Category: Travel Creativity

November 30, 2025: Welcome to our November cocktail hour. Let’s have a Pedro Mandinga Casco Viejo artisenal rum in memory of our fun time in Panama. We can enjoy strong breezes and sunset views and maybe even a Costa Rican-style “tormenta.” You can even come along vicariously on our trip to Panama, and celebrate Mike’s and my 37th anniversary.

I have a variety of soda, seltzer water, or bebida de aloe for those of you who don’t drink. Mike can also whip up some excellent smoothies. Thanks for joining us in our escape into a peaceful corner of the world.

November marked our sixth month in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. It was the third month that we traveled outside of Costa Rica (the first being a trip to Nicaragua in July and the second back to the U.S. in October). We enjoyed exploring a country we’d never visited before and I added to my country count: I have now visited 41 countries. We still had plenty of down time while not traveling.

a belated gathering for halloween & my birthday

On the first of the month, Mike organized a little belated birthday/Day of the Dead get-together with Darrell, Farida and Carol at Paseo del Viento, where we listened to live tunes by singer Andrú and the local eye doctor, Dra. Ana Maria of Óptica Murano. She and singer Andrú, whom we met at “Smooth Jazz by the Lake” at Restaurante La Tortuga at the end of July, sang haunting and lively tunes. Andrú has a deep sultry voice that brings tears to my eyes! Darrell also took us to his favorite spot Subterra where not much was happening, but it was decked out for Halloween. I thought the big mirror at the far end was another room. 🙂

Dining out in Costa Rica

On Tuesday night, we took our neighbor Bruce out to dinner at Mary’s to repay him for driving us to and from the Liberia airport in October. 

On Friday afternoon, Carol extended a last minute invitation to come up to her house for sunset on the first sunny day we’ve had in a while. By the time we got up there, it was no longer sunny and there wasn’t much of a sunset to see. No matter, we enjoyed the views as we sat on her expansive porch drinking cava and gnoshing on chips & salsa. That was until lightning struck nearby followed by a loud clap of thunder that sent us scurrying into her house!

We drove to Restaurante Cielo’s Pizza in Cabrada Grande and enjoyed pizza and more chatting: about TV shows, her daughters and her coming grandchild, our sons, family dynamics and books by Pat Conroy. The people who ran the quirkily-decorated restaurant were super friendly; their space featured a bicycle display, a gold-decked Christmas tree (yes, already!), a wall of toy cars still in the packages, and a giraffe display outside the bathroom. We had a fun time as usual with our friend!

Our friends Anne and Jack finally returned to Costa Rica after nearly 3 months away late Friday night. We went to their house for drinks on Saturday night and then went out to dinner at Chafi’s. 

Mike and I went to El Corral for lunch one day, where we enjoyed gorgeous weather and good food.

Finally, on the Friday night before our move, Darrell and Farida invited us to meet them at a new unnamed restaurant in Tronadora. When we arrived, we found that a young woman named Eden was running it; we had met her and her mother Yendy at yoga back in June or July. I thought for some reason they were returning to the U.S. after the summer because Eden was attending university in North Carolina. But it turns out she’s attending school online and now has opened this cafe. We had a great time with Darrell and Farida, with lots of laughs and much wine flowing. Sadly, we found out upon our return from Panama that they have put their beautiful house up for sale and they plan to move to Kenya, Farida’s home of origin. Of course we hope they won’t sell their house right away as we love their company.

Election Day in the U.S.

We were thrilled with the U.S. election results from Tuesday, November 4. It appears that the country is coming out strong against Trump and his ill-begotten policies, his cruelty and hate-mongering, his Gestapo-like tactics and embrace of Naziism and Christian White Nationalism, his foreign policy, his handling of the economy, trade and tariffs, and his policies (or lack thereof) regarding healthcare. Mobilizing troops in U.S. cities has turned many Americans against him.

I did my duty in October and voted early in Virginia,; the election brought in a sweeping blue change to the entire state government, electing Abigail Spanberger for the first female governor of Virginia, Jay Jones as the first black attorney general of Virginia and Ghazala Hashmi as the first Muslim woman to hold statewide office. In addition, Democrats flipped 13 House of Delegates seats, giving Democrats a trifecta in the state’s governance. I’m very proud of Virginia for coming through for a more progressive agenda that should address the concerns of Virginians struggling in an economy that just isn’t working for them.

Virginia wasn’t the only bellweather. In New Jersey, Mikie Sherrill triumphed over her Republican opponent by 13%. Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani beat out his opponents (including Andrew Cuomo who ran as an independent and was endorsed by Trump) by 9% for mayor of New York City. Finally, California voted FOR Prop 50 to redistrict the state to add more democratic votes to counteract Republican states redrawing maps in obeisance to Donald Trump; he demanded they do such to give him more Republican votes in the 2026 midterms.

A 10-day trip to Panama: Panama City & the Panama Canal

We visited Panama from November 10-19. In Panama City, we explored Casco Viejo, the old compound, where we found famous churches, the Panama Canal Museum, and “Panama” hats. We walked the Amador Causeway, explored the Frank Gehry-designed BioMuseo and visited the Mercado de Mariscos. We explored our neighborhood of El Cangrejo, enjoyed our 19th floor apartment and pool, and tried rum drinks at Pedro Mandinga Rum Bar. Finally we visited the Miraflores Visitor Center and the Panama Canal, where we watched a container ship and a cruise ship pass slowly through the locks. We explored the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (aka MAC Panamá) and visited the father of one of Mike’s co-workers in the impoverished neighborhood of Curundú.

Our 37th anniversary celebration

We celebrated our 37th anniversary at Marques in Panama City, toasting our enduring marriage, the ups & downs, with wine & a special dinner out at Marques. I had catch of the day – sea bass fillet with pistachio crust, mussels in coconut milk with lemongrass, ying yang sauce, and blue curaçao. Mike got a Del Bosque: Risotto served with asparagus, mushrooms, and Parmesan with imported beef strips. We shared a brownie with ice cream for dessert. As we are early eaters, we had almost the entire restaurant to ourselves.

Bocas del Toro

In Bocas del Toro, we relaxed a lot in our Orange House at Over the Water Rentals. We rented ebikes and rode 40 minutes to Boca del Drago and took a water taxi to Playa Estrella, where we waded through the water among starfish. We rode the ebikes to Bluff Beach. We took a water taxi to Isla Careneró for a lunch at Bibi’s on the Beach, and then on to Red Frog Beach on Isla Bastimento, where I ran into a piece of driftwood, drawing blood and causing an edema. We enjoyed drinks with our neighbors from Vermont, Sidney and Steve. We kayaked to a little island in Saigon Bay where we snorkeled among corals. We then returned to Panama City under trying conditions.

Returning from Bocas del Toro to Panama City -> San José -> home

As we approached Panama City from Bocas del Toro on Panama Air, we flew in circles around the domestic airport, Marcos A. Gelabert International Airport (PAC), because of a “meteorological event.” We finally landed in the middle of “una tormenta,” a storm with raging winds, a torrential downpour, thunder and lightning. We sat on the plane for 40 minutes, unable to safely get off because it was a small plane where they pull up a portable staircase so passengers can disembark on the tarmac. The storm wasn’t letting up at all. Suddenly the plane started moving and we thought they might be taking us to a hangar to let us off the plane under cover. But the next thing we knew, without a word from the pilot or the stewardess, we were taking off down the runway. Nobody had a clue what was going on. We flew in a wide circle overlooking the ships sitting waiting to enter the Panama Canal. We thought maybe they were taking us to Tocumen International Airport, east of the city. But no! We realized that they were taking us back to the same airport where we’d landed the first time. Why, why, why?? We never discovered the answer.

This time, the storms had cleared and we were able to disembark, an hour late, just in time for rush hour.

After the dogs sniffed everyone’s luggage, we picked ours up and called an Uber. The Uber driver told us it would take two hours to get to our hotel near Tocumen Airport, 18 miles away. But he was wrong. The roads were in utter gridlock, we weren’t going anywhere. The estimated time was growing to 2 1/2 hours! The driver said it was because of the big fútbol match between Panama and El Salvador that was at the stadium near Tocumen. (Panama won and qualified for the World Cup; it was only the 2nd time they’ve qualified for the World Cup since 1978.)

We changed our destination with the Uber driver to Pedro Mandinga Rum Bar in El Cangrejo. It took us 1 3/4 hours to get there. We drank (a Casco Viejo – their in-house aged rum – & a Carajillo a la Pedro) and ate (Crostini Romesco & Vegano Trio de Patacones). We waited until the game started at 8:00, confirmed by Waze that the traffic had died down, and took an Uber another 30 minutes to our hotel. What a day!

When we flew into Costa Rica at 9:05 am (CR time) on Wednesday, we were awestruck by the mountainous surroundings around the capital of San José. From the air, they looked to be uninhabited, with barely a car, road or house in sight.

We were pleasantly surprised by the perfect cool and breezy weather (especially after sweltering Panama). We took a taxi from the airport to the hotel where we’d left our car. We found when we put our route home into Waze that we needed to avoid Route 1 and go north over winding mountain roads through Atenas, Palmeras, and San Ramon and then through La Fortuna at the NE end of Lake Arenal to get home, an estimated time of 4 hours and 40 minutes. We weren’t happy about that, but it would be better than sitting in heavy traffic on Route 1. Plus, we would see parts of Costa Rica west of San José that we’d planned to visit on a road trip the week before Christmas. It took a lot of time and concentration, especially for Mike who was driving, but we loved the scenery especially once we got away from the city.

We arrived in La Fortuna at 1:30 and stopped for lunch at Kappa Sushi, a place we’d liked when we visited the area in August. I enjoyed a Dragon Roll with shrimp tempura and Mike a Spicy Tuna Roll. After lunch, it was another 1 hour 40 minutes to our house in San Luis.

We arrived home at 4:00 and opened the house to cool breezes and gorgeous skies. Within an hour, we witnessed a marvelous richly-hued sunset. We were happy to be home to our house on Lake Arenal, but sad to know that in just 10 days, we’d be moving to the other end of the lake to Lake Arenal Condos for our last 6 months here.

Thanksgiving in Costa Rica

Thursday night we went with our friends Anne and Jack to Lake Arenal Brewery where they were offering a Thanksgiving meal and Spanish tunes by Olson del Toro.

Homebody stuff

On Sunday, November 2, we walked our 4-mile loop from our house to Tronadora and back, finding for the first time since July that the road that almost collapsed has now been redesigned and paved over. Another walk in Tronadora on Sunday the 30th, revealed more improvements on the road.

I continued my personal training with Nela on Monday, Wednesday and Friday while I was in Costa Rica, and then continued with her once we returned home from Panama.

On the 4th, Mike and I went to Liberia, me for a tomographia on my mouth and Mike for a consultation with Dr. Andrés Ugalde for a surgery for his carpal tunnel syndrome. Mike scheduled his surgery for December 2 here in Costa Rica, after which he won’t be able to swim, lift weights, drive a stick shift, etc. for 3-6 weeks. This means that for 3-6 weeks, I will have to do most of the cooking, cleaning, and especially driving the stick shift. We have a road trip planned to Volcán Poas in December, where I’ll have to do all the driving.

Meanwhile, the dentist wrote that my tomographia didn’t show any problems with my mouth, allowing me to lay that worry to rest.

On the last Tuesday of the month, we returned to Liberia to get a new permiso to take our car out of Costa Rica for our last 6 months here. This should cover us for two more visits, one in January and one in April. The permiso was surprisingly easy to get, with no line at all and a very helpful service professional. After that, we went to WalMart to buy clothes to take to the girls for a belated Christmas in January. It was an incredibly stressful 1 1/2 hours. For one the selection was really pathetic and figuring out the correct sizes, colors and styles was nearly impossible. We had already bought toys for Mikey on a previous visit. We wanted to get all this done while Mike still had use of both his hands and before we moved, and before everything was totally picked over as Christmas approached.

We went to Burger King for lunch, and because I never know how to order properly on the screens they provide for ordering, I accidentally ordered a Kid’s meal, and the server handed me a Kiddie box and asked which toy I’d prefer. Hilarious!

I finished 6 books in November, bringing my total to 44/48. I especially enjoyed The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith and 1968: The Year That Rocked the World by Mark Kurlansky; the latter tells about a year of upheaval which had many similarities to the current U.S. timeline in 2025. I also loved Memento Park by Mark Sarvas. We watched one movie, Mango, a bit cheesy but still enjoyable, especially the scenery in the beautiful town of Frigiliana, Spain. We started The Beast in Me, A Man on the Inside, and The Asset. We finished watching Adolescence, Angela, and the fifth season of Pernille, which I hope will have more seasons in the future because we LOVED it. We continued watching Younger, Seinfeld, Platonic, Unforgotten, The Morning Show, and The Diplomat. We endured another month that ended with a long 1,148 days left in our right-wing fascist oligarchy in the USA.

Moving to Lake Arenal Condos for our last six months

We spent much of the morning and early afternoon on Saturday the 29th moving into our new home at Lake Arenal Condos. The new place is on the ground floor of a three story condominium complex which sits high on the edge of a steep hill and has a magnificent view of Lake Arenal and Volcán Arenal.

Most things were going smoothly until we realized that we had ants and larvae living in the rim of the master bathroom toilet bowl, where water is distributed from the tank to rinse the bowl after each toilet flush. After much spraying of Black Flag and flushing, we seemed to get most of them out.

When we went to bed in the master bedroom, we found ants crawling around the bed. I freaked out, thinking they must have come in through the door we had left open to the porch (with a screen). However, when we woke on Sunday morning, we lifted the mattress to tuck in the sheets and found ants crawling all over on the the bed frame. We took the mattress off the wooden platform and there, under the mattress and on the bottom of the mattress, we found a whole ant colony, complete with larvae, bustling around. They had been having a grand time while we were sleeping right on top of them. Argh!!!

We sprayed Black Flag all over and washed all the bedding, but we are not going to be able to sleep in that bed until we’re certain that all the ants are permanently exterminated. As of Sunday afternoon, we hadn’t seen any movement, but our bed was still disassembled and we refused to sleep in it.

Embattled and stressed from our first day in the condo, we decided we deserved a treat after our harrowing adventure. We went to Tilarán to attend a concert billed as “Concierto de Ensamble Atrespam;” Atrespam is the Escuela de Musica in Tilaran. We watched some singers perform, but we didn’t know the names of any of them. The woman singer was especially good. We enjoyed the concert, checked out some artwork on the walls of the lobby, then took a walk around the city park, where we saw Christmas lights and another live concert.

We wandered to Paseo del Viento for drinks and hamburgers. It was a relief to escape our stressful first day in the new condo.

The Fall Bingo Card

This was a good month for checking off things on my Fall Bingo Card, especially during our trip to Panama and our move to Lake Arenal Condos.

• Got a green pedicure
• Worked on my 2026 bullet journal, especially creating my reading list for 2026
• Wore more of my cowboy-themed t-shirts
• Saw the Panama Canal and the Miraflores Visitor Center
• Visited museums in Panama City: Biomuseo & Museo de Arte Contemporáneo; we also saw the Panama Canal murals
• Went snorkeling in Bocas del Toro and took an island “boat tour” – in water taxis
• Made a Veggie-packed navy bean soup
• Celebrated Thanksgiving at Lake Arenal Brewery with our friends Anne & Jack
• Moved to our new home at Lake Arenal Condos
• Finished five books: The Narrow Road to the Interior: Poems by Kimiko Hahn; 1968: The Year That Rocked the World by Mark Kurlansky; There Must Be More Than This by Judith Wright; The Last Light Over Oslo by Alix Rickloff; and Memento Park by Mark Sarvas.

Family happenings from afar

Maria sent photos of the girls and Mikey dressed up for some friends’ Halloween party. Maria posted a photo of little Mike wandering with his overalls hanging off one shoulder, hanging with the cows, making a mess while eating, finally growing some hair, and trying to do gymnastics moves like this sisters.

Alex and Allie “played chess” with Allie concentrating — on the TV. Also, Alex, Jandira and Allie went for a two night getaway to Elkton, Va, where they did some hiking and celebrated Jandira’s 32nd birthday on the 24th.

On my Costa Rica blog, you can find my weekly recaps of our lives in Costa Rica for the month of November:

• a new personal training regimen, a cattle auction & a belated birthday/halloween gathering {week 22/52}
• a relaxing (& hopeful) week before a trip to panama & a drive to san josé {week 23/52}
• a jaunt to panama: panama city & bocas del toro, and return to costa rica {weeks 24 -25/52}
• a permiso for two more trips to nicaragua, a costa rican thanksgiving, & a move to a new home {week 26/52}

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I hope you’ll share how the year is panning out for you, and what plans you have for the holidays and the rest of this year.

How did your November go? Did you have any special family gatherings? Have you welcomed any new additions to your family?  Did you celebrate any birthdays or anniversaries? Have you read any good books that can inform your worldview, seen any good movies, binge-watched any television series? Have you planned any adventures or had any autumn getaways? Have you dreamed any dreams? Have you gone to any exotic restaurants, cooked any new dishes? Have you been surprised by anything in life? Have you marked off activities on your Fall Bingo card? Have you made any new friends? Have you learned anything new, taken any classes or just kept up with the news? Have you sung along with any new songs? Have you undertaken any new exercise routines? Have you marched or otherwise participated in political protests? Have you been battered, or alternately, uplifted by any news?

Please share your November with me by giving me the plot below, or a link to a post in your blog that tells about your month.