The Pacific Coast

We left early Saturday morning for a trip to some islands off the Pacific Coast. We went with a group from our school that, to Iain's disappointment, only wanted to speak English. However, the beauty of the places we travelled more than made up for the lack of Spanish.

We rode a bus for 2 hours to get on a small boat to take us out to a big boat for a 20-minute ride (think fast and fun!) to get on a little inflated dinghy to take us to the shore. We arrived at an island in the middle of nowhere, where a couple of Americans had built a house to take people on chartered fishing trips. I guess there were no fishermen this weekend, so we took advantage of their beautiful house and awesome cooking (it was 3 guys doing the cooking, so we weren't expecting much, but the food was way better than anything I've ever made). The 4 of us all slept on a full-size bed (it was the worst night of sleeping I've ever had, but the girls seemed to do fine).

Anyway, after we got off the dinghy, Audrey just wanted to strip her clothes off and run in the waves. It was awesome to watch her (and as soon as Avery saw what was going on, she was quickly following suit).

We saw a crocodile swimming in the water (the lagoon behind the house is apparently where about 10 of them live) ... don't worry, it wasn't swimming close to the beach. =)

On Sunday, we took the boat to another island which, again, was in the middle of nowhere. It looked exactly like the image you would conjure in your head of a tropical deserted island. On most of the island was thick vegetation. Then, in one little lagoon, was a perfectly white sandy beach with coconut palms in the background and crystal blue water. We had to climb down the boat ladder and swim to shore, which Audrey wasn't so crazy about, but both girls had their flugles on the whole time and did a super job. We just sat on the beach making sandcastles and running around, drinking coconut milk, and Iain and I took turns snorkeling. It was so much fun! And I think we managed to escape without any sunburns, which if you know our pasty white family, is quite a feat! =)

The entire trip was about perfect (3 minutes from arriving back home, Avery threw up on the bus, but as soon as we got off, she seemed to be fine, so I'm thinking maybe it was carsickness).

Pix are below. The pic of Iain and another guy (Gerardo) in red shirts are them showing off their Spain pride for the WorldCup final. (Yes, Iain quickly abandoned Brazil after they lost and became a die-hard Spain fan.) The pic of Audrey and the young Panamanian girl is from Audrey sitting in the front of the bus on the way home. She was SOOOOOOOO excited to sit up there and we could see her talking non-stop for the first hour (the second hour she slept). Anyway, we think she was speaking completely in English, and we don't think the girl understood anything Audrey said, but they seemed to be having an awesome time.

Shrek 4

We went with a group on Friday afternoon to the big city of David to see Shrek 4. We thought the girls would like it, but it was much darker than the first 3, so we ended up leaving just a few minutes into the movie. Anyway, we rode a bus (a schoolbus that just randomly pulls onto the grass to let people on & off) AND a taxi to get to the movies (something the girls have been begging to do since we arrived), so they had a great time. All 4 of us entered the movie for less than $8. Unbelievable.

Here's a pic of us in front of the taxi (they don't look thrilled, but believe me, they were).

The grocery store...

Yesterday, we were in the produce/meat section of a local, small grocery store. It smelled less beautiful than, say, a Publix. Iain was with the butcher and the girls and I were looking for some yogurt. Audrey said to me, in a loud voice, "what it smell like in here?" I said "it smells like a grocery store." She said, in an equally loud voice as the first time, "no, no, it smells like a dog."

Nice. As Iain says, my only hope is that the people around us didn't speak English.

Happy 4th of July

This is only my second 4th of July spent outside of our amazing country, and we had a great time (some Panamanians down the street even shot off fireworks around 8pm, but we think that had more to do with Sunday-night ritual than celebrations in honor of the US). =) On Sunday, we went horseback riding and then to some natural hotsprings. Both were awesome. We went with 2 guides (one was the driver of our 35-year old landcruiser with open back that the girls loved). I had my own horse, Audrey rode with Iain, and Avery rode with the driver, Bolivar. We rode for a little more than an hour, mostly walking, but when we took off at a trot, both the girls got HUGE smiles, and when we brought our horses back to a walk, Audrey yelled "MORE!" Toward the end of our ride, Audrey got to ride the guide's horse by herself while the guide led her along. After the ride, I asked her if she liked riding more with Daddy or by herself, and it was a cleary "by myself." I think Avery had a great time too, though at one point, she looked as if the slow, methodical walking was about to lull her to sleep. After the horses, we went to the springs, where we had to walk through some guy's backyard with a pet monkey (see pic below). This country is awesome. =) During the walk, Bolivar became Avery's best friend, and he carried her everywhere and she happily went with him. Avery tired of the hot springs about the same time I did (this was soon after she finished her last Ritz cracker), but I think that Audrey and Iain could have just camped out there for a couple of days. They were warm (3 different pools ... 89 degrees, 104 degrees and 112 degrees) and in beautiful surroundings with no other people around.

July 3

Sorry, I'm a couple of days behind so I'm going to make a couple of posts to correspond with the days that I SHOULD have posted them. =) On Saturday, we had breakfast in the little "glass house" in our hotel. It's an octagon-shaped house that is enclosed on the top and 3 sides by glass and is open on the fourth side. Audrey has been asking to eat breakfast there since we arrived, so we finally granted her wish on Saturday. A short video is below. After breakfast, we went on a hike. En route, we stopped at a roadside stand to buy some dresses for the girls and a necklace for me. It's owned by a Ngobe-Bugle Indian family who lives across the street. They have 55 chickens (all hens; they killed the rooster and ate it some time ago) and their house is a dirt floor. The man fed the chickens while we were there so that the girls could watch them in action (this family also had a 2-year old daughter who would smile shyly at our girls). Anyway, it was pretty wild and our girls loved it, especially seeing the baby chicks. During our hike, we had to walk back and forth across a stream/river about 5 times, sometimes with Iain carrying the girls across a downed tree, sometimes the girls traipsing through shallow parts in their boots. We had a picnic lunch on a rock and then came back down before the rain started pouring. Also, a pic of a random road sign that we thought was pretty funny!

Unfortunately, Brazil just lost against the Netherlands

This makes me re-think the flag that I have on our rental car. Am I still a die-hard Brazil fan, or should I buy a new flag? --- Iain

La Primera Semana Esta Completa

The first week is finished! Yesterday, we went to a coffee plantation and were amazed at the amount of work required to plant, harvest, dry, roast, etc the coffee beans. It seems like a cup of coffee should cost about $10/cup instead of $1. The highlight of the day for Audrey was riding in the bus (really a mini-van) to the 3 different stops on the tour (she and Avery sat in the backseat by themselves strapped into regular seatbelts and they thought they were hot stuff) and the highlight for Avery was seeing the dog who lives outside of the packaging facility. Pix are below. (The farm looks more like a jungle with the coffee plants interspersed between all kinds of fruit trees and other plants. It was beautiful! When we did our tasting at the packaging facility, we all had to wear hair nets. Just adding that in so you don't think we've adopted a new fashion since being here).

I'm also attaching a couple of pix of what you think might be Audrey and Avery sitting on dining room chairs. That's really Alyssa and Wyatt (the only names Audrey will let us call them these days, except when Audrey decides to be Julia instead of Alyssa) on purple ponies in a riding ring at Audrey's birthday party (immediately after eating our ice-cream cones, vanilla cake, opening a present which was a musical book, and asking Snow White to get off of a particular horse so that Wyatt could get on). =) If you feel lost, I welcome you to come spend a day with us and Audrey's imagination. It's awesome! You might notice Audrey's big smile ... while she normally runs from the camera, when I told her that I was taking a picture of Sleeping Beauty, she smiled just like a princess.

Also is a random picture we took yesterday of a van who pulled off the road (in town) in front of us. Check out his rear left tire!