Brandon with a hyacinth macaw

Yesterday we had breakfast and lunch at home (cereal and peanut butter and jam), then went to the Paradise Gardens Wildlife Rescue Center just outside of Boquete. What an awesome experience! Where else can you not only see, but hold, pet, and interact with a variety of unusual animals?

We got to pet a blue hyacinth macaw, hold a baby two-toed sloth, pet a baby owl, tamarins (little monkeys), and see lots of other unique animals and birds. If you ever come to Boquete, this place is a must! The suggested donation for entrance is only $5 (we gave a bit more). Their goal with most of the animals is to release them back into the wild. It was really neat to have these close encounters with them. We took a lot of pictures. Enjoy below. :)

Rainbow in Boquete

On the way back, we stopped at a little strawberry sweet stand and had strawberry ice cream and smoothies, which were good. There are strawberry farms nearby. We spent some time driving on beautiful mountain roads the rest of the afternoon. It was a very rainy day and we saw a lovely rainbow and some beautiful views.

We stopped at a little pizzeria for dinner. Internet unfortunately wasn’t working that night, so Jen and I played games on our computers – something Jen never does, and that I haven’t done for quite a long time. It was really fun.

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Cabanas Sabrin - view from our cabin

On our first morning in Boquete, we received quite a shock about the place where we’re staying (Cabanas Sabrin). When we stepped into the shower, we discovered there was no hot water! All the faucets, including the shower, have only an option for cold water. So we both took cold showers, which really woke us up! And Boquete is colder than where we came from as well, so we were feeling a bit chilly today. I am now finally glad that I brought my jacket (it seemed like I would never need it until we got to Boquete).

Emily and Marie on a bridge

After breakfast, we went to Mi Jardin es Su Jardin (My garden is your garden), which is someone’s garden they’ve opened to the public. There are many beautiful flowers, lots of ponds with carp, pretty bridges, and a beautiful mountain backdrop.

Afterward, we took a drive to see another hotel we thought about booking later. We then rested at our cabin for a while. The girls napped and colored and played outside.

Playing chess

Then we all went outside and played a game of yard chess together. I taught everyone how to the pieces move and how to play, and we played a good long game (probably 30 minutes). The girls moved the pieces and helped decide where to put them. Marie lost interest about half way through, but Emily kept focus almost all the way, even if she didn’t understand the strategy. She just wanted to kill the other pieces. :)

We then took a walk to see a nearby castle, which turned out to be a private residence, so we couldn’t go in. But we did see some toucans in cages at a hotel next door which we watched for a while. Beautiful birds!

Then we went to dinner at Macchu Picchu restaurant. It’s Peruvian food, and was very different but very good. I loved the soup I ordered. It was a some kind of shrimp chowder. I have recently started to chew my food and eat more slowly to help with digestion, as I’ve been having a bit of indigestion – nothing serious – I get this at home regularly, too, whenever I eat too fast, and almost every time I eat chocolate.

I’ve recently learned that chewing your food more (20-30 chews per bite) lets the saliva break down the food better, and prepares your stomach acids for the food that’s coming. And it’s also better not to drink water with your meal, but instead to drink water about 30 minutes before you eat. I’ve found that doing this does help my digestion, and I also taste the food more and enjoy it more when eating slowly, so this may be my new thing. I’ll no longer be the first to finish a meal! (This does prove unfortunate when sharing a chocolate cake with the family, however. I only get a few pieces. :))

When we came back to our cabin, we realized that we have intermittent Internet access in our hotel room! It doesn’t always work, but if you’re in just the right spot, you can get it. Jen and I were thrilled since we’d been without it for so long, so we stayed up until 1:30am answering e-mail, blogging, and living in our on-line worlds. :)

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Marie in traditional Panamanian costume

We took a detour to stop in La Arena on the Azuerlo (sp) peninsula, which is a town known for its pottery and traditional Panamanian culture. We went into a community center there, and found a very nice lady there who took pictures of the girls in pretty Panamanian dresses, which the girls showed an interest in. She had so much fun grabbing items from the store and arranging them for the girls pictures. She was very sweet. The girls had been wanting dress ups, so we bought them these authentic Panamanian clothes as a souvenier.

On our journey, we saw a lot of policeman with radar guns and motorcycles waiting to pull people over for speeding. I’m a natural born speeder (thanks Mom), and love to go fast. Twice, someone right in front of me got pulled over. Thankfully, they didn’t pull me over for going just as fast. Here, there are no flashing lights, the cop just stands in the middle of the road and waves for you to pull over.

However, seeing two other cars get pulled over wasn’t enough to keep me from speeding. Yes, I got caught as well – although I was misinformed about the speed limit. We were going 100 km/hr, which was the speed limit on the highway and was the last sign we saw. But I guess when the road goes down to one lane each way, the speed limit changes to 80. We didn’t know. The cop pulled us over, said there was no problem, and informed us of the speed limit. But then he proceeded to write a ticket, and said he would be sending my license to Panama city and we would have to go there and pay $90 to get it back! We told him we weren’t going back to Panama city, but were heading on to David (near Boquete). But he said we couldn’t pay it in David, but had to go to Panama City.

A view on the drive from El Valle to Boquete

This didn’t make sense to us. We finally told him we would be flying on an airplane from Bocas back to Utah (which wasn’t exactly true – we will be stopping in Panama City briefly before flying home in three more weeks – but I needed my license during that time!). Something seemed to click for him then, and Jen asked if we could pay now instead. He said we could pay $60 now instead of $90 in Panama City, so we gave him $60 bucks, got my license back and left. He didn’t fill out any paperwork or write down my name or anything, so I’m thinking this was more of a bribe than an official payment of a speeding ticket. I’m not sure how that works here. But I was just glad I didn’t lose my license, and that this ticket probably won’t go on my record. :)

After that, I tried very hard to go 80, and I did have to try hard! That’s like 45 miles an hour on roads with lots of up and down hills and no cruise control. It’s just not fun to drive slow, especially when you know you’ll arrive an hour later than you planned because of the loss in speed. I could hardly enjoy the ride or pay attention to the road, I was so intent at watching the speedometer. But I didn’t want another ticket.

Emily and Marie at McDonald's

After La Arena, we had lunch at McDonald’s in Santiago, and then I got behind a taxi who was intent on going the speed limit, so I just stayed right behind him and tailgated him all the way to David, because I didn’t want to pass him and risk starting to go faster. However, we didn’t see one single policeman all the way to David, so I guess they only care about speeding on the eastern half of the country.
Or maybe the policeman all go home after 3pm…

We found also that the scenery just gets more lush and beautiful the further west you go. There were a lot of dry spots back by El Valle, but things seem to grow naturally more green as you get closer to Costa Rica.

We finally arrived safely in Boquete about 6pm, at Cabanas Sabrin, where we’re staying in a cute little 3 bedroom cabin. Although I probably wouldn’t stay here again with little ones mainly because of the steep and narrow staircase, and no hot water (both things I didn’t know about before booking). We’re only here for three nights, though.

Boquete is a scenic town. There are grand mountain views, and an alpine smell. The city reminds me a lot of Park City, Utah, but smaller, a little more rough and not as well kept up. But it’s the “mountain town” kind of atmosphere – although no skiing. :) It’s a bit colder here, too, than El Valle. Probably around 60 degrees right now, so we keep our jackets ready for evenings and mornings.

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