This is the last entry! We are sitting at the Tocumen International Airport waiting for our plane back to the States after a great three weeks of vacation. During our last couple of days on Isla Colon (the "main" island of Bocas del Toro), we took the four-wheeler out to the jungle looking for white-faced monkeys. Didn't find them, but did find a troop of howlers. They talked to us, but we didn't know at the time that we should have talked back. Apparently they like to listen to tourists making fools of themselves, so they'll call back just to get you going. One highlight was a 30-minute ride to another island where a retired dentist from Oklahoma, of all places, runs an organic cacao plantation. He and his eleven employees nurture the trees, some over ... read more

We are staying on one of several island making up a small archipelago in the northeast corner of Panama, far -- very far -- from the glittering center. Not much of the $1 billion that supposedly comes from the canal seems to be spent here. "Bocas Town" is the center of business, with the airport, restaurants, little hostels and hotels, grocery, souvenir, and crap stores, plus water taxies and ferries to the other islands. We rented a four-wheeler/quad for the five days from a man with one leg -- auspicious, huh? -- which, from my point of view, was a great idea. No cars are rented here, because the road along the beach very quickly becomes the beach, and it's at least five miles of sand/coral/mud/rock road we'd otherwise be riding on coaster bikes. Hurray for ... read more

Yesterday, we took our lives in our hands and drove from Panama City to Pedasi, a fishing village of about 2000 people on the south (Pacific) coast. We were able to rent from National at the domestic airport near the canal, so didn't have to drive through the city -- a good point for anyone doing this. We also drove across the Centennial Bridge, not the Bridge of the Americas -- much less traffic. Although Panamanian drivers can be aggressive, they are generally good-natured and better drivers than the amateur NASCAR drivers we encounter in East Tennessee. Driving anywhere in Panama displays the enormous economic boom taking place -- building everywhere! As we moved along the coast, we saw billboard after billboard inviting us to buy land, homes or condos in fancy developments. If all these ... read more

We're at DFW, waiting for the plane that will take us to the warmth of Panama. I wasn't planning to write a blog this time, but have actually had a few questions from my "public", so will give it a try.... read more