Panama and the San Blas Islands

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Panama and the San Blas Islands
Panama and the San Blas Islands

If you want paradise on earth, go to the San Blas Islands when you are visiting Panama City for a couple of days.

We drove three hours through the mountains, got sick of all the curves in the road and soaking wet when we took the small boat from the mainland to the Island of Hotel Porvenir...but nevertheless it was all worth it!

This was an amazing trip to a world where the sea is greener than green and the islands are beautiful treasures in the Caribean sea. Hotel Porvenir was a great family hotel where we spent the night. We bought our own lobsters on another island and at the end of the day we met them on our platterns, including a lot of garlic ;-). We'd never had such an amazingly fresh tasty lobster as we had at Hotel Porvenir. The family runs the island. There are a few cottages, a small airstrip and a lot of palmtrees and that’s it. Don’t expect a lot of luxury because it's all quite simple but what else do you need in paradise?

So if you are in Panama, visit one of the hundreds of beautiful islands of San Blas. Make sure you get dropped on one of the completely empty ones, so you can spend a whole day on a desolate bounty island with your own drinks and food and the people you wanted to be surrounded with. There are also islands packed with people including a bar if you want to party. But we preferred an uninhabited island somewhere in that beautiful green Caribean sea! Desiré wanted to be on a ‘Donald Duck Island’…an island with just one palmtree. We found one but unfortunately we weren’t allowed to stay on that particular island. Next time we have to call Donald Duck in advance to get permission to visit such a simple ‘one-tree-only-island' ;-)!

When we were back in Panama City we went to rooftop bar Tantalo. We had a nice cocktail with a great view over Panama City. Instead of simplicity we had luxury this time…both worlds were great to deal with ;-)!

Watch our vlog of Panama and the San Blas Islands!

Toronto and Mount St. Louis Moonstone

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Toronto
Winter sport activities in the mountains of Ontario.

January in Toronto…what should we explore this time? First we wanted to go riding with huskies but we had to drive for more than three hours and we didn’t want to. We decided to go skiing at Mount St. Louis instead. We rented a car for a day at Trifty and went to wintersport resort Mount St. Louis. Unfortunately the weather was not very good. A gray sky instead of blue and no sun at all. But we didn’t care because skiing is great, no matter what!

Mount St. Louis Moonstone is a southern Ontario ski resort located north of Barrie. The resort is just over one and a half hour driving time from Toronto and is located just off Highway 400, which makes it a prime destination for Toronto-area skiers. A perfect goal for us this time. Mount St. Louis contains 36 slopes, 9 chairlifts and 3 carpets. The resort is known for being family friendly and prides itself on accommodating the beginner skier to the most advanced skier. It is one of the largest family owned ski resorts in Ontario. It was founded 51 years ago by Austrian Alpine skier Josl Huter.

Tickets for the ski slopes start at 59 dollars. But you can also buy a more expensive ticket that allows you to ski from 9.00 am till 9.00 pm on all slopes. So you can conquer the slopes not only during daylight but even when the darkness falls in. You can buy a package deal as well, so the ski pass and the rent for skies, ski shoes and poles are included for a fixed price. We took our own ski shoes and helmets with us so we rented skies and poles only.

Our lunch break contained hot dogs with red wine ;-)…a nice combination. We continued skiing till dark after this interesting lunch. It was such a lovely day. The people were very friendly and we had lots of chats with the locals. Our skiing skills are still in progress and the slopes are lovely to learn, practise and have fun together. The slopes are well maintained and worth a visit! Don’t forget you helmet because nowadays everyone is wearing one. Even if you feel like Calimero ;-).

Watch our vlog of Toronto!