Pool at Hotel Bambito

After crossing the border from Costa Rica into Panama, we drove straight to Volcán, the town we enjoyed the most on our last visit to Panama, and also one of the closest to the Costa Rican border. We stayed the night in Hotel Bambito, the only place in town with a swimming pool. Our girls love to swim. Marie would do it all day if we let her. It was a really pretty indoor pool surrounded by glass windows so you still felt like you were outside. We were glad it was indoor because it was pretty cold outside – too cold for swimming anyway. They also had a hot tub, sauna, and ping pong table, all of which we enjoyed.

Meals with Friends

The next day, we met up with some friends for lunch and dinner. Both suggested the same restaurant, at Dos Rios hotel, so we ate there twice, and enjoyed the food both times. It was great to see our friends again, to catch up on what’s happened in the year and a half since we were last in Volcán.

Driving to Las Olas Resort

Jen at Las Olas

The next day, we thought we’d get a little closer to the border and go find a hotel by the beach somewhere. Our friends recommended Las Olas Resort, and gave us directions. But unfortunately, we missed the signs, and got very bad directions from several locals, which ended up taking us 1.5 hours in the wrong direction! We were all pretty frustrated at ourselves – well, Jen and I were. The girls somehow handled the extra 3 hours in the car with a very good attitude, just having fun playing together. When we got to the hotel, we found out it would be about $50 more per night than we thought because the prices on-line didn’t say it was an extra $20 per person for more than 2 in a room. I asked for a discount, it being the low season, but they wouldn’t budge. :(

Emily Learned to Swim!

Turtles at Las Olas

So, we went swimming that night, and also played a little at the beach and watched the sun set. The pools there were pretty shallow, which was great for the kids. In fact, because Emily could almost touch her toes in just about every part of the pool, she got brave enough to try swimming on her own from one end of the pool to the other, and did it! Our little girl has taught herself to swim! (Which is good because for some reason, she gets terrified whenever I try to teach her myself).

We had dinner at the resort and the girls enjoyed feeding the lettuce to the turtles in the pond and watching the parrots and macaws in the cage by the entrance.

Back to Costa Rica

The next day, we headed back to Costa Rica and immediately felt a little safer and noticed how much more green and dense the foliage was. We really like it here. :) We drove all the way to Dominical to find a hotel to stay at. Although we did stop at the beach just long enough for Marie to lose her shoe in the waves…

Pool at Hotel Ambiente

The hotel we planned on going to turned out to be be closed, so we drove around to several others, and ended up at one that was a little pricier than what we wanted (because we had to get 2 rooms instead of one, but they gave us a big discount). But it was so beautiful and we were ready to treat ourselves to a nice night after all that driving, so we took it. We stayed at Villa Ambiente, and it really was ambient (although we did have to drive through a river to get there). The architecture, furniture and decor were lovely, and the ocean view from the pool was spectacular!

We swam a little until it started to rain, then had dinner at a fun pizza restaurant in town, followed by some delicious ice cream at Ruby’s Homemade Ice Cream, owned by a sweet family from New York (Ruby is their baby). We enjoyed visiting with them, and they even showed Emily how to make waffle cones when she kept probing them for details.

To Buy a Hotel or Not to Buy

Courtyard at Villa Ambiente

Being a business man and having a mind that wants to know how things work, I enjoy talking to business owners to see how they run their operations. In addition to the ice cream shop owners, I also talked to the receptionist at Villa Ambiente (who was the only one there except the gardener) to see how things were run. I found out that it was owned by a man from Switzerland, and run by this woman and a gardener. The hotel is also for sale for 1.7 million dollars! Whew! Way out of my price range (for now), but it sure got me thinking about what it might be like to own a hotel, and how profitable a venture it might be.

In fact, I spent all week researching about buying commercial real estate in Costa Rica, how to run an effective hotel, and created a complex spreadsheet to help me analyze how profitable a hotel might be given many different variables. It’s been fun to learn about, even if I don’t end up purchasing a hotel. But I think it could certainly be a better place to diversify my savings than sticking money in stocks and mutual funds all in US dollars. At least with a hotel I’d have a little more control over the ROI. Something to think about.

Fresh Farming

Visiting the sheep

The next day we headed home, and on our way back stopped at a farm called Finca Ipe for some fresh cinnamon and honey. They even showed us the boxes where the bees make their honey and we got to stick our fingers in and taste the honey right out of the hive! Delicious! Fortunately, these were bees that didn’t sting. We got to see their other animals, too, like sheep, goats, rabbits, and chickens. The kids really loved it!

Overall, we had a great trip and it was fun to be together, see old friends, meet new people, and have new experiences together. For our next visa run, we are planning to visit our family back in Utah for a week or two, and then maybe take our kids to Disney World in Florida. We’ll probably be out of the country a bit longer for this next trip because September/October are the rainiest part of the rainy season here in Costa Rica, which I’ve heard are often just best to avoid altogether.

Thanks for reading! Enjoy the video and pictures below.

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We’ve been asked a few times if we plan to become residents so we won’t have to go through this process every 90 days. The answer: probably not. The main reason is that if you’re a resident, you have to live in the country for a certain number of months each year in order to maintain residency. And while we love Costa Rica, we know that we’ll want to be moving on to other countries in the near future. So there’s little point in spending several thousand dollars and waiting several years to get residency status here, if we’re just planning on leaving. Now, on to the trip!

The Closed Highway

Our week began with a trip to a Registro Publico (Public Registry) office in Alajuela to get permission to take our car out of the country. This was a lot easier than last time for us, since we knew what to expect. It cost about $10, if I remember right, and required standing in two short lines. After that, we headed to Panama, on the new highway that should get us to the border in roughly 6 hours.

However, after passing by Atenas, we discovered that the highway had been closed. There was a barrier up to block the on-ramp and we couldn’t pass. I had read a week before that the highway had been closed due to some rocks that had fallen, but I figured it would have been cleaned up by now. I guess not.

As we were looking at the GPS trying to figure out what to do, a man shouted to us from a little cliff above and told us that if our car has 4-wheel drive, we should be able to drive on the freeway without any problem. I was a little hesitant because I didn’t want to get into any trouble crossing a barrier, but I also didn’t want to waste another hour backtracking and finding another route to Panama that would take us much longer to get there. (We’d for sure end up spending the night in Costa Rica somewhere instead). So, we decided to risk it and 4×4′d around the barrier to continue on the closed highway.

At first, all was great! We swerved around a few rocks, wondering why no one was cleaning them up, and then proceeded to drive at top speed with no other cars on the road! I have never seen the highway so empty! Eventually, we passed several more sets of rocks and places where the wall had collapsed. Workers with bulldozers were cleaning up the mess, and we drove right on by. No one seemed to even care we were there.

Eventually, as we approached the place where we needed to exit the freeway, we found that it was blocked off, and so was the nearest exit! There was no way around either barrier this time, even with 4-wheel drive. Then we spotted a traffic police truck on the other side of the road, and we began to worry. We saw one other truck driving on the other side of the road, who proceeded to take the exit (actually an onramp) just on the other side of the police truck. So we decided to try the same thing. We were relieved when he didn’t follow us, and we were able to get back on the highway – the part that wasn’t closed – to continue our journey. Being ignored by a policeman was the exact opposite experience that we had in Panama, which I’ll talk about later. (So I guess we paid for our crime one way or another.)

Crossing the Border

We were glad to arrive at the Panama border before dark, even after stopping for lunch at a nice buffet place near Jaco. But the border was an absolute madhouse! It seems like it’s intentionally made confusing so that you need to rely on unofficial people “helping” you around and taking you to various offices in order to receive a tip. There are no signs with directions telling you where to go for different things, so if it’s your first time through, you kind of need to trust them. But our “guide” kept asking to hold my passports and documents for me. No way, José (his name was actually Anthony) – I’ll hang onto these myself, thank you. After leading us through 5 or so different offices, in a seeming random order, we finally made it through the border.

On the way back to Costa Rica, however, we decided to ignore the unofficial people trying to help us, and found that we were able to make it through okay by just asking people behind the window where we were supposed to go next. This probably wouldn’t work too well if there were long lines, but there we no lines at all so we got through very quickly the second time.

Corrupt Police Officers

But just 5 minutes into our Panama journey, after being drained from long hours of driving and a crazy experience at the border, we passed by a little police booth without coming to a complete stop. Now, in Costa Rica, they have these all the time and they don’t care if you stop. I guess Panama is a bit different. We heard a whistle blown and had to backtrack. The officers took our passports and my license and looked at our other documents. And these aren’t your friendly officers in blue shirts, but gruff men in camo with heavy boots, bullet proof vest, and a belt full of weapons. After 10 minutes of intimidation, including a “threat” to call the traffic police over who could write us a $100 ticket (which is a lie – tickets are more like $20), he said he wouldn’t charge us anything, but if we wanted to pay them a little something, maybe $20 or so, for not causing us more trouble, it would be welcome. In other words, they wanted a bribe. I whipped out $15 or so (about all I had) and we were off.

This post is getting long, so I’m going to just share our final police experience in Panama, and save the rest of the trip (all much more positive) for another post. On the way back to the border (in almost the same place we were stopped before, but on the other side of the road), I was observing the speed limit very closely – 60km/hr – and Jen knew it, too. But at that moment I was flagged down again by a policeman – this time a traffic cop. I pulled over, yada yada, and he said I was going 83km/hr. No way. I argued with him about it and said that I know I was going 60. I’m pretty sure he just pulled us over because we looked like gringos and he thought he could get some easy money. (We hear this happens a lot in Panama). But I fought him on it, and maybe because he realized I wasn’t the easy target he thought I’d be, he let me go without writing me a ticket, nor did he get any bribe money (I only had $8 anyway). Yay for assertiveness!

I have lived in Costa Rica for 6 months and have never been pulled over. But in the 7 weeks I’ve spent in Panama this year and last, I’ve been pulled over 3 times! Needless to say, we were very relieved to finally be back in Costa Rica, where the traffic cops seem a little less corrupt (or maybe just less aggressive), and sometimes even friendly.

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Before we left, we had a few expectations, or at least hopes about what we would gain from this experience. We wanted to grow closer as a family, get away from the routines of home, and gain a greater focus on what’s really important. We also wanted to learn a little Spanish, increase our appreciation for other cultures and how people in other places live, and become more grateful for what we have. This trip has done all of this and more.

Faith and Fear

What we didn’t expect was how all this extra time to talk and think would teach us about other things. One of our greatest realizations was how much we limit ourselves by fear, often without even knowing it. The bad things that happen in life aren’t usually things that you prepare for or think about. When bad things happen, they’re usually unexpected, and you can’t prepare for them anyway. You just need to deal with them when they come. We often waste our energy worrying about those things in advance, especially if we have no control over them. Preparation is good. Worry is not.

There were a lot of things to be afraid of when coming on this trip – a lot of things could have gone wrong. And we were probably overcautious in some areas. But if we had listened to our fears and stayed home, rather than pressing forward in faith, we never would have had this wonderful time together as a family. We also discovered a lot of other areas in life where we have fear, and after analyzing, found our fears mostly unwarranted. The girls even discovered this, having now overcome their fear of bugs. I think we will be living our lives with more faith and courage now than ever before.

I also discovered that I really could continue running my business from a remote location, just checking up on it once or twice a day (or less). We also loved not having the distraction of a telephone. Just hearing it ring causes Jennifer to tense up at home, so we’re thinking about getting rid of our phone – or at least turning the ringer and answering machine off and just using it for outbound calls. Too drastic? Not if it isn’t necessary – we prefer e-mail, since we can answer it on our own time. And friends and family will still have our cell phones if a call is necessary (which it usually isn’t).

A More Connected Family

As you can imagine, we had a lot of time on this trip to interact with each other as a family. It was wonderful to be able to not only watch our children have these new experiences, but to experience it with them!  Jen and I had a lot of time to practice and talk about becoming better parents, and we learned some important things about how we parent, how our kids react and learn, and what our weaknesses and strengths are. Our overall feeling, however, is a much stronger connection between each member of our family. We feel like we know our kids better than before we left, and we love them more. We also feel more love and trust from them. To us, this is priceless. We have a renewed resolve to become better parents for these great children, to set better examples for them, and to get them at least through adolescence without ruining them. :)

We thought we might get really tired of being with our kids 24 hours a day, but we realized it’s actually a lot of fun! Whereas before, parenting often seemed like a chore, now it’s a joy. It’s not necessarily any easier, and we’re not necessarily any better at it. And yes, we do take breaks from them. But now more than ever, we love spending time with our kids, teaching them, watching them grow, and experiencing new things with them.

Home School

The other thing we didn’t expect was an increased desire to home school our children. I went over this a bit in another post, but I wanted to bring it up again here because it’s something we gained from our trip that was totally unexpected, and will have a huge impact on our family.

Gratitude and Self-Reliance

There were times in our solar-powered house in Bocas when we had neither power, nor water, and very limited food options – and it would cost over $50 to travel by boat to the nearest grocery store. Fortunately, Jen was extremely resourceful (one of her many talents) and was able to come up with some great meals from what we had. We were never able to use the television well in the house because there wasn’t enough sunlight to power both the television and the refrigerator. Most nights, we got ready for bed in the dark, both because we didn’t have power, and also so as not to attract the mosquitoes.

Experiencing this together was actually a lot of fun (except when the Internet went down – I did truly miss that :)). But it helped us gain a much greater appreciation for things like electricity and water which we take so much for granted at home. This experience, along with seeing how those in other small villages live, and our country’s current economic situation, also increased my feeling of urgency for becoming more self-reliant and prepared for emergencies. It makes me want to get more food and water storage, and even look for alternate sources of power. Many people in Panama are completely self-reliant, growing their own food, collecting and filtering their own water, and generating their own power. I had never seen that before.

More Scripture

Every night before bed, we continued to do our nightly ritual of singing a hymn, reading the scriptures together, and praying as a family. Our hymn diet wasn’t diverse. We alternated between English and Spanish versions of “I Am a Child of God” and “Families Can Be Together Forever”, as well as a few others like “Teach Me to Walk in the Light” and “Book of Mormon Stories”. Marie almost always requested “I Am a Child of God – in English”. :) At home, we usually read a verse or two from the scriptures, and then a story from the Friend magazine, or another book. Here, since we wanted to pack light, all we had for reading material was my iPhone, so our reading was entirely from the scriptures.

We started reading the Book of Mormon together this year, page by page, rather than just select chapters like last year. And we’re surprised by how much the girls are interested in it. Rather than just a few verses, the girls usually want me to keep reading and reading. Some nights we got through an entire chapter! This mostly happened during the times when we were without electricity, sitting in the dark. Probably because of the lack of distractions, darkness makes for a nice environment to read and discuss the scriptures. Now that I know our girls can take more, I think we’ll read for longer spurts once we get home as well (at least through these more interesting chapters of 1 Nephi).

Spanish and Panama

We all picked up quite a bit of Spanish, although not as much as I’d hoped. With all the moving around we did to different cities, I never got into a routine of studying for a certain amount of time each day, or anything like that. Most of what I picked up was from listening to Jen. I think if we were to do this again, and language learning was a strong goal, we would pick one spot to stay in for a few months, spend more time meeting the people around us, and take time to study every day. Still, I’m pleased with my progress as I can now actually pick out individual words in a sentence, and understand a lot of what was said.

We learned a lot about Panamanian geography and culture, and what it’s like in the different parts of the country. We gleaned so much more from this trip than if we had done a quick 1-2 week vacation or a few days’ tour of the country. We feel like we really experienced Panama! (Although some may dispute that because we never did ride their “red devil” buses or go to Kuna Yala). But we feel like it was just about the right amount of time to be gone, and that we did all we wanted to do.

A Priceless Adventure

Spending six weeks in Panama has been a fantastic adventure that I am so glad we got to experience, and I feel it was worth every sacrifice to make the effort. I believe it will have an impact on our family for years to come. I truly can say that I personally feel closer to my family than before we left. I feel like our love for each other is stronger. Our appreciation for others who are different from us is stronger. And I am a happier and better person because we went.

So, what will we do from here? Well, we’ll probably stick around Utah for a while, but we’re already looking at other places in the world for our next trip, which we want to make even longer. There is so much to gain from these extended trips that we can’t seem to get at home in quite the same way. So far we’re looking at New Zealand, The Philippines, Thailand, or Mexico, but are nowhere near a final decision of when or where. We just know that we want to do it again.

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Share and Enjoy

Today was our last day in Panama. We fly home tomorrow!! We’re really going to miss this place. Jen even cried for a few minutes today (unusual for her) because she doesn’t want to leave. But there are things we miss at home too. Personally, I’m ready to get back to the familiar comforts of Utah for a while, and Marie wants to see her friend Evie and one of her stuffed animals. Emily seems to be content either way.

Girls at Benihana in Multiplaza

On our last day in Panama, we went to a mall downtown called Multiplaza, which has a lot of high-end fashion stores that were way out of our price range. We did splurge on a meal though, and took the girls to Benihana! :) It was a fun show and good food, but definitely not cheap. We also let the girls ride the merry-go-round and a little train that took them around the mall, and got them some ice cream. They enjoyed that. Jen and I had smoothies.

On the way back, we found a taxi driver named Johann who was excited to be able to practice his English a bit. He wants to start a transportation company helping tourists and businesses people get around in Panama. He’ll be taking us to the airport tomorrow, too.

At the pool in Albrook Inn

This time in Panama City, we’re staying at Albrook Inn, which is a really nice place. They have wifi, but again unfortunately, it doesn’t reach into my room so I have to come to their business center to use it. But they have a restaurant and a decent free breakfast, as well as a pool, which we enjoyed swimming in this morning. (Forgot to mention that.)

We took a walk around the neighborhood in the evening, and came to a park where the girls played for a while. It’s funny how they complain about their feet hurting from walking – until they see a park, and then they run with enthusiasm to play. Anyway, this walk was a nice way to end our day, and to end our stay in Panama. Last time we left Panama City, we were staying downtown, and were glad to get out of the noise and the busy-ness. This time, we’re happy to be back in civilization in a quieter neighborhood, and back to 50% humidity instead of 80% (even paper felt damp there :)). We do love all the birds around here, and the weather is great!

One thing I’ve also wanted to mention for a while but keep forgetting is the funny sound we often hear when driving, whether in our own car or a taxi. It’s the sound of a loud thunk that comes from the back-right seat of the car. Any car. Any guesses, car experts?

It’s actually the sound of Marie’s head bonking against the door! Marie can fall asleep in seconds once she gets in a car, and since we haven’t been using car seats in Panama, her head flops around a lot, and that’s a sound we heard all too often, sometimes followed by a whine or a little talking in her sleep, then she was back to dreamland. Once she’s asleep, it’s nearly impossible to wake her. (Although mentioning cookies or ice cream seems to have more effect than other methods).

Funny kids

Lastly, following in my sister’s footsteps of posting funny things her daughter says, I want to post a Marie-ism and an Emily-ism I heard today:

Marie: Daddy, why are you putting that stuff on your face? [It was sunblock]

Daddy: So I won’t get sunburned.

Marie: The sun’s not going to say, “Ha Ha Ha, I’m going to burn you!!” [imagine her sinister laugh]

Here’s one from Emily:

Emily: [Very dramatic panic] Marie’s putting my shoe on!!!!

Mom: So?

Emily: It will shrink!!!

Aren’t kids fun? See you soon!!!

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Probably because of the sounds, I had a dream that night that our house was carried away by a big river, and that once we got out, Marie walked to the edge of a cliff. I told her not to move, but she looked out over it and fell right off, fortunately bouncing off a couple people who were standing half-way down the cliff. When she hit bottom, she cried, so I knew she was alive. At that point, I woke up and was so glad it was just a dream. :)

On a park bench in Bocas Town

On Saturday, we decided to spend the day in Bocas Town, about a 30 minute boat ride from where we’re staying. It actually turned out to be a very sunny day, and it was really hot in Bocas. But we ate at a couple restaurants, which were decent, but pricier than most we’ve been to. They did have great fruit juices, though – lots of variety, including Sour Sop. We had some snacks, looked around the town, and even took a little boat ride up to Boca del Drago, which had a beautiful beach. The waves were very choppy though so it was a bumpy ride.

We had dinner in Bocas town, and on our way back home, we were joined by a woman who’s serving in the peace core in the little community we visited a few days earlier. It was interesting to hear of her experiences and how she’s been living and helping out the past nine months.

Sunday, we ended up not going to church because it was over an hour away by boat, and would have cost about $150 to get there. Plus, we didn’t know exactly where it was or even what time it started. So we just did some private study and reading. Here are some pictures from the past few days.

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In fact, we didn’t bring any toys with us to Panama, and have only purchased a few things along the way, such as a drawing pad and crayons, and bubbles. (They were also very entertained with paper airplanes made from the drawing pad paper). We’ve been amazed at how much fun our kids can have with simple toys or none at all.

However, when we’re not doing fun things together, Emily or Marie will often want to play on the “little computer”, our 9″ laptop running Ubuntu Linux (you may call this a toy :)). When we’ve had a fast enough Internet connection, they’ll play Flash -based games on the Playhouse Disney website, or Nick Jr., like at home. But they’ve also enjoyed a few games that came with the computer such as a penguin racing game (where you, as a penguin, “skii” down a mountain on your belly), chess (yes, since we played live chess in Boquete, they actually have enjoyed playing chess on the computer!), and Tux Paint, a drawing game for Linux. The girls have created some pretty cute scenes with Tux Paint, which I proudly share with you below.

?Palm Tree? by Emily

?Fairies? by Emily

"Just a Little Picture" by Marie

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Jen made hojaldres for breakfast (see other great Panamanian recipes on her blog), and then we went on a boat ride to see some dolphins. We saw several sets of them come up out of the surface of the water, and even a little baby dolphin. It was really fun. I felt so relaxed on this boat ride, just enjoying being here with my family, feeling the sun, and breathing the air.

After snorkeling

We stopped at a little restaurant and had some shrimp and chicken – a bit pricey, but good. The girls didn’t like it much – no kid food. This restaurant sat on top of the water and you could see fish swimming underneath. The fish loved to eat the food people dropped.

So we decided to go snorkeling there, and fortunately we had brought our swimsuits. We saw lots of beautiful fish, including iridescent rainbow colors, black and yellow stripes, and more. Emily got in and swam around with her life jacket, and even tried the snorkel for a few minutes, but the mask was too big so water kept seeping in.

Marie was too afraid to get in the water, but she had fun throwing crackers in the water for us, so all the fish would come. :) And the water was so clear, she could see the fish from above – some would even jump out of the water to get the crackers.

Emily holding a starfish

After we got back from the boat ride, we took a long walk along the beach and through the jungle just to see what there was. We were gone for a couple hours and the girls got pretty tired. On the way back, we saw a starfish, and found more cool shells. Before we left on our walk, Marie had found a really cute hermit crab, who she wanted to keep as her pet. She was very distraught when Mommy made her put it back during our walk, so it wouldn’t die. But she eventually recovered.

We had some spaghetti, bread and carrots for dinner, and had a good night’s rest. Check out some very cute pictures from the day, below.

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Emily blowing bubbles

The girls have enjoyed blowing the bubbles we got them in Panama City, but hadn’t used until now. They’ve spent hours blowing bubbles out over the sand. They seem to float forever here, and even bounce off the water, or ride on it for several minutes before popping. They’ve enjoyed making little ladybugs and caterpillers out of half-bubbles on a glass-top table on the patio. We’ve refilled their bubble containers many times with a dish-soap / water mixture. What fun!

Brandon bringing back the ball

One morning the girls were playing with their inflatable beach ball, and Marie happened to throw it out just a little too far and the waves weren’t bringing it back. The girls shrieked in terror, drama queens that they are, as their ball floated out into the ocean. Daddy to the rescue! I hopped in one of the kayaks and went off to get the ball, bringing it back to safety. After that, the girls didn’t care about the ball. They wanted to go in the kayak! Until they got inside – then they were a little scared. But I convinced them to try it one at a time first. Emily loved it, but Marie was still a bit scared.

Champion Emily

Later, we went out as a family in the big kayak and got caught in a very heavy rainstorm, so we paddled to shore, and stopped at a nice hotel (with bungalos) called Casa Cayuco, and visited with the owner for a while, who brought out towels for the girls. When their daughter was Emily’s age, they lived for a year on their sailboat while sailing from Washington to Costa Rica, then spent two years in Costa Rica. How adventurous! It’s fun to meet new people.

The next day, Jen made some fresh lobster that was just caught and brought to us the night before. It was quite good.

Family picture at the ngobe community

That afternoon, we had Alfredo, one of the workers around here, take us to a Ngobe Indian village. We took a short walk, then got in a little canoe to ride through the river. It was a beautiful ride. When the canoe stopped we got out and got a tour of the community. People have been living here for over 100 years. He also told us about the trees and spotted some wildlife, such as parrots, and a 3-toed sloth (see pictures below).

It had been raining a lot that morning (and the night previous (and for the last two months for that matter)), so there was a lot of mud, and we got pretty dirty. But we had a great time. And Alfredo was a great guide.

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Sunday we went to church again in Volcan (we decided to stay one more night at Las Plumas rather than two nights in David). I got a bit more out of the lessons this week because I had my iPhone dictionary, but the girls chose to stay with us rather than go to Primary. We had a great time there, and said goodbye to some friends we’d met.

We spent the night in Hotel Iberia in David, which was just perfect for what we wanted. They had a decent restaurant, wifi connection, and hot water (after it was running for about 3 minutes).

The small airplane we flew in

The next morning we headed out for Bocas del Toro. We flew on a small airplane from David, which unfortunately wasn’t good for our stomachs. Emily and I both threw up (even though I took some motion sickness medication before we left). There were beautiful views, but it wasn’t a fun ride for us. Jen and Marie did just fine, though.

Once we got to Bocas, we were greeted by Gregorio who’s taking care of the property where we’re staying. We got some groceries, got in his boat, and he took us on about a 30 minute ride to the east side of Bastimentos island. The place we’re staying (Sal si Puedes) is heavenly! It’s so peaceful with the sound of the waves gently rolling in, soft sand all around, and an open and breezy house with light-colored furnishings.

This is where we're staying

When we arrived at our house, another couple workers greeted us and carried our luggage in the house. They then proceeded to work on the grounds. There was a woman in the house who had just finished cleaning. She comes three times a week. There was also a cute little boy who was fascinated by my video camera.

The girls immediately wanted to play on the beach, so we got their swimsuits on. The sand is so soft and the water is warm. It feels great here! It is a bit cloudy though. We haven’t seen the sun since we arrived, and it looks like it will be this way all week, along with some occasional rain. Oh well – at least we won’t get as badly sunburned. :)

It got a little rainy and windy that night, causing intermittent problems with the television and Internet, but they’re working now. The girls also played ball with some neighbor kids in our front yard until it started raining.

Getting ready to play in the water

This house is fully equipped and definitely up to U.S. standards. It even has a large refrigerator and full-size oven, which is rare here. Oddly, it’s missing a microwave.

The girls slept on an air mattress in the living room, and we slept under a mosquito net in our bedroom. We burned some coil by the girls that should keep the mosquitoes away. We also turned all the lights out, and stumbled around in the dark getting ready for bed – we were told that using as little light as possible would keep them from coming. They had some little lanterns but none worked, so the girls brushed their teeth by the light of my iPhone. And I think I only saw one mosquito all night, maybe two. And I’m not sure they were mosquitoes. Maybe it’s not as big of a problem here as they say…

Anyway, we had a great night’s sleep, listening to the sound of the waves and the animals and insects outside. What a beautiful place!

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We have realized a few things, however. We definitely do not want to be in Salt Lake City for another one of the winter air “inversions” – it’s like breathing poison, and we don’t like it at all. We’re also not big on cold and snow. Maybe we’ll stay in Salt Lake and just leave for the winter, or maybe we’ll make a permanent move. We don’t know.

The past few weeks in Panama, however, it’s been so refreshing to be in small towns rather than big cities. They seem much friendlier and laid back. Maybe we’re just relaxed because we’re on vacation, but we think the people and climate probably have something to do with it as well. It’s also been refreshing to experience a culture that doesn’t have so much of the clutter of materialism and busy-ness that seems to pervade much of the U.S.

Don’t misunderstand. We love Salt Lake. We love the people. We love our families and like living close to them. I love the great library system. We like how the Church has a big presence there. We feel safe there (in most places). The mountains are beautiful. All the comforts of life are readily available. And there are a lot of other things we like about it.

But when we have the option to live almost anywhere in the entire world, I feel like I’m not taking advantage of a fantastic opportunity for me and for my family, if I don’t at least explore what it’s like in other places.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you choose and why?

Jobs and schools are not a concern because I have a business that I can run from anywhere with an Internet connection. And we plan on home schooling our kids – a decision we recently came to that I’ll go over in another post.

But with so many places in the world, I feel like a kid in a candy store – how do you choose?! We’ve started to narrow down the choices a little. We like warm (sorry Mom, this rules out Washington), green, clean, safe, relaxed-pace, friendly people, and no more than 45 minutes from the nearest LDS Ward or Branch (http://maps.lds.org). So far we’re liking small town life, but not too small – it’s got to have at least a decent grocery store, high-speed Internet, kids our girls’ ages, and some basic activities or classes (such as musical theater or art). Low cost of living is a nice plus.

Okay, so that’s a pretty demanding list. Maybe no such place exists, but with a world this big, we think it does. If nothing else, we’re up for some adventures and trying new things. If we don’t like a place, we can always come back, right? :)

Do you know any places that might fit the bill?

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