Car, planes, taxi, ferry, truck bed and we've arrived!

    After a practically 24-hour travel day that included a drive from home to Newark airport, two plane rides with one delay, an early morning taxi ride through the dark streets of Panama City and a fast ferry to Isla Taboga, we arrived on the quaint island that is home to a pelican sanctuary, and home-away-from-home to our dear friends Geni and Steve.
    Isla Taboga, in addition to the pelicans, is a colorful, self-contained microcosm of a community. With very few cars available (or needed), we hitched a ride from a man with a pickup truck at the ferry dock. Geni and I climbed in the cab and Duane and Steve got the truck bed. We were loping along nicely down the cobbled street (singular, if you ask) when a couple of thuds told us that something had fallen out. There in the street a hundred feet behind us lay Duane's suitcase... a bit banged but intact!
    We visited the small market - about the square footage of the cereal aisle at Wegmans - and bought some local beer and water. Streets of small, sturdy and bright-painted houses reminded us of being up-country in Sri Lanka, complete with religious shrines, chattering bird calls, and stray dogs and cats. I am sure we saw the incarnation of Gallo del Cielo, the famous fighting rooster, who was sequestered in a cage of chicken wire - evidently to keep him from killing everything in his path.
    Whatever travel weariness we'd acquired began to melt away when we stepped into Geni and Steve's crystal clear swimming pool on a warm cloudless day. The garden was awash in color - hibiscus, crotons, and dozens of other names that I have yet to learn. We were awash in sweat because where we live it is below freezing.
    The Hotel Vereda Tropicale - our place for the next two nights - had comfortable rooms, somewhat steady WiFi, and a magnificent, unblocked 180-degree view of the oceanfront... stunning! Our first night in Panama gave us travel-weary explorers a delicious dinner of sea bass (plentiful here, and called Corvina), garlicky langostino (giant shrimp!) and by the time we got to our beds... we were OUT!

Gallo del Cielo

Peachy double hibiscus

Pool time in Isla Taboga