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.

Bakersfield Pics...

Keepin it real...

A few of us in the parking lot of Cal State-Bakersfield after Elijah´s soccer practice













Thanks to the generosity of Bob and Susan, we were able to have our teeth cleaned professionally for free. Say Ahhhh!













Unfortunately, we weren't able to bowl for free, despite my near-professional performance at the the local lanes.














Amanda, learning bowling basics from her niece Adrianna.

Guys night out. Amanda's friend Ali scored big with several free tickets to watch the local minor-league hockey team, The Condors, tear it up. It was my first time sitting in a lux box and, like anyone who's ever flown first class, I'm sold!













Amanda, relaxing after dinner with her neice and nephews. From left to right are Joseph, Adrianna, and Elijah.















Amanda with her good friend Noel, at Noel's birthday celebration. We ate at a Cuban restaurant where the mojitos were amazing.














Amanda and I at Mike and Cristina's house party. Excellent food, conversation, drinks, games, and more drinks were had by all!












After dinner shot taken by Susan just before the guys team rocked the ladies in a no-holds-barred Pictionary and Taboo rumble.












Susan, Amanda's mother, demonstrating the true meaning of love, Taboo-style.


















While Cristina followed up with an authentic depiction of "twins," the ladies' skill was no match for the ingenuity of the guys' team.

Our visit to Bake Town...

After a very refreshing and fun filled week in the Napa Valley with my dad and Ruth, Brian and I hopped on a train in Martinez, California for a "beautiful" five hour seneic ride down to Bakersfield where we were greeted by my mom at the station. It felt so good to get that first hug from my mom that I had been missing for the past year and a half. We were off to a great start for two week visit.

The fist night we arrived we were invited to a cocktail party with our friends David and Isabelle. We had wonderful night sipping on yummy drinks and mingling by a fire. I kept thinking what a different world we were in. I even ran into an old Spanish teacher at the party whom I´d had my during my first year in college. She is a wonderful teacher and it was a joy to see her again as well as get to practice conversing a little with her in Spanish.

Over the next couple of weeks we spent a lot of time with family. We had family dinners followed by games like Pictionary, Scattergories, and Guesstures. It blows me away how tiny I feel around my younger brothers. It's fun to give them a hard time, however I have to be a little more careful now! It was also such a joy for me to watch and interact with my niece and nephews as they are growing up so fast. We played with barbies, went to a soccer practice and played video games, and had lots of our own "hang out alone" times together.

One night Brian and I were treated to a fun filled night in Los Angeles by my friends Kristina and her husband Mike. They drove us to dinner and then to see Dancing with the Stars at the Staples Center in downtown. We had a blast! Another night they had us over to dinner at their new house where we ate Mike's delicious stuffed mushrooms, salmon, asparagus and Brian's amazing homemade canolis. Following dinner we played Taboo and Pictionary along with my mom and other friends that came for dinner . It was hilarious, especially after several of their raspberry martinies. Yumm!

Brian and I also joined my good friend Noel for her birthday celebration at a cozy Cuban resturant and then I later went for a second time for a girls night out. That same night Brian joined a couple of my guy friends, brothers and step-dad at a hockey game. Another night my mom hosted a warm, low key friends hang out night which felt so good to hear what everyone was up to, laugh and just... be at home. One morning Brian and I met up at a nice local diner with two of my good friends from high school Jessie and his brother Sergio. They are two of the most motivated and high energy friends I have. It can be so refreshing to be around such positive people.

As much fun as I had with everyone I must say at times I felt a little out of it. I felt I have been almost frozen in time for a while and then brought back. I am clueless when it comes to movies, music, fashion, technology or even politics, which makes conversation difficult sometimes.

My time in Northern and Southern California was amazing. I savored every moment I had with each person. Brian and I both came back feeling refreshed and ready to work hard, appreciate life here and learn what God has for us here in Panama during these final few months.

Christmas/New Year's Extravaganza

After Thanksgiving, we passed most of our time in site counting down the days until leaving for California and a holiday visit with Amanda's family. We left Cerro Brisa on the 12th of December and, after spending a wonderful night in Panama City dining and hanging out with some of our fellow Peace Corps volunteers, we took off on the 13th for the promised land. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calistoga%2C_California)

My good friend Zane picked us up from San Francisco airport late at nigth and we had the pleasure of spending most of the following day with him before jumping on a San Francisco-Santa Rosa bus to meet Amanda's father and Ruth. We had a great time with Zane as we cruised for a while around the Palo Alto/Mountain View area where he lives. I have to say that there are probably only a handful of friends that I would consider "for life" in the the sense that we could be apart for years and still be able to pick up right where we left off while really enjoying one another's company. Zane is definitely one of them.

After hanging out with Zane for a bit before jumping on the bus (which brought us through some interesting-looking San Francisco neighborhoods as well!), we headed out to Santa Rosa and finally met up with Amanda's family, which she hadn't seen in almost a year-and-a-half. The follwing week was awesome. We enjoyed the beautful Napa Valley climate (crisp and dry), wine (tasted at four local wineries [www.castellodiamorosa.com-a $30M, recreated Tuscan castle; www.bennettlane.com-a beautiful botique winery in an upper valley corner; www.summerswinery.com-a small, high-quality Calistoga winery; www.vincentarroyo.com-my favorite Napa Valley winery, with awesome service, great wine, and that down-home feel] , a few of which don't sell off their premesis), and scenery and had a great time hanging out with family. I think I can speak for both of us when I say that we look forward very much to returning in the (hopefully near) future.




A shot of us and our host-family, the Monteros, seding us off the night before we left. Angela, our host-mother is holding their new daughter(as of yet unnamed) who was born only a few days before.







Visiting with Amanda's great uncle Guido, who just recently turned 94, was undoubtedly one of the highlights of the entire vacation. He's a wonderful host and, while legally blind, can still make a kick-ass Manhattan. (and insists upon it too!) Lesson learned: drink Manhattan's regularly for long life and good health.








A great picture of Amanda and her uncle Guido (usually called "Guy") . After a morning full of deliciously stiff drinks, Amanda (and I) were a bit blitzed, though you may not be able to tell in this picture.








Amanda, Joe, and Guy, all trying to look sober for the camera. Ruth was with us as well, but unfortunately not in the picture as she was the one taking it. We'll just have to get a shot of her when we return next time.










Amanda and I overlooking the amazingly beautiful upper Napa Valley. I'm not sure what grapes are growing in the vineyard rows below us (maybe cabernet?), but I'm sure they're tasty!









The front of the Culinary Institue of America's Napa Valley campus. Blessed is the man or woman who studies here.












A typical work-station for CIA students. Individual classes here run near $1,000, but that seems a small price to pay for learning from the masters.













The main classroom. Awesome.











We'll post about the rest of our trip the next time around. Right now, we leave David to return to our site for the first time in a month! God Bless!

Back Online!!

Whew! We are finally back online after about a month-and-a-half of Blogger tech errors that prevented anybody (including us!) from viewing our blog! While we're aren't sure of what the problem was, it seems to be fixed (or maybe lying in wait for a future attack) and we have LOTs of events to update everybody on.

Our last entry was in November just before Thanksgiving, and we had a wonderful time in the beautifully lush and cool Panamanian highlands with the rest of Peace Corps-Panama and my stepsister, Catie. Cerro Punta, where we went for the two night party, is by far one of our favorite places in all of Panama and was a wonderful place to spend some time in "friendly" nature and relax. Cool and verdant, with daytime temperatures around 65-70 degrees, it is renowned as a strawberry growing region and one can find many roadside stands selling fresh strawberries-and-cream drinks and mixes to enjoy.

Anyway we had a wonderful time visiting with Catie, and it's only too bad that she couldn't visit longer. However, as she teaches at a school in Guatemala City it is understandable that she needed to return for monday classes. "Que va?" (what can you do?) as they say down here in Panama, an apt phrase for almost any situation.

A front shot of the Los Quetzales lodge and spa, where we gathered and celebrated Thanksgiving with Peace Corps-Panama. (www.losquetzales.com)

Catie and Amanda on a short hike around the lodge through some jaw-droppingly beautiful tropical cloud-forest.

The inside of the Los Quetzales lodge. While tranquil and empty in this picture, just imagine the 130 Peace Corps Panama volunteers packed in and partying for two straight nights!

A moss-covered stream on another hike around the Los Quetzales lodge. There are few places in Panama (or the world for that matter) that I would call "magical" but this is one of them.