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Published: October 10th 2010
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At the pool
Photo from Uncle Don Well, actually it was technically a townhouse, but the same idea really.
Monday morning we got up and I actually got to eat a decent amount of breakfast. It was delicious! Then we packed our things, and headed to the market in El Valle to pick up fresh fruits and veggies to take along with us. Miguel had headed off to work early that morning so we only had the van to get us to the beach and we had one person too many. Kendra and Aunt Trudi decided to take the bus down most of the way and then Uncle Don would pick them up at the main highway. We filled Aunt Trudi’s empty seat up with the produce and headed off.
We were staying at the Decamaron in Farallon (Play Blanca), just as we arrived the lady who we’d rented through zipped up on her golf cart and showed us to the townhouse that we were staying in. There were 3 rooms with bathrooms that could each be used like a hotel room if needed and then a kids’ room with two bunk beds in it (Kendi and Nathan had a slumber party in there). It was
Tough life!
Photo from Elissa all super nice with a huge kitchen and living room area.
After dropping off all our stuff Uncle Don left to pick up Kendra and Aunt Trudi while Elissa, Nathan, Allie and I hopped on the lady’s trusty golf cart and took off for a little tour. First she showed us all around the gated area of town houses and villas that I suppose are mostly weekend get aways for people. There were several small pools around the area. Then we went across the street and through another guarded gate. We went down to the main pool area which was huge, beautiful, and completely empty. It was also right alongside an absolutely gorgeous beach with lounge chairs and umbrellas. Part of the nice view was this island a short ways out, of course the lady had to tell us (in front of Nathan) that that was the island where Noriega took people to leave them, after having cut off their arms…because you can’t swim without arms.
Then we headed into the town which is really a little (mostly) dirt road with a couple dozen houses and a few restaurants (which were mostly toward the resort end of things).
The beach
Photo from Elissa We bumped along in the golf cart with the lady pointing out the sights like the “fish markets” which were really random homes with freezers in the garages. At some point, a mob of little boys from town started running after our cart and four of them actually managed to jump the back with me and Allie. Surprisingly, the cart kept right on chugging along.
I was so happy to finally be hungry for the first time in days. We headed to the little grocery stores in town and picked up some more essentials and then headed to dinner. We decided to try the brand new little place closest to where we were staying. We were the only people there and we sat outside under little tents, so of course mid-dinner it started pouring. It was like total chaos with the waiters running away mid order and food taking forever to come. It started raining so hard that half of me was soaked. Eventually Elissa had to head back with the boys (and without food) in the downpour. Then Jeff left next with their food. Trudi was left alone at their table but wouldn’t come join us because being
View
Photo from Uncle Don in the pouring rain for the 10 feet between the two tents made it not worth it. She would have been drenched in that much time.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning we pretty much spent laying in the sun, reading by the pool and playing in the water. We just meandered back and forth between the ocean and pool. The first day the waves in the ocean were too rough to really enjoy, but after that it was quite nice. The craziest part was that the place was basically deserted. The hotel next door was hopping and their beach and pool were insanely packed full of people. But even though they’re both the Decameron it’s different and you have to stay in the one you’re part of. Apparently none of the townhouse owners were around because we were often the only ones, or one of a few families at either the beach or pool. It was so nice.
We never made it to the local discoteca, but one night we did go to the casino across from the hotel. I went with Elissa and Kendi and we took Allie with us. She was nervous to go in
because is said “adults only” (I personally thought the sign was quite vague and that we could easily claim confusion around the age of and “adult”) but after awhile she warmed up and even played some slot machines. I was actually surprised to see how many other people were there since this place had seemed seriously deserted. We all played for quite some time on $6.85 which is what we had planned on spending until it ran out and then no more. Early on Elissa won a couple hundred nickels which she cashed out and they lasted us for quite awhile Then, just when we were ready to go, on our very last quarter (which had been rejected by several machines) I won $36.00. So we came out about 29 dollars up. It was quite exciting. There were some comments made in the family about us showing Allie bad habits, but I would argue that we were excellent role models for responsible gambling.
Miguel joined us on Thursday evening, just in time for some questionable fish that Elissa, Kendra and Jeff had ventured into town to buy from one of the “fish markets”. He got to hang out at
the pool all morning and then we got to have another comfortable and spacious ride back to Panama city.
The days a the beach were so mellow and relaxing. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten so much reading done on vacation before. But the really cool thing about it was that during this whole trip, but especially here (maybe I was just around him more) I got to watch Isaac really learn to walk. He was taking steps before, and they said that in El Valle he was walking more on his own because he wanted to go places while holding his beach ball, but here it was an adventure to watch him get just a little better and a little more stable and to choose to walk instead of crawl more and more each day. I’ve never spent so much time with a kid at exactly that stage of development before and it was just so crazy cool to see slight improvements become major advances. And, as an added bonus, he looked funny doing it so it was amazing and yet also always good for a chuckle.
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