Friday evening, we were invited to Luis Laguerre's house for dinner and drinks. He is the Partner at the KPMG Panama office and has a gorgeous home in an area just outside the city called Costa Del Este. Genevieve wore her new Kuna-made dress to the occasion so that those who got her the dress could see how much she loved it! And, she also wanted to show off how much her purple and pink dress matched her eye...
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| You may know this face as the "I am super excited about this song" face :) |
Seeing how we were out pretty late on Friday night, we took turns watching Genevieve so that the other could "sleep in" a little bit. We had a huge list of errands to do on Saturday to prepare for our departure on the 16th. One of the places we stopped (for the 4th time for me) was the artisan market in Panama Viejo. We decided we really wanted to get an Embera woven mask for our house. We found one we liked...in the shape of a toucan... but saw the price was $35. James decided to try to talk the guy down in price. Here is how it went: James: "How about $30 for the mask instead of $35?" Merchant: "How about $25?" James: "Deal!" Well, that definitely worked out in our favor, haha. We spent the remainder of our Saturday packing up suitcases with as much as we could to get ready for our trip home on Thursday.
Sunday morning we set out on our last beach adventure in Panama, and what better beach to go to than on one of the San Blas Islands. We picked up James' co-worker Eligio and his wife, Eliana from their apartment in Panama City and then picked up Javier and his wife Irma from their home in Brisas Del Golf. Our SUV was loaded down with people, coolers, and beach stuff! James, Genevieve, and I were the only ones of the group who had driven to San Blas before...which was kind of funny since we have only been in Panama for 3 months. :) As Javier said, "James, you are my tour guide in my country!" Haha.
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| This is the part of the road to Carti where you have to pay the Kunas to continue on their land. |
From Carti, we took a boat very similar to the one we took to the Embera village. The last time we were at San Blas, the boat ride to Isla Iguana was a wet one...the water was rough in the morning and we were sprayed with a lot of ocean water. THIS TIME, it was infinitely worse! We were all drenched and could actually wring out our clothes! We had paid to go to Isla Bonita, but when we got to it, it was a third of the size of Isla Iguana, had 2 small houses on it, and 2 pathetic excuses for trees on it (aka. ZERO shade). We all took one look at it and said, please take us somewhere else! Due to the fact that we were getting soaked on the boat ride, we decided to just stay at Isla Aguja (Needle Island), where they were dropping off a few other people. This island was tiny bit bigger than Isla Iguana but it had A LOT more people on it. There were quite a few Kuna on the island in addition to a restaurant, bathrooms, a dock, a hut where you paid to stay on the island for the day, and even a shop set up where you could buy Molas and jewelry. It was very different from Isla Iguana, but we enjoyed seeing a different island.
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| Carti |
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| Genevieve and Eliana |
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| Isla Aguja |
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| Beach to the left of the dock |
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| G and her Daddy |
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| Eligio and Eliana |
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| Beach to the right of the dock |
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| taking a walk on the beach |
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| Eligio and Eliana (in the water), Javier and Irma (walking into the water), and of course, James and Genevieve :) |
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| fishermen |
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| Genevieve, James, Eliana, Eligio |
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| The guys figured out that you could get a volley ball for free on this island, so while they waited to play volley ball, they used it as a soccer ball. |
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| soccer with a baby in one hand and a beer in the other... |
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| Javier joins in |
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| Javier, G, James, and Eligio |
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| The beach...you can see the other islands in the distance. Isla Iguana is the second one out. |
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| Javier goes for the serve... |
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| guys playing volleyball |
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| While the guys played volleyball, Eliana, Genevieve, and I went for a walk around the island. So gorgeous! |
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| From left to right: Eliana, Eligio, Annie, Genevieve, James, Javier, Irma |
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| James' favorite "bed sheet" sailboat! |
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| The bathroom back in Carti... |
After a long day at the beach, everyone came back over to our apartment (including Javier and Irma's two children) to eat pizza, watch the Grammys, and play dominoes. We will definitely miss our friends here in Panama! But I guess that just means we have to come back to visit! We had a great final weekend in Panama...now to take on our final few days! Happy Valentines Day to all of our friends and family! We are so thankful for all of you!!
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| From left to right: James, Javier (Jr), Melanie, and Javier playing Dominoes |
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