Well, we are all trying to get settled back into our routine. Vacations, business trips, etc. all occurred during the month of June. Little by little we are becoming reacquainted with our tranquilo life here in Bocas del Toro. We celebrate the freedom to choose our life this 4th of July. We celebrate our freedom from the normal day to day. We hope all of you celebrating the independence of the United States of America enjoy your day. For those of you in other locations or of other nationalities we wish you freedom.

Jim and Tres found this two pumpkins in Bocas Town last week. We couldn't get over how lucky we were to find them. We are quite certain that we have the only two jack-o-lanterns in Bocas right now. The kids had a blast carving these up yesterday and can't keep themselves away from looking at them once lit. Great fun. Hope you all are having a great Halloween.

Supply List can be found here.

Even as displaced citizens of the United States of America, we take time to remember our founding fathers and everything that they began so many years ago. We are hoping to head out to a party shortly if we can get the weather to cooperate with us. For those of you celebrating the USA's independence, have a great day. And for those of you who don't - enjoy your country's big day whenever it is.

Here are a few of the shots that jumped out at me when I was going through the photos for April. Ramon and Natalia have been catching some amazing photos of us and of all of our guests. Jim and I also took a few of these photos. You have much better odds when you have so many photographers. Whatever it is, skill, luck, good equipment, or excellent subjects I am thrilled to have so many wonderful photos from which to choose.

We hope that you all rang in the new year as you like to do so. We had a lovely dinner with our guests. After dinner we had several different games of cards, dominoes, and lively conversation. We took a swing at a pinata full of chocolate. We went from the youngest person and worked our way up until all of the candy had emptied out of the pinata. From there we made our way down to the dock and had a wonderful fireworks display courtesy of James. (Video sometime soon) Following the show some people stayed up and others went to bed.

This morning we have had a slow start. We will have a traditional southern (as in Texas) meal today for New Year’s Day. Our children get to take a crack at their own pinata and our guests are enjoying various activities.

We appreciate each and everyone of you - those that stop by the website, those that hope to come to see us some day, those that have been here, those that we work with, our friends and our families. We wish you all a new year full of wonder!

Our children and our guests were singing “It’s raining, It’s pouring...” as we have had a bought of rain over the past two weeks. The rain came in the week before Thanksgiving and didn’t leave until Thanksgiving Day. We are used to rain (we live in the rainforest) so that in and of itself is no big deal. However, we have had a lot of wind with this storm and it has done more damage than normal. Both the Bocas del Toro Province and our neighboring province of Chirqui have been hit hard. We were very fortunate in that we had limited damage.

The storm knocked out communications to our archipelago. We do not know what caused it; but no one on the islands could make a phone call or use the internet. Planes didn’t really fly to and from Bocas from Saturday through Tuesday morning. One or two flights got in and out during that time however it was really inconsistent. Communications came back up on Monday night.

Ironically, other than some fallen branches and a few small trees, we are absolutely unaffected by the storm here at Tranquilo Bay. Our radios which bring us the internet from the main island are working just fine. Our water and power are working just fine. We proceed with business as usual.

We are in the rainforest. It rains here a lot. The rain keeps the plants lush which is a good thing. We catch rainwater for our water supply. Generally it doesn’t rain for several days in a row all day long. We are dealing with Mother Nature here - we do not get to set her schedule. As much as we wish we could. Apparently this storm was one we get every thirty years or so. The Panamanian Government has declared a state of emergency in both our province and the neighboring province. We are getting news that the roads have been repaired to the extent to allow the small trucks which bring us supplies can make it on the roads.

This storm and the resulting flooding on the mainland were hard on our neighbors on the mainland. The Panamanian government, the Columbian government and the US government have all come together to provide support to these poor people. The Red Cross is here on the mainland helping the people who are now homeless. All in all the numbers are good, there are many who have lost their homes, but very few who have lost their lives.

We are doing what we can to help our neighbors and to make sure that our guests have a wonderful experience in our beautiful archipelago.

Here are some photos from one of the excursions our guests took when Mother Nature lightened up a bit. We are so appreciative of the change in the weather.



Kayaking over to Crawl Caye. Three boys and a bird - could be interesting.



Thanksgiving Dinner. James is a chick magnet.



Blue Morpho - catching one of these on a leaf is almost impossible.



Hiking at the chocolate farm. The kids found the creeks very appealing.



Zapatilla Cayes - sunshine! Yea!



Two boys and some sand. Great fun.

As we prepare for the Thanksgiving Holidays of 2008 I thought it would be fun to review some of the excursions we went on last year at this time. We had several families here for the week of Thanksgiving so all of these excursions allowed children of all ages to participate. Here are a few photos from a trip to the Chocolate Farm.

People often ask us how we handle certain things given that we are living out here on an island. Well, we pick and choose how we do things. We do not have anything forced upon us since we do not have the media and marketing bombarding us with messages about what we are supposed to be doing. Thus, what to do for Halloween?

The boys have been dressing up for a few years now. The first year I could barely get Tres to put his costume on and go knock on the kitchen door. The next year we had the boys dress up and go around to the different buildings and trick or treat with the staff. Last year all three kids dressed up and went on a scavenger hunt in front of the main building. The weather looked a bit ominous so we decided to stick close to the house.

This year Halloween has been a bigger deal. I think it is because both boys expect more from it. I also believe it is because we have gone into more effort to make costumes and get prepared. I made both Boty and Tres a costume. I wasn’t sure I was going to have time as we approached Halloween so I made sure the costumes were completed at the beginning of the month. Tres declared early on that he wanted to be Superman. Boty of course then needed to be Supergirl. Scott wanted to be a pirate. I knew better than to make two superhero capes without making a third. Thus - we have had children trying on capes and learning to fly all month long. Scott’s grandmother decided she would make Scott’s pirate costume. She also very graciously made a second vest for Tres so that he could use it for dress up after Halloween. We have also been listening to spooky music all month long in preparation for the big day.

I found a fabric panel that had a Halloween trio of jack o laterns on it in one of the stores in Bocas earlier this month. Tres and I were so surprised to find it that we knew we had to buy it and do something with it. At $1.25 it was a bargain. I put on a backing and quilted it into a little wall hanging for the kids to enjoy all month. After all - we can’t go to the pumpkin patch and buy one to carve. So we make do.

I checked in with the boy’s teacher to determine if they could wear their costumes to school for Halloween. She thought it was a great idea. So we will have a pirate and a superhero in school today. We will be trick or treating around the lodge in the different buildings. We are having a spooky dinner and special guests. Papa and Grandma are arriving on the afternoon flight. They will get here just in time to join in on the festivities.

We all want to wish you and yours a happy, healthy and safe holiday season. December is a time for all of us to celebrate our families, friends and opportunities. There are the different religious holidays, the cultural holidays and the new beginnings to prepare for and contemplate. Then there is the time to just ENJOY. We all wake up each day thankful for the opportunity we have here to live, run a business, raise our families and spend time with each of our guests = and we get to do all of this in paradise. Take care until we see you next. :)