25 In Panamá

My birthday falls dead smack in the middle of the winter, it has always been a challenge to plan anything for it because it’s either freezing or snowing outside. This year I would be home for my birthday and I was EXCITED.

I’m Panamanian-Dominican and I grew up in both of my cultures but I lived in Panamá for a bit so I always lean into my Panamanian side a lot more with everything I do. I love both and embrace both but I’ve always just been closer to my Panamanian side. I had not celebrated a birthday in Panamá in over 10 years so being there and turning 25 was a big deal for me.

I was already in Panamá for a wedding and I had decided to extend my trip to get some things done that I had been dreaming of. The week or so leading up to my birthday I was working on my birthday gift to myself which was finalizing my Panamanian citizenship. This was something that I wanted to do for myself for years and I finally got to do it. This was the perfect way to start my birthday.

Leading Up..

I got to town a couple of days before my actual birthday and I was waiting for a friend of mine to join me on Thursday to start my birthday weekend. It landed on a Friday so it worked out perfectly.

Thursday night we went to my friend’s restaurant called “Ceviches Chao’ Pescao’”. (I’m going to be writing on this spot in a different post). This was my first night really spending time there with everyone and they all knew my birthday was coming up so we were really just warming up and kicking off the weekend the right way.

We were drinking with my friends and some family, eating like there was no tomorrow (seriously, that ceviche is KILLER). There was a group of people that had arrived in their motorcycles, and it was just a good vibe. Laughing, drinking, eating…everything I needed.

Nearing 12 AM my friends parents wanted to bring it in big, so they served everyone shots and waited for the clock to strike twelve. My friends mom made a “cake” with a ceviche cup and a cocktail umbrella as the candle, we sang happy birthday and everyone at the spot took their shots. She ended up asking the crew that arrived in motorcycles if it would be cool to take pictures on them, and they were down. I didn’t expect for the night to go this way and it was a really nice surprise.

The night was perfect and I started my birthday exactly the way I wanted to, surrounded by love, happiness, good energy and at home.

*Below are some pics of my friend that owns the restaurant, his mom that got everyone to take shots and my friend that traveled in to celebrate with me.

Day Of..

Los Cajones

I wanted the day to be very low-key and relaxed. I’m not an over the top type of gal so simple but meaningful is always the way to go for me. That said, I knew I wanted to spend the day in nature, getting back to something peaceful and relaxing. I decided that I wanted to go to Los Cajones which wasn’t far from where I live.

Los Cajones is a canyon that formed due to erosion from the river. You can cliff jump at different heights along it and it’s honestly just beautiful to look at and experience.

The journey to get there was…A LOT. I thought that it was a quick ride up to where we needed to go and that was not the case. We had to take a little bus up to the entrance and from there, we had to wait until the pick up truck that drives you down into the actual cajones was ready to drive down. It was all sketchy to be very honest, especially if you’re not used to moving around like that.

I don’t cliff jump, I am terrified of it and neither did Jaz. Neither of us wanted to jump in and we were trying to find every way to get in to the water without having to jump. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a way to get in without doing so and we just sat for a while trying to figure out if we wanted to jump or not. At some point, I looked at Jaz and was like “I’m jumping in, I gotta get over it”. I was SO scared, it took me over a minute or so to finally jump in and I know it doesn’t look very high but it felt it.

I was so proud of myself for just getting over the fear of jumping in and letting go. I felt so free.

Evening Time..

It took us a hot minute to get back home because we had to wait for a pick up truck to pick us up to get to the entrance, then we had to wait again for a little bus to take us back down to town. I’ll be renting a car next time I’m there.

My grandmother had made my favorite, arroz con pollo and they had a whole little birthday celebration planned out, nothing major. They got me the cutest cake with my name on it (that the bakery spelled wrong, lol) and had a couple of my cousins and aunts come over to sing me happy birthday. It was small but really meaningful.

I told my family that I would be ending the night at my friends restaurant to continue to celebrate. We had invited my friends and some family so it would be fun. My aunt ended up coming with us with some of my cousins and we ran into my uncle that was also there. It ended up being a mini reunion.

The night was very low key - I didn’t have any service so all I was focused on was the people around me and being in the moment with the people I care and love.

The night ended with us going out to eat some time after midnight, they recently started building these 24hr gas stations that have a dine in restaurant. Nonetheless, we had a great night and I couldn’t have asked for a better way to celebrate my day.

The Weekend

The weekend was about continuing to celebrate my birthday but also celebrating my friends upcoming birthday as well. Her birthday was that week coming up and she would actually be traveling back the day of so we wanted to make sure we spent the weekend doing things for the both of us.

Saturday

We got up Saturday and we ended up deciding that we wanted to go to the beach. My friend ended up dropping us off at one of the private beaches that he knows his way around. He was able to get us beers, and some chips and other snacks to munch on while we were there, he ended up leaving . Jaz and I literally had the beach to ourselves for a while. We listened to music, I got in the water, took a nap, and had our drinks. At night time we went to the restaurant and just had a couple drinks, my uncle ended up meeting us there and having some food with us as well.

Sunday

Sunday funday! We got up early to head in to the city. My grandfather wanted to drive us in since he felt that would be safer and we weren’t gonna turn down the ride. He took us to our summer home which is up in a mountain called Chica. It’s the most peaceful place ever, a lot of my childhood was spent here as well and I wanted Jaz to see something a little different than what we had been doing and seeing the past few days. We were able to have some fresh mandarins that we grow and it was a really lovely treat on our way to the city. We were there for maybe an hour or so and then continued on our way.

Finally we arrived to the city and we took a cab to the hotel we were staying at. We wanted to go to Casco Viejo, we needed to go to Niko’s and we needed to get our anklets from the Kuna’s.

The first thing we did was get our anklets, the Kuna have these anklets that normally go up to about their knees or a bit higher. I always get it when I go to Panamá. We went to a place that’s known for normally having a bunch of Kuna vendors that sell their goods. We went on a Sunday so our options were scarce. It took us maybe 30 minutes to get in and out, we bought some tchotchkes for some friends back home and then went about our day.

Casco Viejo is an older part of the city that has been transformed immensely and it’s really beautiful, but you should know that what it looks like now is not what it looked like in the past. We got there and we walked around for a while just down the streets to see everything up close. We found an older man selling raspao’s, they don’t sell them the same way that they used to but it was still yummy nonetheless. We sat at the park and just listened to a guy sing some songs and just enjoying the moment. We stumbled on an ice cream shop and got ice cream. From there we walked a little more and we were able to go into one of the ruins and look up close and learn a little of the history.

We did a lot of walking in Casco Viejo, there’s so much to see and experience so we walked all over and took different ally ways just to see what the area looked like in different places.

From there, we took a cab over to the nearest Niko’s Café. Jaz and I are both Panamanians and we both have our own memories of Niko’s. Whenever I would land in Panamá, we would ALWAYS go to Niko’s. I always got the jugo de avena with a triple decker sandwich. It was always tradition as a little kid. We went to Niko’s for one specific thing….the jugo de avena. Neither of us got pictures of this part, we were honestly just trying to find one that was open and we sat in the restaurant and just talked and unwinded from our adventure earlier in the day.

We went back to our hotel and got some rest, Jaz was getting sick and we had been out and about all day so we needed some rest before heading out for dinner. We almost didn’t make it ‘cus we were exhausted. Thankfully the restaurant wasn’t far at all so we didn’t have to rush to get there. It was Sunday so it wasn’t packed at all and it honestly felt like we had the place to ourselves which was so nice .

My birthday being spent in Panamá was something really special for me, I get homesick often and going to Panamá always gives me the reset I need. It’s always nice to see my family and get some genuine, unconditional love. This trip couldn’t have come at a better time for me and I couldn’t have thought of a better way to bring in my birthday than being in my homeland. I was able to achieve a dream of mine since I was a teenager, and I was able to be around my family and my friends; it’s all I wanted and all that I got.