Hola amigos!
Our itinerary for the Panama trip is ready:

Three nights in Panama city, then we will travel to the Herrera region close to the Pacific ocean where we will spend 2 nights in Chitre.

After that, we will then go further west, direction Santiago and head into the mountains to a small village called Santa Fe...we will spend three nights there in what has been described to be a pittoresque swiss style hostel called La Qhia, run by a Belgian woman and her Argentinian partner.

Well, although I am learning Spanish as fast as I can, making reservations in Spanish over Skype is ... challenging at times: yesterday, I spoke to a man at Hotel Santa Rita and I understood that his wife was in charge of the reservations. Too bad because I could understand him very well and im was proud of my Spanish!

When I phoned this afternoon, upppss, the Skype communication became really bad and I could not understand the person at the desk...Lo siento...and I had to hang up! But he had noted my name... so, when I called back 2 hours later, la senora knew exactly who I was ... Canada? Si!

Oh madre mia! Anyway, I think that I made the reservations ok...

As for the Hostal La Qhia, the woman at the desk was ...Belgian..et nous avons tout regle ca en francais! I think that my stay of 2 weeks in Dominican Republic had helped my Spanish because there were still some traces lingering when I reopened my books...

After this week on our own, we will hopefully meet our friends Pam and Bill at the Nautico Yacht Club in Colon for a 2 weeks sail on the Caribbean Sea to the San Blas islands! Then we'll have to speak Kuna...

Notre itinéraire des premiers 7 jours a Panama est prêt: 3 premières nuits a Panama Cité, les 2 autres a Chitre dans la région de Herrera près du Pacifique et puis 3 autres nuits dans un petit village - Santa Fe - perdu dans la montagne près de Santiago. Ca m’a fait suer de faire la réservation a Chitre parce que les personnes ne parlaient que l’espagnol! C’est tout un challenge de faire ca par téléphone et encore plus par Skype...surtout quand la qualité de l’appel se détériore!! Bof, je pense que j’ai quand même réussi a les faire ces réservations! Quant a l’hôtel de Santa Fe, une jolie auberge nommée La Qhia, ce fut facile puisque la proprio est belge! Je l’ai reconnue a son accent (Hola..with a French touch) et le reste fut en français! Muy facile!

Apres ce périple, nous reviendrons vers Colon ou nous espérons retrouver nos amis Pam et Bill sur Songbird pour 2 semaines de voile en mer caraibe vers les iles San Blas de Kuna Yala.