Enjoying our last week.

The view from our balcony hasn't gotten old during our long stay at Playa Tortuga. The people here are so nice, and the daily breakfasts are awesome. Sha and I are not sure how they scramble their eggs; but boy are they good. As we head into our last days here on the Island, it's hard to believe we've been in Panama for 3 months.

On our walking path that takes us to the surfers beach, the paved road stops and the road is hard sand and runs right along the water. The bank is lined with wire boxes filled with rocks to prevent the erosion of the bank. There must have been some storms out at sea because the waves along the resort's shoreline have been more intense this past week. On one of our walks last week we found out that the waves have been more intense all over the island. The walk along the water started out like normal as you can see in the first photo; but changed drastically when we rounded the corner. First a few rocks on the road, then there were more rocks than sand in some spots as the rocks got tossed up onto the road. The last photo shows where the barrier was broken and the road was half washed away where a car could just get by the spot. Men had come to repair the breach in the barrier and remake and refill the wire boxes of rocks.

We have been enjoying Cribbage during most afternoons; wait...I should say Sha has been enjoying Cribbage most afternoons. As January was winding down I had retaken the PCC lead and was feeling pretty good with my prowess at the board. Well that didn't last, and turned completely upside down during the last days of January and has not subsided as February moves along. On the 5th, as I was losing the third game of three games, Sha stopped dealing and pointed out to sea as the full moon was coming up in the sky. I hope the pictures show you how cool it was to watch it in person. I got the last one at 30X zoom on Sha's phone.

I do want to say that I have won 100 games in this year's PCC. Unfortunately, Sha has won 111 games with only a few days remaining in the tourney. Cool "Carolina" Kev has been trying to boost my confidence, which I appreciate--Club Kev!

​The Floating Bar is well-known around the island, and we finally took a water taxi to visit on the 7th. We had met the owner, Chad at Renny Pizza outside of the Gran Bahia hotel during our short stay there during dinner one night. We chose this day as there was to be a "worm orgy" when the sun went down in the water around the bar. Yeah, we chuckled too, but found the explanation intriguing, so we went. There is an aquatic worm (about the size of the first joint of your pinky) living in the water depths that 2 days after a full moon reproduce. The females come to the surface and release their eggs in a spiral cloud around them, and then males come to fertilize them. Interesting thing is they glow bright light blue so you can see them in the dark! All lights of the bar go off and NO cameras are allowed to disrupt the process. One guy turned on his flashlight on his phone and everyone shouted at him to turn it off--serious business. It was pretty cool to see and lasted about 15 minutes. I can now confidently check worm orgy off my bucket list. 

We are trying to hit our favorite spots before we head back to the States and Skully's was last night's choice for Karaoke night; and then across the road to our favorite pizza place Ciao. Met a Wyoming Teton Park Ranger who rode his motorcycle down here from Wyoming and was heading to Costa Rica in a few days. He is staying in his tent that he puts up where he can...we wished him the best as there is a lot of overnight rain expected this week. There wasn't anybody sining any country songs, so that had to be remedied. When we went to eat, we got to hear some good music while we had our pizza.

We signed our 6-month lease today for the Coronado Bay house that we have been talking about. Also bought our return tickets to Panama for March 6th. 

Planning to go to town to watch the Super Bowl at Toro Loco "the sports bar" in town. Hope we can hear the commercials in English. Well that's the skinny on the island happenings. Hoping the forecasted rain we are seeing will yield some sunny afternoons as it always has during our trip. We will be back in Chicago late in the evening of the 15th.

​Pura Vida!