The ​Isla Mujeres is a magical place; It is the only place we have visited tree time in over 20 annual vacations. It has changed a lot over ten years, but it still has its charm.  Condos and new homes are going up all over the island, some being rented out to tourist and others owned. Ten years ago, there were a few cars, and most people used golf carts. Times have changed. 

There are now car ferries from the mainland and lots of taxies. The problem is not only the congestion on busy holiday periods; it is the smell of burning fuel.  The pollution controls on diesel golf carts are none existent, and this should change. Why not make the whole island electric. It could be done over time — my only complaint. 

This Island is Paradise with beautiful warm turquoise waters and super friendly people, The Marina Paraiso Hotel was a peaceful place to bond with the new puppy with a beautiful property. The whole island had good restaurants in all price ranges. A great place to visit and maybe live one day. 

​Our new puppy named Fabio made the long trip home 7 hours flying time and an overnight stay in Vancouver. We found him to be a joy to travel with. He slept most of the ay home. We used the training puppy pads that he used successfully after two days of having him. Smart dog. After seven days of being home, he is showing signs that house training will be short, he just started barking to go outside. 

Of course, everyone asks what type of dog he is, and we are curious about how many different breads he is combined with. All we know for sure is that he has hound in him. Regardless of what he makes up is, he is sensitive and loves to cuddle, making him a good match for our older dog and our family. 

I am fully aware that we can adopt a puppy in our home town of Victoria but there is something intriguing about bringing home a puppy from a foreign land .

The 1st thing to do is make sure your airline will allow you to do it. West Jet allows for pets for an extra charge. We prepaid for both in cabin and cargo pet space because we have know idea what kind or size of dog we are bringing home.

​and so the journey begins.

​lucky that the Vancouver Airport has great places to sit and write.

  There are lots of tours to take, all can be found online. We went for the Panama canal tour and jungle tour combined and enjoyed the sites. The Canal is quite the creation. The sloth reserve was probably the high point for my kid as he was not fond of the Crocks that we had seen and sloths are pretty peaceful. 

One of the coolest places in the city was Casa Viejo the efforts of the government and its people is to be commended. This was the original city full of history and character. Well worth the visit. Yes.. a bit of a tourist trap and worth seeing. 

Driving in Panama was not the worst place to drive but not the easiest either thanks to WAZE Gps service we got around pretty good. We made a journey to Coronado. About an hour and 30-minute drive.   ​

We stayed at the Casablanca house. We have never stayed at a house while traveling before. This one has a pool, air conditioning, three bedrooms, and two baths and only a 7-minute walk to the beach. The Casablanca house. 

The Casablanca house is close to grocery store, and a nice Italian restaurant and the beach. It has a nice kitchen and was clean and safe. It can be found on Bookings.com and on Goole maps. Contact Rod for more details and to book @ [email protected]  

My family traveled to Curacao in 2015 it was a last minute replacement for wanting to go to Europe. Not a bad choice, not because it is so much like Europe but because it is a charming place to visit and it does have a European flair. 

The combination of the floating bridge and brightly painted building makes this place easy on the eyes. The local food has a fusion of European, eastern and Caribbean flavors, The beaches were plentiful and beautiful. I think we went to a different beach each day. Our favorite was Mambo beach.  Some of the beaches were topless which my 10 year found fascinating even nicknaming one beach "booby beach".  Some beaches were very dutch serving Dutch food and speaking Dutch it was almost like we made it to Europe. Almost......

The choices of accommodations are great.  You can go high-end low end but they were much more costly than south-east Asia. about twice as much. That being said it is not the cheapest place to travel but it has character and charm. We are a mixed race family and traveling is always interesting as people are still curious in this day and age,  and some cases not impressed but really ....who cares. It seems everywhere I go other than my home country the 1st impression people have is that I am from that country. Canadians still have a ways to go. In the US people are open and blunt about the racial opinions in Canada we are just more polite about it. 

This was my 7th trip to the Caribbean, this island felt like one of the safest. This Island was one of the biggest trading areas for slavery and instead of hiding it they have created a fascinating slave museum. I did not know what to expect when I entered and therefore was pleasantly impressed by the honesty of the displays and information. One of my ancestors may have come through this Island. Traveling on the torturous ships that were on display. Even my 10 year old enjoyed the journey. OK.... I will be honest African people were treated worse than livestock.  Talk about needing a strong constitution. To know that two of my ancestors made it through makes me proud. You think we would have evolved past this but it is still done to today with women, kids, in other parts of the world and Canada. ( read more here)  

The island has various types of terrain, desert-like and forest. Giant cacti and lots of pink flamingos ( never seen before ). That what traveling is about for me seeing, smelling, tasting, touching something new, relaxing and changing the perspective for a moment in time. ​