The Honeymooners

It has been our fervent prayer that Kelly would resume a full, healthy and fruitful life, as a daughter, sister, wife, mother, friend and neighbor. Those prayers continue to be granted every day as she heals and strengthens and perseveres. Her marriage to Hector on April 7th is another step in that progression, and in that reaffirmation of life's blessings.

And now Kelly and Hector have flown off to their honeymoon/adventure in Bali. Flying east, it took nearly two days to get there (with a layover in Amsterdam for a scooter tour). We expect numerous updates during their travels and we would like to share their joys with you.

So hold onto your hats! Here we gooo......

3 June

Hola!!!

We woke up this morning (June 3) as the sun was rising and boy was the sunrise breathtaking. Yes, our internal clocks are totally off as jet lag is in full effect.  Hector started up the coffee while I walked out onto the grassy patio looking over the Indian ocean...the view takes your breath away.  Apparently, as we look across the ocean, Australia is in front of us, although it's very far.  It really blows me away to think that we are half way around the world.
Hector and I proceeded to take a seat under the cushioned pagoda on our grass rooftop terrace as we sipped on hot coffee and watched the sun begin its ascent, all the while hearing cocks crowing, cows mooing and birds taking flight across the ocean blue.  It surprised me that the breeze coming off of the ocean is actually very cool, so much so that all you have to do is keep the windows open and it keeps the apartment cool (just a tad warmer than Volcan, but cool like it is there during the day).  

The owner of the chateau brought up our breakfast a tad later and I picked our host's (Jasmine) brain about the best way to get around, where she recommended we should eat lunch and also asked her about getting a massage.  My back was killing me from 35 hours of sitting in those cramped seats on the airplane.  It just so happened that she had a massage lady who was downstairs giving her husband a massage and offered that this young lady could come up, so I had a massage for $10 and it blew all other massages out of the water.  They really know what they are doing.  You can actually feel the immediate effects of your blood circulating better throughout your body.

Our scooter arrived to the house around 11 am and you've gotta love it...it costs $15 to rent the scooter for 3 full days.  Now that we had wheels to get around, we hopped onto the scooter and headed out to have lunch at a place called "Warung Yeye" that was rustic but in a beautiful setting with lilly flowers all around us in water-filled pots, lanterns hanging from the trees and tropical plants around the patio.  We each had a delicious coconut shrimp soup and then we shared a plate full of marisco fried rice.  The rice was the tastiest I have ever eaten. You didn't have to add anything to it like soy sauce as you normally do to fried rice.

Hector and I laughed since you have to drive on the opposite side of the road than you do in Panama and most other places in the world.  People here drive even crazier than in Panama too!  You share the lane with cars, more scooters, pedestrians, motorcycles, all sorts of rigged motor vehicles that are transporting everything from food, ice, water bottles on ice, bamboo and even building blocks as they go along their merry way.  You can't help but have a permanent smile on your face and everyone is very kind and helpful.  As we were "scooting" around, hundreds of other locals, surfers, families of up to 4 people on their scooters passed us.  Most scooters are rigged with surf racks so surfers just place their surf boards on this rack and head to the beach.  

After lunch, we decided to venture around and headed to a world class surf spot called Padang Padang beach.  You can see the 2 surf breaks (a right and a left break) from a bridge that sits above the beach.  We pulled up our scooter to watch on this bridge, along with about 25 other scooters who were all just checking out the action. I couldn't believe the amazing and massive waves that were going off right there before my eyes.  Panamanians DREAM of waves like this, and it was just a typical day here, there isn't even a swell.  I don't know if it was due to the time we were there, but there were only about 10 people out surfing these mega-waves and Hector commented on how you never get to be on waves like that and not have to share it will a bunch of people.  We will go back tomorrow to enjoy a day at the beach.  It's one of the nearby beaches that is good for swimming as well as surfing, so both of us can enjoy. It's about 15 minutes on our scooter, so it isn't far and the drive is full of sites to see.

After watching the surf at P.P we then crossed the bridge and happened to come upon a surf board hanging from a tree with an arrow pointing to another world class surf spot called Dreamland.  It's mind blowing that the beaches are lined one after the other and each has a massive surf break that is even bigger than the one you've previously seen. It's times like this when I wish I at least knew the basics of surfing to get out there and see surfers catch waves.  Oh well, I will watch from the beach manana.

Bueno, after a long and exciting day I'm headed to the shower and then to bed.  I hope all is well with you!!!

Besos,

Kelly & Hector