PHOTOS: Cassidy and our neighbor John at their property above Boquete picking oranges. The kids in their loft bedroom. A view of Volcan Baru (volcano) from John and Annes property.
We just finished week 3 of our stay in Boquete and language school. Things are going well here. It is really a very relaxing place to live. There arent a ton of activities for small kids except the public gardens and one very basic playground but fortunately there is nice space around our house to play outside a little. Dry season started last weekend but the weather hasnt heard the news yet. Still pours rain at night and some in the afternoons but mornings are usually nice. We are invited to a BBQ at friends of friends Sunday - American & Panamanian (Rick W's friend Kirt).
Our typical weekday is like this - awaken around 7 (roosters wake up at 5 but we all go back to sleep thankfully!). A quick breakfast and some cajoling to get the kids dressed and out the door and a call to our friendly taxista for a 5 minute ride downhill into town (too early for the half hour to hour walk depending on the size of the walker!). Class is from 8 to 12 with one 20 minute break during which we buy one of the only 3 donuts in Boquete for the kids to split! After class we usually have lunch at the little cafeteria close to the school where all our teachers eat. Lunch and drinks for all 4 of us - big, hot and delicious - is around $6 or $7 and is our big splurge for the day! If it is raining we usually take a taxi up to home and entertain ourselves there. If it is sunny we stay in town, go to the park or garden, do food shopping (usually every day) as it usually is in a foreign country we can occupy a good hour or more taking care of basic shopping tasks going one place for bread, one place for fruit and another for everything else. Ice cream cones are 30 cents and are a nice post shopping treat! Walking home with the kids takes an hour but there is lots to see on the way, beautiful gardens, colorful houses, dogs (!!) behind gates :), horses in back yards etc. In the afternoon the kids entertain themselves at home while we do homework and then we cook a basic dinner at home. Night falls dramatically at 6:15 every night so it is pretty easy to get the kids to sleep by 8!!
Two other cabanas out of the 4 by us are occupied by retired americans. Our kids are sort of their surrogate grandkids and they are very nice to us.
Next weekend we leave Boquete and head over Bocas on Sunday/ Monday where we stay until Dec. 26th and then head to Panama City to see the canal and rainforest.
Our typical weekday is like this - awaken around 7 (roosters wake up at 5 but we all go back to sleep thankfully!). A quick breakfast and some cajoling to get the kids dressed and out the door and a call to our friendly taxista for a 5 minute ride downhill into town (too early for the half hour to hour walk depending on the size of the walker!). Class is from 8 to 12 with one 20 minute break during which we buy one of the only 3 donuts in Boquete for the kids to split! After class we usually have lunch at the little cafeteria close to the school where all our teachers eat. Lunch and drinks for all 4 of us - big, hot and delicious - is around $6 or $7 and is our big splurge for the day! If it is raining we usually take a taxi up to home and entertain ourselves there. If it is sunny we stay in town, go to the park or garden, do food shopping (usually every day) as it usually is in a foreign country we can occupy a good hour or more taking care of basic shopping tasks going one place for bread, one place for fruit and another for everything else. Ice cream cones are 30 cents and are a nice post shopping treat! Walking home with the kids takes an hour but there is lots to see on the way, beautiful gardens, colorful houses, dogs (!!) behind gates :), horses in back yards etc. In the afternoon the kids entertain themselves at home while we do homework and then we cook a basic dinner at home. Night falls dramatically at 6:15 every night so it is pretty easy to get the kids to sleep by 8!!
Two other cabanas out of the 4 by us are occupied by retired americans. Our kids are sort of their surrogate grandkids and they are very nice to us.
Next weekend we leave Boquete and head over Bocas on Sunday/ Monday where we stay until Dec. 26th and then head to Panama City to see the canal and rainforest.
1 comment:
Hey Meyers-
We love reading about and seeing the pictures of your walkabout. Jesse asks about Toby at random times (?).
We finally got snow, and tons of it after one of the warmest and driest falls I can remember.
The AVLT girls are frantically trying to finish up all the easements as usual, including the 3rd phase of ours :).
I hope you got to climb the volcano, Shannon. (even though it is unseemly for a woman to be doing such things!).
We miss you all.
Lathrop
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