Back again in Panama City!

We got up EARLY today, packed up the car in 30 minutes and were out the door and on the road by 6:10am.  We are driving today to Panama City to meet Fernando and Eva at the airport there!!!

Good drive the whole way.  No roads were shut down, traffic flowed smoothly and the weather was good.  We got to Panama City a lot earlier than we thought we would so we had plenty of time to stop by our hotel first before heading to the airport.  Of course, we got to the airport with tons of time to spare, but we'd rather be early than late.  How good it was to see Fernando and Eva coming through the door!  We just love that part!!

First thing we did after picking them up was get in the traffic that was just CRAWLING along and finally got to the causeway where we planned on having lunch.  It was raining a little as we left the airport, and by the time we got to the causeway, the rain was coming down hard!!!  Fortunately, the restaurant we were going to had covered parking (what are the chances....) and ALSO had covered access to the restaurant.  So, we were protected totally from the elements.  We got a seat on the patio with a wonderful view out to the sea and the rain was still coming down.  We had a great meal there - Fernando had octopus!! - and by the time we were finished with our meal the rain had quit and we were able to walk along the causeway a little bit.

From there we went to the hotel, and rested up a bit before going back out in the evening - to EAT again!  We went back out on the causeway to a Lebanese restaurant.  Good food and good music - although a little too loud.  But we enjoyed our dinner very much and that's how we ended this wonderful day!  :-)

Getting ready for April 15th

Whyyyyyyyy are a lot of these posts one day behind???  Guess I just don't think to post on the actual day most of the time!

Anyway, yesterday Guillermo and I didn't go anywhere.  Instead we stayed in and looked at everything we're going to need to file an extension for doing our taxes and tried to figure out what we're going to do about that.

Mom and Linda TRIED to mail us all of our paperwork (1099s, W-2s, etc.) - some of it 2 months ago!!  It has yet to arrive anywhere so the stuff is out there somewhere and if we're lucky it's just languishing in some post office and not opened and in the wrong hands.

So, yesterday we sent out emails and called various departments connected to the information we need.  It was all very productive and everyone was very helpful - getting our information to us quite quickly.  So, maybe it will all work out and we can get that extension filed so that when we get back home in May, we can file the real thing at that time.

With all of that information gathered now, we're going to put it on the back burner until next week because we've got better things to think about in these next fews days.  We're going to Panama City to meet Fernando and Eva on Friday!!!  It's time for them to do their visa exit from Costa Rica (something they have to do every 3 months) and we are just so excited about going back to Panama City and spending about 3 days with them.  Yes!!!

Power yesterday, water today

It was a beautiful day today, except for the fact that our water was off during lunch time for about 3 hours.  Thankfully we had washed all the breakfast dishes and had just finished washing a load of clothes.  The water went off around 11:30am and when it wasn't on yet at 1pm, we decided to go down to the restaurant here in the valley to have lunch.  My goodness, the food is so delicious in that little riverside cafe.  By the time we got back to our house, the water was back on - something that we were really grateful for.  The sound of running water is priceless.

John and Angie leave Boquete

Yesterday we drove John and Angie to David so that they could catch a plane to Panama City.  It's the first leg of their trip back home.

We left the house early (the water was off anyway, so we might as well just leave) and drove to a book store that is half way between Boquete and David.  We spent a few minutes there and then headed on to the airport.  John and Angie checked in and since we had over an hour until they had to get in line for processing, we decided to go back into David for lunch.  We found a nice "typical" restaurant and got a bite to eat.  Then we drove back, saw them through the line and said goodbye.  We really had a nice time with them this past week.

Once back in our car, we drove to the car rental place, turned in the car and asked them to drive us to the supermarket.  We wanted to take advantage of being near a big supermarket and also, the bus we needed to catch back to Boquete was by this store.  So, they drove us there, we picked up a few things, came out and had to only wait like 2 minutes for the bus and then we were on our way back to Boquete.  Our walk back up to the house was in full sun, but with the wind it didn't feel too bad.  Shortly after we got home, the mist started again!

We had about 2 good hours back home and then our electricity went off.  Ok, that's fine.  It was only 5pm and even though we wished we could have watched the evening news, we figured it'd be back on soon.  Well, time went on and it started getting dark, so we rounded up all the candles in the house, lit them and put one in every room.  We went outside on the balcony and saw that the whole valley was dark so we were reassured that it wasn't just our house.  By 7:45, we figured we better eat SOMEthing so we made some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and ate them and watermelon by candlelight.  After eating, since there was nothing else to do anyway, we decided to just go to bed.  At 8:30pm.  At 9:30pm we were jolted with the lights coming on and the TV blaring at full volume!  It was one of those things - hitting the power button on the remote while the power's off.  So, did that turn OFF the TV or did I just turn it back on??  Only when the power comes back on do we know for sure!  Anyway, so happy to have power again we got back up and stayed up again until midnight!

Driving to the "end of the road"

This was the last day in town for John and Angie.  We spent it driving around in the mountains surrounding Boquete.  First we drove in the direction of a little town called Bajo Mono.  On the road we passed this cliff with amazing formations of rock, and just had to get out and take some pictures.  It was interesting watching a guy try to climb the rock while we took pictures.  We wondered how far he got, since it was kind of seeming like his hands were hurting him.

Well, we just kept driving, taking roads that we hadn't taken before.  Guillermo was driving and it was so easy to say, hmmm, where does this road go, and he would go in that direction.  Then once, we thought we had come to the end of the road - there were some guys cutting pine trees right by the road and their debris was kind of on the road and since the road was practically one lane anyway it looked like we couldn't go any further.  So, Guillermo stopped to ask them if the road continued on further and the guy he talked to said it ended right around there.  So, Guillermo drove on a little bit to find a place to turn around.  We then realized that another one of the guys was approaching our car and he told Guillermo that if we continue on driving, we'll come to a nice look-out and that we should keep going.  So we did!!  

We're so glad we did because the scenery was just amazing.  We kept wondering how far the road would go but we just enjoyed continuing on to who knows where.  But then sure enough, all of a sudden the road became dirt and rocky.  So, we had to stop there.  We parked along the edge and sure enough, there was a nice view towards the volcano and the surrounding hillsides which were planted with vegetables.  We walked around that spot for a little while, admiring the view and taking a few steps into a coffee field.  Angie and John decided they'd like to walk back down to another pull-out we had stopped at, so we told them we'd pick them up down there.  

As Guillermo and I were getting ready to get back into the car, we saw an elderly lady with a yellow umbrella walking up the road, where the incline was quite steep.  And actually the drive to that very spot was pretty much uphill all the way so to walk it's a very tough climb.  We decided to wait till she approached and when she got to us, she happily stopped to chat with us.  Guillermo and I talked with her quite a while!  Keep in mind that we are very far far away from town on a one lane road where there are no stores or ANYthing anywhere around.  We asked her if she lived around there and she said she lived even FURTHER up the rocky road!!  She said she loves living where she lives - the air is clean and fresh, there's no traffic noise or noise from other people.  She has everything she needs there - chickens, vegetable garden, etc. and walks into town every couple of weeks for the rest of her necessities.  We were just amazed.  She is 71 years old.  She does that long walk in sandals.  And the day we were there, it was nice and sunny.  We can't imagine what kind of a walk she has to go through during the rainy season.  Our big regret is that we didn't get a picture of that inspirational lady.

We said goodbye to her, got back in our car and drove down to where we said we'd meet John and Angie.  We parked the car there and walked around a little.  A guy drove up on a motorcycle and he asked if we knew the area and since we didn't we just chatted a little while and then he went on his way.  When John and Angie got back, we were getting ready to get in the car when Angie noticed these four kids walking up the road.  She got an excellent picture of them.  Only the oldest child would talk to us.  The others, when we'd ask them something, they'd just look at us with big eyes.  We must have looked like aliens to them!!  

Then it was time to drive to our destination for the day, Finca Lerida.  We always enjoy going to this coffee farm and having lunch.  

Some of the MANY beautiful impatiens around where we ate.

After a really good lunch, we walked around the grounds a little bit and enjoyed the beautiful weather and being among the coffee plants.

Here is a picture of the surrounding mountains as we were driving back to Boquete.

When we got back to Boquete, there was a heavy mist going on and it was making beautiful rainbows.  This is a rainbow seen from the valley where we live.

Angie took lots of pictures with her camera, and I "borrowed" a few of them for this blog.  Thanks, Angie!

Visited Volcan - March 16th

We took the long winding road to Volcan today.  The weather was really nice.  It was amazing to us how when we took off, there wasn't a cloud in the sky anywhere.  Even the Baru volcano was clearly visible.  So, it was a beautiful morning to be heading towards Volcan.  When we got to Volcan, we just drove on through to the town of Guadalupe where we had lunch.  After lunch, we decided to take our little rental car as far as possible up the road to get as close as we could to the Finca Dracula, which is a lovely orchid farm.  When the pavement ended, we turned the little Hyundai Elantra down the rocky dirt road, and didn't get all that far before we just had to pull over, park, and walk the rest of the way.   Hmm, clouds starting to show up.

The Finca Dracula was a lot closer to that turn off than I thought!!!  So, soon we were walking around the grounds and admiring the orchids there.

And some pictures of other flowers around the grounds.

Seen along the road in the Orchard Farm

Angie by one of the ponds

Angie and I walking along a narrow trail

Guillermo kept trying to hide behind John, but I caught him out in the open here!  Can't say he looks all that excited about that.  Or maybe it's just all that equipment he is carrying around.

There was a light rain falling by the time we left Finca Dracula and as we drove back to Boquete we could see that back in Guadalupe, it was probably raining a lot heavier.  So, our day was a good one!!!

Back in Boquete

Whew!  The drive back from Panama City (or really, from El Valle) seemed to take a lot longer than when we drove TO Panama City.  We stopped once in Santiago to have lunch, but other than that we just drove straight through.  It took us about 7 hours to get to David, where we stopped to pick up a few things from the grocery store.  As we got closer to Boquete, we could see that it was kind of sprinkling there.  So, we got into a little rain, but at least we have a covered carport to unload luggage and stuff.  That evening, we drove back into town and ate at a new restaurant that opened while we were in Costa Rica.  The pizza and drinks were excellent!!  :-)

So, in Boquete we took John and Angie to Mi Jardin es su Jardin (My garden is your garden) and they thought the grounds and all the flowers were very lovely.  And it DID seem like there was more in bloom than when Guillermo and I went in December.

Then driving around afterwards, we came across this precious little girl walking down this pine-needle strewn road.

Later that day, we took a walk around the valley here.