My 2017: Welcoming the new year - 2018! The year I won't be too busy for friends and family

My 2017

2017 was a strange year for me, because many things happened. My little brother got married, my parents sold their house and moved to Colombia, I got promoted to blue belt, I stopped eating animal products, and I reconnected with an old friend that I hadn’t talked to in many, many years which was quite emotional.

My little brother with his lovely wife

Bad things happened too. A friend of mine passed away. We only hung out during our time at Columbia in NYC and also a little after, but then life happened, and we simply didn’t keep in touch. Just like that, you realize that you will never see that person again, and blame yourself for letting a friendship slip away.

R.I.P dear James

Holidays like Xmas and New Years make you realize how important it is to stay connected to the people you love, no matter how far away they live, or how busy you are, especially when it comes to family.

I couldn’t spend this New Years Eve with my own parents since they moved away, and my 2 younger brothers are all living in different countries. However, I was lucky to welcome my sister in-law @angiec and her boyfriend who are visiting from LA, and spend some quality time with my husband’s side of our family.

December 31st

This 31st of December was a VERY rainy day in Bocas del Toro, and I’m not talking about some rain showers. Imagine turning on the water of your shower on full pressure, and leaving it on for 24 hours. This is how bad it was. People actually drowned here, and an entire boat with 18 tourists disappeared during a tour. Planes couldn’t land due to the stormy conditions, and so @angiec and Jason arrived several hours later than expected. I was afraid they wouldn’t make it at all, but I guess the pilots took advantage of a little window of opportunity to get everyone to the island.

When they got here, we all decided to go to lunch in town (see picture below). I hadn’t seen my sister in law in over 2 years, and it was great to catch up and finally meet her boyfriend. He must have been nervous to meet her 2 older brothers @el-cr and @cizabocas, but he’s cool and it all went extremely well (not that I was expecting it to be any different, ehehe).

After our very late lunch, we went grocery shopping to get ready to cook a traditional Chilean dish called Pastel de Choclo, which my sister-in-law @angiec had requested for that special occasion. My husband and his siblings are half Panamanian and half Chilean, so I apologize if this post Is a bit confusing when it comes to traditions. We are a multicultural family, hence we freestyle things a bit in our home.

In Panama (and in Chile), the tradition is that families celebrate New Year’s together with a dinner, and after midnight the “younger” crowd usually heads out to party somewhere in town. This was our plan too, but unfortunately the heavy rain got us very lazy, and we stayed at home listening to music, and just catching up on everything.
Every New Year, we eat this specific Chilean dish, only this year, we made it #vegan (soy milk instead of cow milk, and soy meat instead of ground beef). It tasted delicious, and if you’d like to try it, you can find the recipe here.

Angie and her mom were in charge of the main dish, her boyfriend Jason was in charge of the salad, and my responsibility was to make dessert: pumpkin cake with fresh pumpkin from our garden.

I will post the recipe in another post, because I think it’s really worth sharing =).

Me making the cake and the result

Dinner was fun!

My sister in law came back from LA with a suitcase full of presents for everyone, and it almost felt like Christmas lol.

She knows that I have a bit of a sunglasses addiction (in my defense, it’s an accessory that you really need here, in normally sunny Bocas del Toro!), and Angie brought back 4 pairs for me LOL.

The evening went on with lots of storytelling ad laughter, and of course, at midnight we all embraced each other and wished each other a happy 2018.

2017 ended with heavy rain, but 2018 started with loads of sunshine and now we’re off to the beach...