Feliz Ano 2017!

Happy New Year from Isla Taboga, Panama!

We arrived on the Isla in time to settle in, put our things away, set up our casitas and toast in the New Year with our south-of-the-border friends.

A fan is blowing on me as I write this to keep me cool and I’m contemplating a dip in the pool. It is a New Year after all. Time for a baptism of sorts. Time to wash away the old and start clean with the new.

One of the best things about this New Year so far is our friend, Okke’s, return from an ordeal that is the stuff of movies. I’ll spare you the story but suffice it to say that it was the best New Year’s gift of all to have him back among us. And to see his partner, Kimberlyn, smiling with joy and relief.

Welcome home Okke. Keep smiling Kimberlyn!

My brother in law who is from Brazil told me that the tradition in his home country is to eat fish on New Year’s Eve. “Because fish,” he explained, “swim only forward. They don’t go backward.” And the New Year is a time to look ahead. Hopefully to better times.

This will be an interesting year. Especially for citizens of the U.S but because of our global influence it will be an interesting time for the entire world. Hopefully (always hopeful, right?), people will realize how much is at stake right now, particularly with our precious climate.  We can’t afford to go to sleep on that one. Stay awake. Look up and around. Be vigilante.

Returning to and living on this island during the winter months gives me a unique perspective. I notice the things that have changed. The children are bigger, new babies have been born, the beaches are cleaner, there are new, albeit small, enterprises and businesses popping up. But so much remains the same in a place like this. Familiar faces and activities such as:

Fishermen selling fresh fish to folks on the dock…

The sleepy tienditias (small shops) where locals buy their basic food supplies…  and kids buy gum and candy…

Priscilla! Tiene juevos hoy?

Mini Super Taboga

 

The throngs of tourists arriving on the weekend to soak up the sun on the beach…

Ladies heading down the road to church every Sunday under their parasols.

Second oldest Catholic Church in the western hemisphere.

The inextricable link between old and new is profoundly obvious on Taboga. It’s comforting to have both. The familiar keeps us grounded and the new helps us look forward to better times.

Here’s hoping that 2017 brings good things to all. Change is definitely in the air. We have work to do, but as Dan always says, no matter what, “We’re STILL gonna have fun.”

Happy New Year.

 

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