Swear-iñ rocked! Almost all of us made it, one guy swam a mile to an island and got cut but the rest of us squeaked in.

It was in the Panama Canal museum in an old part of Panama City. Afterwards, we got a cool tour of this fascinating place that connects our world's biggest oceans.

I focused on the geology, of course.

Then we hit up the coolest rooftop bar in the city with views of Panama City new and old.

Healthy looking mustache men...Reid and Peter

Ngobe pose

Lovely ladies

A little after party dancing, Señor Miguel busts out the sweatervest jig


Now we are officially Peace Corps Volunteers and have moved to our respective communities all across the Panamanian countryside.

Mine is in a mountainous jungle valley in the Comarca Ngobe Bugle (indigenous reservation) in western Panama.

 View of the coast from the mountains, my launch point before the hike into the valley.

The local church, Ngobe-style.

Hiking down the trail to my new community, about an hour's hike into the campo.

Solid sheets of tropical rain from my window.

So far my host family is very nice, my community poor but happy. I'm in good hands in a beautiful place, excited to live and work here for the next two years. The real journey begins...