Tuesday Morning

Day four, it must be Boquete. Overnight at the Oasis. A little noisy getting to sleep, but then a restful night. Breakfast is at 7:30 and a walk in the beautiful gardens sets a nice tone to the day. Tuesday's are special here as they have the weekly  market. A short walk from the hotel takes us to a busy market with all sorts of goodies. Jewelry, art and native things are near the entrance. We make our way to the recommended coffee lady and buy a pound of medium roast beans. Then we head over to the man who created "jungle oil" which is touted to keep mosquitos away in this area. Another stop to buy local honey. There is fresh produce, eggs, meat, cheeses and more. Several bakeries and specialty foods give many choices to eat there or take home.

After an hour we board our yellow bus and head out to the burbs. We see some gorgeous homes and gardens and stop to visit Jackies, our tour operator's, home. She is set on three acres with lush vegetation including bananas. Her home is modern and comfortable. Jackie grows coffee as do many in this area. She roasts her coffee in a popcorn popper. There are many large coffee farms and you see the trees on many private properties too.

Next we visit Valle Escondido, a planned community which is gated with a nine hole golf course. I really like this community and we go to a townhouse unit which is spectacular

Next stop is lunch at a small place owned by an expat couple.  It is Cafe Cacao and they specialize in healthy food and organic chocolate. We were served a yummy corn, red bean chowder with a little chicken mixed in it. A small salad and piece of cornbread made a pretty plate. Dessert was a chocolate bread pudding which had a layer of jam and quite good.

It started to rain while we were eating and continued throughout the afternoon. Jeff and I stopped into
a travel agent to try to change our return plane tickets with no success. We decided to take a shuttle to
Bocas del Toro on Friday morning and take the shuttle back on Sunday morning. We'll stay overnight in Boquete and then go to the airport in David on Monday and fly back to Panama City. We stay overnight there and fly home on Tuesday morning. Back at the hotel we booked a room for the weekend and hope for better weather.

I sat out in the covered garden area most of the afternoon blogging and talking to other guests. At six we all boarded the bus dressed in rain gear. We drove a few blocks to Mike's Grill for dinner. I had a falafel, hummus plate and Jeff had pulled pork. Everything was delicious.

Back at the hotel and resting.