We left Gorgona (sigh, sigh, sigh) January 1st and went to Panama City for one night in a hotel on the canal and then to our condo on the canal in the Amador part of town. This was one of our last views (out our back door) of a local shrimp boat. "Cue the bird". It was just so unbelievably beautiful there. Keith and I will try to come back, it was a dream home with a dream view! It would be fun to share the house with another family...any takers?


Here we are (in our car) very sad to leave. We stayed up to the VERY last minute and even then the caretaker (a guy called Juan) was cleaning underneath us. We all thought that heaven would surely be like our Gorgona house!


Here we are biking down the causeway (2 km) to explore the four Islands of Naos, Culebra, Perico, and Flamenco. You can see the Bridge of the Americas behind us. It was very busy here (like Disneyland!) because everyone was on "Holiday" for the New Year. The Panamanians make a big deal out of the New Year and stretch out their celebrations for days and days!!



Here Keith is eating a hot dog from one of the street vendors. (This was actually my hot dog.) These tasted good! They were cut in a spiral on a stick, then grilled and basted with a sweet pepper salsa. We couldn't get the kids to eat one (too many bad memories of previous hot dogs), but Keith and I couldn't turn them down...that's what antibiotics are for! Medicate and move on.

This is the skyline of Panama City from our new condo on the canal. BEAUTIFUL!


The day after Cassandra left we went for a 2+ km hike in the Jungle park (600 acres) in the heart of Panama City. (Chris DeBeikes, we sure could have used your navigational skills to get to the park...Jeesh!!) It is nature reserve and many people come from all over to study the flora and fauna. I just wanted to see the sloths, monkeys and anteaters! Unfortunately, it was just too hot to see any big animals (shoot), but we did see some cool cutter ants!

On our hike we saw one of the most unusual trees! It had very sharp, triangular-shaped bumps, which faded away the further up you looked. Peter discovered it so we affectionately called it the "Prickly Pete" tree.

Ahhh, here we have on of my favorite insects: Cutter Ants! (Remember these in Cozumel, Mark and "E'stacy"? These were outside of our hotel room!) See if you can see in this picture where they are. They are underneath all of the dark green leaves. They cut leaves and carry them in a row to their nest. The jungle was full of these ants and you really had to watch where you stepped...they bite! Luckily they usually stay in rows, so you just need to keep and eye on the jungle floor.

This is one of the few, decent larger grocery stores we went in [Most were the Chino (Chinese) "Mini-Super"s]. Once you buy your food the bagger-boys take it to the car and load your groceries and you cannot handle the cart...of course then you need to pay them for the service! I've done most of the cooking here and we have not eaten out much. It just takes too long to get in and out of a restaurant here in Panama. The tradition here is to take your time eating and the waiter won't bring you the check until you ask for it. (That is actually not a bad thing, we just didn't want to spend a good part of our day eating. There's too much to do!)


Happy New Year everyone!
Kathy