Panama Day 7

Monday, July 5th was our day to start traveling back towards Panama City. David is about 7 hours west of the city so our team had planned on staying a few hours away in a house in Santa Clara owned by the mission board to break up the traveling a little bit.

Right before we left I snapped this pic of the hotel lobby.

The countryside in Panama is absolutely gorgeous!

Pineapple fields

Cattle grazing

Santiago was about 2 hours east of David and is where we stopped to eat lunch.
Santiago is Spanish for the name James. Well....Brian's first name is actually James and I call him that sometimes, so now I just have to call him Santiago! :D



I just loved this tree!

We stopped in the town of Natá and got to see this beautiful old church. It was built in the 16th century and thought to be the oldest church in North America. They were currently doing some restorations on it.

The wood carvings and detail work was beautiful.

The side doors.

"Where ya goin there Santiago?!"

"Come on let's go see the bell tower!"

It was kind of creepy, but had great views!

"Wait, what is that?!"

I snapped this right before a flock of pigeons flew within inches of his head.
It was funny.........after it happened!

A view from the front.

A view over the top of the church. We went up about 4 or 5 flights of stairs and didn't quite make it to the bell. The pigeons kind of scared us back down in a hurry. :)

A baptism bath

The star decorations on the front doors.

Awww...there's the bell!

Brian and me in front of the church. Please don't pay any attention to the red car setting out front! It didn't belong to us!

There, now it's gone!
(Photoshop is my new best friend :)

I thought this cactus was pretty neat.

Late that afternoon/early evening we arrived at the Santa Clara house. It was bought back in the 70's by the mission board and sets right on the Pacific Ocean! This was my first time ever seeing the Pacific. But when we got there it was raining pretty heavy so we just got to enjoy the views from the house. That was okay though, because it gave everybody a little time to relax and unwind from the traveling. The Pan-American Highway that we were traveling on was paved, but it had it's own fair share of potholes and bumps! But it just made the adventure that much more fun! :)

The living room.

The bedroom we stayed in.

Some mini bananas. They were good!

Another view after the rains stopped.

A palm branch.

A weird looking fruit that they (some Panamanians) use for medicinal purposes.

Iron hearts :)

Love this view of palm trees.

Palm tree roots.

That night we ate at a restaurant that is owned by Americans and they had this HUGE flag hanging in the back yard! And we ate cheeseburgers, fries, & homemade pecan pie!

They had all kinds of exotic birds too. This guy was actually saying "hi" and "hello" to us before I started to use my flash. Then he got very angry and just squaked at us. The two Bethany's on our team actually had him dancing to some music.

Here is a view from the ocean side of the house.

The next morning we got up super early to see the sunrise on the Pacific before we started our journey into the city. It was a little strange I know because of the sun rising in the east, but it really did happen!
Stay tuned for Day 8!