Day 17 - Altos Del Maria

A handful of years back, Rafi and I invested in some land in Altos Del Maria, a mountain community in Panama. It's about 1.5 to 2 hours (including the necessary stop at Quesos Chela) to drive there from the city. The climb through the hills to get there can be steep and curvy at times, prompting Mateo and his abuela to scream "wheeee!" for the good ones. Okay, I admit. I did it, too.

These are photos of and from our lot. Isn't the view fantastic? Well, aside from this monsterous ant bed.

Every time we visit Panama, we visit our little plot of land. Santiago Apostol area. Number 628. With incredible mountain views. And no house with which to enjoy them. This time, though... This time our visit was different. We are inspired. We have ideas. We took photos of other homes that got our creative juices flowing.

So this year we have a plan. Now, it definitely won't get built this year, but we hope to at least figure out a plan. At the very latest we are hoping to invite friends and family to our vacation home by New Year's 2020. Doesn't that year sound space-aged? We can probably teleport there by then.

We also took photos of other pretty things.

Oh, I forgot to mention the playtime Mateo had. The swings were a hit, as was the sword fighting.

For lunch we ate at the new (and only?) cafe in the mountains. The strawberry smoothie is nothing but sweet, delicious strawberries pureed. Nothing added. Loved it. The views from this cafe were amazing. And they had wireless!

On the drive home we stopped by a viewing point. Rafi and I decided it really must be the stairway to heaven.

We headed home, and then got ready to go out for a family dinner with all of Rafi's family. My peppered steak was very tender, though my patience was not. I had a very difficult time wrangling Mateo in, as he kept running around the table - something we do NOT tolerate at home. I spent part of my night outside with him in time out. Had we been at home we would've followed through with our usual plan - one person stays and eats and the other sits in the car with him sans dinner. They say it only takes a few times to work, as the kid quickly figures out he must behave or miss out on the special evening. Anyway, it was more obvious tonight exactly which cousin Mateo idolizes - Luis Raul. He couldn't sit close enough to him at dinner.

Back at the house I packed. And packed. And packed. How silly of us to think we were coming back with less than we came with? I had no idea how much the bag weighed. This would come back to haunt me. Meanwhile, Rafi and Mateo enjoyed time with family. Oh, and a BIG thanks to Tita and Monica for bringing me the things I needed from the store! That saved me a good 45 minutes of time, and I really appreciated the thoughtfulness.

Hugs and kisses later, everyone had gone home, and we were left to go to bed ourselves.