Christmas in Boquete, Panama

The 4 of us packed in the car and headed out of Pedasi around 7:30 AM for our long trip up to the mountains. Not 5 minutes into the ride and BOTH dogs decided they needed a front row seat, MY LAP! So for the next several hours the 3 of us got cozy. Made a stop along the way for lunch, then through the town of David to hit PriceSmart..kind of like a BJ's. Totally missed the signs to Boquete so pretty much ended up very close to the Costa Rican border. Hmmmm, I see mountains to our right so why am I not driving up to them? I'll never make it as a tour guide. Any way, what's one more hour of driving.
We finally arrived at our destination, Momentum at around 3:00. Funky place and an equally funky owner. There were about 4 or 5 private cabins which we were in and then he had rooms in his house as well. I'm glad we chose the cabins. The B&B rooms opened out into his living room where you could find the dance floor and a disco ball. Ummmm, ok. Every morning around 8 or so booming out of his 26 Bose speakers came on....'Once I had a love and it was a gas. Soon turned out had a heart of glass....' Actually used to be one of my favorite songs. Then in the evenings we'd see the flashing disco lights and more 'good' music. Mind you, this is just his house. It's not advertised as a bar, disco, etc. So it was pretty interesting. Super nice guy and so far we've come to terms that anyone who moves here, well they've got to be a little off. The place had a great pool. Solar heated so not hot but very nice and refreshing.
We spent a lot of time exploring Boquete. Ton's of coffee farms and beautiful gardens. There's almost a constant mist but the sun is still out. We didn't see one but we heard they get great rainbows there. Rivers and streams everywhere...waterfalls too. Wayne heard there are actually trout in the rivers. Several weeks ago they got so much rain that roads were flooded. We tried to drive a loop but had to turn around as big boulders blocked our path from going over a bridge that looked to be pretty much washed out.
The dogs had a blast. They had full run of the place and they took total advantage of that. We'd open the front door and that would be last we'd see of them. Thankfully they were both smart enough not to jump off the edge of the property which was pretty much straight down.
Even though it was cool there at night it still felt strange not to be freezing and having a fire going in the fireplace on Christmas. We had the Christmas spirit going though with all the great classic movies. Rudolph, Christmas Story, etc.
We headed out the day after Christmas, and took our time. Stopping again at PriceSmart for a TV. YAHOOOOO! We got a TV. Now we can watch movies on a big screen. As for TV stations....we are not ready to even try to tackle how we get that service.
We are still trying to purchase our 'cow field' piece of land. Yet again another cluster &^%$. Money was wired and is sitting at the bank. Bank wants an ORIGINAL letter from the sending bank stating that they are wiring money for 'x' to 'y' for the purpose of 'z', blah, blah. If I could hand the bank in Panama an ORIGINAL letter then couldn't I have just handed them cash and not gone through the hassle of a wire. HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Lawyer is now going to see about setting up an acct so we can put the money in escrow. ESCROW, well there's a friggin concept. Again, HELLOOOOOOOOOO! We have some other options too and I'm sure we'll go through all of them before it's said and done.
We are having a couple friends down for New Years eve. Kristine and Mitch are coming with their 2 dogs. Melvin's dad and brother. So it's like a family get together!!!! We aren't sure what to expect for New Years Eve here because really, how much harder can they really party here.
Well, HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas!!! some pics of wind, big clam, burn worm

Merry Christmas everyone. We actually kind of miss all the hustle and bustle that goes along with the holidays. For all the b*tching and moaning I did when we were back home during this season, I guess looking back now I can say it wasn't that bad and we miss it......To a degree of course!!!!

I needed to clean out the camera for our upcoming holiday get away so there are some new pictures posted on the blog. Nothing mind blowing. Huge moth, green caterpillar that if it touches your skin will feel like a hot poker. Some shots of the beach now that it's windy season and boy is it windy season. Poor Melvin had his little eyes crusted shut after our walk. Some HUGE CLAMS....bought 3 of them and then had no idea what to do with them. Thought about a clam sauce until I saw the 'sauce' that came out of the clam. Scrapped that idea and just chunked up the pieces that looked a little less like something the devel threw up and cooked it for hours in tomato sauce. When in doubt cook the day lights out of it in sauce. It worked and we survived. Actually tasted pretty good too.

We are headed to the moutains for Christmas. We'll be packing jeans and fleeces!!! Guess it gets pretty cold where we are going. I hope the pups handle it ok. We might need to pick them up jackets too. We've got a little cabin, they allow dogs and they have a heated pool. Like I was saying.....We miss being back home for the holidays only to a degree!!! :))))

Wayne's had some pretty awesome fishing trips. Lots of tuna, mahi, sierra mackeral, wahoo. He hooked into a black marlin...actually 2 of them. Got one of them to the boat. Cool. Our boat is out of the water now resting up during windy season. Still there are lots of places to fish with other guys who have their boats out of the windy areas

Our first confirmed kill :(

Well, just when we thought things couldn't get any more exciting...(I'm being sarcastic)....we hear a screetch and then another. Then we hear a few words we recognize. Grande, serpiente, MAMA!!!!, en casa, ayuda!!!!! (help), WAYNE, WAYNE!!!! We go running out and there is a 6-8 foot snake on our neighbors porch. I think the poor kid next door who is just hitting that puperty stage may have set himself back a couple years. I never heard a GIRL screetch like HE did!!! I have to hand it to Wayne, he handled a shovel like John Wayne with two six guns. I pretty much tested the strength of the hood of our truck. I can confirm it can handle 160 pounds of flying flesh no problem! Toyota tough! After a few whacks in the cabeza (head), also a word we recognized as the mother next door kept screaming it, the bugger was pretty much dead. We scooped him up and put him in a bucket for the father next door to see. He doesn't think he was a bad one :( So we might have gotten one of the good guys but we were caught up in the moment and trying to calm our neighbors. I've attached a picture to our blog and on facebook. If anyone has a clue what it is, let us know. we are having a hard time finding out.