Romeo is always the one to travel for work. This time, it’s my turn to leave a cold and gloomy Woods Hole for a southern destination. I am not going very far, but North Carolina in March is turning out to be so much warmer and spring-like than home that it is making the trip worth it.

Trees are blossoming, some even have leaves: this won’t happen up North for at least another month so it is nice and refreshing, and I can understand why North Carolina is experiencing a population boom. The weather has been so nice since yesterday that we have been having dinner outside every day. Of course, keep in mind that I am here for work, so it’s not all fun and pink cherry tree flowers.

In case you were thinking of calling me to wish me one, please don’t! My phone will be roaming: Romeo and I will be in Istanbul. He has a conference there and is scheduled to talk on my birthday so after he asked me if I wanted to go with him, I jumped up and down and booked our tickets. I’ve already been to Istanbul so I just got myself a new job: Romeo’s personal tour guide. I never quite mastered the Turkish language, so it will be a little more difficult than recovering my Spanish in Panama. I guess I will just have to brush up on my French skills . In 1999 in Istanbul, I got better deals as a francophone tourist than an anglophone tourist, we’ll see if things have changed. Practicing my French should come in really handy on our way back when we stop in Paris (again).

On my way to work this morning, I had to stomp the breaks real bad and was glad to find that the anti-block system on the car (do we even have one?) worked fine and that everybody came out ok, including Romeo’s car. That was a bad scare and I have to wonder if that woman exiting her driveway and crossing two high speed lanes had just rolled out of bed forgetting to drink her coffee, or had a serious death wish. Seriously, why would you cross two lanes with a car in one and a truck in the other, averaging 50mph in each direction, and less than a hundred feet from you?

Temperatures were so mild on Saturday that when I stepped out to take the car for a blood transfusion (read: oil change), it felt like I could drop the coat. So after I got back, Romeo and I decided to take the bikes for a tour. It was a great idea, but man, I am so out of shape that I wonder how long it will take me to get back to last summer’s level. Sunday was a lot chillier (low 40’s), but at this time of year, it takes a few layers to be ready (kind of like going skiing), so once we realized how cold and windy it was, we were already geared up, and there was no going back to pajamas without at least trying for another ride.

The rides were beautiful: very few cars, still no leaves on the trees so we could see a lot more ocean from the road. There are still quite a few houses for sale along the way, but nothing we can afford, so we’ll just have to wait for that famous housing market crash/bubble everyone has been predicting. Just felt great to be out there on a bike with Romeo. Note to self: do that more often.

To all who went skiing instead, after the downpour from last Friday, I hope you had a great time, but I am not jealous. Or am I?

After Panamá, I was scheduled to go to a work training in CT, so I flew there directly. My flight from Miami was delayed and I only got into the Hartford airport around 1am. According to the pilot, we were late because the aircraft had been delayed in San Francisco, but somehow I can’t imagine the overbooking helped make up for that delay either. Some 5 people had to give up their seats in exchange for a $300 voucher, and it took some time to find and/or designate the volunteers who were to stay behind. On top of the flight delay in Miami, a plane had just landed a few minutes before ours in Hartford and we were told we would have to wait some extra time for our luggage as the other plane would be unloaded first.

By the time I was waiting in line for a cab, I really just wanted a bed and would have slept in the airport if I didn’t have a room reserved a few miles South. It was finally going to be my turn for a cab when this guy came storming out of his cab into the terminal: “I am not paying $30 for a bus! It’s not fair! I got to that cab first! I don’t want to share my cab! I don’t want other people in my cab! Why do I have to make 2 stops before I get to my hotel?” I was about to jump right into his seat but his cab took off, leaving the dispatcher somewhat dumb-founded. I was too tired to say anything, but there were many insults going through my mind. This guy had let the last cab go, there were no cabs waiting in line there, the dispatcher was calling individual cab companies to have them send people, and we had to stand there and listen to some prima-donna who was delaying every one because he would not share his cab. Grow up, buddy, you may be a business traveler, but you obviously haven’t seen much of the world’s airports. They pack cabs in all airports at late hours, even in the US. Once public transportation is shut down, that’s the only option to get home. They also packed cabs in New York during the public transportation strikes last year, and there are laws that allow cabbies to do that when demand exceeds supply. I finally got a cab and was in bed by 2am: just in time for about 4 hours of sleep!

Today is my last day in Panamá. Romeo is already on a flight to Pittsburgh, and I will be flying out later to Connecticut for work tomorrow. It´s been a blast, and I can´t wait to share that piece of paradise through some of the photos Romeo and I took. Panamanians have been so welcoming and open, it´s been a pleasure hearing and sharing stories with the cabbies, bus drivers, and others. I think we´ll have to come back, my Spanish could use a little more practice

Despite my love and admiration for them, their stories don´t make it to this blog very often, but this is a day I have to brag about. Mom and Dad have been married 30 years today and they are still crazy about each other. Whoever says that marriage kills love has obviously not met my parents.

Mom, Dad, Happy Anniversary! and may you continue on this path together for many more years. You are an inspiration for many of us. Thanks for sharing your love.

Those ice-cream flavors sound pretty surreal and I swear I have not been drinking or smoking anything lately. Romeo and I were just walking in the streets of Casco Viejo in Panamá City where he took me out to some fancy ice-cream and sorbet store he and his brother had run into earlier. And there it was, in the middle of the mango-passion, banana-coco and strawberry sorbets: basil, lavender, and rosemary ice-creams that actually tasted good!

We continued our tour of Casco Viejo, the oldest part of town, recently classified as World Heritage and with on-ging renovation. This part of town also hosts the mayor of Panamá City, the President of the country, a museum on the Canal, and a bunch of tourist-trappy fancy artesan stores where Romeo and I bought a couple hammacs for our Massachusetts piece of paradise.

After the private island resort experience, we were another boat-ride away from the village where Romeo´s brother and sister-in-law live these days: Santa Catalina. When you ask anyone in Panamá about Santa Catalina, they will immediately assume you are going there to surf. Research on coral reefs huh? I am not sure the locals will believe that!

That village has some of the best surf in the world, but it is still mostly un-developed. By that I mean that none of the money-sucking, big-scale, environmentally-unconscious developers have touched it yet. There are a few ex-pats from all over the world, who bought land parcels for restaurants, camping grounds, bed & breakfasts… but they blend in and there is no big-scale resort bus-ing people there yet, which is great.

As I said, I don´t know how to surf, but that doesn´t mean I can´t appreciate a view on that famous surfing beach. So Romeo and I stayed in a little cabanita (actually, it´s called a rancho), made out of bamboo and palm leaves, with the most breathtaking view of the ocean. Mike´s camping ground is on a hill-top right above the beach, surrounded with palm trees and a bunch of other tropical trees I had never seen before. Romeo and I slept on a bamboo bed for 2 nights, waking up to a beautiful sunrise on the water, went swimming and just hung out in hammacs. Pretty little piece of paradise some 2 days away from cold old Massachusetts!

After the fabulous boat-ride, we got to that private island, and it was worth all the plane, bus, and boat rides it took us to get there. Sure, the guys still had work to do, but the girls got to hang out with pelicans, toucans, humming birds, iguanas, blue herons, parakeets and a large variety of multi-colored birds that I would not know how to name, all running wild. Rumor had it that the guys had also heard howling monkeys on the island, but we were not so lucky and missed out on the monkeys.

We stayed on the island for 2 days, with great company, and got a chance to go snorkeling on the Coral Reef. The visibility was not the greatest so I don´t have any good shots, but we still got to see quite a few tropical fish up close. And the best part of the snorkeling was the birds We got to see them up close, and witnessed a flock of pelicans feeding on some jumping fish we had been admiring a few minutes prior. As Romeo´s sister-in-law put it, it was National Geographic live for the two of us!