In Sri Lanka, the new year is celebrated twice - once on the 1st of January and then again in mid-April for the Sri Lankan new year. At either juncture, the eating of milk rice, made sticky-sweet with coconut milk, curries and a spicy chili paste is de rigueur. In Panama, there are numerous rituals to court good vibes in the coming year... eating 12 grapes at midnight, walking around the house with a suitcase to attract travel in the year ahead, or wearing yellow underwear for luck.
Today is a major Do Nothing day for us four travelers. Our hotel is spacious and comfortable, with air con for the humid mid-day and big windows for catching evening breezes. Because of the holiday, we ordered our evening meal at lunch and heated it in the room's microwave for our NYE dinner. We ate, toasted with cold drinks, and had a festive meal recounting each our own "creation stories" about early days and marveled how life's twists and turns ultimately made an intricate pattern, even if there was no order or method to it.
Yesterday, I spied my first ever Crimson-backed Tanager - a bird of startling plumage that I hadn't even known existed the day before. We're hoping to see a Tucan today (which I expect will appear holding a box of Froot Loops cereal because that's all I've ever known about this bright colored bird) as we laze by the pool.
El buho (owl) butterfly
Crimson tanager at Albrook
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