Settling down in one place was a big relief after 6 months on the road. Family time, hot water, clean sheets, real food and warm chocolate chip cookies from the over were among the luxuries!
We spent a lot of time unwinding (this has been a tough 6 months, regardless of what people at home may think) - beaches and beers can really take it out of you. In the end, we were in Philly for 5 weeks, and Fi jetted off to Pittsburgh to visit Sparky and then back to Ireland in an effort to take a lead in the global carbon footprint challenge. 1-0 Fiona.
We also failed to convince Fiona that shaving her head was a good idea, following some poor poll results. 2-0.
Despite constant pestering, I continue to evade Fiona's attempts to get me to watch Atonement. 2-1.
We took care of some loose ends in REI (best outdoor shop going), went to a Flyers hockey game, a Villanova basketball game, a couple of trips to NYC (one to meet Ciaran), a day on the slopes, cheated at Scrabble, Monopoly and Spades and watched grande grande americanos losing weight in an addictive reality show.
In the end, we had 2 Christmas days, one on the 25th and another on the 30th when Fiona returned from Portlaoise. Phoebe got a onesie, Dylan fell in love with Mike, Eva learned all about the CR and Lenny knocked the shite out of me in pool, snooker and racquethoop. What more could you want from a Christmas?! Tough to leave, but I guess that's a great complaint. Hasta en Argentina y muchos gracias para todos.
Photos are here.
Arriving in Panama we were hit by a wall of hot air, jaysus its 30 degrees! Twas a bit of a shock to the system to be on our own again and back into hostel life. After 2 days enjoying Panama City and seeking AC in the cinema a few times we went to Isla Grande on the Atlantic coast. See PHOTOS here. Beautiful surroundings but the people were surprisingly misersable, we spent 2 nights. One of which was spent huddled in our room with no electricity, water or food for sale. Back to the city where we hit the canal and did a few hikes to prepare ourselves for the Inca Trail.
