Panama!

Here we are all together in Panama visiting our roommate Lucho for a final Spring Break of UCLA

First order of business: Panama bucket hats

Second order of business: flowers for Mamma Munoz, who we called tiaAnna and who superhumanly hosted 10 boys over 9 days

then directly to the restaurant for lunch

"Ristorante Napoli" is one of the most well known Italian restaurants in Panama City

Founded by Luis's grandfather, and the Lovane family in 1962 when they moved to Panama City from Napoli

The food is amazing, and nostalgic for me with the gnocchi tricolori

Here is the whole team al ristorante

Luis' parents were fantastic hosts and kept bringing us food to try...we were so spoiled throughout the week

TiaAnna has been working there since 13 years old, and works every day including weekends ...she is superwoman

Back at the apartment, these guys seem ready for a break

On the first day, Lucho brings us to a music festival where his cousin performs

...and one of his highschool friend, "Chaco" also has an interesting performance

The weather in Panama is incredibly humid all year around, we are lucky no rain during the week despite forecasts

It is a fun night listening to spanish music

The next morning, Matt (3rd to left) and Kyler (2nd to right) join the group, who are really good friends with Luis

We try some typical "Canalero" food: patacones or fried plantains

it's a great group, lots of funny personalities

Where are all of these bucket hats going to?

A division 2 soccer team that a waiter at the restaurant plays goalkeeper for!

We have a lot of fun supporting "Plaza FC", we even bought jerseys to use for our intramural team at UCLA next quarter

Jack and Mikey get chosen for a halftime performance that ends in a pretty funny way

Post game interview from Jack

How do we feel Mikey? .... "Oh man I didn't mean to hit him that hard"

The next day, we go on a boat to visit Isla Taboga

a small island on the pacific side of Panama pretty close to Panama City

We do a draft to make 5 vs 5 teams for an "olympics" throughout the week: soccer, basketball, waterpolo, volleyball...

Here is team1, with captain Lucho

and here is team2, the bucket hat team with captain Matt

and off we go to visit the island

its a short boat ride away

lots of smiles in the meantime, here are Rohan and Akash

a nice floating device for lounging

Mikey, can you take us to shore for lunch?

yes, of course...we made it

The next morning, its an early rise time

Becuase Luis parents are taking us to their home in Buenaventura , a beautiful beach resort on the Pacific side of Panama about 2 hours away

Wow, what an insane view right on the beach

Jauna makes us an incredible Panamanian breakfast: it was my favorite of the whole trip

And then we are off to visit a Zoo in Valle de Anton

Jacko is ready

It is a cool place, very well integrated with the surrounding nature

...with an incredible backdrop of the mountains

lots of birds and funny looking animals

Even some monkeys, incredible to see them swinging by their tails

Rohan misses his girlfriend Sanji

Here is Juana, who grew up taking care of Luis and is a pretty funny personality that we got to know over the week

this guy is pretty cute

he seems pretty scary

a lot of great nature in the zoo

Lucho and Juana have a very loving bond

Here is the whole group...
(top) Luis or Lucho, Akash, Mikey, Rohan, Thomas, Matt
(bottom) Sawyer, Nic, Jack, Kyler

Then we make it for a quick stop at a cafe

where tiaAnna offers us some panamanian pastries

and we play some soccer while Lucho finishes sending an email

....with an incredible backgrop while juggling

at home, another delicious dinner with more patacones

and the next morning an all sports day thoughout the resort

Even picking some coconuts right off the trees

We played volleyball in the morning, followed by basketball and a futsal and ended in the pool with water polo

It felt like a summer day being 12 years old again playing every sport possible

The next day, we make it back to Panama City for the most important part of the trip: visiting the Panama Canal!

We stop for lunch at another Panamanian place

With one of my favorite meals of the week, steak and beans with bone marrow

We walk around Casco Viejo

its a recently restored and beaitiful part of the city

What are you eating Sawyer?

its a Raspado: they shave ice directly off a block of ice and pour fresh juices like Mango or passionfruit on top

Pretty nice church, Jacko

Finally towards sunset, we see a very nice skyline of Panama City

Pretty impressive...a lot of people call it the Miami of Central America

We walk along a pier to a market

its a very nice and calm night

Then Lucho takes us to some of his favorite bars

Where we play card games...

...and have funny conversations

Here is an interesting "chocolate beer" specialty that we tried

Mikey and Jack are two of my best friends who joined the club soccer team the same first year as me
This year Mikey was president and Jack and I helped out as Vice president
Despite my injury it was a great year and we created a tight-knit group...great life skills learned

Rohan has become almost our 7th roomate during the last year, he is always around...
we can always count on him for ideas of new things to try. This quarter he wants to take us all backpacking in Big Sur

Sawyer and Akash have become very close as they share a room together in the apartment
Sawyer was my freshman year random roommate, and Akash was on the same floor in Hedrick Hall as us 4 years ago!!

Akash and Luis were roommates their freshman year, and then shared a room with me during the second year in Sproul Landing dorm at UCLA

Its a great group...hopefully we stay just as close after graduating despite seeing each other less often . Here are some of our ambitious plans for the next few years

Akash and Rohan studied Neuroscience and will take a gap year before applying to medical school. Rohan wants to be a firefighter during this year!
Jack studied Physiological Sciences and also will take 1-2 gap years before applying to medical school. He is thinking of doing a masters at UCLA next year!
Sawyer studied computational biology and is planning to move to New York after graduation where he will work as a medical scribe
while taking a gap year as he works on his application for PA school
Mikey studied Business-economics and he is thinking about pursuing an MBA or masters degree
Lucho studied economics and political science and will work in Chicago for EY, a consulting company, for 2 years then move back to Panama to help run his family business.
(Lucho has dreams of being a politician in Panama one day and has started his own podcast already)
Thomas studied computer science and has great ambitions we've discussed about building his own startup or product
Matt studied mechanical engineering and Kyler studied economics and will work for Morgan Stanley
And of course...Nic studied electrical engineering and is planning to start his masters degree in fall of 2025

The next day, we stop by a resort on the Atlantic side, hosted by Luis's cousin

ready?

wow, this pool is pretty impressive

A fun game of 5 vs 5 soccer

...and a juggling challenge with Nic, Mikey, and Jack

then off to the beach

Not a bad spot for a nap

The atlantic side is beatiful with much lighter waters

The place is called Playa Escondida

At night, we go to a Brazilian steakhouse...wow thats a lot of meat Rohan

...and a much needed walk after

In the morning we get picked up at 5am...

...to visit the beautiful islands of San Blas in the Caribbean sea

It's an interesting experience to get there....the islands are part of an autonomous community in Panama and completely managed by an indigenous group called the Yuna Gala