Impressions of Panama

It is hard for me to believe that in such a short amount of time I have seen and experienced so many amazing things. I decided to put up some of my favorite images of my Panama to give everyone a better sense of what I have been lucky to see so far.

Here in Panama, it isn´t a real piñata unless you put a ton of flour in it. This was a party we put on for families who hosted us for culture week in a community in Bocas called Valle de Risco.

During training we spent a week up in the mountains near the Costa Rican border. I was beautiful and reminded me a lot of being in the mountains of California. Every morning was crisp and it smelled like pine trees. The area is home to most of the coffee produced in Panama. The hills are covered with coffee bushes and the photo on the right is a small part of the Cafe Duran plantation, one of the largest coffee producers in Panama.

We had a free weekend during training and went to the beach. A few of us woke up early on our last morning there and went for an early morning swim. Below is a picture post swim of Dorine, me and Lisa. They are two great friends I have made here in Panama.


We were lucky enough to tour a family owned and operated coffee farm called Finca Hartman. They are a small operation that produces very high quality coffee for smaller buyers all over the world including the US, Europe and Japan. It was very interesting to see that process from start to finish. They also did a "cupping" for us, which was equivalent to a wine tasting but for coffee.

I hope this gave everyone a idea of where I am and the wonderful things I have been seeing. I can´t wait to take photos of my site and put them up for eveyone to see.

This is a photo was also taken while I was in the mountains near the Costa Rican border. We were watching as the sun was setting over the border and a storm was rolling in. A few minutes later the the valley below was filled with fog.