Friday morning, February 16 we drove about 2 hours and twenty minutes to Las Lajas on the Pacific coast to a house Kirt and his family had rented for the night.It was a lot hotter there compared to Boquete and hardly any breeze. the house was not air conditioned but the four bedrooms were.

Everyone disappeared into their air conditioned rooms except for Sela, Ariana and myself – we became Ariana’s gymnastic students and she was teaching us the balance beam as Sela shows below – basically Ariana tortured us for hours.

Arjelis’s friend Carolina, her son, daughter and daughter’s boyfriend joined us at the beach. They were a lot of fun to talk to and be around. Her daughter and daughter’s boyfriend were doing their residence at a hospital in Boquete. Carolina is also a doctor, but because she came from Columbia she can not practice in Panama.

It’s Saturday morning and we head back to Boquete soon – it was a good, fun trip.

Blacken Salmon

Creamy Grits
– 1/2 Cup yellow grits – I use the organic yellow grits from the bulk section of Earth Fare
– 1 cup of whole milk plus some extra for thinning
– 1/2 tablespoon of butter
– Pinch of salt
– a little cream cheese
Put the yellow grits, butter and 1 cup of milk in a small pot – slowly bring to a low boil stirring constantly.
Reduce heat to low and cook 5 to 8 minutes adding more milk or water if the consentience is to thick.
When the grits are soft and tender add the cream cheese and stir to incorporate.
Serve and enjoy.

Buckwheat Bread
– 250g of All purpose flour
– 50 g of organic buckwheat flour –
– 100g of Sprouted Spelt Flour
– 1 Tbsp – brown sugar
– 1-1/2 tsp salt
– 1 package of instant rise yeast
– 1-1/4 cups of water
– 1 Tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
Mix all of the dry ingredients together, add the tablespoon of EVOO to the 1-1/4 cups of water, stir the water and EVOO mixture with the dry ingredients – cover and place in a warm area to rise for 5 or 6 hours.
Pre-heat oven and dutch oven to 450.

We returned home from the Las Lejas around 1PM on Saturday and were expected at Rudy’s house around 2 PM for dinner. Rudy, a family friend, lives part-time in Boquete with his aging mother and part-time in New York. They have a small coffee plantation and a beautiful house high in the mountains above boquete.

We left Rudy’s house around 8:30PM and drove to Carolina’s house, that she and her, architect, husband designed and built. They were having a small party and had invited us – seeing the house with the meditative garden was a real treat – the house was beautiful.

The next morning, Sunday February 18, Sofia, Sela and I went to a meditative yoga class that was being held in the upstairs space of the Morton Bakery that we had gone to a couple of days ago. After the yoga class we went to the market district of Boqueta to shop – Arjelis father and cousins were coming over for dinner.

After we got home from shopping Sela and borrowed one of Kirt;s cars, the Nissan Pathfinder, and went out to lunch and procured 3 roasted chickens for dinner that night. On Kirt’s recommendation we went to this little place on the river – it was good.

Cenzio and Quetzal
The next morning Monday, February 19, Arjelis, Sela, Sofia, one of her friends, Cristhian, Roco and myself went on hike. This trail was full of pipes bringing water down from the mountains to a treatment plant for Boquete. Even though this is habitat for the Quetzal a sighting is rare – but Cristhian sighted one and pointed it out – what a beautiful bird.