Day 5

Day 5

Our second day in Bocas Del Toro we took a private all day boat tour. It was amazing! Our guide took us to a whole bunch of the surrounding islands. It was so lush and beautiful!

The little orange things are starfish.

Our guide took a paddle and plucked one out for us to hold.

Then he took us to his friends island where he said he had a Zoo. His backyard was ALL jungle and he took us around and let us see some of the wild life. We saw red frogs....

Green frogs......

Cade is holding the green frog in this picture.

and blue frogs.

We also saw a sloth.

So pretty!!

Next our guide took us over to another island that had this little restaurant on it.

When you would look into the water at the restaurant you would see all kinds of tropical fish. The orange and green one is a parrot fish

This long one is a barracuda. Don't worry I snorkeled with this sucker in the water. I am so BRAVE. :) It was so much fun to snorkel there. The fish and coral were amazing. We even saw this huge angel fish. It was like a foot tall.

This is how the locals get from island to island. All you need is a canoe and flip flops. Perfect!

Right by the restaurant were these little huts. I think you can rent them for a night. I think that would be so much fun.

Walking back from the huts.

Then we headed over to another island with an amazing beach. It is called red frog beach. To get there you have to walk along this path through the jungle.

Cade and our guide.

When you got there this is what you saw. It was so beautiful and hardly anyone was there. I guess when Cade served his mission and took his parents back to tour the country they were the only people on this beach.

Anyone want to buy property on red frog beach?

We found this heart in the sand and decided to lay out next to it. It was sooooo relaxing.

On the way back to the main island I looked down at my sandy feet and turquoise slats and thought it was a pretty picture. Cade and I were so exhausted at the end of the day that when we got back to the main island we took a couple hour nap, ate some dinner at a local restaurant, did some shopping then hit the hay. It was the perfect day!!

Day 4

Day 4
On this day we left David and drove to Bocas Del Toro.















This was our hotel in David.
Bocas Del Toro is on the Caribbean side of Panama. The drive was amazing and interesting to say the least. I guess Panama had a 100 year storm and it washed out like 20 places along the mountain road. In Panama they really don't mark the dangerous areas on a road. The most we saw was a pot hole traced in yellow spray paint. There were no blinking lights or signs telling you that, OH HALF THE ROAD WAS GONE!!! Holy crap!!! You would be driving and then all of a sudden the road would be GONE!

Like this.

And this.

Yeah this is where the road was supposed to go. It got washed down the cliff. luckily the other side of the road was still in use.....barely!

Some more fences. These were just branches that they put in the ground. Now they are trees! I thought it was amazing. This is how it looks all over the country.

A lake we saw on the drive.

If you look close you can see huts. I think the Guaime or the Kuna Indians live in them. You see these huts along the entire drive in the mountains. Most of the houses were right off the highway. I would see a four year old and a two year old just walking along the highway. It was crazy to me. You would never see that in the US. The kids were totally used to it though.

And then there was this little friend. Cade was using the restroom and he went to go get some water(that is how they flush their toilets) and this huge spider was under the water jug. So naturally Cade went and got ME.

HOLY HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cade thought maybe it was a tarantula. I said no honey that is NOT a tarantula. Well come to find out is a Banana Spider aka the wandering spider. Don't worry it is only the most poison es spider in all of Panama. Up until now I hadn't really seen to many bugs. Well from this point on I was officially bug freaked out.

When Cade started poking at him he got up on his back two legs and was swaying back and forth. He was a pissed little sucker.

He was striking and mad as all get out. Cade told the gas attendant to do whatever he wanted to do with him. He squished him. Good choice......creepy goose bumps!!!!!!!!!!!

So we finally got to this little town on the water. It is called Arihan. When I got out of the car I stopped and said, "Um, honey.....where are you taking me." This city was really really run down and sorta creepy, so I had to take a pic. The water around these homes was filthy and disgusting. I will explain why is a min.

So we go in to this little purple and yellow place with all the BARS on it. Sweet.

Then we took a water taxi. Here are some pics from the boat ride over to Bocas. The little shacks in the pic above are TOILETS! You read me right....POTTIES. They go poopie right into the ocean. I think we saw a terd floating when we were waiting for the water taxi.

Homes along the way.

A ship wreck and my husbands mitt he calls a hand.

Finally we arrived to one of the most beautiful places in the world. The island of Bocas Del Toro. We checked into our hotel quick and then went scuba diving. Yes people I went scuba diving. It was the most amazing fun beautiful fun wonderful experience ever. I get the pics back from our underwater camera tonight and will post them as soon as I can. I LOVED IT!

Gettin' ready to go.

Dinner that night. Such a fun day!!

Day 3

On this day we went to the city of Boquete which Cade HATED because he said there were to many white people and not enough Panamanians. In fact the Panamanians call it Greengo Landia (Greengo Land). Which I thought was really funny! So we don't have any pictures from there because Cade didn't like it that much. Later that night Cade and I visited one of his areas called Las Lomas. It was neat to see where he lived and the people he knew.

This was one of the houses that Cade lived in as a Missionary.

The sink that Cade washed his clothes in.

The kitchen of the house.

This is pretty much what all of the houses look like in Panama. The green house is actually a nice one in comparison.

This is one of the homes of a girl named Nilka. She gave me the bracelet pictured below. I was actually telling her how pretty it was and she took it right off and gave it to me. I also complemented her shoes and she took them off her feet to give to me. I told her they didn't fit right so she wouldn't give them to me. I can't believe how generous and loving she was.

Gabriel and Susan and their kids. (A family Cade taught)

Some of the ward members that were there when Cade was serving. The girl in the blue dress gave me these.(below) She formed them out of paper machete and then hand painted them. She gave them to me when we were visiting her family. I love them!!

So fun to meet all of them. Visiting the people Cade baptised and knew in Panama was one of my favorite things to do while we were there. Love it!

Day 2

We flew to David, Panama on this day. David is one of my favorite cities in Panama. It is a great location to go out and tour other cities from. The first city that we went to was Volcan. It is city on a volcano and is one of the most lush beautiful places I have ever been to.



















Throughout the whole country people set up tables and sell things they have made most of the time by hand. This lady was selling typical candy, jelly, and bread. All were so yummy!





































This man and his daughter were selling empanadas (sp?). They were soooo good!


















You can't tell very well, but this mountain side goes up pretty high. They just grow their crops right up the sides of the mountains.

Lesson #5
The food in Cerra Punta is amazing!

A typical treat in Volcan. They layer fresh strawberries with home made whipped cream. Yum!!

Misty clouds

In America these little shacks would be deemed unfit. In Panama these little shacks are their homes.

For fence posts they take a branch of a tree and stick it in the dirt then run wire along them. Unless you burn the branch it will grow back into a tree!! I will have pics of the trees later. Even through they burn them it is so lush in Panama that plants grow on them. Amazing!

Famila Vega

These are some of the people Cade baptised in Concepcion, a city close to David.

I don't remember their names...Cade will you get on and write their names!!

This is Lidieth and Raul. I love this girl. In real life she looks like a Panamanian Jennifer Garner. Cade baptised her as a missionary and when we went to visit them she introduced Cade to her husband Raul. Right away Cade recognized him. It turns out that he interviewed him for his baptism. Fast forward 10 years and it turns out that they got married in the temple!!! It was neat to see that the hard work Cade did in Panama was well worth it. We ended up going out to dinner with them. Even though I didn't even understand a thing they said I still had a great time. As we were leaving for dinner she comes out with this pearl necklace to give to me. I didn't want to take it because I could tell it was probably the nicest piece of jewelry she owned. I hoped she didn't use it when she got married. I couldn't say no though! I seriously almost cried. A lot of the families gave me gifts when we came to visit. Here are people who have almost nothing and yet they gave me the nicest gifts.

Lesson #6

The people in Panama are so warm and welcoming. I love them!

This necklace is now one of my most cherished things that I own. What a sweet girl!