobe women. We had a guided hike through the jungle where the woman's group leader, Esperanza, explained to us the traditional uses of a bunch of native plants. It seems that there is a great need for treatments for fever, stomach aches, "bad spirits" and everything having to do with childbirth and labor. The red plant pictured here is used to mark the property lines of each Ngobe family's farm plot. They don't have communal land as some other groups do - families farm their own plots and pass them down to their sons when they die. The red plant also marks the boundaries for burial plots.

Making Cacao

One of the big cash crops of the Ngobe is cacao. Cacao grows on trees, and here, our hero Jim B is cutting down a pod. The cacao beans are enclosed by a super sweet white fruit. The Ngobe separate out the beans and dry them before selling them.

Lunch at San Cristobal

This was our lunch at the Ngobe village - coconut rice, chicken, plantains and a vegetable dish from the sepa plant that tastes similar to the Indian dish saag. It was great.

Making Ngobe fiber bags

Esperanza showed us how to make the well-known (in Panama) Ngobe bags made from the fiber of a long leaf found in the jungle. After cutting the leaf, you scrape off the green stuff until only fibers are left. The fibers are dried, braided, and made into woven bags that the Ngobe use for everything. I bought one for the beach. It is awesome!

Cutest baby ever

The Ngobes use the fiber bags for everything, including babies.