Winding Down

We said good bye to the sweetest dog in the whole wide world, Indy,

 and to the gardener, Vincente, who helped us many times during our stay by schlepping heavy things up the hill for us. Our new friends Mary & Carl, took us to Bocas del Toro to begin the long journey home.  It was hard to say good bye, but, Mary will always be a soul sister and I’m sure our paths will cross again.

 We hired a water taxi and headed out for Red Frog Beach for the day. We hadn’t even seen a beach yet during our stay in Panama and really looked forward to a relaxing day being pampered on the beach by beachside waiters offering drinks in coconut shells and fresh fish dinner.

 

But, after wandering down the mangrove entrance to Red Frog, then taking "the short walk" to the beach 10 minutes away (that was more like 30).We found Red Frog was a very little used beach, at least the day we were there, with no services open save a tiny rustic cantina way down the beach, and another back inland on the way to catch the water taxi back to Bocas. So, therewereno waitersoffering fancy drinks, not a fresh fish dinner on the beach, but, the day was not a complete loss! 

 

The ocean was still the ocean and we lazed on the beach all day, in rented chairs, and watched the surf beat its way to the shore.  There is something about salt water, isn’t there, that heals everything? Already we were beginning to forget the many bugs bites and hot days spent at Cerro Velero. 

 

Norm and I played a “Pro-Con” game with him naming all the things we didn’t like about the past six weeks, and me naming the things that we did. He ran out of things before I did, so we decided it truly was a positive experience. We have learned the hard lesson, however, that although we will always seek “adventures,” we will no longer seek “really hard ones.”  We’re simply getting too long in the tooth for those.

 So, we begin our three day trip home. One night in Bocas, one in Panama City and the last one in Chicago before finally catching our last plane home.  Our friend, Bob, will be waiting at the Burlington airport with our warm winter coats in hand.  And home will have never looked so good. We leave paradise today as I click my red flip-flops together and chant…. 

“I want to go home.

  I want to go home.

  I want to go home.”

Nancy & Norm

 

No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. ~ Lin Yutang