Today we got ready for our trip and packed. Sven and Sergio assumed they were gong in my backpack.
When I told them they were too big, Sergio tried to convince me he could fit in a makeup case.
I finally coaxed them into my suitcase with nuts and granola bars.
We are meeting up with my family in Monterey, CA. Then on Dec 30 I go back to UCSF for a “procedure” to have the stent in my bladder removed.
Today we did our normal weekend walk along the water. Since we do this walk a lit I’m able to chart my recovery progress. I’m still really slow but took less breaks and wasn’t as fatigued after.
Next stop was Coffee Bean and Tea. It’s weird Google says there are 16 Starbucks in Panama and nine Coffee Bean and Tea leaf stores
Even though there are more Stsrbucks they are in weird locations, so we usually end up at Coffee Bean and Tea leaf.
After going home and taking a long nap we went to Panama Costco.
Anyone know why the grapes are next to the champagne?
At midnight peopke eat 12 grapes and make a wish for each month.
Today was a really lazy day but we dos make it to the gym. My doctors have said I can start light weights and stretching again. It’s amazing how much muscle I lost in these last 3 months. I’m starting out with the lightest weights and in some cars no weight. But it feels great to be working out again.
Yesterday I was able to get my first dose of Avastin the maintenance drug.
This it’s great news because it means I’m all healed from surgery. I couldn’t get the drug until I was cleared by my doctors.
Every three weeks I’ll come in and get this little IV bag of the drug. I may be able to switch to a pill in the future but for now it’s this.
I get the drug at the same place I got chemo. While I’d rather never go back there, I know all the nurses and they have the place really decked out for Christmas.
So it’s all good. The drug makes me super sleepy day of but then I’m totally fine which is great.
I’m taking a few days off from blogging, mostly because I have to go out and take some more photos.
I’ll be back in a few days with more photos.
Each city in Colombia goes all out on Christmas lights. This was a city of half a million people with a huge display. This tree and all the lights turned multiple colors. I didn’t get any otger photos but every park was decorated with lights any even the tiny with all the doors had a big display.
And there was even a tourist llama. I learned on this trip that a little llama is called a llamito which is pronouncec jamito. It may be my new favorite word.
Today I’m going to post a bunch of random photos.
Has food gootten fancier lately or is this a Colombian thing? All our food came with edible flowers.
Or a drizzle.
Or both. Look how fancy this omelette is.
I assume these are edible flowers. If not I ate a lot of inedible flowers on this trip.
We flew back to Panama today. We had such a great time. But, it’s also nice to be home. We are doing a ton of laundry and ordered out for Indian food.
Tomorrow I’ll post a bunch of odd and end photos that didn’t make it into other posts.
Jeff and I went to some hot springs today. We had read that they were super crowded on the weekend, so we went today. How many people would drive an hour through the mountains on a Tuesday?
This is the instagram photo from the hot springs Instagram page. I thought ok I don’t have a dress like that but I can stand serenely. And ok maybe there would be a few other people.
We passed a parking lof of tour buses. But walking in there were few people and it was gorgeous.
Then we got to the waterfall which was amazing. There were other people but not too many.
Then we walked towards the hot springs. I was feeling serene.
And so was everyone else. It’s funny expectations vs reality. But the water was warm and setting incredible. It was a weird color but felt very therapeutic.
You can see how serene I was.
After a few hours we called our driver. Here’s Jeff happy to escape the crowds.
Jeff and I took it really easy today and didn’t start our day trip until 3:00pm. We went to the town of Filandia by bus.
For $2.00 a ticket it was a good way to go.
The town is surounded by incredible views. It’s a small town so there are views all around the town. The town itself is a door lover’s dream. Every door was amazing.
I could have stayec for a year to take door photos.
It was hard to know what to look at doors or the views. But we we’re hungry so we opted for a restaurant with a view. Jeff didn’t want to ask the waiter to take a photo of us. Too bad it would have been a good photo. Instead we did individual ones.
After dinner we got coffee for Jeff and I got my new favorite drink canelazo. It’s a bunch of stuff cinnamon, spices and panela (sugar cane) Its basically all the things that make spiced apple cider good without the thing that makes me not like it, apple cider.
We were able to get an Uber back without a problem. It was more than the bus but going 45 minutes through the mountains in the dark was worth the extra $30.
