talk about lucky!

Today is a holiday for Panama, since the actual Independence date fell on a Sunday.  Must be nice to be an employee here because there sure seems to be an abundance of holidays!

We aren't sure if there was anything going on in town today, as we didn't walk in.  We thought we heard music coming from that direction earlier in the day, but weren't too sure.  We heard that the parades yesterday didn't end until 11:00 at night!!!   It was amazing that it never rained at all yesterday - today it was sunny until the early afternoon and then the rains began.  As Guillermo and I were headed out for a walk around here in the early afternoon, it did look like the clouds were starting to form.  By the end of our walk we were walking in that fine mist that happens so much around here.  A little while after we got back home, it started raining much harder.  So, all the parade participants and all the people that were out celebrating the holiday yesterday were lucky that the celebration fell yesterday and not today!  But I guess around here, the people are used to just doing things in the rain.  We've seen school kids out waiting for their school bus just standing out in the rain as if nothing.  We've seen kids walking home from school, in the pouring rain just chatting and laughing as if it was a regular sunny day.  So, there surely has been many a parade where it rained the whole time and the parade just went on as usual!!!

                                        Here is a picture taken out our front window of the rain:

Looking from our balcony towards the back

This is from our balcony also, and if you click on the picture, you can see the rain falling.

Big Independence day here

Today is a big day in Panama - their independence from Spain.  There supposedly are parades ALL DAY LONG here.  We believe it - we got downtown around 10 this morning and the parade was already in full swing.  We found a good place to watch the parade under an awning, in case it started raining.  Of course, we forgot our cameras, and after missing several good shots, Guillermo decided to just walk back to our house and get the camera.  It took him 35 minutes to get there and back.  So, here are a few shots now that we had the camera.

This picture is taken in front of the grocery store we shop at all the time - Romero.

This group was marching like in slow motion.

An Indigenous group with a political message.

After watching the parade for about 3 hours, we walked across the bridge to get some lunch.  This is the view from the bridge.

The main plaza in Boquete.  Fixed up very nicely in just the last few days.  The cobbled street you see was just done a few days ago.  We used to drive on it, but it is now a pedestrian zone.  We like that much better.

The dresses of these Indigenous women are so colorful!

This is the last scene we saw as we headed back to our house.  That machine just to the right of center is a mobile ice cream cone machine!

It never did rain once today.  The sun shone down on Panama today for their Independence Day celebration!

At 4pm, we could still hear drums and music going down in the town!

Set through next month

Well, after looking at countless places to live here in Boquete and a few places in a neighboring town, we have made the decision to continue living in this nice place for one more month.   It's been a tough few days, trying to get this figured out, because December is a busy time around here.  Not only have most places been filled and booked for the Christmas season, but most places jack up their rates for this month.  We were afraid the place we live now was going to raise their rate for December way out of our price range, but they were very fair with us, so we decided to stay.

It was hard, because a few places that we looked at yesterday would have been nice to stay at, BUT there was always SOMEthing about each place.  We looked at a very cute little place out in Volcancito, it was two apartments behind someone's house.  Their whole yard was walled, so it seemed like it would have been a safe place.  We liked the upstairs apartment a lot - it had a nice balcony, the only thing is it looked out to pine trees???  Anyway, it was still a nice view, BUT the two biggest obstacles with that place were that there was no washer or dryer, and Volcancito is quite a distance from Boquete.  So, we would have had to take taxis or the bus a lot, lugging our laundry, and either waiting around in Boquete for the laundry place to finish our clothes or take a taxi back home and come back in a taxi a few hours later to get our clothes and go grocery shopping.  Then take another taxi back home!!  Yes, it was do-able, and the price was VERY good, but.......

Then we were shown this other place just 4 blocks from downtown Boquete - when we heard it was so close we had such high hopes.  It also was a cute little place, a little more expensive than the one in Volcancito but cheaper than where we are at now.  BUT, they did not yet have TV or internet set up there although they promised it'd be up by the time we moved in.  The apartment was part of the owner's house and so of course, they lived RIGHT THERE, which could be ok if they're nice quiet people.  So, the washer and dryer belonged to them, and we would share it.  Not a big deal, at least there was one right there on the premises.  When we walked out the back, I thought how lovely, we'll have a back yard, until I realized that the back yard was THEIR backyard, and they, their kid and their dog would be in it all the time.  We liked the little patio in the front of the house and we thought, hey, we could sit out here and watch the rain come in - until we heard that the owner parks his car in the spot right next to where we'd be sitting on that patio.  Would kind of detract from the view.  The yard was fenced, so it seemed fairly safe there also and it was so close to town!!! We were so tempted, but after all was said and done, we decided it'd just be easier to stay here.  No packing everything up and getting into an unknown.  At least here, we know the internet and TV are good, we feel safe, it's a lovely place to take our walks in, it's a decent walk to town and so on.

Pictures from Guillermo's Camera

Finally downloaded Guillermo's pictures from his camera and resized some of them for this blog.

Clay Colored Robin - all these bird pictures are taken from our bedroom window.

Blue Gray Tanagers

Same Tanagers

Sheri's Tanager

We just LOVE seeing the clouds like this.

Brugmansia flowers

Hanging from a nearby house

Torrent Tyrannulet - this picture was taken along one of the streams here.

Great Egret, taken by a pond on the golf course

....And we got the rental car for one more day, since there are several places we wanted to look at today and tomorrow morning!

Volcan and Cerro Punta

Last full day with the rental car, so we thought we'd take advantage of it and drive out to Volcan and Cerro Punta.  Everyone was telling us to take the "new" road that cuts across to Volcan, instead of driving all the way down to David, across to another city where we would then make the turn back up towards Volcan.  That's a much longer drive, and fortunately yesterday, when we went to David, we saw where the new road goes to Volcan, so today we were able to get on that road with no trouble at all.

It was a beautiful day today.  This new road to Volcan is quite an interesting drive.  First of all, there are many turn-offs on this road, but one person told us, make sure you stay on the road that has the yellow line going down the middle.  That was such good advice, because there were several times when it looked like we could go either way, but the yellow line was the clincher.  The road twists and turns a lot and has plenty of steep grades, but all in all, it's a much much nicer drive.  There are hardly any cars on this road which makes it even better.  There was one part of the road where we thought we were going through some sort of national park or something, since it was so beautiful.  We decided to stop and ask what that place was.  While Guillermo went to ask, I went over to the bridge and was amazed by what I saw.  (We actually stopped here on our way back.)

A river running through this deep canyon that was just spectacular!  When Guillermo got back, he told me that they said this was part of a hydro-electric plant.  That was surprising to us.

This was a little canal running along at the top of this canyon.

Once we got to Volcan, we were disappointed to see that the restaurant we ate at last year, called "Fernando" was closed.  We had planned on having lunch there.  So, we drove on through Volcan to Cerro Punta and then on to Guadalupe.  It was still a little early for lunch, but we had decided we'd have lunch at the Quetzales hotel so to use up a little time, we drove on up through Guadalupe a little past the road that turns off to the Quetzales cabins.   This is what the hills look like around Guadalupe.

Then we turned around, parked at the hotel and went upstairs to have lunch.  What we ordered was absolutely delicious and what I had (an eggplant dish) was far and away better than the pizza I had last year.  The sky started clouding over while we were having lunch, and it actually started sprinkling.  By the time we left the hotel, the skies were looking a lot heavier and darker.  We spent a little time back close to Volcan looking at a few houses that we had seen on the internet for rent.  But nothing worked out.  Everything looked a lot worse in real life than it did on the web.

Driving back to Boquete was nice, but it was a lot harder because it was rainy and foggy.  As we got closer to the highway back to Boquete, the rain was coming down in buckets and it was really slow going almost until we got to Boquete.  Surprisingly enough, in Boquete it was dry!

Yesterday, we walked into town, to the visitor center to pick up our rental car, which we're going to keep for the next 3 days.  We're going to use it to drive around and look at what our other options might be for places to stay for the next month, just in case where we're staying now doesn't work out for past December 8th.

So, with the car it was a little easier to go grocery shopping and stop into different stores for different things.  We also ate at that German restaurant that we tried to eat at last week.  This time we got there earlier, and had no trouble getting a table.  The food was very good - I had roast pork, and Guillermo had roast chicken.  The potatoes on Guillermo's plate were very good, mine were good also, but not as good as his!!  The man who owns the restaurant (and does the cooking) is from Germany and most of his customers speak German, so it was nice to sit in there and listen to them talk.  The owner sounds just like Uncle Bruno!!

After dropping off our groceries and things back at the house, we drove out in the direction of David to look at some places we had seen advertised for rent out that way.  Wow, we had no idea we'd be driving as far as we did!!  We drove out to Caldera because there was a place out there that seemed interesting.  The drive out there was kinda ugly, but amazingly enough, after this one curve on the road, the scenery changed completely.  And it was right about there where this place was.  The gate was open so we drove in!!!  A guy met us outside one of the houses there and then the owner came out and invited us into his house for a few minutes.  Very nice place he has - and he was obviously very proud of all he's done with his home and with the entire property.  He walked us around the property, showing us all the work he's put into it and it really is amazing.  His house is up on top and down kind of in a canyon is the Caldera River, which runs right through his property.  We were hoping he'd show us the cabins he has there for rent, but he ended up showing us every cabin and then almost the entire property!!  It was nice.  All the cabins are precious except for the one right on the river.  That one would be too worrisome.  Then we walked with him along a trail that kind of follows the river and it was just so beautiful.  His place is a paradise, but we don't think we'll be staying there.  It is very far from the nearest good size town, (we'd have to be taking taxis a lot), the cabins are pricier than we'd like (and besides they're booked for the time we want) and if we DID stay there, that's pretty much where we would stay all day long every day - unless we caught a taxi to the nearest town.  For a vacation spot, though, this place would be fantastic!!!!!

Today is Tuesday, and right after we got up this morning it started raining and it is now noon, and it has been raining the whole time.   Tuesdays are market days down in Boquete, so thankfully we had the car and were able to go.  We picked up a few things and drove right back - it was just too rainy to do anything else.

BUT, since we have a car, we didn't want to waste it, so even though it was raining, after lunch here at the house, we got in the car and drove to David - this time getting all the way to David.  Guillermo had been told that there was a good pharmacy and lab in a medical center in David, so we first went there to check on the medications that he needs.  It seemed very promising that he could get what he needs there, and that he'd also be able to get his blood checked in a few months in the lab.  So, with that taken care of, we went to the little mall in David that is right on the highway to Boquete.  We enjoyed looking around in those HUGE department stores where they have just about anything anyone could want, and then we visited the El Rey supermarket, which compared to the stores in Boquete is just far and away so much better.  We picked up a few things, then picked up two sandwiches for dinner at Subway and then drove back home, and by then, it wasn't raining anymore.

Rain again

We had lunch for the first time on our balcony today, and we decided we need to do more of that!  It was so pleasant out there, there were no flies or bugs or anything and it was so nice to watch the clouds in the distance.

Later, we were planning to walk around in the valley here, but somehow or another got stuck on the computers longer than we had planned and it's a good thing, because the next thing we knew, it was pouring rain outside.  It lasted quite a while, too, so if we had gone out when we first were going to, we would have gotten soaked.  Umbrellas and all.  No matter where we go outside, or for how long, we always take our umbrellas, because rain can pop up at anytime, and it sure did today.  We were happy to be dry inside looking at the sheets of rain drifting by in the valley.

When the rain stopped, and it looked like the sky wasn't immediately threatening anymore, we decided to take advantage of the lull and go for our walk.  But we stayed close to buildings we could duck into if the rain started up again.  It never did, though, and we had a good walk.

Don't know if it's going to make it here, but on the weather map, it looks like a WIDE area of rain is building up and heading our way.  Costa Rica also seems to be covered with rain right now from a different system.

No rain again today

We walked into town again today - hah - we said we were going to do that maybe every other day.  It's nice to walk around in this valley, and we had wanted to walk in here today to take some pictures of the beautiful flowers that we see everytime we walk, but we decided to walk back into town - to the Boquete visitor center - to reserve a rental car for Monday.

So, on Monday, we'll have a car again!   We'll have it for about 3 days, and we're going to use it to check out some areas on the other side of the Baru Volcano.  They also told us at the visitor center that Nov. 29 will be a holiday and there will be a big parade in Boquete.  Something about another independence day on Nov. 28th.  So, we will probably walk into town to attend that parade!!  That should be interesting!!

But anyway, after reserving the car, we walked back into Boquete (the visitor center is a little ways out of town) and on our way we passed a little shop called Sugar and Spice.  Their billboard outside advertised European breads and sweets, so we decided to check it out.  Walking in the door was like stepping into a little European shop and we ended up buying several things - one of them being a sausage/potato empanada, which the owner there calls enchiladas.  That was so weird to say we'd like one of the enchiladas, when it was nothing like the enchiladas we know.  We also bought a loaf of 9-grain bread, a brownie, a naranjilla empanada and a maracuya empanada.
It was sunny most of the day today, so by the time we reached the house, like usual, we were pretty hot.

We had the sausage/potato empanada for lunch (delicious!) and the naranjilla empanada for dessert at dinner.  Also very good!  Hmm, we may have a new place to pick up bread and empanadas!

It's a miracle - No rain today!

Not one drop - not even the little mist that is sometimes in the air.  We walked into town around 11:30 this morning, armed with our umbrellas as usual but they were never needed this time.  I also finally learned to dress in layers (in a tropical country???)  But the way it's been, it's usually quite cool on the walk into town, and once we're walking back home, we usually get pretty hot.  So, today, it was nice to be able to shed the warmer clothes.  In town, Guillermo went around again to several pharmacies to see if they could supply him with the pills he's going to be needing in a few weeks.  At the same time, I was checking out a video store, but that's not going to work out because to rent a video you have to be a member (show them a home receipt of a utility bill) or put a deposit down on each rental, which will be returned when the video is returned.  We don't really want to do that so forget seeing videos for a while.

Then we were going to eat at that upstairs German restaurant we found last week, which was so EMPTY when we saw it last week, but today it was packed - there was no place to sit.  We waited around for a while, but came to the conclusion that it'd be quite a while before we got a table, and our food, because it looks like it's just one guy there who cooks every meal from scratch.  Even though it smelled SO GOOD there, we decided to try the place another time - and to get there earlier next time!!  So, instead, we went back to the Peruvian restaurant Machu Pichu and had another absolutely delicious meal there.  After that good meal, we picked up a few groceries and began the walk home.  We thought for sure by then it'd be raining, but we got all the way home with no rain at all.  And as I'm writing this at 9:30pm, it never did rain the rest of the day....

Landslide last night!

When we went to bed last night, it was raining, as it had been on and off all evening.  It was raining a little harder when we went to bed, but not that bad and it didn't last all that long.
Somehow or another, during the night, Guillermo heard what he thought sounded like a rock slide.  He even sat up in bed and asked out loud if I had heard that.  Well, I guess I was sound asleep, because I heard neither the sound he heard, nor him asking me anything!!
In the morning, Guillermo gets out of bed and goes to the bedroom window, like he does every morning to see what birds are at the neighbor's bird feeder, and he exclaims that there WAS a landslide last night!!!  He said there's dirt, rocks and trees blocking the whole road!  So, I got up and was amazed at what we were seeing.

It's the little things

The last two days have been pretty regular - we take our walk around the valley in the mornings because by the afternoon, it is usually raining.  Yesterday, it rained pretty good most of the afternoon!  And last night, our doorbell rang, and we were like, really, who would be coming over here?!?!?  Well, it was Terry and she had a new router for us!!!!  We had kind of given up on getting one, and were resigned to having to take turns with our computers on the internet every other day.  It was do-able, but we were both wishing we could have a different setup.  So, that night, I set out the installation instructions, (the instructions were detailed, and said not to attempt a configuration without a wired computer), the CD for the setup and all that and waited until this morning to attempt to connect with the new router.  The next morning, on a whim, I decided to see what would happen if I just plugged the new router in - no wired computer, no CD.  And much to my relief, my laptop accepted it and helped me set it up!!  So easy!!!  Next thing I knew, we BOTH were online - with a SECURE connection!  It's great - it's the little things!!  So, everything that needed some attention here has been fixed!
Of course, I will always find something to worry about.  The hot water, the dryer and the stove all run on gas at this house.  Our gas tanks out back - we have two.  One is empty, and the other is half full.  I'm not sure how long it will take to go through half a tank of gas, but hopefully we won't have to fill it before we leave.  We'll see - taking a hot shower is such a luxury since it's so cool here - and we'll know when there's no gas left!!  Hopefully, the first place to let us know the tank has run out will be the stove!

In the late morning, we planned on walking into town to check out a weekly market that is held in the event center and also to pick up a few groceries.  It was drizzling when we set out, but by the time we got out of the valley, the sun was out and it was quite warm!  We walked around, trying to figure out where the event center was.  Guillermo checked with a pharmacy about his prescriptions, and we walked gingerly around that same metal grating that caught his shoe last week.  Actually, the shoe repair guy did a great job with his shoe, you can barely tell where he patched it up!  While he checked with another pharmacy in the grocery store, I went to Shalom Bakery to see what they had today, and also to ask if they knew where the event center was.  The lady gave me some directions (we were close!) and when Guillermo was done with the pharmacy, we walked across the bridge over the Caldera River and saw the event center right away.  We enjoyed that little market (bought some tamales and grapefruit) and decided we would return every Tuesday to this market.  Then we went back to the grocery store, picked up a few groceries, packed them into our backpacks (not as much this time) and walked back to our house.  Now that was a hot walk again.  Sun was out most of the way, but fortunately, clouds covered up the sun during the last part of the walk, which is the hardest since it's the steepest right by our house.  But anyway, by the time we got home, we were hot!!!

And that was the last of the heat for the day.  Pretty much right after getting home, it started drizzling again, and then soon it was raining, with thunder thrown in, too.  We were happy to be warm, safe and dry inside our house.  It was so cool the rest of the day, that today was the first time we mainly kept our windows closed.

Lots of walking today

After breakfast this morning our plan was to do the loop again around the valley here, and take a few pictures of this area where we're living.  We started out on our walk, but then saw there were golfers playing near the trails we would take, so we decided to walk in the opposite direction and come around the other way.  On our way back towards our house, we ran into this man who we see walking everyday with his dog.  And everytime we had seen him, we always chuckle because his dog walks around with his leash in his mouth!!  It is the funniest sight!  Well, we stopped and talked with the guy and he invited us to walk around with him, so we went back in the direction we had started from, waited for the golfers to finish and then walked around the valley.  The man's name is Bill, and his dog's name is Thunder - Thunder reminds us so much of Clia!

Guillermo and Bill walking and talking

When we got across the valley, I took a picture of our house in the distance.  There are some houses in front of it, but you can see the two round windows of the one we live in right there in the center.

Same shot but from a little farther away

 One of the many waterfalls around here.

 One of the many streams that run through this valley.

Here is Thunder holding his leash and that's how he walks the whole time.  Dogs must be on leash, and he is. It looks so funny!! Thunder's face looks just like Clia's

When we were halfway back around, we crossed a little stream and Thunder always gets in right there.

  It started raining about then so Guillermo and I took refuge in a little cabin across the street.  We waited until the rain let up a little and continued on our walk, when we ran into Bill again.  He invited us to walk over to his house and to see the inside.  VERY nice and VERY big!!
After walking, we had lunch in a little restaurant here called el Higueron.  It is right along a stream, and we ate outside.  The food was absolutely delicious!!

Today there wasn't really any sun - and right now, it's 6pm, it's very cool and the clouds are really low on the surrounding hills.  We just love the way the clouds look as they float across those hills.  We just got back from a walk into town to pick up Guillermo's shoe and to get a few groceries.  It sprinkled the whole way into town.  But we felt we should go today, because we hear that tomorrow there's supposed to be very heavy rains.  When we were done shopping, we packed all our groceries into our two backpacks and walked back to the house.  It wasn't raining on the way back, but it's very damp.  The walk back today was a lot better than the other day, since the sun wasn't beating down on us, but with the steep incline right as you get to our house, we end up feeling quite warm!!!

things getting done

Today, we decided that we'd go ahead and fix up the master bathroom so that we could use it.  After all, it's just the toilet that's not working in there, so we could at least use the closet and the shower and the sinks and stuff.  And it looked like no one was going to be coming around to fix that toilet anytime soon.  So, this morning, we unpacked totally our suitcases, put everything into the closet and brought everything up that we had put in the downstairs bathroom and closet. 

Then, to our surprise, our doorbell rings this early afternoon, and it's the plumber!!!  He tested out a few things and then said he'd be back around 5 with some screws he needed to buy.  A different plumber came by later in the day, and we guess the thing is fixed!!  So, that's one thing down and now we just need a different router so that we can both be on the internet at the same time!!!  Things happen around here, they just take a little time.

:-( to a couple of things today

What a contrast this morning was to yesterday!!  There wasn't a cloud in the sky, the sun was shining and everything looked so fresh!  We got up fairly early, because today is the day to return our rental car.  We had a quick breakfast of hot chocolate, banana and croissants and then had the final luxury of being able to get in a car to go wherever we wanted.  We drove downtown to several stores that had been closed yesterday, picked up a few things and then drove to the car rental place.  :-(

After returning the car, we set out on foot back to Boquete.  The rental place was really just on the outskirts of Boquete, so it wasn't a long walk at all to get back to town.  Once in town, we decided to walk to the grocery store to get some bananas.  On the way to the store, Guillermo walked over this metal grating that is placed over  little culverts that drain rainfall, his shoe caught on one end of the grating and he fell almost all the way down. :-( When we looked back at the grating, we couldn't believe how much it was sticking out of the ground.  Guillermo scraped up his knee just a little and that's all we saw at that point.

At the grocery store, we ended up buying a few more things, in addition to the bananas, and then we headed back to our house.  It's a little walk from downtown to our house, but not bad at all.  But we can see that maybe late mornings won't be the best time to be walking, because it was actually very hot (not to mention ALL uphill) on the last stretch of that walk.  By the time we got to our house, we were sweating pretty good.

Once at home, and Guillermo was taking off his shoes, he noticed that the metal grating had made a big gash in his shoe - which is where the edge of the grating caught him off guard and latched on to his shoe.  Those shoes are his good shoes, and now we need to see if there is someone in town who can fix that!!!  But at least the only thing that actually happened to Guillermo himself was that his knee was slightly skinned.  Not bad, so that's good at least.  Fortunately, we aren't too far from town, so we are thinking we may go in this late afternoon and see if we can find someone who fixes shoes.

One of the things I like about our house are the 3 huge windows in the living room - as you look out to the east, it seems like there are always major cloud formations over there.  Right now, as I look out, the clouds in the distance look like all billowy, dark and puffy so it COULD be raining over in the direction we need to go... But it looked that way yesterday when we were walking around in the late evening, and it never did rain.

This evening, we decided to walk back into town to take Guillermo's shoe to a shoe repair place.  Much nicer walk this evening.  No sun, and it was so cool.  The shoe should be ready on Saturday.

Today, except for early in the morning, was a very rainy day!!!  We hung around the house in the morning, halfway hoping the plumber would show up, but he never did.  Turns out today is ALSO another holiday in Panama.  The first week of November is full of holidays for Panama!!  So, by the time we eventually headed into town, it started raining shortly after that.  We appreciated all day long that we had a car, but that is coming to an end tomorrow - we return the car tomorrow morning.
We had lunch at the Bistro Boquete again, I had some delicious mini-hamburgers and Guillermo had a soup that he declared was delicious!!  His kind of soup, he said.  While we were eating, that's when it started raining.  We had planned on going to some stores after eating, but most of them were closed for the holiday.  But we did run across an interesting looking restaurant.  We were just walking down the main street, when we passed some steps that seemed to go up to a second floor.  On the wall by the steps, we saw a sign for german cooking so we decided to go up and check it out.  It looked very nice up there and smelled delicious, so we decided to come back another day and try the place out.

Back in the car, we drove out again to the Pasteleria Alemana and bought more pastries and more empanadas.  It was raining really hard when we were there.  Back in town, we did some more grocery shopping and that was our last running around with the car!!!

In the late afternoon, we took a walk again around the valley.  We walked almost the entire place.  It was such a pleasant walk - humid, but nice and cool.  The clouds were low on the hills, so it looked like it was going to rain, but it never did.  We passed 3 nice waterfalls, saw a few birds (but nothing too exciting) and we also saw a solitary coati.  As we walked around, we realized we really should have brought along our cameras, so the next time we go for a walk, we'll take pictures of how it looks around the valley.

Here are some pictures of the outside of the house we are living in:

Looking toward our living room and the carport.

The houses on this block are duplexes, and fortunately we are in one that is on the end.

Tomorrow we will try to take pictures from across the valley, to see how the house looks from way over there.

First full day at our new house.  Terry, the lady who helped us move in here, got us a router today, but it seems only one laptop can connect to it at a time.  So frustrating - may as well stay with the cabled internet!!  No one came to work on the bathroom today, hopefully tomorrow.

We took a walk around the valley today, walking some of the golf trails and checking out the gym they have here.  VERY nice.  We're going to try to use it in a few days.  We also did some major grocery shopping and even with all the food we bought, the refrigerator is still very empty.  For dinner tonight, we cooked a fish called Corvina with garlic, onion, lemon and capers and to accompany that we had baked potato, broccoli and some delicious little vegetable rolls that we got at Shalom Bakery.  Dessert was an orange and the last of the pastry that we got at Pasteleria Alemana.

Here are a few pictures of where we live right now.

The kitchen

The living room

Our balcony

View out the balcony

Our bedroom

Here are two views out one of those living room windows - the first picture shows the Baru Volcano in the distance.

Settling in to our temporary home

We had our last breakfast at the Isla Verde this morning, check out the nice fruit plate!   The fruit in the middle is Maracuya and there was a lot more in there, but Guillermo had already eaten some of it.  Maracuya is one of our favorite fruits!  

After breakfast we set out to take care of a few things, like getting money and talking with the car rental people, buying post cards and stamps and such things.  It was good news talking with the car rental people, because they said we could return our car right there in Boquete, instead of driving all the way back to David to return the car.  We sure were happy about that.  So, Thursday morning we turn the car in, and it will be nothing but walking, taxis or buses then.  Oh well, time to get some good exercise!!  Here are a few more pictures of the grounds of Isla Verde.  Guillermo enjoyed checking out the different plants.

The breakfast dome from the outside.

A couple of shots of the grounds

After checking out of the Isla Verde, we went out to Valle Escondido, to check on the place we were getting.  We were told that they were still fixing it up, so we decided to just put our cold stuff in the refrigerator there and then leave them alone to finish working on what they needed to finish.  So, we had about 3 hours to figure out what to do.  We passed the time having lunch at Shalom bakery, checking out all the grocery stores in town (there are pluses to all 3 of them, so we may not stick to just one) and stuff like that.  Today was a beautiful sunny day, but even when it's sunny here there is always at least a mist in the air.

At around 3:30, we headed back to Valle Escondido and the lady told us that a plumber was working on one of the bathrooms, but we decided to go to our place anyway.  She gave us the keys and when we got to the house, there was no plumber, and we saw water all over the master bathroom floor.  We decided to just stay away from there, and only use the bathroom on the lower floor for the time being.  So, other than that, it is WONDERFUL here.  This valley is absolutely beautiful.  As for the house, it has the look of a Tuscan villa.  The kitchen is nice, the living room is very comfortable and our bedroom is really nice and big.  The master bath WILL be nice if and when they ever fix what's wrong in there.  One of the first things we did when we moved in was wash clothes downstairs and clean up a few things around this house to our liking.  Right now, we are fixing our dinner.  Soup, chicken empanadas, wine, an orange and an apple strudel.  All our windows are wide open and the weather is so pleasant.  I'll try to take a few pictures tomorrow to post here.  We were going to go to Volcan tomorrow, but we are thinking we'll hang around, since the plumber will be back.  We may go to Volcan on Wednesday.