Day 7 - Goodbye, DeCameron,

The wee early morning hours of Day 7 weren't so great. Mateo woke up every few hours saying he was "scared of sumping," so I ended up struggling to sleep next to him with knees and feet in my back. Add to that a queasy stomach (I know what you're thinking, but I only had one margarita) and a dream about Mike Tyson giving everyone the Vulcan grip (don't ask, it's nuts), and it all added up to miserable sleep. For me. Everyone else seemed great in the morning. Mateo enjoyed his muffin breakfast.

So guess where we went after that? To swim, of course! Again. Well, I only half swam. I chose to bask in the heat rays again for a while. Mateo practiced his whale calls a la Dori on Finding Nemo, and Rafi let him ride on his back in the water.

It was difficult, but we did manage to get Mateo out of the pool and back up to the room. There we showered and rested while Rafi went to check us out. We ate our last DeCameron lunch and ran to the car in the rain. So much for our earlier baths. The ride home was nice and quiet. Mateo slept a good portion. We stopped at Quesos Chela again for empanadas, and enjoyed the scenery for the rest of our journey home.

This is a typical bus in Panama. Actually, they used to have more and larger artwork, but Rafi tells me that the city has mandated they all be painted in a more similar fashion. This one portrays the Virgin Mary, but in the old days it was fun to see a (slightly off) portrait of Madonna (as in "Material Girl") painted on the back.

I mentioned before the Centennial Bridge. On the way back I managed to get what I think are some pretty neat shots of the cables.

Once home I began a gift wrapping marathon. This year I actually brought gift wrap from home, and I'm so glad I did. It eliminated my usual last minute "I need wrapping paper" panic. Mateo played around the house with his abuelos and Rafi.

And then.... then came the WORST bath we ever gave him. Here in Panama it's not very common to have a bathtub, especially in older homes. So here we use a kiddie pool in the shower. Well, Mateo was NOT having it. He screamed bloody murder the entire time. We tried to be gentle, but I finally reached my limit and got in the shower (fully clothed) with him. I might've ended up a mess (no, no pictures of this one, thanks), but at least it got the job done. As suspected, he was just over tired, and fell asleep almost immediately after getting in bed.

And then Rafi's and my work begun. My only job is to make banana pudding for the dinner on Christmas night, so I needed to get the ingredients. The grocery stores were PACKED. And apparently you can't get plain vanilla pudding mix just anywhere. Three stores later (which includes a quick run to Arrocha again for a few small items), our mission was accomplished.

By the time we got home my feet and back were a mess. I didn't mention it earlier, but either Rafi or I had to carry Mateo a majority of the time at DeCameron, which my back didn't like. Crawling into bed felt nice.