What A Long Strange Trip It's Been....

There are probably a lot of people out there that might have labeled my departure from the world of the working to go surf with my family for a year as a midlife crisis.  It's actually been more of a midlife awakening.  We've done more in the last 10 months than most people do in 20 years of taking vacations.  We surfed at least  4-5 days a week on average, learned (or at least improved in my case) Spanish, visited four different countries, had amazing cultural experiences, experienced some crazy tropical weather and made a lot of friends along the way.  Personally, I've lost almost 10 LBS and gained back another 10 years on my life without a doubt.

Our last week  to surf in Panama was a wild one.  We had new swell fill in that was pretty big the weekend before we left that saw 6-8' waves when the swell peaked.   The only unfortunate thing was that it was accompanied by some wind and less than perfect conditions at times.  We did have one last session on Monday 3/31 in uncrowned, head high, clean conditions.

Picture: Paunch Paddle Out, Last Session Turns at Paunch Reef:

 

It was very tough to leave the beauty of the Caribbean and Bocas del Toro, but it has to end at some point and what better way to end it than with a job offer.  I've accepted a job with Charter Media as the GSM overseeing western region properties in NV, CA and OR state.  It will be based in Reno and move us away from the ocean for now, but we'll be really close to family, the Sierra Nevada's, Lake Tahoe and a hell of a lot of great snowboarding and skiing.  Plus, Charter is a client of my former company making the transition easy and my new boss is a visionary that I'm stoked to be going to work for.

Pictures:  Leaving Behind the Beach Life & Paki Point Happy hour at 4P:

Our trip back home started on Monday 3/31 at 4P where we stayed in Panama City the night before departing on a 7 hour direct flight to LA on Tuesday.   We had 5 days in LA to tie up loose ends and see friends then it was on to Reno to start a new chapter where we've been since last Sunday 4/6.  Needless to say it's been a hectic couple of weeks with all the travel and were really excited to be here.

Pictures:  Snap Shots of Panama City to LA Leg of the Trip & Corporate Makeover in LA:

We've cycled through or have seen a lot of stuff on this trip here's a quick look at some fun stats:

Cool Exotic Animal Sightings in the Wild:

Crocodiles which we hand fed in the mangroves of Mexico

Stingrays in all 3 countries - one with a 6 foot wing span that jumped out of the water at the ranch nearly landing on a surfer.

Howler Monkeys in Nicaragua and Panama on many occasions in our back yard.

Tarantulas in Mexico

Black scorpions in Mexico and Nicaragua - one carrying dozens of baby scorpions on the mothers back

9+ foot python curled up on the trail I was running in Nicaragua and almost stepped on

Toucan in Buffer's yard in Panama

Parrots daily sighting in Panama

Starfish in Panama

Tree sloths in Panama

Blister Beetle in Nicaragua

Green Tree Frog Mexico

Bats in Mexico

Whales in Nicaragua which actually were breaching just outside the surf break

Fire ants that relentlessly bite you if you happen to get them on you in mainly in Nicaragua and Panama

Photos:  Campeon (Champion in Spanish), Tree Frog:

Breaks Surfed:

La Saladita - Guerrero, Mexico

The Ranch  - Guerrero, Mexico

Rio Nexpa - Guerrero, Mexico

Las Gatas - Guerrero, Mexico

Escollares - Guerrero, Mexico

Panga Drops - Tola, Nicaragua

Colorado's - Tola, Nicaragua

Playgrounds - Tola, Nicaragua

Playa Maderes - Tola, Nicaragua

Caranaro Reef - Bocas del Toro, Panama

Paunch Reef - Bocas del Toro, Panama

Photos:  Scott & Melissa Surfing Rio Nexpa  (one of our favorite breaks on the trip):

Surfboards Used:

6.0 Dev Rocket Fish - Returned to LA after Mexico leg

5.8 Firewire Hellfire - Returned to LA after Mexico leg

6.3 Dev Stingray - Sold in Mexico

5.8 Rusty Dwart - Sold in Panama upon arrival used in Mexico and Nicaragua

5.8 Town & Country Custom Epoxy - purchased in Panama upon arrival

6.5 Dev short board - Returned to LA after Mexico leg

5.6 Lost Bottom Feeder - Sold in Nicaragua

6.2 Dev Rocket Fish - Used duration of trip

5.10 Firewire Spitfire - Used duration of trip

Photos:  Surf Board Quiver:

 

Sunscreen:

29 tubes of Headhunter SPF 30 tinted facial sunscreen

5 Headhunter SPF 45 face sticks

Worn Out Board Shorts Count:

8 pairs Melissa

9  pairs Scott

3 pairs Jordan

3 pairs Slater

Birthdays Out of the  States:

Melissa  10/8 - Troncones, Mexico

Scott  12/27 - Hacienda Iguana, Tola - Nicaragua

Jordan  3/1 - Bocas del Toro, Panama

Slater 3/14 - Bocas del Toro, Panama

Lost or Stolen Items:

New Martin travel guitar left in the overhead on Avianca flight from Mexico City to San Salvador

Rip curl tide watch stolen out of our door less Jeep in Boacs del Toro

2 pairs of flip flops stolen in Panama

Nearly lost our entire bag of electronics, pass ports and exterior hard drive in Liberia leaving a computer bag in a 4X4 cab which we took from the boarder and was driven back to us a few hours after the police turned our cab driver around.

Favorite Kid Beach in Each Country (ranked in order):

1)  Red Frog Beach - Bastamentos Island, Bocas del Toro - Panama

2)  Troncones Point - Guerrero, Mexico

3)  Playa Drago - Bocas del Toro, Panama

Photo:  Red Frog Beach:

 

 

While in LA, a lot of our friends were asking questions about our return to the states and how we felt.  Honestly, we couldn't be more excited to be back in the USA.  You can only live out of a backpack and board bag for so long before you want to get back to a more normal existence.  I would also be lying if I didn't say this was the best thing we've done as a family.  The cultural experiences and meeting locals in the countries we visited has enriched our lives for the better.  Seeing how people live in every country we were in also made me realize in no uncertain terms how very lucky we are to live in America.  We drove down many rural dirt roads in all three countries where families live in tin roof shacks with no water or electricity in some cases.  Many people in these countries really live hand to mouth and it's a hard, hard existence.  While we were comfortable on our trip, this certainly wasn't a 10 month trip to a Sandals resort which is what made it so special.

Photos:  Kids Reunited with Friends in LA:

 

Adventure has always been an important part of my life and looking down the road to the next several years I'd say were poised to have a great run of it here in Reno.  Outdoor recreation is huge here and California isn't that far away, so surfing is still on the menu so to speak along with a smorgasbord of other activities.  I've had a lot of fun cobbling together these blogs and they'll serve as a great reminder of our trip.  If you're reading this I hope you find some inspiration in all this to interject some random adventure in your life.  What we did as a family was pretty extreme on the adventure scale, but you really don't have to look that hard to shake up your everyday life if you want new experiences.

This will probably be the last blog for a little while now that I'm back to work.  Our family adventure is far from over and I'll continue to use this space for telling our story.  For now,  a special thanks to all friends we made on this trip in Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama.  This trip wouldn't have been the same without you all.  Checking back in, for now......

Photos:  Best Sunsets & Great Friends - Mexico:

 

 

End of the LIne?

Since moving into Buffer's place post Panama Fred's, time has flown by.  It's been almost three weeks since we've moved into our new pad and it has been a great place for us.  The house itself is extremely comfortable and located close to Paunch one of the breaks we've been surfing frequently.  The kids have a large yard that they can go down and explore in and the sounds of howler monkeys or exotic birds are a running sound track here.  We're closer to the ground here and not elevated 20 feet in the air so it's much easier to spot wild life.  Jordan on the porch yesterday shouted at us in the kitchen to come check out a Parrot in the yard.  What it turned out to be was a Toucan which is a rare sighting considering they're pretty much endangered on the island.  We were lucky to have it fly around our yard for 20 minutes for us to check out before he flew off.  It's probably been one of the best places we've stayed on this journey so far.

Jungle Hide Away - Rare Bird Sighting:

 

We celebrated Jordan's birthday on March 1st by waking up early so he could open his gifts which we had brought from the states when we were living in Nicaragua by our friend Tom.  Jordan was very excited to get a Rescue Bot and an old school Optimums Prime transformer.  Pretty cool to see him so excited over classic toys.

Transformers:

 

After a quick breakfast, we headed over to Starfish beach early to enjoy a couple hours of Starfish hunting and snorkeling.  Starfish beach was a slight disappointment considering the online world paints it to be a beach that is littered with the magical little sea creatures.  The reality is we only saw a few.  One of the best ones we saw, pictured here, was about the size of a dinner plate.  We were able to kick around in snorkel gear and take photos with the GoPro while Melissa actually swam down to touch him.

 

Bday Boy with Mom - Starfish Sighting:

 

Our opportunity to explore in Panama is considerably better than it was in Nicaragua with the rental of the "Red Dragon".  The Jeep is a great vehicle to get around Bocas and the kids love it.  No doors, no kid seats, a plastic bag for gas cap and only one break light but you can take it in the mud or sand without worry.  The folks at Flying Pirates who we rent from have really taken care of us checking out some small issues we've had quickly.  The Jeep also comes with access to a gated private property at the north end of the island which we went out to explore this week.  It's kind of a hassle getting out there on the rutted single trek road which is designed more for the ATV's Flying Pirates rents than the Jeep we have.  Once out there, you can explore La Pacina (the pool in Spanish - which is a shallow cove for swimming), the blue lagoon, monkey trails, the bat caves or a smaller island dubbed Bird Island.  On our initial journey out there we checked out La Pacina and the monkey trails.  We were delighted to see many howler monkeys who were eager to check us out and howl back as we tried to speak their language.

 

Red Dragon - Monkeys:

 



The surf has been small but fun here this last week and not at all like the first two weeks where it was consistently 5-6 feet or larger for almost 10 consecutive days.  Caranero reef hasn't liked this most recent round of small swell leaving us to surf Paunch reef more frequently.   We prefer the set up at Caranero due to it being a longer more user friendly wave.  Paunch is faster and has more high performance characteristics, but the trade off is a sketch entry and exit over a cheese grater of a reef that is filled with hundreds upon hundreds of urchins that are visible as you wade across it.

Unidentified Lining One Up at Paunch - Drug Across the Reef - Urchins on the Reef:

 

 

Our photos, simply can't do the surf here justice.  It's super heavy at times.  Check out this feature that a local photographer shot on Magicseaweed of Silverbacks if you want to see what one of the most insane breaks here is like:

http://magicseaweed.com/news/crystal-caverns-in-panama/6154/

We're gearing up for another run of 7 consecutive days of big swell which is nice because the Panama leg of our journey might end our trip.  I've been interviewing with a company back in the states that might have us returning at the end of March for a job.  We've also got a couple of contingency plans in place that include Costa Rica and then back to Mexico through June should the opportunity I've been pursuing not come to fruition.  End of the line for the endless summer?  We'll see.....

Parting Shots Bluff Beach:

 

 Shell Drago - Hermit Crab Stare Down:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moving Day(s)

Due to an unfortunate series of events we've had to move three times in the last two week period in Panama.  When we first arrived a couple of weeks ago to our "luxury" rental off of VRBO we found a bare bones efficiency apartment on the ground floor of a property that only can be described as a borderline slum.  As you exited the apartment into the surrounding mosquito breeding ground they called a yard,  all you could see was garbage littered everywhere.  As an added bonus the stench of sewage hung heavy and a makeshift work area was right next door with a variety of broken down trucks where the kids could watch arc welding on a daily basis.  As if this wasn't bad enough, the place was poorly equipped also.  One pot, one pan a set of four plates and flatware were all that populated the kitchen.  The owner was well aware we were moving in with our kids so to say that was beyond disappointing is a complete understatement.  The first night we kept hearing a rattling in our room which turned out to be rodents on the side of the complex pillaging the garbage at night which was a fenced in cubby hole a mere 10 feet from the outside of our room.  As if this wasn't bad enough, frequent roach sightings in the first couple of days proved to be the final straw.  We decided to tell the landlord on day 2 we were breaking the 3 month lease promise and would only stay 9 days paying a ridiculous $155 per day for this total shit hole. 

Dinner Table Next to the Shitter - Luv Seat Made of Burlap and Steel = Luxury!

 

Roach Motel Beds:

 

 

Toasting in the hood with Gunniess will keep you sane:

 



With high season in full swing here we were lucky to find a house at the north end of Bocas that sat in the jungle at canopy level that was open for the four weeks we're planning on staying here.  The kitchen was better equipped than our own at home and the house sat on stilts at canopy level in the jungle.  This provided amazing views of parrots, hawks, massive trees and thickets of bamboo that look like they are straight out of Jurassic park.  The house was also filled with all kinds of cool knick knacks, but with the boys having glass vases filled with sea shells and breakable relics laying around isn't the best thing.  As we spent last week at Panama Fred's, we began to realize how really, really bad the internet connection was.  Since we were low on the hill, the Claro signal just couldn't get into the property which caused some serious issues with Melissa and work.  The house also worked on a rain catchment system which is only as good as the amount of rain you receive.  It's been unusually dry this week and even with all our conservation efforts we used the better part of one of the massive water drums housed under the house.  This also prevented us from using the community laundry facilities forcing to take our laundry into town to pay to have it done.  When we got it back none of Slater's clothing was in the bag and we gave them virtually everything he had.  Fortunately, upon returning the next day they produced a bag with all of his clothes and a few other articles that didn't make in back the day before.  This we decided again was too much to cope with even though the place was pretty amazing.  We approached Fred who let us out of the lease with a minor penalty so we could move into what is the perfect fit for us.

 

Panama Fred's House and Amazing Deck:

 

We moved into a surfer's house down the street we rented from our same property manager.  It is a beautiful house 30 feet from the water of Sand Fly Bay and set back off the road.  Hard wood floors, high end kitchen, incredibly spacious and has unlimited wifi.  We really scored with this rental which should keep us here for the next four weeks.

Bluff's House, Living Room & Outdoor Table with a Lake View:

 

Bocas Del Toro is hands down one of the most expensive stops on this tour.  We've spent triple our monthly budget having to rent a Jeep at $350 a week in addition to food costs being off the chart.  You can't pick up an item on the shelf of the grocery store here without a price tag of between $5-10 dollars.  The craziest prices are reserved for American products with a pack of bacon running $10.  It's not like the bulk one you get at Costco either.  It's the straight up regular size pack.

Bocas Del Toro is staggeringly beautiful.  We've already checked out Red Frog beach on Bastamentos Island along with Drago Beach which is at the north end of the Island of Colon where we currently are living.   Both offer clear warm water teeming with wild life and lacking crowds of people.  We have a lot to explore in the next four weeks too.  Starfish beach (which is exactly what you might imagine, a beach with hundreds of starfish floating in its shallow water) is next on the list this Saturday for Jordan's birthday.  The rental of the Jeep also gives us access to private property where monkey trails, a massive still water bay and jungle hiking await on the far northeast corner of the island for us.

Red Frog beach is an amazing bay of powder fine sand, clear water and tropical life:

 

 

Daddy Day Care on Playa Caranero while mom surfs the left point reef set up:



Surfing in Bocas has definitely been a step up experience for both Melissa and I.  We aren't even surfing any of the more critical barreling breaks either.  The breaks we've mainly surfed are Caranero Island which is a left point set up that breaks over a series of reefs and Paunch reef up the road from our house.  Both over 7 feet can have an incredibly steep or even barreling take off that opens up into a ripable wall of water well suited to work on top turns, cut backs or racing down the line to make a section when needed.  In the coming week, I'll be writing a short blog on these breaks in more detail.  For now suffice it to say that we've both got some amazing waves these first couple of weeks along with some of the most brutal beatings on blown waves we've experienced on this trip.

 

 

 

Nicaragua to Panama

On this trip the travel days have proven to be the most complex that we've ever undertaken.  This leg from Nicaragua to Panama definitely took the cake in the complexity department.  On paper it seemed pretty easy.  Part 1 - take a taxi one hour to Nicaragua boarder, Part 2 - cross Costa Rican Boarder hire taxi to drive to Liberia, Part 3 - Wake up early the next day and board Nature Air flight from Liberia to Tamarindo>San Jose and then finally Bocas Del Toro. 

It's the unforeseen events that kill you.  So the travel day starts by our taxi driver not showing up at all last Thursday.  Fortunately, it was arranged through our dear friends Leah and Greg who had come by early that morning with their children Sierra and Rio to say goodbye.  Greg being the incredibly awesome guy he is offered to drive us to drive us to the boarder in the red dragon, his well worn Mitsubishi pickup truck that stopped logging miles when the odometer broke at 234K.  The second hiccup was being stopped at check point by a local yokel right before Rivas a small town at the midway point we usually do our weekly shopping at.  The officer was clearly looking for bribe after doing an inspection on the vehicle and finding a couple of tail lights out, but Greg didn't bite.  After 30 minutes a ticket and confiscated license, we were on our way.  Greg was pretty heated and rightly so as this is clearly reverse profiling that happens all the time in Tola if you're traveling with surfboards visible in the car. 

After a brief lunch stop and a drive by past Lake Nicaragua with the two massive volcanic peaks of Ometepe sticking out of it, we arrived at the border.  It's about what you'd expect too.  A disastrous two lane road clogged mainly with semi trucks and busses.  We zipped by all these vehicles in the wrong lane to stop at a make shift fence that looked like something straight out of the second world war.  We were immediately bombarded by locals looking to help cart our 181 LBS of luggage and 65 LBS surfboard bag the mile distance between the border check points.  The guy we ended up with was pushy but effective shaving about an hour off our crossing by greasing the baggage check officials for $10 to let us pass go directly to the stamping portion of our exit.  We had to pay some overage which took some extra minutes, but within an hour we were trading our Sherpa for another since the ones we hired in Nica can't continue on past the midway point in the mile boarder purgatory.

 

Moving Bags & Rickshaw Ride at the Boarder:

Loaded up on the other side with a new cart we worked our way through the now spitting light rain amid the several money vendors offering to change US Dollars, Nica Cordoba's or Costa Rican Colones at a 20% fee.  We actually scored a great 4X4 Nissan taxi that sped us away onward to Liberia.  We were treated to sweeping vistas of the Santa Rosa national park that has several amazing volcanic peaks.  After our first police check point and a gas stop across the boarder there was a loud slapping noise that clearly signaled a blow out on the front passenger side where I happen to be sitting.

With the help of a friend who happen to be passing by our driver changed the tire with Indy like pit crew precision on the side of a sketch two lane highway with no shoulder and many speeding busses and trucks in the middle of nowhere.  We killed the 30 minutes by entertaining the boys, laughing about the day's events so far and snapping photos.  it was about to get a hell of a lot less funny though.

 

Blown Tire and Lowering the Spare:



Arriving at the Liberia Hilton at 430P which resides directly across from the airport, we unloaded and sent our driver on his way as we checked in.  After we completed the check in process, I looked at Melissa and said "you know what, I forgot my new water bottle in the taxi you just brought back from LA this week"  to which she replied "at least it wasn't the computer bag with our passports and all our electronics".  As her statement took a split second to register in my head, I quickly realized she assumed I grabbed this bag out of the back seat where she was sitting in with the kids while I was in front.  I had assumed she had grabbed it as she took the boys out of the back of the car.  I really could feel my head exploding knowing that our passports were in a taxi heading back towards Nicaragua.

Fortunately, Melissa remembered the taxi company and I was trying to remember the license plate of the taxi since I got out and was stretching at the gas stop.  The hotel staff realizing the urgency started making calls which ultimately ended up being the state police to alert the border checks that they needed to turn our taxi driver around to deliver the bag so we could make the 6A flight the next morning.  The police all knew our taxi driver as was evident when we rolled through both check points and they yucked it up letting us pass with our checking our papers.  The police verified his name and plate number before I even remembered snapping multiple snapshots of the back of the car during the flat that showed the plate as well #96.  A little lucky karma colliding with the crazy circumstances to at least get a bead on our driver since we had nothing else to go on.

As we sat down to dinner at 6P we were semi confident we'd get the bag back, but the big question was would it be in time for our flight.  Not a big deal on a major airline, but on a small local carrier flying 12 seat planes that only run to your destination twice a week it's a pretty damn big deal.  By the time we were wrapping up our hotel staff showed up with our bag while our driver was out front everything intact.  He had made it back to the final check point before being alerted and turned around to give us our bag.  I thanked him and gave him the same $90 rate it took to get us from the boarder for the return of our bag.

With the weight lifted from our shoulders, we got a good night rest before heading out to the airport bright and early.  Our flight was on a small 12 seat plane that had Melissa and the kids sitting directly behind the pilots and the instrument panel.  We were also treated to sweeping vistas of the ocean and volcanic peaks on the Liberia>Tamarindo>San Jose leg.  After a 4 hour layover we boarded another 12 seater which took off heading for Bocas Del Toro.  Jordan and Slater were extremely tired at this point and Jordan started to restlessly drift off beside me looking out the window.  He groggily opened his eyes about 20 minutes into the flight proclaiming that he didn't feel well.  Quickly, I opened a air sick back in the nick of time right before the redecoration of row #3 started.

Airport Breakfast, Front Row View, Beatiful Views and Small Plane - Big Fun!: 

 

Shortly after we arrived in Bocas to begin the search of our luggage and customs paperwork.  We then headed to our hotel for our first nights stay exhausted and happy.  The following day we went to our "Luxury Condo" to find it not so luxurious.  We're making it work, but have decided to spend the remaining 4 week on our trip to Bocas at an upgraded location and eat the month's rent because we are very disillusioned with the set up we thought we were getting.  Bocas looks like it will be one of the best adventures of the trip with lots of surfing, restaurants, carnival starting 3/1 and plenty of kid friendly activates like Red Frog and Star Fish beach.  More posts in the coming weeks on all four of the aforementioned. 

Making Rain in the Playa Tortuga Pool on the First Night:

 

 

Holiday Hangover......

This holiday season was one of the most enjoyable we've experienced in a long time.  It wasn't filled with the stress created from shopping, planning for family events or even working in the ad industry which is crazy this time of year in itself. This year it was mainly about the kids and celebrating with new friends.  Santa even managed to find us even though we weren't at our former So. Cal address.  He delivered some fun stuff for the boys that included a bevy of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toys from full size action figures to Ninja specific Lego sets.  It was a lot of fun to watch the boys open gifts with them both being at the perfect age to understand what is happening.  This really drove home the Christmas spirit that was tough to capture in the days leading up the main event.

Photo:  Tracking Santa via NORAD - Ninja Legos from Santa - Slater Rocks the Keyboard





 



The Iguana residents held a big Christmas dinner at the poolside club house led by our friends Greg and Leah.  About 30 or more attended the pot luck style gathering which produced some of the tastiest dishes we have had in our 7 month travels so far.  Turkey, Broccoli casserole, potatoes, salad and a large desert spread were just a few of the many items that covered the tables.  Early in the afternoon there were many kids swimming in the pool or running down the slip and slide that had been set up.  After dinner, two massive piñatas were hoisted for the kids assault until toys and candy were spilling from the crushed Santa and Christmas Bear.  Attire was Central American casual with flip flops and tee shirts being traded for what normally would be sweaters or beanies back at home.  It was also great to get to know some of our new friends a little better between all the food, piñata mayhem and kid corralling.  it was a great holiday vibe that kind of reminded me of the Who's down in Whoville getting together to ring in the holiday.

Photo:  Dinner Spread -  Piñata Aftermath - Slip N' Slide

 

New Years was just straight up fun.  We started out hanging with Greg and Leah for dinner which was a tasty lasagna that Greg baked.  Right before we sat down to eat the power went down which had our hosts lighting small lanterns for a candle lit new year's dinner.  Unplanned, but pretty nice addition to the ambiance of the evening. 

Photo:  Kids Taking Dinner in the Dark Seriously

Many Tona's (one of Nicaragua's beers) and Flora De Cana (rum) were consumed by Greg and I while the girls worked a South American shiraz-malbec blend we've become fond of.  While we sipped some after dinner drinks, we debated what to do with the rest of the evening.  We had brought over a bag of fireworks that we originally were going to shoot off at Christmas but never quite made it out to the beach.  The decision made was to load up the golf cart with booze, fireworks and kids for a ride up to the beach club where a big new year's hoe down was in full swing.

Photo:  Golf Cart - Girls Wine

 

Upon arrival, we greeted some friends and headed straight to the beach to begin the show.  There were a couple of local kids on the beach that were pretty eager to help us shoot off the rockets we'd brought.  We were happy to oblige, but they set off several rockets almost on top of the bag containing the stash of fireworks.  At any moment I was expecting to see one of those warning videos you see on the news around the 4th of July play out for real in front of me.  While we had some nice rockets that shot high in the air and burst into multi colored showers to entertain the kids, one of properties Directors, Ian, brought the goods.  Midway through our disorganized show he brought out 4 stout looking boxes that shot colorful explosions high into the air.

Photos:  Burning Man Style Beach Fire Post Fireworks Show

 

After the light show, we mingled and drank with a lot of the same crowd from the Christmas gathering plus many vacationers that were posted up here for the holidays.  We returned home after 11P with two exhausted boys and actually stayed up till midnight which hasn't happened in a long time for us on New Years.  Nica definitely knows how to party when ringing in the New Year which was evident by fun time everyone was having at the beach club.

Photo:  Packed Beach Bar

 

The holiday crowds have now disappeared at Iguana as we roll into January.  Were in full prep mode to pull up stakes in four weeks to head to Bocas Del Toro, Panama.  While Panama wasn't originally agenda for this trip, we've really taken a plan it as we go along attitude on this vision quest.  Many people have given Bocas high marks across the board so we excited to get leg 3 of the journey underway to kick off 2014.