Wednesday, February 13, 2008

FAMILY VISIT





Judy (my sister), Gerald and Marley arrived in Bocas Del Toro 2 days ago, after a rather shaky flight in a small plane from Panama City. Gerald was a little green and pasty upon arrival, but quickly recovered. Its so wonderful to have them here.

We had such a fantastic day today!

Here I sit, at 6 pm exhausted, my stomach's full, I'm sun kissed, still rocking a bit from being on a boat all day, and I'm listening to my family laugh in the background as I type. Life is good!

Today, we hired a boat and driver, and did the Bocas "touristy" thing. Our adventure started in Dolphin Bay watching dolphins. We saw quite a few dolphins, including a Mama with its baby. They were so cute. Then we went snorkeling at Crawl's Cay. Paul swam with a huge barracuda; Marley swam through a school of neon blue fish that touched her as they passed by. The coral was beautiful. Orange, green, purple and yellow were some of the colors we saw. We also saw many varieties of fish. It was so incredible to watch them in their environment.

Judy (and Gerald) decided to swim from our snorkeling location to the nearby restaurant where we had lunch. It was approximately three football fields. As lunch time neared, we all gathered back in the boat and said we were ready to head over the restaurant for lunch. Our guide and boat driver, Frank, asked where the other two were. I said, they swam to the restaurant “asi” (over there). He looked surprised. Apparently, that was not something most tourists do! They swam right through a major boat route. Not to worry, they came to no harm.

We stopped at the restaurant out in the middle of nowhere and had an incredible seafood lunch. We enjoyed the “especial de la casa” (the house special)which consisted of a seafood medley (lobster, octopus, shrimp, scallops, squid, fish) and a "big shrimp" dish cooked in coconut milk. Josh loves shrimp and dug in with both hands. He was a mess, but very happy. Then we set off for an afternoon of boogie boarding at Red Frog Beach. The waves were pretty huge, some were more than 6 feet high! The water was so warm, and the blues hues in the ocean were just spectacular! Marley and I had to keep doing a bikini top checks for each other after each big wave swept over us as some "body parts" occasionally got knocked out of our bathing suits. It rained heavily the last few days, but today the skies were mostly clear, it was sunny most of the day, slightly overcast at times, but no rain. Perfect for touring!!!





Lunch time after great snorkel and swim








Look at the size of that shrimp. Look at Josh's hands covered in sauce, yum!









Josh, Syd and Marley hanging at Red Frog Beach



Blue eyed babes


Off for a game of spoons (Wish you were here Frannie, Lea, Aiden and Freya) and a great sleep.

Until I blog again

Linda

2 comments:

admin said...

Hello! your pictures are great, sounds like a fun family vacation. If you guys are in for a little adventure, down bluff beach road there's a hotel & restaurant la coralina www.lacoralina.com that has some really good food and a nice view, i'm not just saying that because my aunt owns it but because I think it's a beautiful place not to be missed ! they have horseback riding it's like $15-$30 and you can go on bluff beach and in the jungle. it's a lot of fun, I was there last year! I hope you enjoy the rest of your trip! :)

admin said...

p.s. do you guys live in Panama? it sure is warmer than Mn that's for sure!
Blessings!