Arriving in Monteverde

We arrived in San Jose New Years eve day and were met by Susannah´s father-in-law Ben, his girlfriend Branata and her daughter Maria Paula. They were so sweet and let us stay at their very nice house outside of San Jose. The kids swam in their pool and played then we all went to a party at their friends house and saw some fireworks. The kids were good sports about staying out so late but were super tired.
The next morning we swam more and packed up then took a Interbus shuttle to Monteverde. The drive takes almost 4 hours mostly because the last 38 km are on a steep very bumpy road that takes forever. I was glad we werent in a big bus. Kids took turn sleeping and playing name that animal guessing games. We had another couple in the bus with us from NY and when we stopped the van to look at howler monkeys our kids couldnt belive they had never seen monos in the wild before! It started blowing really hard as we reached the top of the mountain and was raining by the time we arrived in the pitch dark at 7. The family we are renting from picked us up in their van and explained in spanish that there was a small problem with the lights. Well what that meant was that their was NO electricity in the house yet (they had just bought it recently). Fortunately we had packed sandwiches and had 2 headlamps. The kids felt like we were camping and were great about it. The next day the family showed up to try to get it to work but to no avail. Three days later we finally got power only to loose it 2 hours later when the wind blew the power lines over. The house is huge and very sparesely furnished but the kids love it (especially for running around on rainy days which our first 4 were). There has been a huge storm throughout all of Central America that is finally over. It is also pink and very close to the school.

The school (Cloud Forest School or Centro de Educacion Creativo) is 100 meters up the hill and a beautiful CRMS like place. It looks out over the Gulf of Nicoya and has great cloud forest trails and fabulous playgrounds. The first 5 days we just got settled, hoped for power and warm water. So far we have visited the Childrens Eternal Rainforest (which most school kids have contributed to at some point), the Cheese factory (delicous ice cream and carmel too!) and the butterfly garden (with an insect house where we petted tarantulas). There are tons of tourists in MV which is a bit hard to get used to and it makes it a little harder to practice spanish because all the service people speak english. It is a very beautiful place though and the kids are loving it.

We finally have power but not hot water yet. We boil water on the stove for kid baths but dave and i are doing cold showers. Which would be fine if it hadnt been chilly. After 7 weeks on the road we have gotten very flexible though. I will write more about the school and our volunteer work next time I can. This brings us basically up to date.

Isla Taboga

PHOTOS

1. Isla Taboga from the ferry

2. walking the ¨streets¨ of the island

3. Boys on the island beach with Panama City in the backgroun

4. Looking out at the Isla T bay from a town park.

We chose to spend a day or two at Isla Taboga because we wanted a little Pacific Beach time, it is close the city and we really didnt want to spend much time in the city proper. IN fact, we never made it into the city itself which was fine with all of us. The island was alot cooler than the city though still warm. It is a really quaint place with no roads, just wide sidewalks that the islands 4 taxi trucks barely squeeze down. We stayed at a B&B Cerro Tropical way up on a hillside above town which had nice evening breezes. We paid for a room but got moved into an apartment for the same price. Unfortunately our stove and hot water didnt work but we ended up cooking in the main kitchen one night. We were only supposed to be there for one night be lucked out and someone cancelled for the 2nd night. We were all tired of moving around and werent relishing going back into the heat. We had planned on taking the Panama Canal Train from PC to Colon then touring Portobello but had just learned upon arrival that it didnt run on weekends so that option was out. Staying on the island was a great second choice and allowed us to spend ALL of Saturday on the beach. It is a beautiful beach that looks across at the skyline of PC. Tons of fish close to shore - even saw a sting ray, then took awhile convincing kids it wasnt a sting ray to get them back in the water! (but it was!) We took the Sunday morning ferry back to the city so we could see the canal locks. Ended up going to a really great marine exhibit just next to the ferry dock on the Amador causeway that sticks out into the Pacific and is made from fill from the canal. Then had lunch out there too. The causeway has a great wide bike path along it and next to our restaraunt they rented these multiperson canopied bikes. We decided it would be a great way to get to our hotel so we rented one and piled on our our luggage (tied on the back and roof!) We got lots of funny looks and smiles on the 2 mile ride to the hotel. But man was it HOT and MUGGY! The kids and I checked into our very american style hotel at the end of the causeway and jumped immediately into their huge pool overlooking the canal but poor dave had to bike the rig back to the rental place and then walk to the hotel. We was very wet when he got back an hour later!! Then we went out to the locks, saw 3 ships go through and headed back. The hotel actually had a TGI Fridays next to it so we got take out and ate by the pool letting the kids swim until almost 8! Next morning we flew to San Jose via David. Phew!!

Gamboa Rain Forest

We flew to PC the day after Christmas and arrived at a very basic B&B called La Estancia on a hill outside of the city in what used to be officer housing for canal workers from the US. It is very interesting looking at the Canal Zone which used to be a little america and has now all gone over to Panama. We said goodbye to grandpa after dinner and the kids were devastated. We crammed together in a little room for the night and early the next morning were picked up by the bus of Ancon Adventures for our splurge - a jungle boat cruise of Lake Gatun. Lake Gatun is a natural lake that the canal goes throug and is amazing because you can see massive canal boats up close plus incredible wildlife. We were in a small boat with 10 other people. We saw 2 and 3 toed sloths, howler and white faced monkeys (climbing around right above our boat), 2 crocodiles, iguanas, perigrine falcons, kites, toucans, parrots and tons more birds that I cant remember. Then we´d cross the wake off a Panamax boat and be in almost white water! The kids loved it. Then we got dropped off at a hostel in Gamboa (town by the lake) which houses Smithsonian researches. There are two super fancy hotels there but the kids loved our super basic rustic room with no hot water. They had a blast running around with the caretakers 1 year old, Jesus. They cooked us dinner (for $10 for all of us) since there arent any restaraunts we could afford (only ones are at the resort). We saw Agoutis (very large hamster like animals) and coati mundi outside the dining room and a herd of Capybaras (pig sized rodents) in a field nearby. The next morning we went for a 2 mile hike along the pipeline road, which is one of the most famous birding spots in Panama. We saw a javelina and morpho butterflies but not much else (lots of birds the kids didnt give us time to identify). It was hot and muggy and the kids fell apart so I took them to the zoo and dave went back to the hostel to regroup. The Summit Zoo in Gamboa is very basic - it has more playgrounds than animals practically which was perfect for our age group. It off and on poured rain on us but our kids are so used to rain at this point that they hardly noticed. The high point of the zoo hands down is the harpy eagle - which is the national bird of panama but is extremeley rare. It is as big as Cassidy and has a 7 foot wing span! The other animal that made an impact was the jaguar who walked back and forth in front of the kids growling and licking his lips. With the state of that zoo i was slightly nervous that he would be able to get out and eat them as he clearly wanted to! Another odd thing was the coati mundis that would ¨paint¨with their noses. They seemed mostly interested in putting the paint on their tails and licking it but the paper did get covered in some way! I have a video of it if you are interested!
Then our Gamboa taxista picked us up and took us to the ferry dock in PC where we caught a ferry to Isla Taboga 12 miles out from the city in the Pacific.

Feliz Navidad

We are now in Monteverde but writing backwards since we havent written since before Christmas. Pictures will probably come later as internet here is much slower than Panama. Email me if you want to see our whole albums on snapfish. My email is meyerfamilytravels@hotmail.com.

We had a fabulous time in Bocas despite the fact that it rained HARD for 2 days and lightly for another two. Every day except Christmas when it was pouring insanely hard, we managed to go to the beach. Toby and Dave spent 6 hours at the beach one day when it was drizzling off and on. The water was so warm it was great even in the rain. On the way to the beach that day, Toby spotted a white faced monkey (fairly rare) and a sloth both really close. He was very psyched!. Some highlights for us were how incredibly into the water toby is and how comfortable cassidy even got. We would go out beyond the breakers and bob around with the boogie board and toby would swim around us in circles. Grandpa Bill had his best day of surfing ever on an offshore break near Isla Contadora with a neighbor of the lodge. I saw an anteater right in front of me while jogging in the rain one morning. He stopped to slurp on ants so close that i could hear him! We never really got snorkeling but thats ok. The kids were very psyched on Xmas even though we had very few presents. It was really cool to have a super low key, completely different christmas and have everyone very happy about it. We´d definitely recommend the lodge to anyone looking for a beautiful low key island escape! Our last day there was beautiful and we spent 5 hours at the beach before heading into town with Grandpa for the flight to Panama City.

Island Life

Hi all - Toby Cassidy and their new friend Alex (daughter of the owners of our lodge) are watching Alladin so I can try writing more.

We are staying at the Lodge at Swans Cay which is at the far end of Isla Colon, at the opposite end from Bocas town. In the first 10 minutes we arrived in Bocas we saw more gringos than we had in a month in Boquete. Mostly young surfer types but lots of others too. It is about a 45 minute rough road taxi road out to here which is a point of land on a gate locked road with about 10 gringo houses and this one lodge on it. Ironically, this place is run by a very nice family from Durango Colorado! Their daughter Alex is 7 and she and Cassidy are fast friends. There is a very nice small private beach below the house which is shaded by coconut trees. About a mile walk away is an absolutely gorgeous beach with no houses in sight. The waves are very mellow, sandy bottom and the best - there is a fresh water pool 20 feet above high water mark! We went there today with Toby's new boogie board and the kids dug a channel from the pool to the ocean that became a rushing river that we could ride down with the board! Then we headed out to the main road (which is basically sand) and did some snorkeling and then had dinner at the outdoor seafood restaurant where Toby lost his 4th tooth (see photo)!

We are having a blast with grandpa Bill and enjoying the relaxing island life. Dave and I hope to go snorkeling without kids tomorrow and Bill is going surfing Saturday. No big Christmas plans - boogie boarding and swimming??!

Hope you are all taking some powder runs for us

Love

The Meyers

Lodge at Swans Cay Bocas del Toro

update from Toby: Hello! I am Toby, I think you have met me before. I am having a great time in Panama, have you ever heard of Panama? This is where we are staying in the picture of the house above ok?! I hope you like it. Ive been having tons of fun in the ocean and have gotten a new builder truck with a trailer. Bye see you later!"

More from me later!

Lost and Found

We left Boquete on Sunday morning and headed to Bocas del Toro by way of the Lost and Found EcoHostel we heard about through a random post on the lonely planet travel blog. The owner is a great young Canadian named Andrew who picked us up in Boquete then drove us to Bocas the next day for less than a taxi ride would have cost us. Since the road in between is the most dangerous road in Panama, we were psyched to be in his care and not in an overcrowded bus with a maniac driver (the odd thing about panama is they are super laid and usually late, everywhere but behind the wheel of a car!). The Lost and Found is in La Fortuna national park, a seldom visited cloud forest park. We had to hike uphill through dense beautiful forest for about 15 minutes to reach it but it was well worth the walk. We saw lots of unidentified birds and transparent butterflies. The lodge is open air except for the rooms and had a great low key vibe. They have a pet kinkajoo that was rescued and a wild animal something like a coati mundi that visits at night and eats bananas from your hand (see photo). We hike out to see a gynormous (toby word) tree and then played risk under the metal roof to the sound a pouring rain! We met some super nice people and were treated very well (delicious dinner) by Andrew and his Panamanian wife Stephanie. The next day we headed to Bocas, up and over the continental drive and down towards the Pacific. The road is wild (and driven very wildly by most) and we could see the remains of many big accidents (usually big rigs rolling over in single vehicle accidents). It is the only way to access Bocas by road except from Costa Rica. The landscape on the other side of the divide is very different, as is the culture. The caribe influence is stronger and you begin to see africans. Im not sure what the indigenous tribe is on the drive, I think Comarca, but there are lots of very rough shacks along the road with naked children running about.

We got to Almirante, a very hot and depressing port town, around 1 and took a half hour water taxi over to Bocas Town. Within the 10 minutes waiting for our ride we saw more gringos (tending towards young and surfer/backpacker look) than in a whole month in Boquete. More on Bocas and our house in the next post!!