Beach Resort

So I'm finding that it is hard to find time to blog regularly. It's going to take me forever to get through our whole trip to Panama. So here's a quick post about our lodging while in Panama.

The hotel we stayed at was called the

Sheraton Bijao Beach Resort.



As the name suggests our hotel was right on the beach and it was beautiful. Here is the view we had from our balcony.

We couldn't believe how beautiful the pools were.  

And the beach was beautiful too!

Brian decided to get up early one morning and go for a run on the beach. He didn't realize that running on the beach barefoot is like running on sandpaper... literally. He ended up with huge blisters on his toes.  

Another painful event that could have been avoided was getting sunburned. If only we had put on more sunscreen. One night as Brian got out of the shower I heard "Tiff! Hurry! You got to see this!" I wasn't quite sure what he could show me in the bathroom that would be exciting. As I walked in I found the he had discovered that if he pressed on his sun burnt skin it briefly left white imprints. I guess we are both easily entertained because I took the following photos.

There's never a dull moment when Brian is around! :)

Panama! Part I

The last week of February we went on vacation to Panama. You are probably thinking "why Panama?" We have definitely been asked that a lot. We definitely felt like the minority when it came to tourists from the US. One thing that we found out while we were there is that the majority of Panama's tourism comes from Canada. At least that is how it seemed. Every tour we went on the tour guide spoke English, Spanish and French. It was quite impressive.

On the subject of tours we were able to go on 3 different tours while we were there. The first tour we went on was to the Embera Indigenous Village. The Embera people live in the Chagres National Park in Panama but are native to Columbia. Here is a map showing the area they live in.  

There are no roads to their village so we had to ride in boats called pirogues. The Embera make them out of trees that they hollowed out and stuck a motor on the back. We didn't get a very good picture of one but these pictures give a pretty good clue as to what they look like.



Here is a shot of their village as we were pulling up to it.

When we got there the Embera people were very welcoming. Their chief greeted us and told us a little bit about the history of their tribe and what goes on in a normal day in their village. Here is their chief and our tour guide Victory who translated everything he said into English and French.

Next a woman from the tribe explained to us the role of the women and showed us the materials they used to make their bowls and plates. They basically "shred" up leaves and let them lay out to dry and then they dye them with different colored plants and dirt to give them color.

Once they are all dry they weave them into these bowls and plates.

Next she told us about their clothing. The only thing I remember her saying is that the coins on their "shirts" are US quarters. We thought that was kind of interesting.

After that they fed us lunch. A traditional meal that they prepare in their village... fish and fried plantains served in a rolled up banana tree leaf. 

I am not a fish fan, but I was brave and gave it a try. I didn't want to offend them by not eating their food. I was surprisingly impressed. It tasted pretty good despite the fact that it didn't smell very good. They also served us fresh pineapple and cantaloupe. I don't think I have ever had cantaloupe that tasted so good. It was a amazing.

After lunch they treated us to some tribal music and dancing.

(I tried to upload a video of them dancing but apparently blogger doesn't like the format our movies are in. Lame.)

I did take one picture of Brian joining in on the fun!

And last but not least we got tattoos. Not real tattoos of course but ones that stay on for about 12 days. I'm not quite sure what they use to make the tattoos but it was some kind of dye. I got a nice little flower on my foot.

And Brian got a manly design on his arm. (I never got a chance to take a picture of it while we were at the village but I got one a fews days later while at the pool.)

When the nice lady was done with Brian's tattoo he asked her in his broken Spanish if he could give her a tattoo on her arm. I'm not sure she knew what she was consenting to but she was very kind and let Brian draw a tattoo on her arm. He is quite the artist. He may need to change professions.

After watching children play with a beach ball someone brought....

we put on our life jackets and headed back to the pirogues.

That is the end of day 1.

Quick Update

Well it has obviously been a while since I have posted an update so I guess it's about time. So I'll give you a quick run down of our lives month by month since August. So here goes!!

September

In September Brian and his friend Luke ran the Dirty Dash, a 10K held up at Soldier Hollow in Midway. You may remember from earlier posts that he ran this last year as well. And just like last year he had a blast and got really cold and muddy.

 I'm not quite sure what is going on with the chosen running apparel (supplied by Luke) but boys will be boys. 

October

There is one holiday that I dread celebrating while at work and that holiday happens to be Halloween. Let's just say I am a party pooper and I hate dressing up and going to work. So this year I had a brilliant plan... I took the day off. :) And it just so happened that Brian was scheduled to have that day off! So we took a weekend trip and stayed at The Homestead up in Midway. And since it was Halloween they had the surrounding yard all decorated.

We may have had a little too much fun as we wandered through the decorations. 

November

The only thing exciting that happened in November is that I got food poisoning and Brian happened to have IV supplies lying around so he gave me an IV. I felt 100% better the next day. As you can see I looked and felt very miserable.

December

December was an eventful month. We moved out of our downtown condo in Salt Lake into a basement apartment in Bountiful. The only way I was ever convinced to move out of our beloved condo was the fact that the rent at the apartment is $350 a month. We couldn't pass it up. I don't have any pictures of the new apartment but here is a picture of what I usually see every morning when I leave for work.

We have about 20 deer that live in our backyard and we see them daily.

The only other thing that happened in December is that our lovely bird Stu decided to get everyone in our families a Christmas gift. Unfortunately he is quite shy and fragile and doesn't like to go out in public. So he came up with the idea to take a picture of himself (which wasn't too much of a surprise, he is very vain). The following picture was his idea. Isn't he so clever?

He is going to be such a good big brother come August!!

January

This is apparently the only picture I took in January. It was taken at Bird World while we were shopping for bird food for Stu. It was a very exciting month as you can tell.

February

In February we took a very much needed trip to Panama. There is much to tell about our trip to Panama so you will have to wait to hear about it in the next post. (Hopefully it won't take me another 6 months).

Here is a taste of what's to come.