Adios Panama

We are just about to board our flight to Miami. Thanks for checking in on us!!


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Public transportation

There must be thousands of these old school buses that are privately owned and all painted and decorated up that Panamanians travel around in. They are so colorful and really kind of neat to see. The word is that the government gave warning that they will be abolished in 3 years and replaced with a mass transit system. Kind of a shame...but I am guessing it will be good for the environment and less polluting.






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What is this rat/guinea pig/rabbit thing??

We saw a few of these creepy looking animals roaming around--yuck!! They said they are Tapirs.






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Lunch at the resort

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Gamboa Resort

And if you come down, take a couple days and stay at the Gamboa resort hotel-- just beautiful







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Orchid Farm

We stopped by the Gamboa orchid farm




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Out exploring

Yesterday we rented a car and drove up to Colon to check out the free zone. We didn't come home with any big bargains though. It is amazing just how big it is. After that we drove down to Gamboa Rainforest (if you don't love rain forests, this place might not be for you :). It was a gorgeous place a half hour drive from Panama City.




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YES!! We found ice cream...helado as it is called here

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Typical street in Casco Viejo

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The church of the golden altar

Legend has it that the English pirate Henry Morgan came in to the city to plunder and loot the original settlement. A resourceful priest had this huge alter painted in black tar to conceal it's value.




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Stopping in for a Cold drink on another scorching day.

Here is a typical cafe with the open kitchen.




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Casco Viejo

Casco Viejo is the old town if Panama City. It has been declared a World Heritage site and has been involved in a booming restoration back to it's colonial glory. There are lots of shops and restaurants and lovely city squares. It is still a work in progress, but was a great afternoon spot.




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A quiet day in the city

Today we didn't have much planned so we took our time getting out of the hotel to tour around. Our first stop was the Metropolitan Park..the only rainforest within a metropolitan city. It is a large area with several different hiking trails that lead you to lookouts over the city


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Octopus three ways at La Posta

Cruising on the Amador Causeway

This one mile causeway was created by using rock excavated from the Panama Canal. We rented the 4 seater bicycle to check it out for an hour. Did I mention it was 100 degrees out...and only 2 of us really pedaled. Yeah, we had that returned within 20 minutes. But we got lots of good laughs out of it :))




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This one was called the Olivia!

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Passing through the lock

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Maintenance tunnels at the canal

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Guiding the boat in at the canal

An interactive visitors center at Miraflores



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sailboats passing through the canal

When we first got here there were 2 smaller sailboats passing through. They said the minimum charge for the smaller boat would be $500.00 and the big shipping and tankers pay $250,000.




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Miraflores locks at the Panama Canal

We stopped by the locks to view the boats coming through the canal. It is just amazing to watch how the process of raising and lowering these huge ships works to make it through the canal. The canal was completed in 1914 and 14,000 ships pass through here per year. They say it takes about 8 hours to pass completely through the canal.


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Panama City

We flew into Panama City yesterday from Costa Rica. We have 3 days here and decided to spend them all here in the city. It is about 100 degrees here!! Today we are checking out the city and the canal.

This is why they call Panama City the Dubai of the Americas...



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A great surfing day

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Banana Plant

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Los Suenos

This morning we took a drive around Jaco to a large fishing marina called Los Suenos. Hundreds of state of the art fishing boats docked her and immaculate grounds




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Typical Costa Rican Meal

Think you will go hungry here??

Off to try the surf after our minute lesson on land

I hope the weather holds up today and I can get some better photos of the kids actually surfing. The rain pounded down so hard I wasn't able to get any good ones.



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Surf School

We got to Jaco on Saturday around 1pm. This is a big surfing town on the Pacific Ocean. It's a busy little town that has lots of hotels and restaurants beachside. Our hotel has a big surf school and the kids were willing to take lessons...well Collin was definitely in and Doug kept calling them Soul Surfers, which kind of made Olivia skeptical, wonder why?!
So they had Spicoli...I mean Derek...as their instructor. Of course it started to pour, this time of year is the rainy season and it rains just about every afternoon for a couple of hours, but the kids LOVED it. Olivia got up on the board and surfed in her 1st try--can you imagine how long Doug or I would be out there before we got up?? Wouldn't happen! Collin was up shortly after that too. The lightning started an hour into the 2 hour lesson so the are doing 3 hours today on Sunday. The have been asking about it since they woke up. Doug doesn't know if it is such a good idea to have them love this, especially when you look around at all the 20 year old "surf bums" wondering around here!! Does make you think!



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Funny looking local statues never get old

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Making a few stops along the way

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Time to leave the northern part of Costa Rica and the beautiful landscape of the Arenal Volcano. We got up early and took the long drive around Lake Arenal which is a beautiful man made lake that provides 70% of the countries electricity-- they really have it figured out here. The people have all been so friendly and are hard working. They are ecofriendly and take pride in their country. Not surprising that so many expats come to retire here. The climate is wonderful, it has been around 85 and down to 75 degrees in the evenings.
Did I mention that when we got to our hotel we heard strange bird noises and saw 2 toucans up in the trees? No camera in hand! We could have gotten up at 5:30 am and done a rainforest bird walk but that was shot down, by all of us. I am sure I could have gotten some great photos then but glad I at least got a glimpse of them.
Back to the 4 hour drive to the beach... It was enjoyable and as we were driving a blue macaw flew across the road in front of us!! We turned around to try and find him but he was gone. But we did see this amazing tree. It is the Gumbo Limbo tree or as the Costa Ricans call it Indio Desnudo (naked Indian). The bark is used for gum disease. The bark is paper thin and red and peels back to that green color- so cool.




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Location:Saturday morning drive to JACO

A perfect end to the day

Sipping fruity umbrella drinks at the pool.



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Location:Olivia's turn

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Location:Collin flying through the rainforest

That afternoon we all took a zip line tour. It was great and the kids especially loved it. They had a Tarzan swing halfway through which is exactly what a shorter bungee jump would be. Collin and Olivia LOVED it, Doug refused to do it, and I am still mad that I did. I never need to have that feeling of dropping to my death again.




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Location:Canopy Tour

The early morning hike was great! Only minimal whining...by Doug, of course :)


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Location:At the base of the Huge Ceibo tree

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Location:Trying to swing like Tarzan

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Location:Olivia enjoying the hike with her walking stick

Thursday morning we took a volcano hike in Arenal National Forest. It was about a 2 hour hike up to the lava path through the rainforest. There were all kinds of tropical plants and flowers. Arenal volcano is one of the top 10 most active volcanoes in the world, regularly erupting lava. Of course when we were there Arenal hadn't erupted in the last two months. Just our luck! But the park and views were still spectacular.




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Location:Volcano hike

The Lost iguana

Our hotel had a great pool area and we enjoyed it the first day




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First night in Costa Rica

We made it to Costa Rica on Thursday after spending Wednesday night in Fort Lauderdale. Got to eat dinner with our Jamaican neighbor Carmen that evening and had a great visit. We left for San Jose, Costa Rica early Thursday morning and even had a movie star on our flight..Liev Schreiber! We rented a car in San Jose and then drove about 3 hours up to Arenal volcano where we are staying the next 2 evening. We are staying at a great hotel and this was the volcano view when we got there. Breathtaking.


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