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!