January 12, 2015
I want to begin by saying thank you to everyone who sent us a Christmas Card. We received quite a few and loved every one of them. We did hear that some were returned as un-deliverable for some crazy reason; all I can say is try again! We are really learning to take things in stride.
One would think that as a retired person with nothing to do I would have plenty of time to write a silly little blog, so I don't know what to say except that I am the busiest retired person I know :). We made it through the holidays and have a few more adventures under our belt. This is going to be a long one.
We finally made it back down to the Pedasi area to visit our friend Karen. We had yet to see her new digs and we wanted to see our Spanish teacher Dania, and our friends Robert and Lolita who had just returned from a long trip to the US. Karen has a great apartment that sits on the beach and overlooks the ocean in a quiet town just outside Playa Venao. We spent one morning at the nearby La Playita Resort a great place with red macaws, monkeys, emus, and giant iguanas roaming about and a beautiful beach with pristine water. We soaked up the sun and salt air and even shared a lunch with a local who was determined to share his fried chicken with us! We then had lunch with Robert and Lolita and took a trip to their new house which is nearly completed. They are behind schedule mainly due to not being able to get their electricity hooked up, a common problem in these parts, but they are making great progress and should be able to move in soon. It was a great couple of days.
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| Red macaws at La Playita |
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| Lots of baby monkeys |
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| Beautiful private beach with no people |
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| A friendly emu looking for a handout |
Janet organized another outing to a great spot on the river for a group of us including our new neighbors Kim and Denny for Denny's big birthday. We swam and relaxed and had a great day concluded with a spur of the moment feast supplied by Janet and Julie of delicious soup, salad and of course birthday cake. We were joined by some new friends one of which is a hair stylist in Aspen, CO and she volunteered to do haircuts the next day which we took her up on of course. It turned into a fun girl's day with a few of us sitting around waiting our turn and getting to know one another better with a glass of wine in hand. Who knew getting your hair cut could be so fun?
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| A perfect birthday swim for all. That is Peg swimming freestyle with Calcite by her side. |
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| Calcite and Peg loved it |
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| Impromptu birthday dinner - Peg, Janet, Kim, Denny, Julie and Leo |
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Zoe makes herself at home wherever she wants! She made her own nest using their Christmas tree skirt.
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| New Do's for Peg, April and Janet... thanks Rae |
We spent Christmas Day cooking, talking to family on the phone, missing our friends back in the states and hoping you were all having a wonderful time celebrating the birth of our Savior. We got together with a group of friends to share another feast and had a wonderful time. It is fun being with new people with new stories and yummy food.
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| Christmas Feast. This was at Kim and Denny's house which is in our backyard. There are two houses on our lot. |
What comes between Christmas and New Year's every year you ask? Peg's birthday! Peg's favorite thing is to spend her birthday doing some new outdoor adventure and since it is now summer here in Panama that made it really easy. We hired a local guide (read Spanish speaking) to take us to the Alto de Piedra Falls. This hike is up in the cloud forest so it was pretty rainy and wet still, but boy was it beautiful. We also did pretty well with our Spanish which was a nice reward after seven months of practicing. It is a long slow battle we are determined to win eventually. It was a really good day if I do say so myself.
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| Thank you Denny for the birthday Machete and sharpening lesson, Peg is putting quite the edge in that Machete. |
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| Ariel our guide for the day |
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| Waterfall number one! |
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| Walls of green surround us |
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| They don't call it a cloud forest for nothing |
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| Waterfall number two much more majestic than this shows, about 50 feet tall |
The day after Peg's birthday our friends Cole and Katelin Rador (aka Frey) came into town for a visit. Katelin is an ex-student of Peg's a really, really, really long time ago (she is almost 30) and newly married to Cole. They spent one day in Panama City seeing the sights and then took the bus to Santiago where we picked them up. We spent the first day touring Santa Fe and getting caught up on life's happenings. The next day we drove down to Playa Uverito where we were staying for two nights in a little B&B on the beach. This is just outside Las Tablas which is known as one of the biggest party cities in Panama.... think Time Square South American style. So we spent New Year's Eve day on the beach, had dinner at the B&B and then headed into town for the festivities. We arrived in the town square at about 9:00 pm to find it almost deserted. It turns out the entire city goes to mass in the town church before the celebration. As midnight approached we found a good spot and waited for a count down which never came. All of sudden these two huge floats come into the square, light up like a jumbo tron, music blares and then..... we were under attack! Men on both sides of us start lighting fire works and fire crackers and when I say fire crackers I mean the whole brick at a time gets thrown into the street one after another without stopping for 30 minutes - not exaggerating! People were running back out of the flames and plugging their ears. We carefully watched each other and extinguished embers landing on our hair and clothes. The smoke got so bad that the pretty girls on the floats were covering their faces with handkerchiefs. Something tells me they have been here before. It was crazy! Once the explosions and mushroom clouds stopped, the floats, dancers and musicians made their way around the square. It was so fun and very memorable.
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| Posada Inn at Playa Uverito with Cole and Katelin |
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| Delicious paella for dinner! YUM |
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| Beautiful church for New Year's Eve mass |
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| Have box wine will travel! |
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| Let the festivities begin! That is Karen in the middle. |
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| We could feel the heat from the wall of fire! |
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| Good thing Cole is a fire fighter! We could have needed him - that's not confetti! |
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| I should have been covering my ears - I still can't hear |
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| Were we too close...... NAH Peg kept her ears covered for 30 minutes! |
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| I'm not sure what to say about this |
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| The floats were beautiful |
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| A great way to start another year! |
On New's Day we hired a boat captain to take us to Isla Iguana for a day of snorkeling and laying in the sun. When we arrived at Playa Arenal to pick up the boat we looked at the substantial surf and evaluated if this was a good idea. Katelin came running back to the car saying "this is gonna be so much fun!" Karen on the other hand said NO WAY, I'm not going out there, even though she had taken Dramamine 30 minutes earlier. She said later as she watched the boat going up a wave and then ducking out of sight that she had made the right decision. So without Karen we headed out into the pounding surf for the 30 minute boat ride out to the island. We were flying through the air with the greatest of ease thanks to our magnificent captain. We had a great day on the island and although the surf looked milder for the return trip, it was trickier than on the way out. Our captain had to time his driving with the in coming tide waves speeding up and slowing down to perfection so that we weren't swamped. It was like watching a beautiful ballet dancer. I just kept thinking if you go overboard just hold onto your glasses!
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| A beautiful beach! That is the kind of boat we were on. |
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| Isla Iguana |
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| Katelin thinking......To snorkel or not to snorkel, that is the question.... NOT |
We finished off our fantastic visit with a trip out to Los Islotes so we could show them where our house will eventually be built. It was such a great few days with a great couple who know how to have fun, relax, site-see and cook! Can't wait for our next visitors!
Hopefully next blog we will have some house news... stay tuned.
