Finally a place with decent internet!!!!!!!!!!!!

It has been a LONG time since we've been able to sit down comfortably with our computers and just mess around on them.  Here's a recap of what's been going on.

On November 4th, we packed up from the Balboa Inn (a nice place- we would definitely stay here again) and had a taxi take us to the domestic airport so that we could get our rental car.  I waited in front of the airport with our pile of luggage while Guillermo took care of the details of the car inside.  He came out after a while and then a guy drove up with our nice decent size (he gave us an upgrade!!!!) Toyota Corolla.  Everything fit just fine in that car with room to spare!  So, as it turns out, it's a good thing we decided to rent a car instead of fly because the airport in David (where we were going to fly to) was CLOSED because the runway was flooded!!!  And we had been hearing about all the rains in the Chiriqui province where David is, but we were surprised anyway to hear that it had affected the runway like that.

Our drive to David was very nice, and it was what we wanted - to be able to see the countryside.  The normal 6 or 7 hour drive took a little longer because several little towns were holding parades, and the Pan American Highway was either shut down in their town, or reduced to one lane each way.  Here are some pictures of one town's parade.  It looks like the parade goes for miles!

That town was one of the few that enjoyed a rain-free parade.  It rained 80% of the trip.  And the closer we got to David, the worse the rains were.  Matter of fact, we passed several rivers along the way which were muddy and raging and there was this really sad sight at one river.  A truck was passing really slowly in the opposite direction along the bridge over that river and we wondered what  the deal was with that.  But then we saw a clothesline with clothes that were about a foot from the water reaching them, and then looking to the right of that and seeing a little house totally surrounded by water, with the water halfway up its walls.  It was such a sad sight, and we wondered if the people had gotten out in time.

By the time we got to David, it was POURING rain.  We drove all the way up to Boquete in rain.  We had a rough time that evening, because we were tired, we were hungry and it was getting dark.  We checked several hotels without luck.  We drove around all over Boquete and everything was full.  Turns out this first week of November (which we found out when we were in Panama City) is a BIG holiday time for Panama, so everything everywhere is full of Panamanians vacationing.  We finally found someone who recommended some stone cabins close to downtown (at this time we were out in the outskirts of town looking for places) which she had called and they said they had a room available.  So, we felt very relieved to be able to have a place to lay our heads - it seemed very iffy there for a while.  We settled into the HUGE place (no internet) and then went to a Crepe restaurant for dinner and it was absolutely delicious!!!

November 5th, we had a granola bar and a banana in our room, and then went out to look for a place that we might be able to stay longer term.  We drove everywhere, some places looking promising and some places totally out once we talked with them.  We found another hotel to stay at, that had a promise of being a long term place so we wanted to stay there one night to see what it was like.  After having lunch, we went back to that hotel (Los Pinos) and tried the internet and absolutely no luck at all.  We decided to go to an internet cafe to get information about other places for rent around town, but didn't have much luck finding any.  We continued driving around and we kept finding places but there was always something, either they were too expensive for what you would get, or they were already full, or they didn't do monthly rentals or SOMEthing.  When it was getting too dark to see anymore, we decided to quit and go have dinner.  WONDERFUL dinner at a Peruvian restaurant called Machu Pichu - and we both were able to enjoy a Pisco Sour (a mixed drink) with some coupons we had gotten from the Boquete visitor center.  They were delicious!!

Back at Los Pinos, we came to the realization that the place wouldn't work out.  There were too many things wrong with the interior, although the balcony was lovely and the outside and the grounds were really beautiful.
We went to sleep eager to leave the next morning.

Today, November 6th, we had our usual granola bar and banana in the room and then headed out again.  We went to some realty offices but they told us they only do rentals for 6 month periods.  We drove to some places that had been recommended to us, one of which included a place called Valle Escondido.  Now that place is beautiful but we felt for sure that it would be WAY out of our price range.  After talking with the people there, and looking at two places that were available, we thought, hmm, MAYbe we should consider it.  We decided to sleep on it and went back to the very first hotel we had stopped at the first day we drove in which had no vacancy that night, nor the next (but they told us they would have vacancy for this night).  They showed us a little roundhouse and it was really cute so we took it for tonight.  This little roundhouse is available for long term rental, also, so now we have to make a decision.  But we are not going to make a decision until at least tomorrow morning.  There are several pluses already about this place (Isla Verde) and one is their internet.  It works just perfectly!!!!   :-)

So, we were able to be on the internet for about 2 hours when it quit working - and we never got it back.  We decided to drive around a little, and we drove out to the Pasteleria Alemana and bought several pastries and some empanadas and took them home.
The internet still wasn't working so, again, we went to that internet cafe downtown, and had a long chat with Fernando.  When we were done with that, we walked back to our hotel, and for dinner had the empanadas, some of the pastries, an orange and a glass of wine.  Very enjoyable.

Day 2 in Panama City

After breakfast this morning, we decided to go to the Metropolitan Nature Park, to maybe walk a trail or two and see what it's all about.  And we were hoping it wouldn't rain!!

So, we get to the park headquarters, pay our entrance fee and are led out to the beginning of the trail we wanted to walk on.  We had walked just a little way (on the Titi Monkey trail), when by a nursery that they have there in that park, near a stream, a big black snake suddenly shot out about 8 feet away from the trail.  It slithered really fast along a wall there, and we watched it as it disappeared somewhere near the stream.  That was an exciting first sighting!!!  No picture, it all happened way too fast.

The Titi Monkey trail is pretty much uphill all the way to the lookout, but we took it fairly slow.  We saw a Slaty-tailed Trogon - very pretty, along the way.  It just sat there so we got a good look at it, but we couldn't identify it at the time, but when we got back home we identified it over the internet.  We also passed a very wide trail of leaf-cutter ants carrying bright yellow and green things - leaves and yellow flowers from a tree.

The view from the top of the park was very impressive - and the whole time we were just so sure it was going to rain.  Here are some pictures from the top.

As you can see from these two pictures, it sure looks like it's going to rain.

In this picture, you can see the two dark islands on the upper left.  They are part of the causeway we were on yesterday.

Well, it just sprinkled a little bit when we were up at the top, taking these pictures.  But we sure thought we were in for it.  It actually never rained this entire day, so that was pretty surprising to us, given all the dark clouds everywhere.

On our walk back down, Guillermo was taking pictures of the leaf cutter ants when all of a sudden I saw some little animal run across the trail.  Now it COULD have been an agouti, but it looked more like a little rabbit.  So, since we weren't sure, we dubbed it the agouti rabbit that I saw.  And this little agouti rabbit was obviously being chased because shortly after it ran across the road, along came about 7 or 8 coatis also crossing the road.  After that excitement, we walked further down the road (it's all downhill now!!), and I spotted a sloth high up in a tree!!!!  At first I thought it was yet another termite mound, but then an arm moved out!  We were so happy to see a sloth!!  We stood there for the longest time watching it, and this one was doing quite a bit of moving.  There were two of them up there, and we watched one cross over the road, and then it seemed to be coming down!  As it got closer to the ground, we got a picture of it, but not that good.  And then we just lost it - somehow or another we took our eyes off for a few minutes, and then we couldn't find it again.

Continuing on our walk down, we saw quite a few more birds - a cuckoo we couldn't identify and then Guillermo spotted another sloth real close to the trail!!  We saw this one much better, and the pictures came out not too bad!

Check out those claws!!!

So, it was a pretty exciting walk in this park.  Once we got off the trail, we caught a taxi back to Albrook Mall, since most things were closed today as apparently it is a major holiday - sort of like 4th of July to us.

We went back to the same parillada that we ate at yesterday in the mall, and then walked around looking for a book store.  This precious animal was just outside the bookstore.

Guillermo said he was going to get this hippo for Rebeca, but it didn't fit in his backpack, and he was afraid it would hurt the Energumeno.

Everyone was doing this, so of course, we had to also!

Here he is, in all his glory!

Nothing interesting at the bookstore, so we went back and got two ice creams - one a mandarina and the other maracuya - both delicious!  Then we got a taxi and headed back to the hotel.  Tomorrow, we pick up our rental car and drive to David and then on to Boquete.

Update for before our trip and for our first day on trip

Here's what's been going on lately.....

On Oct. 31, Halloween, we had breakfast with Mom at the IHop on Hot Wells.  We are so glad we had one more breakfast with her there before leaving - we all enjoy their breakfasts very much (wait - all 3 of us can get the senior sampler?!!?) and it's so relaxing to just sit there and talk.  Afterwards we went to Kathy's house and watered her plants.  Guillermo also tied some of the taller plants to their fence so those plants wouldn't keep falling down.  Then we dropped Mom back off at her house, and Guillermo and I went on to Linda's to use the internet and then we drove out to El Verde Rd. and helped our friend and former neighbor take down Fernando's old basketball hoop.  We visited with him a while after that was done and then Mary came over and we walked around our property with them.  We all knew that by the time we got back from our trip, things probably wouldn't look like we remember them.  Then we drove to HEB, picked up some things for dinner and went back to Mom's house.  It was an evening of washing clothes, putting things we won't need in our car, and going over to Linda's one last time for the internet.  Trick or Treating was going on at that time, so driving to and from her house was fun - seeing all the trick-or-treaters!

November 1st - we were packed up and ready to go by 9am.  We said our heartfelt thanks to Mom and our sad goodbyes to her.  It was nice to be able to spend so much time with her!  It was fun having breakfasts with her, going to church every now and then, cooking dinner for her (and sometimes Linda and Jacob), watching one video over a period of 3 evenings, watering her plants and many other things.

At 9, we drove our car over to our friend John's house.  We took everything for the trip out of the car, locked it up and waited for our taxi to arrive at 9:45.  Our flight at 12 left on time - what a teeny plane!!!!  Overhead bins on one side only and they were small - Guillermo was afraid he was going to have to check his backpack, since it was so fat!!!  But he managed to squeeze it in.  We actually got to Houston early which was nice, gave us a little more time to relax.  We found our gate, got some Panda Express, and tried to get internet afterwards at our gate but just couldn't.  None that was free anyway, but we weren't going to pay.

Our flight to Panama City left a little late and even though the flight was a little shaky at first, it was a good flight.  When we got to Panama City, it was raining.  The person from the hotel was waiting for us and we piled all our stuff into his truck and were at the Balboa Inn by around 9pm.  We were pretty tired, but glad to be in place and excited about our new adventure!

Today, November 2nd, we opened the curtains to our room and it looks like we are in a jungle.  Lots of vegetation around us and plenty of birds singing.  We had a good breakfast down on the patio, and enjoyed watching the birds and agoutis scurry around.  As I'm writing this, it looks like it's going to rain again, but that's ok, since we plan on just relaxing in our room at least until lunchtime or maybe even later.  So, we're here, we're fine and now we need to plot our next move......

It is 5:00 in the evening, and it is raining hard here, and has been raining hard for the last 30 minutes!  It's so nice to be sitting on this breakfast patio watching the rain, although we did come out here to look at birds.  They're all gone now, with this rain.  We hear thunder every now and then - it feels so very tropical.

This is where we have breakfast!

You can't really tell, but it is raining very hard behind me.  You can see the water rushing out of the gutter at the bottom right of the picture....

In the evening, we went out to the Amador Causeway.  We had a taxi driver drop us off at the same restaurant we ate at last year (Mi Ranchito).  But before settling down to eat, we decided to walk along the causeway for a little while.  Very nice walking along there - warm breezes and beautiful views on both sides.  By the time we got back to the restaurant, it was dark and the lights from all the high rises of Panama City could be seen across the bay.  It is just so beautiful!!!  We got an excellent table underneath a "rancho" (which we call a palapa) at the restaurant and were going to enjoy a nice wine with our meal, but all liquor is forbidden today, since it's the Day of the Dead!!!  Ok.  But we had a great meal anyway, and just enjoyed the weather, watching the boats and admiring the lights of the city.

Quite busy

Here's what's been going on since we moved into Mom's house:

On Saturday, we met with our old El Verde Road neighbors for dinner back on our old side of town - we had dinner at our usual Henry's Puffy Tacos.

On Sunday, Guillermo and I packed up a few of our things and spent the night at Linda's house, since Linda had to work on Monday and we were going to take care of Jacob!  After having breakfast with Jacob, we drove over to Mom's house, picked her up and we went to Hi Lions Lake and enjoyed the birds, ducks and trails.

Getting ready to identify a few ducks!

There are cormorants in the tree on the other side!

What are those fattish ones?  Canada Geese!

Pausing on a hiking trail

One more time along the lake

Then on Tuesday, we met with friends for dinner at Tiago's Cabo Grill.

Today is Wednesday, and we had breakfast at IHop and as we were coming home, a wreck happened right in front of us!!!!  But for a few seconds there, it could very well have been us that the person who passed a red light hit.  We stopped and stayed with the people in the two cars until paramedics came.

It's hard to believe that we leave for Panama in 5 days!!!!

Living in a different place - again

Yesterday, we checked out of the Staybridge Suites and we thought it was going to be a rough day to pack up the car, since the morning started off with rain.  But during breakfast, the skies cleared and the day remained nice and sunny the rest of the time.  The Staybridge gave us a late checkout which was so entirely helpful, because it enabled us to go to storage, pack up the rest of our stuff, and have a nice leisurely lunch in the room.

Then it was on to Mom's house!!!  We got to her house around 2:15, and unpacked a few things and an hour later we went to pick up Jacob from school.  Then Guillermo and I stayed with Jacob at his house, and while we waited for Linda to get home, we got on our laptops and checked things out.  In the evening, we all went to Kathy's and had pizza, cake and coffee for Mike's birthday.

We'll be at Mom's house the next 9 days!  :-)

new purse

This is only so Rebeca can see the purse that her sweet gift card from Kohl's brought me!

It's a great new purse!!!!

Enchilada dinner

We sure could get used to this lifestyle!  Every morning breakfast is waiting for us, 3 nights a week dinner is waiting for us, someone makes up our bed every day and gets us fresh towels if we want them.  Yeah, that's nice all right.  We've been going to the gym here in this hotel every evening now for the last 3 days and we really like that little gym.  They only have 5 pieces of equipment, but one of those pieces has tons of activities on it.  And all the equipment is well made so it's a pleasure to work-out in there.  Guillermo says he wants a little room with all that equipment one of these days.  We'll see........  Anyway,  we saw on the hotel's calendar that the dinner this evening was an enchilada dinner, and we were skeptical, but turned out to be very impressed.  They had enchiladas, beans, rice, salad, chips, salsas, jalapenos, the usual cheese/celery/carrot plate, and a wide variety of drinks to choose from:  beer, wine, juices, lemonade, sodas, coffee and tea.  The dinner was very good!!!  We'll be working out later, for sure!  :-)

Tomorrow is a pasta dinner!