Going to a cow roast - Fuimos a una matanza

Our friend Colombia invited us to her father-in-law's hobby farm (finca) in El Llano Chepo for a cow roast (una matanza). At 4am, they (probably the guys who work the farm) killed a cow and then started butchering and cooking. The menu consisted of bone soup (beef, bones, yucca, and corn) with rice added to the bowl, yucca, and strips of tasty beef smoked (see picture). The farm was beautiful and very quiet; plus, a small river ran through the farm which allowed everyone to go cool off in the water. It was a wonderful day. The father of our friend Marisanta was possibly mocking me in the picture below; he is wearing the FBI hat and borrowed Kellee's sunglasses.

Edwin Leading the Singing

Our friend Edwin Zuniga leading the "typical Panamanian" singing at a cow roast (matanza) at his father's "hobby" farm in the Darien. Listen to the audio on the video; we also have no idea what they are saying.

New Years' Day on Taboga Island

We went with our friends the Pages to Tobaga Island for New Year's Day. They have fun little fishing boat which is perfect for their family of five, JB and Kellee, and coolers of beer. Tobaga is a little island about 15 minutes away from downtown Panama by boat - we can take future visitors there by ferry.

Opening Presents for Christmas

Kel received a great handmade purse from her Dad, a bracelent from Bulgaria from Mom, and a necklace from France from Mom/Santa. JB got a Panama futbol jersey and was so excited he didn't care to get his picture taken with it. Jana and Nikki sent some awesome teas that Kel is going through very slowly. And finally, we got a package of cookies from Krisi's annual cookie party - JB ate those, because Kel is getting skinny any day now. Here is our tree!

Christmas Day in Bocas del Toro

We spent Christmas Day lying on the beach and then had a traditional Christmas dinner at a restaurant on Isla Caranero, our home base, across the water from Bocas town. On the way home, we heard some great music coming from a porch. We stopped to listen (secretly) but were spotted and invited up on the porch. The three singers were not on their first bottle of seco, so they were really very good and having a great time. We stayed and listened for a while and then wandered off right before the sky opened up and the rain poured down.

Bocas del Toro

Bocas del Toro is a great little beach town near the cost of Costa Rica. It was once a home base for United Fruit, and you can see evidence of the company in the wide streets and some pretty leftover colonial-style buildings (first picture).

Our (many) readers who know of our occasional disappointment with Panama's tourism opportunities will be thrilled to hear that we really liked Bocas. It has a bit of a backpacker/college party kid vibe so you have to be careful where you stay so you don't hear techno music all night, but it has a great tourism infrastructure, several islands and secluded places to stay and cheap water taxis for easy travel.

We stayed across the water from the main tourist area (Bocas town) on an island called Isla Carinero, named by Christopher Columbus who stopped there to repair his ships back in the day.

We went out on a catamaran the first day that we were in Bocas and had some of the best snorkeling ever (see picture of JB on the catamaran). The other pics are of daily life in Bocas.

Pickled Parrot

Bocas doesn't have much in the way of sand beaches. There are some, which are inaccessible by water due to the big waves, so an ambitious person usually has to take a water taxi to a trail and climb over some muddy hills to get to them. We are not that ambitious, so we spent a lot of time at the Pickled Parrot, a great little bar located on the surfer's beach about a ten minute walk away from our place on Isla Carenero. The Parrot had great food and tropical drinks and we could swim from the dock.