Two nights ago was xmas eve and we did a white elephant gift exchange at the hostel. It's funny how people who have made such a conscious choice to be away from friends and family during the holidays come together to celebrate those holidays. In any case, it was a lot of fun and there were probably sixty people who showed up for it. The gifts ranged from the awesome, bottles of rum and fireworks (yes together as one gift). To the funny, coloring books and crayons, a coconut. To the practical, shot glasses. To the bizzare, a red lace bra and panties, spam, toilet paper. Then afterward the hostel did a real American xmas dinner of Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, green beans and carrots. There were over a hundred people signed up for dinner, it was quiet the affair.

As a side note: In the gift exchange Jeff got the fireworks and a bottle of rum. I ended up with a girl's tank top that probably would have looked cute on the right person but on me made a rather convincing sports bra. Yes, I did trying it on. Luckily the guy next to me got the bra and panties and so I probably didn't look as ridiculous as I could have.

Christmas eve on the island is supposed to the quite the party night but no one could quite figure out where the party was supposed to be. That's Panama for you, all rumor and innuendo. There was a "huge" beach party that everyone was talking about and never materialized and there was a club that their opening night was supposed to be Christmas eve. After swinging by the "beach party" which was four dudes with a six pack, we took a water taxi over there to check out the club and there was maybe 10 people in the whole place, including the bartenders and security. You could tell everyone was sort of standing around just hoping that a crowd of people in a fleet of water taxis were about to materialize out of the darkness but quickly died when it started pouring rain. No one is getting on a water taxi in a torrential down pour. Club Aqua, your opening night = fail.

On Christmas day we woke up late and spent the morning reading and napping in hammocks. Then we took a taxi to playa de mango and spent the afternoon reading and napping in different hammocks. Then, I'm not sure what happened. I got hit with the worst bout of homesickness I've ever had. All I wanted to do was go home and curl up in bed and watch tv and sleep which, of course, wasn't going to happen. People, I don't get homesick often, but when it happens, it happens bad. We were waiting for a taxi to take us back to the hostel and I was considering just lying down in the road and calling it quits. I figured, "it's been a good life, at least if I die here, I won't have to endure another night of sleeping pressed against the ceiling, suffering from altitude sickness in that damn bunk bed."

I think Jeff could see the defeat in my eyes and although he's pretty much set on killing me on this trip, he saved my damn life last night. When we got back to the hostel he ran out to a chino (what they call the small convenience stores down here because, no shit, they're ALL run by chinese people) and got me dorritos, a coke and a bottle of rum. Then he set me up with his video iPod so I could watch reruns of Seinfeld. It was like a homesickness survival kit. I'm sure that today he'll do something nasty like find a six hour trek through the jungle that we just have to do, but he gets a gold star for friendship for last night.

Posted by Ben Corman at 8:02 AM

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