Globe Corner Blogs

Ecuador --photo by Meghan

I recently traveled to Ecuador with a friend…and went without a plan.  We decided against one of the more traditional Ecuadorian travel destinations, with saddened hearts, but happy wallets – the Galapagos was just not a budget travel destination.  We decided instead to do an Amazon trek followed by some coastal R&R.  I think I had a more lively time this way. (And I certainly encountered more bugs.)

Fleeing the jungle and heading toward the coast with pre-primed sunburns and enough mosquito bites to look like smallpox victims, we arrived in Manta to the smell of fish factories, and the greeting of a statue in the town’s center – a large tuna and tuna can on a stick like a massive kebab.  A large-ish town filled with swimming pools, fish markets and discotheques, we unfortunately didn’t stay long enough to experience more of Manta’s flavor than that.

Panama hats --photo by Meghan

Early one morning we took our cab driver, Hugo, a short, jovial man, and his yellow mini-SUV taxi shopping in Montichristi.  It is a quaint, white washed and cobblestoned town with a gorgeous cathedral set among hills and has a collective chip on its shoulder. The streets are lined with vendors so unwilling to budge on prices that they would rather see you go across the street than pay them $1 less.  Hammocks, wooden figurines, necklaces, more hammocks and the infamous Montichristi “Panama” hat are all for sale from every Montichristi tiendas. But then again, maybe it has a right to be grumpy.

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Moon Handbook to Panama

I’m talking myself out of this with remarkable speed and brilliant rationalizations. It seemed like such a spectacular idea just a month ago: take a trip to somewhere exotic as a gift to myself for finishing grad school. This place would have to be relatively cheap, given the thousands of dollars in debt I now find myself in; this place must be warm to counter the frigid Boston winter; this place must not be covered in resorts or populated by be-cameraed and fanny-packed tourists; and this place must (preferably) have capybaras in its jungles. Panama seemed like the obvious choice.

So Panama it was. I bought the guide book, checked out plane fares (so cheap!), and began imagining what I could fit in my giant backpack. Then something slippery happened. The overly-anxious angel in my shirt pocket started whispering up things that will go wrong, that will ruin the trip.

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