Christo Negro Procession at Portobello

Annually on October 21st, Portobello holds a festival to celebrate the city's patron saint, Christo Negro (Black Christ). Those whose prayers have been answered by Christo Negro make a pilgrimage to Portobelo on a walk that can be up to 40 kilometers. Nearly all wear purple robes, some carry effigies of Christo Negro, and a few even complete the final leg of the journey on their hands and knees. For extra penance, pilgrims may ask a companion to pour burning hot purple wax on their naked backs as they crawl to the church. Here are some photos of the pilgrimage and Portobelo. Unfortunately the trip was cut a bit short due to a very unusual hostel experience.

Apparently, this effigie did not want to leave Portobelo on a ship back in the 17th century. Every time a ship tried to take him away, a storm began. According to myth, he was possibly thrown overboard in the Caribbean by some very scared crew. Once overboard, he floated back to Portobelo.

 Welcome, Pilgrims

 Extra penance.

 Just because it's a pilgrimage does not mean it is without beer.

 The amazing diablo rojos along the way.

 From left, Ashley, Austin, and Carolyn.

Though the boy was not happy about it, the mother excitedly forced her son to pose for a photograph. After all, she did shave Black Christ's face into his head. 

Canadian Thanksgiving

The weekend of October 6-7, we were adopted by our Canadian co-workers to take part in their Thanksgiving celebration. We enjoyed a big house with its secluded beach and lagoon. After turkey dinner, we swam surrounded by bioluminescence. It wasn't too bad for a Saturday.

The Tarantula

About a week ago on our way to school, Austin had to swerve to avoid squishing a big tarantula (which we could see from the car). It was huge!!

Scuba Diving with Whale Sharks

Near the island of Coiba in Panama, we went scuba diving and came upon two whale sharks, a mama (25+ feet) and a baby (12-15 feet). Though the video is short, they were swimming around us for quite a while. This was the coolest experience in the entire world.

Click on this link to Scuba Coiba's facebook page (where anyone can view) that has the video. If you listen closely, you can hear the humpback whales in the background. Though we didn't see them under water, we were able to see a few on the boat ride back to Santa Catalina on the coast. The picture below was taken on the same dive and shows Carolyn in the front of the pack.

I thought I'd add some photos of the neat hostel we stayed at in Santa Catalina during the scuba trip to Coiba as well as Coiba itself.

Here is the Island of Coiba, a nature reserve.  

The scuba crew.