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| Vasanthi and her sister Subha came to visit us in February!! |
Is it the thought that counts when we're talking about blogs...? 😁 I haven't written in about 6 months and we are now thinking about our return trip. I won't talk about that now though....
We've had an amazing year living down here in Bocas. We had months where we got caught up in the school/work thing (Yes, even down here in Paradise...), but also have had many adventures, trips to Costa Rica and Colombia, and also good times with friends.
My mini-adventures of the past few weeks were what really inspired me to document our trip again. As I mentioned, I've had many thoughts and ideas for posting, but am just getting around to it. You know how hard it is to do something when you put it off for so long.... Then, I was like well gee, I can't start writing now after 6 months..... Oh well, I decided I'm going to give it a shot anyway.
So, some of my ideas for posts were: Living Car-Free...., Yoga on a Floating Bar (like Bar that you drink at, not hang-on...), Mountain Wildlife (that would be some quetzals and my daughter....), and probably most recently - Sea Legs for Days! Hopefully you can use my titles to infer the imaginary posts. I'll also try to give more info about some of it here.
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| Two of my amazing yoga teachers here in Bocas - Kelly and Melissa. We're fortunate to have a lovely yoga community here! |
Living Car Free
So, living here on this island is amazing for many reasons, some I've mentioned already. One of my favorite things is that we can easily live car-free. Noah, Sy and I each have bicycles, Noah has a dirt-bike/moto (of course), and our friend Steve lent us a [really loud and bumpy - but great!] golf cart as long as Noah could get it running. So yes, we do have two motors that we drive occasionally, however, I prefer to ride bikes whenever and wherever we can. Typically, Sy and I ride our bikes to school ( 2.2 miles each way) and Poppy rides on the back of my bike (very Bocas style to have someone on your bike with you....). It is a bit dangerous, but mostly just lots of fun. Our ride is mostly along the beach and its great to get exercise, fresh air and endure the trip with my 8 y.o son. He complains about it beforehand every time, but sure enough, he'll be bopping and swerving to whatever song is going through his head while he rides. I love it!! And I think it is a valuable experience for the kids - for Sy to know that he can do something like that, and it has forced him to stay sharp (relatively speaking) while riding a bike. And for Poppy, we've endured a few rainstorms, big hills, and close calls together. They're going to grow up knowing that they can take risks, but have to stay sharp and sometimes sweat their butts off (what we do EVERY afternoon as we ride up the ONLY hill on Colon Island.)
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| The view during our bike ride to town. |
Of course, we can also walk to town if we want, or grab a taxi. We never have to worry about being lost or stranded anywhere on this little island. It really makes parenting a bit easier too because that worry is eliminated. I value the ease with which we can live car-free here in Bocas and will probably miss this the most. You know me, I love to walk or ride anywhere I can.
Mountain Wildlife
Have you heard about "Island Fever?" It is not caused by mosquitos or parasites, or even chitres, it caused by living on an island... :) So, anyway, I'll spare you any details, but Poppy and I decided to head to the hills - literally over the Continental Divide, into the Cordillera de Talamanca. Really, what we did was take a shuttle to Boquete. Boquete is a beautiful mountain town near Volcan Baru. It, like Bocas, is very popular with backpackers, gringos, and retirees. The climate is lovely - springlike all year round, the scenery is stunning, and the coffee and restaurants are raved about (not by me....).
Poppy and I had a lovely, long weekend enjoying the cooler climate, visiting a wildlife refuge (kind-of), and seeing for REAL rare and amazing wildlife, not very far into the hiking trails around Boquete. We saw the Resplendent Quetzal ( birders dream! Here is a better blog post about it), and Tarantula Hawk Wasp ( Extremely painful sting!), rare orchids, and the rarest butterfly in Panama (its wings were clear!!). It was a lovely break from island life and we met some wonderful people from CA that I'm sure we will do our best to keep in touch with. It’d be lovely to visit Boquete again before we head back home. Oh, and did I mention there’s a roller skating rink there?!?!
Sea Legs for Days
This is all good stuff!! Sea-legs for days is proof that we are doing our best to take advantage of this beautiful archipelago. Over the past few weeks, we have had many fun adventures on the water. We've gone snorkeling in Dolphin Bay followed by a tour of an awesome chocolate farm called Green Acres Chocolate Farm over on the mainland. And of course, lots of swimming in general!
I've done some paddleboarding - most recently around the island of Carenero! The seas were calm that day, but there were still swells out on the East facing side of the island. Two of the ladies with us got sea-sick and were vomiting over the edges of their board! We had to flag down a boat to come get one of the girls! It was quite an adventure for my first trip with them.
Sy and I also went scuba-diving this past weekend with Tony at the Panama Dive School. Noah recently got certified and Sy became very interested. He and Noah have been studying some of the fish and of course some of the rules of Scuba. Sy was very eager to get into the water and do his "bubble-maker" course. He did really well! We went down 6 feet and were in the water for about 30 minutes. He hopes to do it again this coming weekend. When he turns 10, he can take the actual course to become certified.
As I said, there is really too much to say after all this time and all this adventure. Life down here is slow, HOT, and good. We're trying to enjoy it as much as possible.
Next trip, Mexico!! Then, a month more here and back to the states. I'll try to get Sy to do another post or two before we leave. Maybe between the two of us, we can get 4 done ..... No promises. :)
