Wednesday, March
27th was a travel day. It was windy and misty In Boquete so we were not entirely sad to leave. A quick breakfast at the Rock and it was time to say goodbye to the Riverside Inn, a quiet small hotel of only 6 rooms.
Riverside Inn from the road
The front entrance of the Riverside Inn
The lobby our rooms were to the left.
A great hotel if you are seeking peace and tranquility. Both of those ideas were harder to come by with the Anseth girls stomping around and banging on doors. Kari will not miss the squeaky beds that bounced her around when I tossed and turned at night. My rotator cuff may actually be an issue in the future. Ashley and I were the only ones to take hot showers mostly because I would take a shower almost exactly 12 hours after Ashley finished.
Our drive was uneventful. Our driver was nice but he was suppose to be bilingual. I am not sure if that word means what I think it means. Even using google translate he didn’t seem to understand either English or Spanish. We arrived without incident and after a 15 min boat ride we were at the resort.
From Boquete we traveled by van to the Pacific coast of Panama and the Isla Palenque.
Isla Palenque is ridiculous 8 bungalows along the beach You feel a little bit like Swiss Family Robinson.
Looking back to the bungalow from the path
The old number 7 from the beach.
Beach views
Fiddler crabs. These little guys are zooming all over the beach.
Artsy.....so Artsy
Where we eat dinner
In the afternoon we signed up for a cooking class to make empanadas. Grace, Ashley (surprising), Kari and I entered the kitchen. Corn meal, salt, sugar, water was all we needed to create 5 symmetrical empanada corn meal spheres. Charlie the chef browned the meat, onions, peppers, garlic, water and green salsa. He explained you the ground beef cooked through and dry for the empanadas to taste right.
Now that the meat was cooked and seasoned, Charlie made a reduction sause of water, brown sugar and a tree tomato sauce.
We were preparing to stuff the empanadas when Grace turned to Kari and asked if she thought it was hot in the kitchen. Kari turned to me and said “Grace is pale. Really pale. I think she might....”. I said “What?!?! Insert a confused face here. At the moment Grace passed out. She went down like a sack of bricks. I caught her and lifted her up but she was out for the count. I got behind her, while Charlie helped hold her and carrried her out of the kitchen about the time we hit the kitchen door Grace said “What happened?? Everything started moving. “. Ashly was standing there like “ is she OK? Is Grace OK?” Ashley does love her sister.
This is what you look like after you faint in the kitchen. Drinking water, Ginger Ale and eating ice cream.
If you are wondering where Katie was she was in a hammock listening to episodes 2,3 and 4 of her new favorite podcast, Dr. Death.
We eventually returned to the kitchen to stuff our empanadas. While Gracie rested in the shade.
Empanadas. The one on the left may be the best empanada ever made by a guest at Isla Palenque. #madskills
The kitchen staff. Now someone needs to clean this up.
They tasted even better than they looked
Grace was rallying at this point and ready for the night.
Nice work G-Money
Island beauties
Holy Family 2020 and 2022
Sunset in the Pacific
The tide coming in at sunset.
Sunset with a faster shutter speed
Tiradito fish cut like sashimi in a citrus sause #amazing #ScottyRobyoucandothis!!!!
After diner it was a walk back to the bungalow and bed. There were a million stars in the sky so I just stood out in the beach for 30 minutes or so pondering existence and my part of it. One of the few times where there is so little ambient light that you can see the Milky Ways streaming out above you.
The Milky Way over Isla Palenque. Can you find Orion’s Belt?
WWCSD. What would Carl Segan do?
Not sure what adventures we will see tomorrow.
