My cousin Branson was in town from Nov. 20-28!  I hadn’t seen him in 8 years or so, so it was pretty exciting.  He’s looking towards retirement and wants to move somewhere in Central America.  Panamá was on his list of places to check out, so Eric and I gladly talked up our city and this beautiful country.  Unfortunately, his visit coincided with the beginning of my big capoeira event of the year, our batizado (literally translates as baptism, but it’s a big week of training and ends with a show and folks receiving their cords – like belts in karate), so we weren’t able to join him up in Bocas del Toro, near Costa Rica, for his diving trip.  We did, however, get the chance to take him to Casco Viejo where he treated us to a wonderful dinner at a restaurant called Grapes (super Panamanian sounding, right?).  We returned to Casco the next day to walk around a bit, show him the market and the views, to sit for a while with a nice smoothie for me, a beer for Eric, and a horrible energy drink for Branson, and to have lunch before dropping him off at the airport to head to Bocas.

After his trip, he came back for a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with us, complete with ginormous steaks.  Unfortunately, I was busy the entire following day taking photos for Mono and Lourdes’s wedding, so I didn’t get to go to the Canal with him or spend any time with him on Friday.  On Saturday morning, we stopped by his hotel for breakfast, then sadly, had to whisk him off to the airport to head home to Arizona.

Thanksgiving Dinner!!!

I was really glad to be able to have some time with him, even if it was just for a few days.  It was also fun that he and Eric have very similar senses of humor, so they got along well.