Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

We finally left the rain and are in hot hot hot!!! We love it. We flew from Panama to Costa Rica and ended up in Quepos, Costa Rica 1 1/2 hrs. later. We found a condo to stay in and today we went fishing. Colton caught a 20 lb. rooster fish and a Jack fish. The Rooster fish is a fish that everyone is trying to catch out here. So Colton is really pumped and Dean is a little jealous. Miranda caught a Gar and Dean also caught a nice Jack fish. The Jack fish have dark red meat and when you fry it, which we did for supper it almost looks like your eating beef. While we were fishing we saw a 12 foot croc. swimming in the ocean. That was realy cool to see. We also went snorkling for a while at the end of fishing. Dean pulled out 8-10 oysters and him and Colton ate them raw. We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and playing on the beach. I'm trying to get over all my ailments. The other day I was cutting open a coconut and Cut my finger, than the same day I ripped half my fingernail off. If that isn't enough the mosquitos in Panama bit me up to pieces and I have at least 100 bites and I am soooo itchy, mostly at night. So I'm hoping that they will leave me alone in C.R.
We are planning on spending the day in Manuel Antonio park tomorow. It is a haven for monkeys and tonnes of birds and a few crocs. so that should be fun.

Bastimentos, Panama

We have been spending our time on this island dodging the rain and whenever possible having as much fun as possible. We went to see a whole bay of dolphins we snorkelled we have been fishing, Dean and Colton 3 times. We have met a tonne of people and we are so thankfull for the chance to be able to fill our lives meeting people from around the world.We love to be able to see things that most peple wouldn-t want to because its to hot or to dirty or to dangerous or they just want to stay home. So hopefully we can share some of this trip with the people who wouldnt want to do it but still find it interesting. Today we ate in a restraunt that they just opened 2 days ago. We had fried chicken and french fries and coleslaw made by this charming Jamacian looking lady. Colton said it was the best papas fritas (french fries) that he has ever eaten. The place looked like someones back deck but it was really cool. Well I had better get back to the only sun we have had and try to soak it up. Hopefully it doesnt shock my system.

Scuba in Panama

So I think that we have seen at least 12 to 15 inches of rain since we arrived in Costa Rica. Ya, I know itis better than minus 40 right. So every day we would wake up in the morning and it would be pouring outside and I mean pouring. Like nothing I have ever seen before for so long a time span. We really don-t have much of a tan yet because the sun rairly comes out. But oh well. To make the best of it we decided now is the best time to go and finish our scuba cert. If its going to rain we might as well be in the water in a wet suit. Well it was soooo much fun. The visibility was not the greatest at 60 ft. But other than that we saw some awsome coral and fish. It was great. It really made up for all the rain to be able to do this. So now we are completly cert. and we can rent tanks and go whenever we want to.
After the dive this morning the sun finaly came out so Dean and Colton went fishing with the owner of our hotel. He is a really nice guy. He was born here and wants to see the best for this island. But he says that it is changing so fast and he doesn-t like it. The change is happening to fast. But that sounds like everywhere.
We have booked our flights from panama to San Jose Costa Rica for Sunday. The flight is just over half an hour I think. The time we will save is 12 hrs. on a bus. That was a great find. We didnt know that you could fligh so easily between countries. We want to spend the last 10 days in the sun. So hopefully that will work out for us.

Panama!!!!

Well, we were finally tired of the rain every day since leaving Canada. So we skipped the country and headed off to Panama. We had no real idea of where to go so we picked an isalnd(because we love islands) and we landed the boat on a very small island called Bastimentos Panama. I know nothing about it so maybe try googling it and let me know. What I do know is the town is tiny. There are no street, no cars, I think there are no phones but cell phones. There is 1 computer. Thats why I can bolg. When we got here it didn't work so we couldn't email and mom was a bit worried. But all is well now. Other than the rain not stopping we are having fun. Today we rented a boat for the day and went to dolphin bay and watched tonnes of dolphins that came right up to the boat. Then we went snorkling and saw some of the brightest coral I have ever seen. The colours were stunning. Purples and yellows and blues and filled with little fish. It was great! Then we went for lunch at a restraunt in the middle of nowhere and had fish and rice and porkchops for lunch. Then we snorkled some more and trolled a bit. Colton and Dean finally got to fish. They each caught a small fish and now their hooked. They left again as soon as we got back. Dean took a boat to the next island for more tackle and bait and off they went. They got the owner of our places son to take them. So Miranda and I had some blog time. Miranda says HI!!! Tomorow we have the scuba guy booked and we are going to finish our certification. Then we will hang out here for a few days or maybe check out another island and we will fly back to San Jose and save ourselves a bit of travelling time. We want to check out Costa Rica's Pacific side so the flight will take us back to central Costa Rica. Hope that all our friends in Mb. are doing ok with the cold weather. We miss you all. Email us and tell us something we don't know.We miss hearing about whats going on with you.
If you notice I miss out on letters sometimes its because the keyboard here is missing stuff and everything is often in Spanish.

Zip Lining in the Rain Forest

We went on a zip line tour. The plat forms were about 50 ft. or so at the highest. Miranda was a little scared at first but the tour guide was really nice and he took care of her. Colton was the first one on the line and he had a blast.
Tomorrow we will be heading to Boca del Toro, Panama. The weather has been so cloudy and rainy we have decided to go to where it is nice. The man at the internet cafe set us up with a friend of his and a hotel that he knows. We are very excited that we can go to another country on this trip. Though we know that the weather is still nicer here than in Altona so we have been very happy. We will put on another blog entry when we get to Panama.

WARM WEATHER !

We are at the carabean coast!!! It is finally warm. The temp. has been 28-30 during the day and humid. I love it. The house we're staying at has 2 bedrooms and a kitchen so we can cook our own meals when we want to. It is nice for when Dean catches fish we can cook it up. The weather has been very rainy and windy so it has not been good for fishing. But we have been walking through the rain forest and we saw howler monkeys, a few sloths, a white faced monkey who was very friendly, lizards, green frogs and butterflies. Today we went on a rapelling canapy tour were we were strapped to cables and went flying through the tops of the rainforest. It was really fun. The kids loved it. We have had some great meals and we have had a lot of fun the last couple of days.

friends we made

Today was another day at the kids camp. We all had a lot of fun. Colton and Miranda each made some great friends here. It is amazing to see how kids who don't speak the same language can play all day together. We have learned a lot from the people here. Friends are very important. Even if they are only in your life for a very short time. It is hard to go from place to place and make friends and then have to leave. But we keep saying that there are so many more people out there that we need to meet and it's O.K. to say good-bye or Hasta luego(see you later).