Disfrutas la Vida

Due to a bout of the flu, this posting is a bit delinquent!  However, all (and everyone) is well in the apartment once again and ready to post away! 

This past weekend we went on a bit of an adventure out west to visit the Peninsula de Azuero as well as the Peninsula de Las Palmas.  We left early Thursday morning to our first destination on the Peninsula de Azuero, Pedasi (pronounced, ped-uh-see).  According to google maps, it should have only taken us 3 hours and 50 minutes to reach our destination.  Not so.  I beleive with all of our stops, a little getting lost in EVERY "big" city we came to, and massive amounts of road construction, it took us about 6 hours.  In addition, the small road we had to take to get to our hotel was pretty terrifying (for me at least!).  It was a dirt road with numerous hills...I wish I had taken a picture of to give you a better understanding, but it did not look like something our little rental Nissan should be traveling on!  However, we made it to our destination, Villa Romana in one piece!  There were anywhere from 7-10 cabins set up along a cliff overlooking the ocean.  A larger building was centered between them with a kitchen, bar, and upstairs/downstairs places to lounge and eat.  Behind it was a small pool.  We went about 500 meters down the road and there was our own private beach!  There were tons of sand crabs everywhere, as well as hermit crabs (which James would say he'd never seen "in the wild").   Genevieve had a great time playing in the sand...that is, until she tried to eat it again. 


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Our own private beach!

just 2 of the numerous crabs running around

It was hard to get Genevieve to pull her attention away from the sand to pose for a picture on the beach :)

Clapping about the mess she made :)

G and Daddy



a "wild" hermit crab, haha



Genevieve and her Daddy

Mommy and her Genevieve

"building" a pile of sand

so excited to destroy the pile of sand

We hung out at the pool for a bit before dinner at 7pm.  We had a few drinks as we waited for dinner and took some more pictures.  We sat upstairs and watched the sun set.  That is, until I realized a bat had joined us upstairs and was flying in frantic circles around the main area which included the stairs to go down.  We ran like "bats out of hell" haha, for the stairs with our hands over our heads!  For dinner, we had some amazing garlic shrimp, fresh from the ocean.  James got a fillet Mignon that was also quite amazing.  Both were just $12.  The hostess loved Genevieve and held/entertained her while we ate our dinner.  Since we had very small cabana, poor Genevieve had to sleep in her pack n play in the shower...although she did not seem to mind! 

sunset

This is the restaurant/bar portion of Villa Romana.  The upstairs is where the crazy bat was!

The pool is behind that large fan palm

above the restaurant

Mommy and G go for a swing before dinner

Playing with Daddy in the hammock

kisses for Daddy!

That night we also experienced some of Villa Romana's HUGE Bullfrogs!

The next morning we saw a gorgeous sunrise and had a wonderful breakfast before hitting the road. 

looking out from our hotel room/casita

breakfast at Villa Romana

and one of mama and G before hitting the road

On the road back up to the Pan American Highway, we were passed by a car that flashed its lights at us.  How nice of them to signal that a cop was up ahead!  WRONG!  Below is what we found just up the road:

The guy with the red flag actually was motioning for us to come closer so I could take pictures :)

This cow apparently wouldn't "mooove" so he could pose for a picture

Panamanian Cowboy

Still on our way to the main highway, we passed through Las Tablas which apparently had a Chinese Circus in attendance:

After about 3 1/2 more hours we made it to our next destination on the Peninsula de Las Palmas... The Hibiscus Gardens, or, El Jardin de Papos.  This German run hotel is on the bay side of the Peninsula on what is actually considered Playa La Gartero.  We were just 15 minutes from Santa Catalina, one of the top surfing/diving destinations in both Panama and the world.  The waves are said to be identical to those in Hawaii and the diving is said to be comparable to the Galapagos Islands.   Unfortunately, we don't surf or scuba and wouldn't be learning while toting around our 1 year old :)  However, we were able to enjoy the gorgeous beaches!  We really enjoyed the staff at the hotel as they really made you feel like "part of the family."  The couple who built and ran the hotel had 2 daughters, 11 months and 3 years old...neither of which were clothed (at all) 99% of the time we were there.  But they were very friendly, none the less! 

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Our room in the hotel... it had furniture made out of drift wood, clay floors, a tin roof, and lots of lizards and bugs...but it kept us dry at night!

our tin roof...with a fan...haha

drink list at the Hibiscus Gardens

Genevieve's favorite part of the hotel...

Our room! Well, the outside of our room...

Hammocks in the restaurant

The beach outside of our hotel was a small beach littered with shells and sand dollars.  However, the tide went out for miles until around 3pm.  On Saturday morning, Genevieve woke up at 5:30am, so we decided to go out and check out the sunrise!

Sunrise on Playa La Gartero!  Notice how far the tide is out!

Genevieve and Daddy walk on the bottom of the ocean :)

lion king?

our hotel is hidden behind the shrubs :)

a man out walking with his two dogs

We had some wonderful omlets for breakfast at our hotel.  Each morning a new phrase was written on a chalk board in the restaurant...this mornings was "Disfrutas la Vida" or "enjoy life."  :)

After breakfast, James and I drove down to Santa Catalina to go to the beach.  The waves were huge!  And of course, Genevieve LOVED playing in the sand and water...I feel like that is going to be an ongoing theme here! 

black sand beaches + Genevieve = real mess!

We ate lunch down in Santa Catalina at a place called Bella Vida.  We had some excellent Mexican Fish Tacos....mmmm!  Genevieve had a delectable fruit bowl of fresh pineapple and bananas!

Eating lunch at Bella Vida

The whole inside of the restaurant was tiled with different designs.  All around a surf/beach theme.

funky fish chairs at bella vida

We then headed back to playa La Gartero hoping the tide would be back in...and it was! 

One of the hotel residents came for a walk on the beach with us!  She insisted on us throwing her little blue rubber duck for her to fetch the entire way!

Headed out for dinner...wait could this possible happen, twice in one trip??  Yes, yes it could:

we've never seen cows move so fast!

We decided to go to a local pizza place that was said to be a "staple" of Santa Catalina.  It was called Pizzeria Jammin,' and while everyone at our hotel raved about it being the best pizza they'd ever had, we definitely think that France and Italy's pizza tops it! 

Genevieve enjoyed her big girl chair at Pizzeria Jammin' ... she also enjoyed sharing mommy's margarita pizza with her!

On Sunday morning we said "Goodbye" to Hibiscus Gardens and headed back to Panama City.  I took a few pictures of some of the homes people in this area live in on the way out...crazy to think that they actually have 6-person families in some of these little huts! 

It took us almost 5 hours exactly to get home...that is including a stop by the Panamanian police (yes, my husband gets pulled over EVERYWHERE...he doesn't discriminate).  We did not get a ticket...just let off with a warning.  We were going a whopping 107km in a 100km zone.  Translate that into miles and we were going a little under 4 miles over the speed limit...really?!?  Oooh, Panama :)  It was great to see more of the Panama countryside, but it felt good to be "home" after our little trip!  James' mom comes tonight and we are very excited to show her our temporary home! :)

We are still missing our friends and family!  See you in 65 more days! :)

P.S.  This is seriously a side note that has NOTHING to do with anything posted above, but James informed me while on this road trip that the people at work tried to change his name to "Santiago Campana" because they said that Santiago would be the closest thing to James in Panama and Campana is "Bell" in Spanish.  Hahaha...too funny :)