Episode 5 part 2

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On Christmas Eve , the expats in the gated community in Anton , where we were living at the time, invited us to join them for dinner.

About 16 of us headed into Penonome, which is the nearest town to Anton. We were going to their favourite Chinese restaurant.

The food was recommended but we were warned about the size of the portions, LARGE.

We started with vegetable spring rolls, 2 but cut into 4 which Anita and I shared, followed by vegetable fried rice , pork chow mein and chicken chop suey. Each dish could have served 4 people but they were obviously used to people taking home what they couldn't eat as at the end of the meal they came out with piles of the polystyrene boxes for that purpose . As Anita said to me it was strange ordering Chinese in Latin American Spanish.

All this good food plus a couple of glasses of wine and a couple of beers came to $39.00 .

At about 1.5 or 1.6 to the pound, great value.

At the end of the evening we returned to the community and headed to the communal pool and brought drinks and they let off fireworks. Perfect evening .

Christmas morning, after messages to family, Anita headed off to the communal pool for a swim. But next door neighbors called out to wish her a Merry Christmas and said why not use their pool and visit them. So i was called to join and the next few hours were very much enjoyed at their place with drinks and nibbles .

Then it was time to get ready for our dinner at La Fogata, Fallaron.

We had hired a taxi , via the restaurant but at the Chinese the previous night he arrived at Anton a day early and the above mentioned neighbors had rung the restaurant trying to contact us. I had to contact La Fogata via Facebook as i had no phone signal and explained that we had said we wanted Christmas Day and not Christmas Eve and got them to explain to the driver in Spanish.

So bets were on whether he would turn up on Christmas Day.

But he did and we AND HE, breathed a sigh of relief .

Outside view of La Fogata.

Our table.

When we got to La Fogata it was beautifully decorated and had a huge gorgeous Christmas tree.

Yes you are allowed to call it Christmas , unlike the UK (  a holiday tree ) 

I opted for the fish special instead of my usual sexy lobster meal and Anita had the Panamanian dinner. This consisted of chicken and coriander soup with garlic bread , followed by potato salad, then the main meal of ham ( gammon ) which had been seared  and had some sort of spice to it ( maybe cinnamon )  with salad and chips. The meal was finished with a flan ( more of a crime brûlée type cheesecake ) or fruit cake . Then coffee complimented the meal. We also had a bottle of very good Argentinian Malnec Reserve and some water . The whole thing came to about $80.00 plus the cab was $30 return and he waited for us whilst we had dinner, not bad at all.

The journey back was quite magical in the taxi, relaxing and looking at the carpet of stars and the houses lit up withChristmas  lights. Plus the lorries which are always decked out like the Coca Cola advert. Brilliant.

Panama Adventure 5 part 1

Christmas and New Year in Panama

One of the things we did before leaving North Cyprus was to find out if our favourite restaurant in Fallaron, Panama was going to be open on Christmas Day.

This was the one that I posted pictures of a lobster meal in a previous story.

We made a tentative booking .

Christmas is a very important time for Panamanians. Being predominantly a Catholic nation , it is a very important religious festival and the churches are elaborately decorated and most houses have nativity scenes amongst their lights and decorations .

Anton Post Office is in the same square as Anton church , so when we went to check out post, yes we do get post there , we stopped to admire it.

The church had a decorative archway  along the walkway into the church and a life sized nativity outside. 

A few days before Christmas we were delighted to hear one evening some local  children in an organized group walking around our gated estate singing Christmas carols in Spanish. Most were dressed in Nativity clothes.

When we came outside to listen they realized we were English and sang a couple of Carols in English. At the end they even gave us a Christmas greeting card printed in English. Apparently they were collecting donations for the local school but I have to say there was absolutely no pressure to give anything . They were just happy to entertain you.

It was quite special.