Would we like to come to Panama for Sophie-Claire’s second
birthday and stay for Christmas? Could
we ever turn down such an invitation? Of
course we would come!
So on December 18 we caught an early flight out of San Antonio to Houston and
then directly to Panama. We didn’t count on how early we would have to
rise in order to catch the first flight to Panama but it turned out to be 3:00
am. Thankfully the San Antonio airport is not very busy and also
United upgraded us to first class which meant we could get coffee and breakfast
in their VIP lounge. We had an
uneventful flight to Panama
and arrived at Chris and Gretchen’s apartment about 3:00 pm just as
Sophie-Claire was waking up from her nap.
In the short time since we last saw her she has grown in so
many ways. She has beautiful golden,
curly hair and a sweet temperament to go along with her pretty looks. I know we are biased but she really is a
pretty little girl. And while she can
dress up and look like a little princess she is not just a girly girl but a
busy tornado of activity that never stops.
She loves to play in dirt and water puddles and is not averse to getting
her hands dirty. She loves to watch
trucks, cranes, back-hoes, and construction workers doing their jobs. On the numerous walks I took her on she
didn’t walk but ran everywhere. She can
walk up the steep steps to the slides in the playground and isn’t afraid of
heights. The higher you can make her
swing go the better for her. She seems
to have endless energy.
Her nanny is named Eladia and she spends every week day with
Sophie-Claire almost as a second mommy.
Eladia doesn’t speak fluent English so she teaches Sophie-Claire her
ABCs, numbers, colors, and several songs in Spanish. During the day Sophie-Claire seems to speak
mostly Spanish and then switches to English when Mom and Dad return home. Besides those languages she has watched the
American Sign Language video for children and she can, and does, sign several
words.
As you can tell from my bragging, Sophie-Claire was the
highlight of our trip to Panama
although we do enjoy her parents too.
Gretchen and Chris took off several days while we were visiting but when
they did go to work Eladia was told she could come in later and we would feed Sophie-Claire
her breakfast, take her for her first walk of the day, change diapers if
necessary and generally play with her.
We enjoyed doing that.
December 20 was Sophie-Claire’s second birthday and we had a
little family party in the evening.
After her dinner she was allowed a chocolate cupcake with two burning
candles which delighted her. Next she
opened up her birthday presents, carefully tearing off the wrapping paper of
each one. She enjoyed all the toys,
books, and videos she received. After that
we all decorated the Christmas tree which Sophie-Claire and their cat,
Churchill, thought were for their benefit to play with.
There were other highlights as well. Gretchen and Chris arranged to rent a small
house in the mountainous region of El Valle de Anton (usually just called El
Valle) where many wealthy Panamanians have a second home. Our little house was remote and surrounded by
a jungle of lush trees, plants, and flowers of all kinds. The area has monkeys, sloths, parrots and
other jungle wildlife but we didn’t see much.
That was because we had the bad luck of having a storm of wind and rain
most of the time we were there – an unusual event since the dry season was
supposed to begin in mid-December. We
lost power a couple of times but the strong winds and rain at night made for
interesting sleeping. However we did see
some birds there we don’t normally see in Texas.
We hiked some muddy trails from the house we rented. Sophie-Claire loved to throw rocks and sticks
into the creek so that was a big part of our hikes. We did visit the colorful open market in El
Valle with a larger selection of produce than I would have guessed. We visited the small local zoo which has a
few of the remaining golden frogs that are dying out. Sophie-Claire enjoyed the animals in the zoo
and raced from cage to cage. We went to
the Chorno El Macho waterfall where Gretchen and Chris took the zip line across
the waterfall.
On our last morning we had plans to drive to the local hot
thermal springs for a dip but as we started down our long, steep driveway we
discovered that a rather large orange tree had uprooted and blown across the
driveway in the night. It was too big
for Chris and me to budge so we walked downhill into the village to the
caretaker’s house only he wasn’t home.
His wife had some of their visiting friends or relatives take us back
and they brought machetes since they didn’t have a power saw. We hacked away at the tree, cutting off
smaller limbs and finally were able to push it off the driveway with five
men. By then it was just time to check
out and drive back to Panama
but we got some exercise.
We ate well in Panama. In El Valle we had a delicious lunch at a
very nice restaurant called Casa de Lourdes.
Rita had pasta with asparagus and mushrooms while I had sesame encrusted
corvina which is drum fish. All our
dishes were delicious as was the wine.
Gretchen and Chris both cook and love good food and wine so
all our meals at their house were great.
One evening we went out to eat at one of the best seafood restaurants in
Panama
called Casa del Marisco. The owners were
originally from the Basque region of Spain
but settled in Panama
years ago. Their new restaurant is very
modern and the food is delicious. Rita
and I both had fresh grouper; mine was encased in garlic and almonds. Then we went to a rooftop bar in Casco Viejo,
or the old town, named Tantalo. We
sipped mojitoes while viewing the skyline of Panama in the warm tropical air.
Another day we had delicious Indian food at Sabor de India,
a restaurant in the downtown area of Panama. We selected several spicy dishes, naan, and
rice and shared them along with refreshing Foster’s India Pale Ale. In fact, we had enough food left over we took
it home for another meal later on.
On Christmas Eve we got away early and drove about an hour’s
drive to Soberania National Park where we went to the Panama Rainforest
Discovery Center
first. We were looking for birds and we
climbed their 100-foot tower but didn’t see much except a sloth and a brown
hawk. The reception center had nectar
feeders out and there we saw several different kinds of beautiful
hummingbirds. Next we walked down Pipeline Road, one
of the premier bird watching places in the world. We saw several blue morph butterflies which
are bigger than some birds. We saw some
birds but not a bumper crop. I’ll list
birds seen in Panama
at the end of this story.
Christmas Day we first opened our stockings while
Sophie-Claire was getting acquainted with this gift-giving tradition. Churchill was first to open his package of a
catnip toy. Sophie-Claire discovered an
apple in her stocking which occupied her for quite some time. Gretchen made a nice breakfast of bacon and
gingerbread pancakes. Then to the task
of opening all those other packages, most of which were for Sophie-Claire. She did an admirable job and really enjoyed
her presents – mostly books, videos, trucks, and Lego blocks. During most of this we Skyped with Rachel and
Deana – it was not as good as having them there but the next best thing.
In the afternoon we dressed up somewhat with Sophie-Claire
in her beautiful red Christmas dress as the belle of the ball. We had turkey, cornbread dressing, mashed
potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and rolls. We had a bottle of champagne then another
bottle of wine. For dessert we had both
pumpkin and pecan pies. A delicious
meal!
All good things must come to an end and so did our
visit. On Friday, December 28, we said
our good-byes to everyone and headed back home via Houston
then on to San Antonio. We left Panama
in about 90 degree heat and arrived in San
Antonio where the temperatures were in the 30s and
winds blowing strong out of the north.
We stopped at BJ’s Brewpub for a light dinner and beer then a grocery store
stop for milk and bananas so we could have breakfast in the morning. Cruising home late at night on a back country
road I was stopped by the Comal
County sheriff’s deputy
for speeding 70 in a 60 mph zone. There
was no other traffic around and it was 11:15 at night. Why would a sheriff’s deputy be sitting on
the side of the road at that time looking for speeders? At least he just gave me a warning ticket and
we arrived home about midnight. All was
fine at home and we slept soundly but sadly missed the noises Sophie-Claire
makes when she wakes up.
Unusual birds spotted:
Green parrots (maybe Mealy Amazons?) and parakeets
Crimson-backed tanager
Yellow-green vireo
Antwren
Black-chested jay
Keel-billed toucan
Squirrel Cuckoo
Long-billed hermit, white-necked Jacobin, sapphire-throated
and green violet-ear hummingbirds
Panama
flycatcher
Great tinamou
Kiskadees
