So I finally uploaded some pictures from Panama! I spent Dec 15th through early January in Panama and I had a great time! I spent Christmas with my dad, stepmom, and their friends in Volcan. Volcan is at about 3,500 feet altitude and an amazing place. The weather is perfect, no bugs, and beautiful views. Plus the beach is only 45 minutes to 2 hours away.

After that I headed back to Panama City for New Years with Sara who is in Panama for Peace Corp and Rose/Steve who are traveling in the area. Post New Years we all went to Sara’s site out in the Jungle which was fun. I only stayed for one night due to work and I’m super impressed with what Sara has done out there. The pictures are a mixture of Volcan, the apartment we were at staying, the city and skyline, etc. There are a few with some crazy colors, the sky was intense and my camera went crazy trying to capture it.

There is a really great one of the Rose/Steve cooking process too :)

I grabbed a $40 3g Huawei E173 modem from Digicel here in Panama and I’ve been super impresed with the service. It’s fast and really nice to be able to go anywhere and have internet. I decided to unlock the 3g modem so that I could use the same one on other providers as I travel through Argentina, Peru, Brazil, Australia, and so on.

I haven’t unlocked it yet, I’ll post as I finish that project. But I knew that would wipe out the profile so I had to dig up the APN and other settings for Digicel Panama. Below are the settings to use for your 3g huawei modem to connect to Digicel Panama:

In OSX Lion for the number put “*99#”, and for the APN put “web.digicelpanama.com”. Screenshots below:

I flew out of DC Dec 15th after a hectic last week of errands and some hard goodbyes! I’m on the road and ill do a big post with more details soon! Right now i’m hanging out with my dad and stepmom in Panama (Volcan) for Christmas! A few pictures below…

It doesn’t feel so bad, I’m probably in better shape then any other point of my life, even with death sitting on my shoulder ;). Plus just imagine how awesome my mid life crisis is going to be considering I buy night vision goggles and python skinned cowboy boots in my teens and twenties. Certainty something to look forward too.

I also made some plans for the next couple years. I’ve been wanting to travel some more and spend another year abroad. So in late December or January I’m going to head down to Nicaragua for a while to visit Joel and Laura. And then travel around Central and South America until late May. I will spend at least a month in both Argentina and Brazil, and I’m still working on other locations (probably Uruguay/Chile, and hopefully Panama to visit a friend). Then in May/June I’m heading to Australia for a year as I got my visa to go there! I haven’t done any reading yet but I believe they have nothing poisonous or deadly on the entire continent, just cuddly little koala bears.