Panama - Third Full Day

Brooke, Heidi and I decided to kick off Tuesday by running the golf course.  We estimated about a 30 minute run.

 It was one of the most beautiful runs I've done!  After the first 30 minutes we realized there was no way we were making it back even in another 30 minutes.  Since the course is built into the side of the mountain, the path was anything but even and after running down for some time (in general - there were lots of steep up-hills we had to tackle during the first half of our run) we then had to climb back up.  An hour and 15 minutes later we finally got back to the house, pretty much crawling.

(Cute pic of Brookie and her uncle Mike)

But it was great - we had a drive back to David, then a wait for the bus, followed by a four hour long bus trip over the Continental Divide to the island region Bocas del Toro, and the run helped with the antsyness that would have set in.

 Halfway through the trip the bus pulled over and a few locals climbed on board selling fresh, sliced fruit.  Everyone on board started snatching it up and we followed suit, purchasing a few discs of pineapple each.  It was so good!  Can you imagine if we got something like that on airplanes?

We were off again, making a few more stops before ending up in Almirante.  A very kind taxi driver let us borrow his phone to call Veronica, our local contact for the house we rented, then drove us into town to catch a water taxi to Bocas Town.

 We met up with Veronica (above), hit up the grocery store, then set off across the water again to our house on the island of Solarte, and island with no cars, no roads, and no way to get around except by water taxi.

 Veronica got us situated and left us with a cell phone.  She programmed in her number in case we needed to get a hold of her, and the number for Pocho, our driver for the duration of our stay.

 We finished off our travel day with delicious left-overs from Mike and Debbie on the porch, watching the water.

The house was fantastic.  There was no A/C, but there was a lovely breeze throughout our entire stay.  It also boasts a huge wrap-around porch, comfortable beds, two coffee pots, and a super friendly and helpful security guard, the next door neighbor, Augustine, who on more than one occasion busted open fresh coconuts for us.

Bring on the sun and sand!