Back Home in San Gerardo de Dota

Yesterday we arrived back home safely from Panama! We left on Friday and stayed overnight in San Jose, to avoid travelling after dark.  After getting some groceries in the city, we caught a noon bus yesterday and arrived in San Gerardo mid-afternoon.  It felt good to be back in our cabin and unpack our things.  Not surprisingly, today is laundry day.

Thank-you for your prayers as we travelled.  We had a great week together as a family in Panama. Instead of writing a lot, I’ll share photos of the highlights of our trip, as well as images of the people and town of Bocas del Toro.  These travels are teaching us to be thankful for what we have in Canada—lots of space, abundant resources, and clean surroundings are the things that come to mind immediately. 

We are also thankful that we now have our Costa Rican tourist Visas renewed until we leave at the end of April. That was the reason we went to Panama (among other more-fun reasons!).  Vern was also able to investigate research opportunities at a leading marine research station run by the Smithsonian Institute.  One of his key sabbatical activities has been investigating the calibre of international research opportunities for his students at King’s University, so he felt our side-trip to Panama was time well spent. 

This week Vern will be continuing to prepare for guiding the “Ecosystems of Costa Rica” trip with the students from the QERC field station.  This trip begins on March 12, and is one of his teaching commitments while we are here.  Our family is joining the students on that trip.  The kids will get in one week of Spanish school before we leave. This week Vern will also be preparing for teaching an ecology course to the QERC students in early April.  He has a research paper out for review right now, so it’s a good time for him to work on other commitments.

OK, before more delay, here are some photos of our trip to Panama.



Claire and Jesse relaxing on the bus



I take snuggles when I can get them.



Walking across the bridge at the Panama border.  This bridge is over 100 yrs old and was very dilapidated! 

  

We stayed in a cabin over the ocean at KoKo Resort in Bocas del Toro. 



Caleb fished many early mornings right off our dock.

 

The kids were very excited to sleep in the loft

Homeschooling on our deck.



The sidewalk from our cabin out to the street.



Laundry day at our neighbour's, a local fishing family.  The kids would play and fish a lot out on the narrow deck!

Our other neighbour.  Claire enjoyed swimming with the 8-yr old girl living there.



Claire and Shana, who lived next to us.  She's a Dutch girl who was born in Panama.  Interestingly, she speaks 5 languages as a result of her heritage and schooling: spanish, english, german, dutch and hebrew. 



The road to a local beach.

We stumbled across this beachside research station.  That would attract a certain crowd....





We saw a few sting rays swimming along the beach.



We did a tour one day that took us by boat through the mangrove areas around Bocas del Toro. 

Can you see the sloth?  We stopped by an island that is known for its many sloths.  We regretted not having our zoom lens along that day!

We also stopped at dolphin bay, where we got to watch the dolphins jumping.  We also did some snorkelling at another location (no photo, unfortunately), and we all had a lot of fun snorkelling.

We did a short hike on an island with many of these very tiny poison arrow dart frogs.  There are many varieties of the poison arrow dart frog.

Vern and the kids took surf lessons one day.  They had a lot of fun!  I was the designated photographer.

Baywatch here I come!

The instructor was great with the kids, and first took each of them on the board with him to give them a feel for surfing.

Claire and Louis, the instructor.

Claire surfing!

Caleb surfing!

Ever wonder where your bananas come from?  This Chiquita cargo ship is loaded with bananas!

A banana plantation--we passed many plantations along the highway.  Many local people are employed by Chiquita. 

Our last morning in Panama.