This trip was unfortunately not included in my tuition like the other trips have been. Therefore, I had a choice: Go with ISA, or go independently with some of the students in my program and save about $200 dollars. The better choice seems like the independent trip, but I opted to go with ISA, something that I did not regret even for a second! Going with ISA saved me for having to stay in a sketchy hostel, plan any of the details, find transportation, and also saved me from having to travel and spend the weekend with the constant and crazy “party fest” (the majority of the students in my program are hard-core partiers… so independent trips with them means putting up with a weekend full of alcohol and other substances and everything that comes along with those types of crazy parties…). Most importantly, it saved me from having to cross the boarder alone!
Bright and early Friday morning (5:30am) we left ULACIT. Only a few students from my program decided to go with ISA, so the trip was also opened up to students from Veritas. Veritas is ISA’s other campus here in San Jose. There are about 65 students studying there, as compared to the 18 in my group. They are located in a different part of town and most of them are just beginning their Spanish studies; therefore, we had never met any of them before the trip. Between the two campuses, we had a total of 20 students traveling to Panama. This was great! Not only did this allow everyone to have two seats on the bus, but also it was really easy to meet the other students and allowed for a very “tranquillo” weekend! The bus ride was about 7 hours, but it went by super quick. I really enjoyed meeting the Veratas students. Two Veritas students and I particularly hit it off. We realized on the bus that we were all Christians. Being in this environment (being one of a few Christians studying in my program) makes me especially excited when I meet another Christian! I spent almost the whole weekend with these girls and it was so encouraging! God really blessed the weekend in this way because I also got to share a hotel room with my beautiful friend Lauren, another strong Christian. Which meant that for the first time since coming here, I spent the entire weekend with strong Christian women!
Crossing the boarder was so sketchy! I was so glad that ISA took care of all the paper work! We had to have five copies of our passports, our actual passport, and a copy of our
flight information. Ania, our ISA staff representative, was tense the entire time we were there. She ran around from office to office, jumping through all of the hoops for us. Finally, after about an hour of filling out forms and going to different offices, we were cleared. A large river separated Panama and Costa Rica. The bridge connecting the countries was THE worst bridge I
have every seen! Let me tell you, it would certainly NOT pass U.S. inspections! It was actually an old railroad track. Between the tracks were open holes leading to the raging river below! On both sides of the tracks were planks of wood to walk on… but if you weren’t careful, you would trip and fall about 40 feet into the quickly moving waters below! We crossed it very slowly… After driving in the bus for a few more hours we had to switch to water taxies. We rode the water taxies for about 40 minutes until we arrived at the islands of Bocas del Toro. A.k.a. Paradise! I loved everything about Bocas del Toro! The Panamanians were friendly,
the currency was U.S. dollars, the food and souvenirs were cheap, the roads were clean and without holes, the houses and buildings were all painted bright vibrant colors, the weather was perfect, and the beaches were absolutely incredible! Our hotel was in the center of the main island – close to everything! Lauren and I had a lot of fun being roommates for the weekend and 
encouraging each other in our faiths. Shelby, one of the two girls from Veratas that I mentioned, turned out to be my twin! Not only do we look a lot alike, but also we had a lot in common. She is also studying nursing, loves Jesus, and we have had a lot of similar life experiences. I enjoyed hanging out with these women so much!Saturday
morning we took a water taxi to a near-by private island. On the 
way we spotted dolphins jumping out of the water! Unfortunately I didn’t get very good pictures of them, but it was very cool! The private island was breath-takingly 
beautiful! It was like we had hopped into a screen-saver or other marketable beach picture! The sand was white and the water was calm without 
any waves. The colors were incredible. The water started out crystal clear and then gradually faded into deeper shades of blue, as it got deeper. On Sunday we went to playa de las estrellas (star-fish beach!). This beach was on the same island as our hotel, so we took a bus as far as we could and then walked the rest of the way. The walk was absolutely delightful! We walked along the shore and through little
forests of palm trees. It was as if we had discovered a little secret because the beaches were not crowded with tourists like they seem to be everywhere else in the world. We knew we had reached starfish beach when we started spotting little red and orange starfish in the water! This was my first starfish experience, and I learned a lot. The most important thing to know is that the starfish cannot be out of the water 
longer than a minute otherwise they will die! This did not stop us from picking them up or from taking pictures. We were very careful. We held them under the water to look at them and to take pictures we lifted them out for a few seconds, snapped our pictures, and dropped them back under. Their arms move like stiff worms. I left my hand under the belly side of one of them for a few seconds and he uncovered his suction-cup like tentacles and stuck them to my hand! At first I thought this was really cool… until I started feeling something scrubbing my hand, which I imagined to be his tongue priming my fingers for dinner (ok, that’s most likely not what was going on, but nonetheless, I didn’t like it!). This 
started to freak me out so I tried to pull my hand away, but I couldn’t! His tentacles were tightly glued to my hand and I couldn’t break loose! I started getting a little panicky until a large wave crashed on us and broke my
hand free! Needless to say, I didn’t try laying my hand on any more of their bellies! All of the starfish were unique. Some were teeny-tiny and others were extremely large. Some were a pinkish beige color and others were deep orange or red. They were so fascinating! I was sad when Monday morning came and it was time to leave! For a great ending to an incredible weekend, a few of us woke-up early to watch the sun rise.
Everything in the town was still and quite and it felt as though we were the only 
ones there. We found a dock with a perfect view of the horizon. We sat on the dock in the darkness, waiting for the sun. Gradually the water and the sky started changing colors as the sun began to rise. It took about thirty minutes for it to completely rise, but 
in the meantime, we enjoyed God’s artwork of colors! Although I was able to get some good pictures, they don’t capture the full beauty of this sunrise! It was like God had allowed us to see a little bit of his work in action, and let me tell you, He is talented! Imagine how many sunsets and sunrises God makes everyday, all over the world! How many of them go unnoticed? How many of them have I witnessed? Not many. I will always remember this one.
The trip home was uneventful. We passed over the boarder, back to Costa Rica, smoothly without any problems. Bocas del Toro is listed as one of the top ten most romantic places in the world and a common honeymoon location. I can see why! I’ve never seen such tropical beauty! Our visas were renewed and now I’m good to go until I go home (7 weeks from tomorrow!). My visa wasn’t the only thing that was renewed in Panama; I came away from the weekend feeling renewed in every other way as well – spiritually, mentally, and physically. It was a weekend full of encouragement, excitement, new friendships, adventure, new experiences, rest, and beauty. ** Monday is November first, which means that I will be done with my facebook fast October! Be expecting an overload of pictures, including the rest of my pictures from Panama!**
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