Day Seventeen

What a wonderful place.  I love Bocas del Toro, and I know I'm not alone.  It was a great place for a weekend, and I'm seriously considering a much longer time in December/January, if I can afford it.  Then again, I might want to spend the time in Costa Rica, and avoid the crazy bus ride/border bridge.  We'll see.

Now it's back to work tomorrow with a half-day teaching schedule and  the first of two afternoons of parent/teacher conversations.  It will be a long day, but I believe Monica and I are doing supper tomorrow night in order to prep for my presentation Thursday morning.

I'm presenting to the parents Thursday morning.  I might upload it here when it's ready.  We'll see.

So, none of this is very interesting or informative.   I need a bit of sleep before I can attempt those things.  'Night.

Day Sixteen

I might have to start dating these posts, rather than numbering; I keep forgetting what day I'm on.

Jessica and I had another lovely breakfast - as much bacon as we could eat!  Then we went into Bocas Town to catch our tour.  We ended up being two of about 13 people, some of which were Swedish, and others we're pretty sure were German.  Decent group; we didn't mingle much.  I snorkeled amid hundred of jelly fish; I wasn't stung, but that's probably because I was super paranoid about it.  I did see some amazing fish; I'll put pictures up when I can find them. I've decided I'm not doing this again until I have two things:  a wetsuit and a waterproof camera.  I've never seen such amazing creatures.  After snorkeling, it was off to Red Frog Beach for us, where our guide caught us a red frog.  I felt so sorry for the poor little thing - pulled from a nice leaf somewhere, and set down in the middle of a crowd of cameras.  I didn't feel so sorry that I didn't take pictures, but I hope he found his way back somewhere shady.  I now have a sunburnt back, but it's nothing compared to the sunburn I received last October in Nicaragua.

Back home tomorrow.  I'm wiped right out; hopefully the trip back is fairly straight forward.  I think there will be some definite sleep to be had!

Pictures to follow when I'm not falling asleep at my keyboard!

Day Fourteen

I'm here!  Jessica and I made it to Bocas del Toro this afternoon, right to our hotel by 3:30 Costa Rican time.  We made it across the border with no problems, other than a few snotty New Zealanders who were too good to talk to us.  We took the bus from San Jose to Sixaola at 6 this morning, walked across the border at noon, and officially entered Panama about 1 o'clock in the afternoon.  An insistent minivan driver took us to Almirante, and from there the water taxi took us to Bocas Town.  It's such a quaint little resort town; I fell in love with it at first sight.  Another taxi driver brought us to our hotel, after a bit of a tour, and then the lady at the front desk...couldn't find our reservation.  After a mild heart palpitations,  I found the reservation confirmation email in my inbox, showed it to her, and we were on the way.  We have a lovely room, nice and clean, and two beautiful beds complete with pillowtop covers and all.  We freshened up, explored a bit, and then went and treated ourselves to a pretty good meal at the restaurant over the water.

Now we're just chillin'.  We might be kindred spirits...we're both on our laptops, PC and Mac, waiting until it's a civilized hour to go to bed, and enjoying the lightning and thunder show.  Tomorrow is a trip to Bocas Town, hopefully some sun and a few more cocktails...  it's a wonderful life!

Day Twelve

Me voy a Panama a sabado!  I'm very excited.  Jessica and I are booked into an actual resort...no Nicaraguan craziness this holiday!  I'm sure there will be excitement and adventure, as our travel plans stop at the border with the bus we have tickets for.  After crossing the bridge on foot, we hope to catch one of the rumoured busses to Changuinola, then a water taxi to Bocas del Toro.  Cross your fingers this will all be as easy as everyone makes it sound.  We might even be able to get the taxi right to our hotel.  We'll see.  I've been excited all day, ok, since we booked the hotel yesterday.  Sleep was somewhat elusive.  Tonight may be tougher.

You see, Cassie left this afternoon for her spa weekend with the Zuniga-Owens family.  They have two kids, three cats and a dog.  It's a built-in exercise program for Cassie!  I miss her; I keep expecting her to come around the corner, stalking me.  She's in wonderful hands; this is the same family who cat-sat for me when I was home this summer.  Sometimes I think, no, I know I bore her.  Such is life!

Speaking of summer, it's winter here.  The rainy season and the inherent hurricane weather is very much upon us, though the promise is that it will clear up by tomorrow.  It's amazing to me that a country located in this part of the world, with the reputation that Costa Rica has, doesn't have the infrastructure to maintain it's roadways and such when it rains like this.  I mean, it does this EVERY YEAR...  I recognize that the country's GDP is lower than the province of Saskatchewan's, but still.  If I can predict some of these things already, maybe it's time to really examine the corruption and shoddy work going on.  I'm not a construction worker, but even I know cement isn't supposed to virtually dissolve.  Just sayin'.

All right, time to pack and do a final load of laundry.  I'll just pray that tomorrow is dryer, and that the clothes will dry...pray!

Oh, here's the link to the resort...eeeee!  www.hotelplayatortuga.com