Exploring our new town

   

       I love Gualby.  I honestly miss her and all her projects and personality but I am loving the mountain life for now.  I am forever and always will be a beach/boat girl but I could, however, own a mountain home.  Couldn't all of us, really? Boat for the winter months, log cabin for the summer months? I am not the first person to realize this is a nice sounding plan.  We are not buying a mountain home, unless we stumble upon some hidden chest of rare gold coins on one of our walks, but we are enjoying ourselves during the time we have.

A few reflections on the pluses of mountain living in Boquete. . .

• In almost every store in town--grocery stores, vegetable stands, hardware stores, clothing stores, jewelry stores, nick knack stores--ice cream and coffee is sold.  Good ice cream and coffee too.  And a majority of these stores can also turn their ice cream into milkshakes.  It's fantastic.

• The vegetables here are delicious.  The selection in the grocery stores is fresh and I can even find some organic options.  There are several open air veggie/fruit stands in town and multiple truck beds filled with whatever is freshest parked on the sides of various roads.  I have had the best strawberries and watermelons of my life since I have been here.

• Cooler weather in general:  Conor and I are significantly less sweaty.

• Delicious water:  This is a big one for me.  I am a huge water drinker.  To the point that before we started our sailing trip Conor tried to wean me off the amount of water I drink because he thought I would go into withdrawl on the boat from lack of available water sources.  The water here is cold, clean and delicious right out of the faucet.

• Change of places to hang out: Although we miss the ocean, swimming in different areas of the Caldera River is refreshing and fun.  I  love sitting on the hot rocks of the river bed, feeling the sun warm my skin and then diving into the cool, fresh water currents of the Caldera River.

• Snuggle weather:  This is a girly one but I feel still needs to be included.  It is in the 60's after the sun goes down and it gets pretty windy most nights.  Which leads to the need to snuggle under cozy blankets in order to stay warm.

• Fresh mountain air:  There is something undeniably cleansing about walking up a mountain trail, getting out of breath, and then taking in deep, slow breaths of cold air to make a person feel cleansed and just plain good.

• Walking the mountainous trails:  It is a much more of an aerobic workout going for "a walk" around here.  Just even to let the dogs use the bathroom on a "quick walk" gets me out of breath, but in a good way.  It feels healthy, and it encourages me to continue so I can at least walk up the drive to our Cabana without huffing and puffing.

• We are experiencing more "down time":  I know some of you are thinking, how is that even possible? Well, we can't complete small projects on the boat or kill a whole day at the beach for obvious reasons so we are trying to make sure we use our extra time productively.  We have increased our guitar playing, cooking, baking, chi cha brewing (Ha! totally serious, stay tuned), knitting, meditating, exercising, book reading, emailing, blog updating, internet researching, you tube watching, movie watching, dog rubbing, spanish home studying, and just plain goofing around.  

M.

 Pictures of us enjoying our new town.

When we first arrived, the Feria de Flores y Cafe (Flower and Coffee Fair) was going off!
We went one afternoon and although the flowers and coffee were great, my favorite splurge of the day was my 75cent strawberry soft serve ice cream cone.  I am a chocolate girl, tried and true, but the strawberry flavored sweet treats here in Boquete are ridiculously tasty.  Fresh, sweet strawberries flourish in the cool mountains here and I am loving it.  

More flowers and under the green roof in the background, hot, local coffee is being served

Some of these sunflowers peaked prior to the fair, but they are still some of my favorite flowers to see

The other highlight of the fair was the kids performances of their traditional cultural dances.
The local kids were adorable, you could tell they practiced very hard for the show, and the costumes were impressively ornate.  

 

Caldera River

Conor and Bubby cooling down with a swim

A post surgery Penny, on her leash, menacingly looks on as Bubby swims with her Conor

Pathetic Pen wondering why she is on her leash

The path to get down to the water edge was a bit bumpy so Conor rearranged some of the larger rocks to make an easier entrance for our next visit

Our van, down by the river

Another afternoon we took a drive to Caldera to check out the hot springs.  

Bridge towards the farm where the hot springs are

Crossing over the Caldera River

Walking towards the entrance to the hot springs. . . we think

Coming up to the farm.
All these horses just relaxing together

After a few minutes at our secluded "pozo" we were joined by this indigenous family.  Conor and I attempted spanish small talk but the vibe wasn't really flowing between us.  The woman did, however, tell us that the best and hottest spring was the one by her house but she quickly mentioned it was closed (while walking by later we saw laundry hung up on the rock wall surrounded the "closed pozo").  We thanked her for the info and left just has she started bathing her children in the small spring, starting by blowing their snotty noses into the water.  

 That was probably our last visit to the Caldera Hot Springs, but it was a lovely walk to the farm and the springs were worth checking out.  

Con keeping up with the maintenance of the bus so we have smooth travels

Bubby posing by a small swimming hole close to our house