Stoney Family Panama Adventure: WEEK 5

This week started out with a family lunch at Finca Lerida and then a hike on the coffee farm trails. This was Monica and Matt's first visit to Finca Lerida. Matt loved climbing the trees, and Monica loved swinging on the vines. Neither one of them wanted to stop playing even though it was raining during most of our hike.

Matt enjoyed his 2nd grade field trip to a local finca and brought home ginger and yucca. He also decided midweek that he wanted to get a haircut. Most of the boys in Panama wear their hair very short, so Matt decided to get a #4 buzz cut. Upon Matt's request, we headed to the local "barbería" in Boquete, where Matt got the full treatment - buzz cut, shave, and powder at the end (all for $3). Matt loved it! Monica decided that she wanted some extra practice with her Spanish, so we hired a nice woman named Marcela, to help her. Monica is looking forward to having Marcela come to our house each week after school on Wednesdays. Salsa dancing is offered at the local Spanish school where Christina is taking Spanish classes, so I decided to go for it and join the group and learn some dance moves.

Greg had the opportunity to fish in Rio Caldera with Matt. They caught several sabalo and other fish, and have continued to bring some fish back home to put in the small pond on our property.

Midweek, Christina and Greg decided to take a spur of the moment road trip to Reserva Forestal La Fortuna. The 3 hour roundtrip drive was beautiful, and it was fun to check out the surrounding areas. We ended up driving through a small town called Gualaca, which happens to be one of the oldest towns in all of Panama. It was lunchtime when we arrived, so we asked around for a recommended restaurant. We were told that there was one restaurant in the middle of town, and it was closed. Yes, this is a very small "sleepy" town, but also quite charming with its small houses in various bright colors.

The week ended with a fun family trip to Los Cangilones de Gualaca. "Cangilones" are mini canyons, and a river happens to run through the canyon, enabling you to cliff jump and also float down the river between the cliffs. We heard that this area gets crowded in the afternoons and on weekends, so we decided to wake up early on Sunday morning and beat the crowds. Our first half hour at the pools were so peaceful, being that we were the only people there - what a treat! We enjoyed swimming down the river between the narrow canyons. The highlight of the day was spotting 2 different basilisk lizards, and we were fortunate enough to see one running across the water. As you can imagine, Matt was thrilled!