It began with a week meditating in the mountains of Colorado at the Shambhala Mountain Center. I returned to turmoil in Boulder, exited, and arrived, post Miami, in Panama City.
From Panama City I flew to Bocas del Toro, a small Island on the Caribbean side of Panama where my dear friend from college met me at the airport. A host beyond any I have had, he set me up at one of his 3 hostels where I shared a room with 3 18 year-old girls and slept above a bar.
The transition from silence to debauchery was not easy, but the kindness of my friend Daniel and his friends made it all the smoother.
I spent my nights raucous, my mornings hungover, and my afternoons taking boats to nearby islands where I would hike and explore from starfish to rainforests to roarous secret beaches.
On New Year's day I trekked with a group of UVM students and their friends up to Costa Rica to an organic sustainable teaching farm which Daniel set up for me.
To get there we took a boat, two busses, walked from Panama to Costa Rica over a bridge, and then took a cab, an hour hike along the beach, and arrived at Punta Mona, or Monkey Point, home of bats, rats, howler monkeys and a phenomenal ocean view beyond any I have ever seen.
I stayed at Punta Mona for a week with another amazing group of people from all over the world. There were Swedes, Texans, and Canadians. A tall silent Norwegian man, a hardworking German girl, and a sleu of Vermonters. We ate from the land, made truffles from cacao beans, tortillas from fresh-cooked corn, salad from jungle leafs. I did odds and ends farm work for the week and then hiked alone back to civilization on January 8th.
I went back to Bocas for one last night where I was dressed like an 80's pop/porn star, served another homemade meal thanks to Daniel, and was introduced to the hostel's "power hour" after which I slept on a cot in a closet at the sister hostel. By the following afternoon I left on a boat and then a long bus ride up to Boquete where I visited distant relatives.
Boquete, land of coffee and flowers, was beautiful, a bit of a Boulder mountain feel. It was something like a Florida retirement community planted in the hills of Panama. My hosts, again, were beyond hospitable taking me out to exquisite meals and driving me through the area with tours of orchid gardens, coffee farms, and mountain castles.
After Boquete, where I stayed at a tiny inn with an enormous nativity scene display, I flew to Panama City. There I stayed in Casco Viejo at Luna's Castle, my friend's third hostel. I had Shabbat dinner in the large Panamanian Jewish section, was shown the city by night, and left early the next morning for Boulder.
This is the scaffold. Being that I am the most intense and emotional woman on the planet, you can use your imagination to fill in the blanks, all those transitions between worlds, mindsets and people. From a mountain meditation retreat to a frat party in the Caribbean to an organic farm cut off from all contact to civilization.
Add in the Israelis I met, the pleasure at speaking Spanish, and four revealing and intense Shabbat dinners. I was called an experience junkie today. If that is the case, this past month was the fix. I highly suggest traveling in the midst of one Daniel Smetana's universe for the sake of relaxation, extreme kindness, fun, and ease.
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