On the 7th of July marks the day when Sean and Leslie must leave Costa Rica for 72 hours as part of our non-residency. It’s hard to believe that it has been 3 months already. Wow.

We’ve decided to getaway to Panama for a few days. It will save us a heap of money, not to mention time, to make a quick trip down south to Panama, rather than trek it back to the US.

There are a couple of options on how to get us down there. We can take a plane at a rate of $130 per person, round trip. Or we can pay $12 per person and go on a 6 hour bus ride. We’re opting for the bus, at least for the first portion. We may decide to do the flight for the return home. We’ll see.

Anyway, we’ve known for a while that we would be tripping down to Panama for the 72 hour thing, we just didn’t really know where in Panama we’d be going to. All we knew is we’d be getting on a bus from San Jose to Limon, and then another bus from Limon to the border.

Today our housekeeper, Mayela, came over to help me with some much needed house management. She had her work cut out for her today, lemme tell ya. I’ve been in full-on work-a-holic mode for the past two weeks. There’s been little effort on my part, and on Sean’s to keep anything in this house in order. Thankfully, she graciously has adjusted her schedule to come over twice a week for us.

I asked her if she would be willing to feed the kitties for us while we’re gone, and to also keep an eye on things (Costa Rica is known for vacant house theft, unfortunately). She said yes, of course and inquired as to where we’d be going. I told her Panama. She then came up with the brilliant suggested that we look into Bocas del Toro.

Sean and I started doing some research online and came across photo after photo of beautiful beaches, such as:

And reading things, such as:

“It’s hard to leave Bocas del Toro. It’s a terribly relaxing place, and at the same time it exudes a funky, romantic charm that has something untamed about it. The place is filled with colorful characters nursing drinks in dilapidated wooden bars or running rustic hotels on remote beaches. It’s the kind of Caribbean hideaway one expects to find only in old Bogart films.

And it’s just gorgeous.” - Quote taken from Moon.com

The two things combined, great photos/great reviews, were enough to convince us… we’re going to Bocas del Toro!

I’ve been browsing around and I’d really love to stay in a bungalow like this:

I’m going to have to check on how pricey they are, though. With the savings on the transportation ($12) maybe we can splurge a little on our living quarters while we’re there.

I have to say, even before we arrived in Costa Rica, I fantasized about visiting Panama. I don’t know why, I’ve just always been drawn to it. I dream of going to Panama City one day, seeing the Panama Canal, getting Sean a really nice suit, and soaking in the culture. Have you ever seen the public buses they take around Panama?

I love it…graffiti on wheels.

From what I’ve read, there aren’t a lot of Panamanians that live in Bocas del Toro, so it will be more of a touristy type of getaway for us. I’ll have to soak in my cultural experience from the bus rides I suppose. Nevertheless, Sean and I need a relaxing romantic extended weekend together and Bocas del Toro sounds perfect for that. We’ve both been working our arses off lately with our business and are in dire need of some downtime. A few days on the beach will totally energize us.

Not to mention the fact that it’s become very apparent that the house we live in is a bit too cold for our comfort levels. Our lease is up in September and it’s likely we’ll be moving to one of Costa Rica’s beaches.

Sean and I both love warm weather. Even hot weather suits us just fine. It keeps up content. Throw some cold on us and we become instant cranky pants. We’re both fiery Aries and need the heat.

Night after night of being cold in our Mountain a-frame has made us punchy and put us in a state where we long for the beach. It’s like when you’re really hungry and you dream about all types of tasty foods you don’t currently have. Well, we’ve been sitting around our cold house at night dreaming about hot weather, which mostly consisted of…. beaches!

Also, I’ve been heavily debating getting a tan recently. If you’ve seen me in person anytime over the past 12 years, then you know I am a pale little white girl. At age 18 I decided as a preventative measure to avoid getting super freckly, I would simply stop tanning. Also, I think creamy white skin can look pretty wonderful. However, living in paradise… I want to look like I am LIVING in it… not living among it, staying inside all day long.

I think this trip to Panama is going to practically force me to work on my tan. So, I welcome the possibility of my future brown skin… khaki… whatever color I turn out, I welcome it.

I’ll be sure to take my camera and take photos/video.

I have two more blogs coming and a video soon, explaining our journey into our newly aquired Raw food diet, quitting smoking, steak tartar, and other interesting topics. Well, interesting to me.

Much love,
Lezlie