And now back to reality.

Well, we had a wonderful time in California hanging out with Amanda's (and now my) friends and family. But we DID eventually return to Panama and here's what we've been up to the past few weeks.




Enjoying tea with our breakfast at a sidewalk cafe.





















Drinking good (but warmish) beer in the wilds of where we live. These Newcastles were a gift from Amanda's brothers, Chris and Eliot. Thanks, they went down great!

















The Montero family, happy to see us back at the shack.














We've also been wearing flowers behind our ears!














And cutting zinc roofing for local latrine beneficiaries. I'd like to give a shout-out to "Palacho," the helper to my left.














Amanda, painting the nails of some locals girls who absolutely LOVE coming over for this treat.












Showing off the final makeover.


















Here we attended a birthday party for a young girl where a pinata filled with flour was beaten open. As you can see in the leftmost part of this picture, participating in the rush for flour-covered candy afterwards was a man in his mid twenties with an armfull of the goods. Hmm...









And of course, no return to the bliss of domestic routine would be complete without dish-washing, even if it IS on a bamboo platform two hours from electricity.