Panama 2023 DAY 4

 Friday! We have been so excited for Friday to get here since Fernando's oldest brother Atilio and his wife Nancy are flying in from Chicago. Fernando's dad has been asking us several times a day when they will arrive. He is so ready to have all 5 of his children under one roof. 

Their flight was scheduled to arrive in the afternoon around 2 PM, so we decided to take the boys to Fernando's sister Karina's apartment to go swimming. Their apartment complex has a nice pool in the "area social". Of course as soon as we got there, it started to rain! But the boys still had a good time and we enjoyed talking to Carlos and Karina. I finally got a text from Nancy saying they had gotten their rental car and were on their way to Fernando's dad's house! So we loaded back in the car and headed over there to meet them. The boys were hungry so we stopped for a quick bite at a 2-story Popeye's. It wasn't quite the same as the US Popeye's that the boys are used to, but they said it was pretty good. We finally made it to Fernando's dad's house and it was so good to see Atilio and Nancy. We haven't seen them since 2018 when we went to visit them in Chicago. We sat around and talked for awhile, then made plans to meet up for dinner with more family at a restaurant called El Republicano. We went back to our AirBNB to drop off Nancy's luggage and freshen up for dinner. 

El Republicano is a cool burger restaurant we had not been to before on our previous visits. Fernando's niece Karla had reserved the family a table on the upstairs patio, and it felt cool and comfortable with a nice breeze. I knew it was going to be good if Karla recommended it! She knows all the best spots! We definitely wouldn't have been able to sit there during the day! The patio lights made it such an inviting place. Carlos, Karina, Karla, Atilio, Nancy, Memito, Cata, Lucas, Mateo, Gerald, Memo, Antonia, Fernando, Enzo, Gabriel, and I enjoyed sitting around the table and catching up. It always amazes me the way restaurants here will set up more and more tables to accommodate everyone. Fernando's family is so large that sometime it's hard to calculate how many family members will show up. 

The boys were determined to try something "different" from the menu, and I was so proud of them for branching out. Gabriel (who normally doesn't eat cheeseburgers) order a cheeseburger with just lettuce and cheese and a side of fries. Enzo ordered the All American Cheeseburger just the way it came with lettuce, tomato, onion and their house burger sauce, and an order of fries. He also wanted to try an appetizer called Bao Sliders, which was basically like a small burger with a soft bun and pork patty. Everyone who tried it said it was good. I ordered a garlic parmesan chicken sandwich with fries, and it was really good. Fernando ordered Poutine Panameno, which was a bowl of yucca fries with ropa vieja and cheese chunks. Several other family members ordered it too and said it was very good. We all had a great time together, but we were all tired and ready to get back to the AirBnB to sleep. With plans to meet for brunch tomorrow, we all said good night. Another great day with family in Panama! 

Panamá 2023 🇵🇦DAY 3🇵🇦

 I’m almost too tired to write this post. It was a great HOT day much like yesterday. We left our Airbnb around noon and headed right up the road to El Dorado to try a bakery we had seen a sign for. Interestingly enough, the sign didn’t clearly have the name of the bakery or the address, so I had to take a pic of the sign & zoom into the coffee cup to get the name of the bakery: 888 Ibakery & Café. Their Instagram page is quite cute, so I convinced Fernando we needed to give it a try. We had trouble finding the exact location. We stumbled around El Dorado mall for a bit, bought Gabriel a pair of crocs since his white ones were so dirty, until we finally found the bakery. It was a super cute place with tons of pastries and desserts in glass cases. Everything looked so good until we noticed a bug crawling up and over a slice of cake. Gross!!! We decided to just order smoothies and got a few items that were packaged in plastic. We got a pack of choripán - which is like pigs in a blanket- some chocolate chip cookies, some kind of chocolate dessert roll, and I got a ham and cheese roll up thingy to try. Enzo ordered a strawberry smoothie, I got a mango smoothie, Fernando wanted a pineapple smoothie, and we finally convinced gabriel to try a kiwi one. They came in these super cute plastic cups. The smoothies were probably like a 3 out of 10… they didn’t really have much fruit flavor.  The choripán and ham & cheese thing were ok. I don’t think it’s a place we would go back to again, especially after seeing the bug 🤢, but huge kudos to the place for being cute! We walked back through the mall & stopped at Fernando’s old work place, Gran Morrison, to get a deck of cards. He saw a couple of his old co-workers & I was amazed they were still there after over 20 years. We headed over to see Abuelo after that, and it was a very hot afternoon with not as much breeze as yesterday. The boys and I walked down to the corner store to get drinks and I think they warmed up within seconds of us leaving the store. Carlos and Karina stopped by and invited us to eat raspao, so we loaded up and headed across town to a cute place that serves jazzed up shaved ice. It was really cute served in bowls. I tried the strawberry one and it was good. The boys both got Oreo flavor. And Fernando tried mango. We went back to abuelos house then finally left around 8 pm to eat dinner at..   El Prado again! 😂 We had the same waitress from Tues night and she was cracking up that we came again. Fernando ordered his big bowl of clams that he loves so much and I think Enzo ate half of them. We were all starving since we didn’t really eat lunch. After dinner we stopped at El Rey grocery store for more chocolate milk & toilet paper. I was glad to get a quick walk in after dinner. We are all looking forward to tomorrow when Atilio and Nancy get here! 

Panama 2023 🇵🇦DAY 2🇵🇦

 What a great first full day in Panama! We all got a good nights rest - in spite of a brief EARTHQUAKE that woke me up around 3 AM. I thought someone had jumped next to the bed and made the floor shake for a quick second.  I didn’t realize it was an earthquake until Fernando‘s family mentioned it in the family group chat. We spent the morning unpacking, doing laundry, and Fernando went to El Rey grocery store to get his coffee & other breakfast stuff. We all showered and got ready to go to Fernando’s sister & dad’s house to spend the afternoon with his dad. When we pulled up, we saw Tenshi poking his head out to see us. 😂 It was hot and sunny today, but luckily there was almost a constant breeze to keep us from sweating through our clothes. Fernando and the boys walked to the corner store for drinks and snacks. Gabriel was happy to find more Mafa (a Panamanian snack kind of like a pretzel). They had given us some on the plane ride yesterday & he really liked them! I thought they tasted kinda bland & greasy. We really had a great time just hanging around with Papa Attilio & Tenshi. After Fernando’s sister Yoly got home from work, we all left to eat dinner at Ciao Bella, an awesome pizza place we have been to before on one of our previous trips. The boys both got good ole classic pepperoni. Fernando & Yoly tried the specialty pizza which had black crust and all kinds of seafood on it… like clam shells and everything. I got the Ciao Bella Chicken pizza which was chicken, cheese, onions, and mushrooms- the same one I got last time! Everyone but me tried a different dessert - Gabriel got some kind of small chocolate torte that had a tiny chocolate macaron on it, Fernando got tiramisu (his fav), Enzo got a lemon tart, Grandpa & Yoly shared a passion fruit cheesecake. I love how the restaurants here have good service. Someone held the door open for us when we arrived. Our waitress immediately greeted us & brought us all glasses of ice water. She patiently went over the menu with us. She even walked us to the door and thanked us as we left. Everything was excellent and we enjoyed a great time together. We took Attilio & Yoly back home and stayed for a bit longer to visit with them & Gerald. We got back to our apartment around 9:30 & I did more laundry and some work on my computer. Looking forward to tomorrow!! We love exploring together as a family & discovering tons of new places. I feel so blessed to be here and trying my best to be present in the moment! Sometimes I just do not feel like I deserve to be showered with blessings… I don’t want to selfishly hoard everything for myself; I want to be aware of others’ needs and share love & kindness wherever we go! What a blessing to be here in this amazing corner of the world that many others never get to visit in their lifetime. 

Panama 2023 🇵🇦DAY 1 🇵🇦

 We made it!! We are finally here! It’s been 4 LONG years since we’ve been able to visit our Panamanian family (thanks to COVID), and we are looking forward to seeing everyone and catching up! 

Today is Tuesday. We drove down to Orlando on Saturday and after a very sketchy Airbnb experience, we found a wonderful hotel right across from the Orlando airport. We spent a rainy Sunday at Universal Studios and Monday at Magic Kingdom. We walked nearly 20,000 steps both days and we didn’t really realize how tired we were until we finally made it to the car on Monday night. I don’t think anyone could convince me to go back anytime soon unless it’s not during the shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers peak time. 

Our flight to PTY was supposed to leave Orlando at 1:50 pm, but was delayed due to rain. We sat on the plane for about 2 hours before we were finally able to take off. I can’t believe how much the Panama airport has changed since we were here last time. Tons of shops and new restaurants/kiosks. We saw a Nathan’s hot dogs and a Krispy Kreme kiosk. 

Fernando’s sister graciously picked us up from the airport and took us to our Airbnb apartment. The host met us there and showed us our new home for the next 16 days. She had left us some fresh fruit and other complementary items which were so thoughtful and useful after a day of traveling. We are on the 17th floor of the apartment building and we have a great view of the city from the balcony. AC works great too! 🙌

We quickly dropped off our luggage then headed over to Fernando’s dads house. It was so great to pull up to his house and see him upstairs looking down. We were all so excited to see him and Fernando’s sister and nephew (and their dog Tenshi!). After visiting with them for awhile, we left and went to El Prado for a late night dinner. We enjoyed it so much. 

Today was the perfect start to our time in paradise. 😎🌴

Now if I could just get “It’s a Small World After All” out of my head..   🤣