Christmas with Family

We decided early on not to travel home for Christmas, but to save the money for more travel abroad this year, so we were excited when my brother decided to come to Panama for the holidays. We enjoyed a few days in the capital before returning to our house in Santiago. It was fun to stay in Casco Viejo and be in walking distance of great restaurants and on the edge between the gentrified neighborhood and a still very authentic local one. At night, Nick and the girls played Spanish Headbanz on the balcony while kids played on the street down below, and we could see into everyone's apartments. We explored Soberania National Park and found some beautiful trails in need of major maintenance. It wasn't the first time we've had to turn back on a trail here because it was so unclearly marked. We watched ships pass through the canal during lunch on the water and for the first time saw one passing through the new expansion.

On the drive home, we took a detour to El Valle de Anton, where we stopped at a butterfly garden and found another hike. N again proved to be one intrepid leader, almost skipping along the steep rocky paths that challenged the rest of us. On the way home, we stopped, without a camera, at the top of a mountain, where we could see all the way to the ocean. It was beautiful and freezing! The roads were so ridiculously steep that E doesn't want to drive that route again, for fear our car will stop on the way up. I wish I had a photo of the sign that warned of steep hills--the icon defies physics, and it felt that way in the car sometimes!

Somehow we squeezed in a trip to Torio beach, but found the roads in much worse shape than on our first trip. It was pretty comical with all the accelerating and braking, and a few hard bumps, but E has become an expert at 'threading the needle.' It was so nice to have Nick here and involved in our family's Christmas celebration. We made curry (arguing over the process, of course), set up the girls' big gift (a pool), and enjoyed a lazy day of gifts, eating, and painting before Nick had to get back on the road to Panama City for his flight. We've been in a different country from family for Christmas before, and it was lonely, but this one was close to perfect.