January 2nd, 2011

January 2nd, 2011

Waking up this morning at the Finca Lerida, the weather was nice, dry and in the distance you could see the sun coming up and lots of clouds.  I'd say probably about 45 minutes later, it was raining.  And it never quit the rest of the day.  Guillermo and I thought we'd take a walk down to the banana plant where we had seen several birds yesterday, but by the time we got to the banana plant, which was only a few feet away, we were absolutely ready to get back.  The wind was cold, the rain was blowing sideways, and it was just no fun.

So, we walked back to the porch of our room which thankfully faced away from the wind and sat out on the chairs and watched the weather, really really hoping that Fernando and Eva hadn't decided to take a hike that morning.  We didn't think they were out on the trails because they had said they would knock on our door to see if we also wanted to go and we never heard that knock.  BUT, you never know, maybe they didn't want to bother us or something and decided to take a quick hike around.  We sat there on those chairs for almost an hour - wondering, wondering....  And everytime the rain got heavier, or the wind got especially gusty, we felt more concerned.  Not hearing any talking in their room didn't help either.  Finally, just before the agreed time to meet for breakfast, Guillermo knocks on their door and for several seconds there, our hearts sank, because there was no answer.  BUT, then the door opened and the weight of the world was taken off our shoulders.  They were safe, warm and dry inside their room, and thinking we were nuts, but no they had decided to sleep in.  Which was such a good thing, since neither of them had been feeling all that well - which is WHY we were so concerned.

We walked down to the restaurant for breakfast and then just basically hung around in our rooms till check-out time.  We were kind of hoping the rain would quit, but it never did.  At one point, Guillermo and I decided to walk out anyway on a trail through the nearest coffee field, but we didn't go too far before turning around.

Driving back down to Boquete was cold and rainy, and conditions weren't any better in Boquete.  We stopped in town to get a few things taken care of:  Fernando got a haircut, Guillermo went to the grocery store to pick up a few things, and Eva and I waited around a while for the store to open where her Christmas blouse came from so that we could exchange that blouse for one that fit better.  There really wasn't anything there she wanted in exchange for her blouse, so we came back to the house and took it easy for a while before Eva and I decided to go back out to a different store to see if there were any blouses or dresses there she'd be interested in.  The store closed like 15 minutes after we got there, but we were able to stay and finish our shopping and she DID find a dress that she liked there!

We fixed spaghetti for dinner and had wine and salad with it and afterwards just relaxed.