DANGER girl
With the ants down to three (Sarah, Ben P, myself) we left early the next day for Boquete in the local choice of bus, yellow school buses from the US. A small town up in the mountains, we mostly went for the ongoing festival of flowers. We figured it would be a great way to get a glimpse into panamanian local life as well as experience something a little different.
The weather there was a welcome respite from all the heat we've been experiencing. I couldn't even remember the last time I wore pants or needed a sweater. I was so excited to pull out my grey jacket and jeans. It was an adorable little town and we were immediately charmed by it.
The flower festival was also quite charming. I enjoyed their little flower setups (in the shape of christmas trees, small dutch looking windmills, very bright colors) with typical small timey fair food and games like popcorn, fairway games, and bumper cars. The most impressive bit was them setting up two temporary outdoor clubs, complete with pounding pop music and flashing lights. It was hard to sleep at night with the music carrying all throughout the valley, but it was still impressive.
But surely the most memorable part of visiting boquete was my very first scootering adventure. Yes, that's right people, somebody actually let me on a scooter!! And then I promptly careened straight into a pole. sigh.
I looked up to see 4 australian guys gaping open mouthed at me and I shamefacedly picked myself up and tried to laugh it off all the while secretly burning with embarrassment inside. To be fair though, it wasn't completely my fault. The scooter was really tall (even ben said so, and he's a motocross junkie so i figure he knows what he's talking about) so I was having trouble propping myself up without falling over, and my hands were too small to grip the brakes properly. The guy who rented us the bikes insisted that we ought to use both brakes, so as I was flying towards the pole in those first 5 seconds, I immediately went to grip both brakes, and with the right hand I DID hit the brake but also thenrolled the accelerator at the same time. This is apparently key to smashing into poles.
But then a few minutes later sarah took a slow turn and somehow got herself pinned underneath the scooter, so I felt a little better knowing I wasn't the only one who was having some difficulty. She was saved immediately by a local panamanian man hefting a large sack of hay, and when Ben and I finally reached her we were relieved to find that she was uninjured.
The rest of the scootering was fantastic, at least. I opted for the most part to ride on the back of ben's bike, but later on ventured another scoot and found it to be incredibly easy except for when i had to brake really hard down gravelly bits. The scenery was beautiful, and I felt really happy riding along on the back roads with the wind flapping through my hair like some movie set in the countryside of italy. We stopped a few times, including a small shop that specialized in strawberries and cream, avoided anymore accidents and all returned in one piece, myself having high hopes for future vespa purchases.
The weather there was a welcome respite from all the heat we've been experiencing. I couldn't even remember the last time I wore pants or needed a sweater. I was so excited to pull out my grey jacket and jeans. It was an adorable little town and we were immediately charmed by it.
The flower festival was also quite charming. I enjoyed their little flower setups (in the shape of christmas trees, small dutch looking windmills, very bright colors) with typical small timey fair food and games like popcorn, fairway games, and bumper cars. The most impressive bit was them setting up two temporary outdoor clubs, complete with pounding pop music and flashing lights. It was hard to sleep at night with the music carrying all throughout the valley, but it was still impressive.
But surely the most memorable part of visiting boquete was my very first scootering adventure. Yes, that's right people, somebody actually let me on a scooter!! And then I promptly careened straight into a pole. sigh.
I looked up to see 4 australian guys gaping open mouthed at me and I shamefacedly picked myself up and tried to laugh it off all the while secretly burning with embarrassment inside. To be fair though, it wasn't completely my fault. The scooter was really tall (even ben said so, and he's a motocross junkie so i figure he knows what he's talking about) so I was having trouble propping myself up without falling over, and my hands were too small to grip the brakes properly. The guy who rented us the bikes insisted that we ought to use both brakes, so as I was flying towards the pole in those first 5 seconds, I immediately went to grip both brakes, and with the right hand I DID hit the brake but also thenrolled the accelerator at the same time. This is apparently key to smashing into poles.
But then a few minutes later sarah took a slow turn and somehow got herself pinned underneath the scooter, so I felt a little better knowing I wasn't the only one who was having some difficulty. She was saved immediately by a local panamanian man hefting a large sack of hay, and when Ben and I finally reached her we were relieved to find that she was uninjured.
The rest of the scootering was fantastic, at least. I opted for the most part to ride on the back of ben's bike, but later on ventured another scoot and found it to be incredibly easy except for when i had to brake really hard down gravelly bits. The scenery was beautiful, and I felt really happy riding along on the back roads with the wind flapping through my hair like some movie set in the countryside of italy. We stopped a few times, including a small shop that specialized in strawberries and cream, avoided anymore accidents and all returned in one piece, myself having high hopes for future vespa purchases.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home