Nana and Pop Visit Day Three

 On Saturday, we decided to head to Boquete. It takes us about an hour and 15 minutes or so to get to Boquete on a windy, hilly road down the mountain and then part of the way back up. It has some great views on it though!

This waterfall is on the way down the hill. It sure is amazing the things you can see on the side of the road if you just keep looking.

This is one of our favorite stops on the way down the mountain. It is lovingly referred to as "Grandpa's bridge." Grandpa and Ben crossed it last February when they came to check out the area. Nana didn't want to step on it, but everyone else went across! It sways a little when you step! There was a big pile of rocks and sand in the middle. Did the river, at some point, deposit them way up there? If so, that would have been a lot of water going under the bridge!

The next stop we had was in the neighborhood of Valle Escondido in Boquete. This is a great little neighborhood with a ton of plants to see. It is set up kind of like a little European village and includes a restaurant, golf course, spa, chapel, hotel, houses and more.

Walking around the grounds at Mi Jardin es Su Jardin is always fun. There are tons of plants to see of all colors, shapes and sizes! Best thing about this place is that it's free to the public! It's a beautiful location.

Another great place the kids love to go is to the natural climbing wall. This is amazing! It's really big and just has to be seen in person. All the rock layers and the way it looks make it a site to see! We love going here and climbing up just a little.

The views here are just amazing! This waterfall is so tall and the greenery around it is magnificent! It is something you have to see to really appreciate! I love how a simple picture can turn into a work of God's art.

We turned around after seeing this sign... What was it trying to tell us?

The main reason to head back to Boquete was a need for some ice cream for snack!

And some shopping! The little alley has a lot of souvenirs from the area. This is always a fun place to go. Saturday was almost over at this point. Time to head back to Volcan after dinner!

Nana and Pop Visit: Day Two

Volcan Baru from the house on the hill with a view of the neighborhood.

We live in the first house and plan to flip it and the house next to it in the picture.

This is the house (or clubhouse or restaurant) on the hill with a covered pavilion next to it. We plan to open our library in here and eventually move into here when everything inside is moved around and fixed.

Walking up the hill to get a view of the volcano.

Worth it. On a clear day, the volcano looks amazing. I was being attacked by ants to take the picture!

This is a great little park in Volcan with seesaws, slides, and things to climb on.

Perhaps we need one more child to fill up all of the letters. We really enjoy living in Volcan. Nana and Pop with all the grandkids at the Volcan sign.

We took a quick self tour of the Jansen Coffee Farm after we went to the Friday Volcan market.

Here Nana is under a really cool tree tunnel.

Then we headed to the Sitio Barriles here in Volcan. This is an interesting sight but we don't know much about it other than what we've read online. We got to walk around and see the plants and some of the artifacts that have been uncovered. Hopefully we can return and get a guide to show us around and tell us about the place!

We crossed a lot of creeks with little bridges made out of bamboo. The plants were pretty amazing and when you get to the edge of their property and look into the next one, it's a place where cattle graze or farmland with very few plants.

Going down a little slope. Signs pointing which way to go would have helped too!

This is one of the famous statues that they have uncovered. Or a replica of it as the original was taken to a museum in Panama City. We paid $1 each to tour this place.

To end the day, we headed to our regular Friday evening Bible study with friends. It was nice to get to introduce Nana and Pop to the people we have met here!

We did a lot of stuff while Nana and Pop were in town visiting us and took a lot of pictures!

Our First Visitors: Day One

Well, my computer ate my first blog post about this day, so here is another!

My parents are the first people to come and visit us here in Panama, so they got to enjoy seeing everything as we try to figure out what is worth taking people to! We had a lot of fun, some adventure and plenty of duros. Well, we probably could have eaten more of those actually...

They made it and so did their luggage! Everyone was happy to see Nana and Pop! They flew United to Panama City and then flew Copa over to David and we picked them up. Everyone wanted to go, so we had to put their luggage on top of the car in trash bags (in case it rained). On the way home, we ran into a closed road due to a wreck, so we tried an alternate route. We were doing good until we hit some truly Panamanian rocky dirt roads and finally had to turn around when the connecting road was blocked by a locked gate. By the time we got back to the main road, traffic was moving! It was a great adventure to start the trip.

One of the first things we did was drive up to Cerro Punta. This is known as the "bread basket" of Panama as much of the country receives their produce from this region. The hills are covered with patchwork like crops of all different fruits and vegetables. It truly is a sight to see.

This was an amazing view as we traveled up the mountain. People out working the crops, animals, and plants. There is so much to see!

The side of this cliff was beautiful. Each crack and crevice was covered with plants of some sort. Down below was a raging river full during rainy season. White water rafting would be an adventure here.

This is a fun little park at a hotel called Casa Grande that's on the way to Volcan from Cerro Punta. It has a lot of plants around (a few coffee trees grow in and around this playground), slides, a trampoline and many other activities. You can ride a horse for $10, go tubing (with a helmet on), or dine in their restaurant.

Honestly, you wouldn't believe all the plants and flowers here. It's amazing.

We stopped to have lunch at a different hotel in Volcan called Dos Rios. It has a great view over the river with a lot of beautiful plants. Their pizza is supposed to be their best item on the menu, but I also love the lemonade! After this, we took the long, winding trail up toward the border to Costa Rica. This probably wasn't the best idea with a full stomach, but thankfully we aren't the car-sick type! Lots of beautiful plants to see on this day!

We finished the day with a fun game of Apples to Apples Big Picture edition that I got at the Todo a Dollar store. It is a great game for kids of all ages! We were happy to have Nana and Pop in! They stayed at the house next door to ours. They enjoyed having their own little casita for the week.

Some Fun Around Town

We recently took a field trip to a local friend's vivero (nursery) and farm. She has over 150 chickens, tons of plants and lots of land to walk around on. When she moved here about 5 years ago, she said there wasn't anything on the land. Now, it's covered with beautiful plants and she knows the name and story of each one it seems like! It was a lot of fun being with other homeschool families in the area and learning about what we can grow around here (anything!). We also go to take home some starter plants from some of hers - we are hoping to have some new plants spring forth soon!

I was able to go walking in our neighborhood after visiting her land and see that we have some wild orchids growing! So I pulled some off of a fallen branch and moved them to where I can see them better. We have a lot of different plants in the neighborhood like lemon trees, rainbow eucalyptus, eucalyptus, blackberries, orange trees, fruit we can't identify, pine trees, banana plants, cacti and tons of bamboo.

We also had fun at a birthday party at the only roller skating rink in all of Panama recently. It's located in Boquete and it was a fun time. I convinced two of the three kids I took to give skating a try and they were pretty good. Some good fun with friends! There are a lot of fun places in the area to have a birthday party. Hopefully we will get to check out some of them in the future - a trampoline place, swimming pool park, beach and other places.

Today, we're awaiting the arrival of our first visitors. Nana and Pop are on their way to visit! We will have 9 days of fun with them - we have made a plan of some stuff to do! Should be a fun time and I hope the enjoy seeing the sites!

We have also had some other not-so-human visitors recently. This amazingly huge Tarantula that lives up the hill. We have also had a lot of hummingbirds! They love the hummingbird feeder I brought. We refill it about every 5 days! So pretty - an orange tail and green body.

Ben got his motorcycle back after the last post and I've been doing some driving since then! It's not so bad...even though I've only driven in David once! Driving in Volcan isn't bad though! And...we finally have fully functioning internet in our house! Big news!

Five Weeks In Panama

Today is the beginning of our sixth week in Panama! We are still battling it out to get internet at our house, so we are once again using Wifi at McDonald's. Ben is picking up his motorcycle from customs while the kids and I wait for him here. This will be my first time to really drive in Panama other than a few miles around the city. I'll be driving us back up the mountain from David to Volcan while Ben drives his motorcycle. Hopefully it will be uneventful. I'm not worried about my driving, it the other crazies out on the road I have to keep an eye out for!
Here are some things that have happened recently:

- Our container arrived! We were so excited to get our stuff delivered from Texas. It came in the 40 foot container we shipped it in and was parked out on the road and then loaded into a smaller truck and driven up to the house. The guys worked all day on it. We are still unpacking it and that has been a lot of fun. Some of the boxes were packed a year ago! We have a room full of medical donations from Mission Regan to distribute, tons of boxes to set up our lending library, and a lot of personal stuff to figure out where it will go. The kids loved getting their toys and bicycles (new ones from Nana and Pop)!

- The kittens both got names! The white one is named Nacho and the orange one is named Queso. Most of the time, they are called the white one and the orange one still! We took them to the vet where they are now on three medications. One for their tummies and two for a fungal infection they seem to have that is making patches of their hair fall out. The vet we took them to speaks English and was very nice.

- We learn lessons even in the dark! We've had the power go out a few times and we've definitely learned from our mistakes there. The first time was right after our container arrived and it was out for 4 hours starting around dinner. We pulled out a DVD and let the kids watch it on a laptop that thankfully had some power. We hadn't charged our camp light or found candles at the time. It was dark! Now we have the light charged, candles found and a plan to institute a preparedness day (although I haven't done it yet). We need to have the battery back ups charged, water buckets filled, etc. When the power goes out, so does the water...and you don't know when it will come back on!

- My Mother's Day gift yesterday was a dryer plug! Ben installed it and now we have a working dryer! This is great help in the rainy season. I was having to put out one load of laundry to dry and leaving it out all day and night and then hoping the sun would hit it the next morning so I could bring it in. I did two loads of laundry last night! It was wonderful!

- Ben and I got our drivers licenses! This is what we did after we arrived, but it was such a process. After we got our permanent visa, we had to get a drivers license. To do this, you have to get your USA one certified by the embassy in Panama City. Then you have to pay $2 to two different locations in Panama City to get that paperwork certified. Then you have to get your blood type taken at a lab. Then you go to the drivers license place, turn in all the paperwork, take a hearing and vision test, pay some fees and then they give you a drivers license!

- Ben installed some upper kitchen cabinets! This isn't always common in a Panamanian kitchen and ours didn't have any, so he bought some at a garage sale site and installed them. It's nice to have a place to store some of our kitchen items like food, plates, glasses, etc.! I'm definitely glad to have a handy husband!

- We are happy to be getting to know friends better in the area! It's amazing how God has brought together these different families with so many similarities. We attend Bible study at two different friends' homes during the week. We have had friends come help sort books and take some to use at home with their families. I'm so glad we were able to bring books that were needed in the area. We brought a ton and still have a lot of work to do! We are thankful to everyone who donated, sorts or helps in any way with the lending library!!