Recap, Godspeed gringos

Quick recap of some fun times with my incredible PC compañeros over the last couple weeks:

 A group of us went to to Lago Gatún to fish a few sundays ago. (Adam, his host-bro Ronál, Dana (Dante Villa Lobos) Katie, Cesár, Benjamin, y yo). When Adam invited me to go fishing with his host brother and him, I was super pumped. I love lakes. I come from a family who has spent generations at el Lago Clark in Michigan. It's our paradise. Let me tell you, lake life in Panama is still cool and tranquilo, but it was quite a wild experience.

Benjesus walking on water
 

 Lago Gatun was formed in the early 1900s during the canal building efforts. It's one of if not the biggest man-made  lakes in the world and was created by blowing up some mountains and rivers with a ton of dynamite, creating an enormous lake. The lake literally sits on mountain tops, and you can see tons of huge trees sticking out of the water and near the surface. imagine whipping around in a pontoon trying to dodge stumps, or better yet, wakeboarding. At one point, we literally got stuck on a tree and had to jump in and shift the fishing boat off of the tree, que locura.. The water is super clean and warm, and there are various types of fish (the majority of the fish we caught is an invasive species). There are also piranhas and lagartos in the lake, which I didn't find out until I was swimming around for a while. Lagarto= alligator, not sure if it's crocodiles or gators that live there, but either way, the prospect scared the shit out of me..kind of.. Our panamanian compadres assured us that they didn't hang out in that particular part of the lake. Fortunately (or unfortunately) we didn't see any modern day dinosaurs. We did catch a piranha though! (Again, we were assured that this kind doesn't normally attack humans.. I love Panamanian optimism, the "it will all work out just go with it" attitude). We also saw an old summer crib of Manny Noriega on the lake, and we met a really cool dude from Quebec, who definitely epitomized the lake life I know and love.

When all was said and done: Panameños: 23 fish ; Gringos 4

*For the record, there was one fishing pole and it was in the hand of the jefe, the rest of us used pop bottles with fishing twine and a hooked sardine for bait. I snagged 3.

We cleaned and gutted the fish, and that night, Adam's host madre y hermano fried up all the fish, made patacones (fried planatins), and we had quite the feast. One of the best days in Panamá thus far.

 Then, we returned to Ciudad de Saber to finish up training at PC HQ...and to climb the coolest f#^*ing tree everrrr!

BenJA y Dana La Rana (Dante Villa Lobos)

me and bejamón

Officially Peace Corps Volunteers!

Finally, the gringos went to Mailbu Beach Hostel in Gorgona to celebrate our swearing in! Needless to say we needed some time to, well, be free and party (a little). The beach was beautiful, the waves were pretty gnarly, the stars were incredible, and it was a very special weekend with nearly the whole group.

The last night there, we cooked quite the feast, complete with a fresh caught red snapper?, which Nico and I filleted and Benja fried up real nice.

Chillin under my mosquito net in my new home in Tortí, I have to admit that despite the frustrations with training and having a rigid schedule for the first two months, the connections made and the support shared between Group 72 was incredible. It was a special, necessary time for development and the friendship between volunteers truly adds to the richness of this Peace Corps experience.