MY NIECE TIFFANY'S VISIT PART 1

Beautiful Isla Mame

Time just flies by doesn’t it. Sorry folks for letting you wait another month for our usually more often updates. Sorry! I tell you house life is just too darn busy LOL.

Sid just loves his new hobby of crab hunting. His last time in the corner of his eye he saw something move just about one foot away from his feet which scared the living you know what out of him. He saw a bundle of fur crawling away from him towards a tree. It was a two toed sloth that was probably just as startled as it tried to poop. Years back one of Binnie’s rescue sloth “Molasses” was introduced back into the wild and she seems to still live in Binnie’s garden. Sloth blend in so well in the trees they are hard to spot.

Thunderstorms are getting more intense as hurricane season goes forward. The first few tropical storms have started and the tropical waves bring us heavy rain and fierce thunderstorms. The last tropical wave brought us some nasty squalls with high winds ripping our sunshade cover on the boat and also moved our stern mooring at least 30 feet. The rain was so heavy our little pond in the back of the house turned into a whirlpool with eddies and it was almost a foot above normal level. The sound of the rain on the tree canopy and roof of our house is amazingly noisy but a pleasant sound. Two days after this tropical wave I was in Panama City with Debi when another nasty squall hit Panama City. There was so much wind the rain came in sidewise and the skyscraper only a few hundred feet away from us completely disappeared, all we saw was a wall of rain. Luckily we just arrived at the entrance of the garage of a store.

It amazes me what strength Mother Nature has. Cruisers in the San Blas report that this year is a bit more active with these type storms.

1^st. of August Birthday of Switzerland, my niece Tiffany and boyfriend Marco arrived from Switzerland for a two week vacation. It was so good to see her coming out of the customs area. I haven’t seen her for 6 years when she was a rebellious teen. I almost didn’t recognize her. She is a beautiful young woman. Oh and her boyfriend Marco is so cute, we (all the girls here) adopted him right away. Since they arrived after ten at night and the road to Puerto Lindo is rather hazardous to drive at night we spent the night in Chilibre at a Water Park Resort where a cold bottle of champagne waited.

They thoroughly enjoyed the drive to Puerto Lindo as it gets more tropical the closer you get to the Portobelo area. Tiffany couldn’t keep the camera from rolling. 

Panama Canal in background

Portobelo

Coming through the Summer Place gate Marco remarked: “Wow it’s just like entering Jurassic Park”!

When Tiffany saw her apartment she said: “Wow kind of luxurious”! Yep, you bet it’s luxurious here. The two can’t get over how beautiful it is here. 

For me it was Merry Christmas, Happy Easter, Birthday and everything else as they emptied their suite cases with little cloths for themselves but loads of goodies for me. Chocolate, seasonings, sauces, chocolate and my favorite sausages, chocolate and smoked meats and did I mention Chocolate? Wow they should come visit more often LOL.

For dinner we BBQ the traditional Bratwurst for our 1^st. of August celebration on the 2^nd and enjoyed a wonderful dinner under the Avocado tree surrounded by Swiss flags and lampions with a spectacular view over the bay by sunset. 

Olli found a new love

It’s been busy ever since they arrived, no dull moment at all. 

Both could not wait to see the boat as they have never been on a sailboat before. They loved it and were impressed even though the boat is a construction site. They were willing to help with anything on the boat so Sid started Marco with cleaning the water line. Marco had so much fun we could barely get him out of the water. The waterline of Paradise is sparkling.

On Saturday Jim and Heather invited us to their property which has an incredible view over the islands outside of Puerto Lindo where by sunset flocks of Toucans fly in and settle down in the tree tops for the night, he main reason Jim and Heather invited Tiffany and Marco for pizza night. Jim built a clay pizza oven on top of a big rock next to a stream and under the jungle’s canopy. 

 

A beautiful setting bringing many memories from my childhood back when my parents used to take us hiking through the forest building a campfire where we then cooked sausages on a stick over the flames.  Everybody who was there had fun. We all enjoyed watching Jim making pizzas, Heather chopping and dicing the ingredients, Jim rolling the pizza dough and both decorating it with sausage, olives, onions, bell pepper, cheese and fresh basil. Then the moment came when Jim placed the first Pizza in the oven. You will not believe that the pizza was done in just 40 seconds, I would not either but we did time it. Each of the at least 10 or more pizzas he made took only 40 seconds. They were yummy. We all had a great time and the party broke at dark and oh boy does it get dark out here just good the cars have headlights.

After a hearty breakfast the following morning I drove Marco and Tiffany to Nombre de Dios where a beautiful long beach awaited us. From there the road got worse with pot holes and we almost decided to turn around when a cross road popped up, we followed it and it took us to a little Pueblo called Viento Frio, Cold Winds. What a charming village.

Nombre de Dios

Viento Frio

Later in the afternoon ping pong was on. Now I know why Marco was so excited to play ping pong, he kicked every bodies butt, man he’s good. Even Reed who is practically unbeatable was surprised. He had no chance, barely scored a point. We all had fun watching Marco except for those whose ping pong ego was crushed.

Tiffany and Marco fell in love with the Diablo Rojos the local painted busses. Sid and I had to go to Panama City very early to get our multi entry visa but it was too early to drop them off at the mall since nothing opens before 10 am. Since Debi was going into town as well she took them for a Diablo Rojo adventure. We drove all three to Portobelo where they almost missed the bus. About 10 minutes later a Diablo Rojo was riding my butt, he was so close it was intimidating. Although many locals flagged the coming bus down, he just kept going and never slowed down to pick up passengers even though the bus had empty seats. The driver was a maniac and after riding my bumper for a while he finally passed us at my speed of 80 kmph on a windy road . I looked at Sid and said: “my gosh what did we do to the kids”, realizing that I just had talked to Marco’s parents the prior day assuring them that we would not put the kids in any danger, yikes!!! When we reunited hours later all three were telling us it was the ride from hell. Not just that the express bus from Colon to Panama, they started smelling rubber inside the bus while on the freeway, then “bamm”  a tire exploded. The driver kept going. At the toll booth a passenger climbed out and looked at the damage and told the driver the tired was gone. That did not do anything the bus driver kept going and told everybody to sit on the opposite side, that’s smart! Somewhere on a major road in Panama City he let all the passenger off and Debi and kids took a cab to the mall. Hey, the kids wanted to drive the bus for an adventure and that’s what they got. I don’t think they want to climb on a Diablo Rojo any time soon.

The Albrook mall is the biggest mal I have ever seen it takes you several days to visit all the stores. Tiffany and Marco were in hog heaven, they were little kids in a candy store. Unfortunately time was ticking and it was time to return home. Marco was a bit disappointed as he had not found anything to buy yet, Tiffany was happy she had already presents for her siblings at home. I promised both to take them on a longer shopping trip to the Albrook mall.