Festivities in Panama and the countdown begins.

Turkeys at the Buenaventura Farm -- safe for another year!

This week we also enjoyed a day of cooking & eating the perfect traditional Thanksgiving with friends. When you are dealing with a boat sized galley it really does take a village to make a big meal! The Turkey was expertly cooked on a BBQ (who even knew you could do this?). And the efforts to make the sides were distributed across 4 boats.

Thanksgiving dinner shared with the crews from Okisollo, Cavu, It's the Truth & Mapache 2.0

We even had 3 pies! We are very thankful for the friends we've met on our trip down the West coast of Central American and are ever appreciative of our neighbors here in the Buenaventura Marina.

Getting ready to cut into the apple pie I made for Thanksgiving dinner

In a short time, all our friends here will be departing and ultimately passing North through the Panama canal. It is likely we won't see them again for a few years until we pass back through the area.

Last week, we also had a chance to visit the Buenaventura Zoo. Primarily made up of rescue animals, we were intrigued about how many different species were on display and how well kept the exhibits were. It might be worth another visit! Its only a 30 min walk away.

We learned that there are over 50 horses in the Buenaventura stables (next to the zoo). We were fortunate to be offered a return ride from the zoo by one of the very knowledgable 'owners/investors' of Buenaventura (in a nice 4 wheel drive 'mule'). He gave us all the details on each of the species of horses. They all seemed 'fancy' and very happy with their care here at the resort!

This cute little guy was very curious and stared at us for a long time.

Friday was a national holiday here in Panama so the resort is busy. Large families are gathered at all the usually quiet places. On Saturday, there was a Christmas Market and Christmas Tree lighting a short walk away in the little village area. There were several hundred people that showed up to enjoy Christmas cookies and drinks provided by the resort. There was live music, Christmas photos and even a mailbox to send letters to Santa.

Merry Christmas from Dan & Jeanne - Taken in front of the Christmas Tree at the Annual Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony - Buenaventura Panama

This week we finish off our tasks for awhile, say our goodbyes to our friends and get ready for our trip back to the US. We've been watching the weather and it looks COLD. We are trying to remember where our pants and sweaters are....and shoes with socks? Do we even have jackets? We've definitely spent the last few months to acclimatizing to 85 degrees (30 Celsius).

When we return to Panama we'll have a whirlwind 4 weeks before we check out of Panama so it will be busy busy busy. We'll try to get in one more update before the end of the year. For now, Happy (belated) Thanksgiving to our US based friends and family and onward to Christmas & New Years.

The Buenaventura Christmas Tree