Day 18 – Simple Pleasures
Funny how the weeks fly by when you are on a fact finding mission / Vacation / Road trip in a foreign country. Tomorrow we depart the mountains and leave Potrerillos in our figurative dust. Since we had packing and cleaning to do today something simple and fun seemed to be in order.
In keeping with the theme of uncovering things that we love doing at home I dug up a local public pool and we were off to see what that would look like in Panama. Turns out it looks like a day trip to an all inclusive vacation. Les Cabanes (Las Cabanas) is a very cool place owned by a French couple who came to Panama about 3 years ago. The mountains reminded them of home but without the cold and challenging politics.
It’s funny how many French speakers we have met here. My French has gotten a bigger workout than my fledgling Spanish. Les Cabanes is a Bed and Breakfast (75$ for a night in a cabin for 4 with a Parisienne breakfast) as well as a day trip destination. 5$ a head got us a full day in the pool and access to covered tables and chairs. An additional 36$ netted Phil and Connor Chicken Fingers and Fries for lunch, fries for Cal and I, 2 beers for Phil plus a Passion Fruit Daquiri for me and sodas and virgin drinks for the boys.
The best part is that we ran into some of the new people that we had met at Rock Climbing and Trampoline. Connor had a blast reconnecting with his friends and they spent the day bonding and splashing about in the pool. I learned a new game from Jessica (who moved from Columbia 5 years ago) and the four of us spent the afternoon playing. Add some splash antics with Cal and it rounded out into a champion day.
Post pool we decided to take a road trip to check out a house that Phil had seen on line that looked too good to be true. Turns out the old adage holds here as well. The impassable road of doom that we had to travel to get to the house in question was our first clue. Honestly I’m glad the house didn’t live up to the hype because that road was no good for motorcycles ;).