Casa del Mundo is our favorite getaway. Only fifteen minutes away by boat, this hotel looks like someone took handfuls of cozy cottages dripping with flowers and winding stone stairs, and threw them up against the mountain. A couple of nights at this magical little getaway, feels more like a week. There is a simple formula for this. No tvs, no where to go except for a short hike to the next village, only some hammocks, kayaks, books, boardgames, and a couple of kittens, the end. If you are staying at this place, you should like who you are staying with, because they will be your entertainment for your stay.
Madi finished school on Friday, by helping her school move from its current location to the new one, where Cali’s school was last year. Took us three hours to move the entire school. Madi boasted that she rode on the roof of the van to keep some boxes from falling off. The teen mind doesn’t ask what will keep me from falling off. Here you send your child to school and who knows what they may end up doing. If a person doesn’t have their own independent source of common sense when it comes for safety, they should stay in the US where the rules are plentiful and the lawyers can get you a settlement if you choose to ignore them and end up doing something stupid to hurt yourself.
The following day we headed out for our little getaway. Luckily it was a short boatride away because we had a leaky boat, first lots of swearing, then bailing with a small plastic cup.
We packed more books and snacks than clothes, moved into our little room, ready to unwind. After I cracked open my book, I noticed Madi scratching her head without ceasing. Have three girls, know the signs, checked the head, lice-affirmative. The closest pharmacy was back in Pana and the last boat has already come and gone. I decided to go back early in the morning to get shampoo, yay.
The evening meals at this hotel are done family style by candlelight. We end up sitting next to three Japanese speaking people. I wowwed them with my ten words of Japanese from “have a good meal” and “delicious isn’t it” (situationally useful) to “ouch” (not as useful). I did fold the older Japanese couple two different kinds of cranes out of my cloth napkin. My mad crane-folding skills come in handy at the oddest times. Huge smiles, probably so big they’d be illegal in Japan. I think I can now qualify for a job on Carnival cruise lines as a room steward folding towel animals.
Back to the dinner. Across from us sat a young Guatemalan couple who spent the meal whispering about us and smooching. Madi wanted to tell them to use their room, since clearly they already had one. Another couple was from India and weren’t interested in talking to us. So Madi and I talked amongst ourselves about the pros and cons of green being the color of our soup and speculated on what percentage of the brain an average 14 year old boy accesses.
Madi is 14 and she is currently in one of my favorite developmental stages. She is pre-wall. You know the wall I’m talking about. The one where you had this wonderful teen who loved and adored you, then suddenly you don’t know nothing about nothing, your jokes aren’t funny, your outfit lame, your brain outdated. As parents we hope our teen will be the first one since the beginning of time, who will not put up that wall. But show me one who hasn’t, whether it’s up for days, weeks, months. I suppose it’s one method of exercising their independence, finding their own way.
I know my walls. Besides being a master builder myself, I’ve seen a few doozies built that even impress me. With our oldest I thought it wasn’t going to happen, we were in the last few months of her senior year, graduation around the corner, wall-free, the raising teen girls thing already declared a cake walk. Then blam! Was like she hired a mob of midnight masons on crack, that sucker was constructed overnight. On the way to brush my teeth I smacked into it so hard I got a concussion and chipped a tooth. She hadn’t erected one of those token walls with a mixed message, complete with a pretty mural and a few hand and footholds to aid those who are determined to scale it (I leaned a ladder up against a few of mine), because the builder actually wants someone to take the time and effort to make it to the other side. My kid constructed the Berlin wall kind, with foundational titanium beams bolted through to the other side of the planet, electrical barbed wire, armed guards. No mixed messages with this wall, objective clear. Ain’t no one going under, over, around, above, or through that sucka.
For about a month and a half, I loved my daughter, but enjoyed her most when the door was hitting her in the butt. Sometimes I would become nostalgic for the prewall era, and would pogostick to try to get a glimpse of her over the wall, but didn’t recognize much. Next my little wall-darling went away for a gap year to Spain. Kissed her goodbye, mortar, bricks, and all. Then one day, similar to the speed of the actual one, that Berlin wall was dismantled. Despite having a souvenir of the real Berlin wall (shhhh), I had no interest in keeping a chunk of grey concrete from my daughter’s. Just shook a bubbly-bottle, popped the cork, and kissed all the rubble goodbye.
Madi, still prewall, is at a great age where we cover a broad range of topics from complex to not so much; from the law of attraction to assigning a certain three local boys a number on the gorgeousness scale, from God questions to wondering why puppies can’t be dewormed from birth, or why bra companies think you want your boobs to look like two half coconuts with horizontal seams. She is incredibly insightful and has a great sense of humor. I enjoy spending time with her. She is a freshman in high school, and I know how these four years pass, with only three and a half more flickers before she heads out. Currently she not only tolerates spending time with me, she seeks me out. She values my opinions, we laugh all the time. I’m aware that without warning, she could shift and think (incorrectly so) that I’m not that cool, that I don’t have all the answers (huh??), and would rather hang out with other similar teenbrains. I’m no rookie, I’m savoring the prewall moments.
That night at the hotel, Madi volunteered to sleep on the floor, to keep from sharing her pets with me. Appreciated. Early the next morning, even pre-coffee (I know, such dedication!!) I boated back to Pana, got the shampoo, did my daily feeding of the stray dogs by the bridge, checked on our pampered pooch, got back on the boat. Spent the rest of the morning shampooing her head, then mine. Ate lunch, spent the afternoon picking through her head for nits, twice. Took hours. Read one chapter in my book, then it was supper time. If only there was a wall one could build around the girls to keep lice out, I’d pay big bucks for that one.
The family style meal the next night was better. We ended up sitting next to some interesting youngish American travelers. After the meal we went back up to our room, played a board game. Our room was fairly high on the mountain. From our beds you could see the twinkling lights of the little villages all around the lake. We read, talked some more, were sleeping by nine.
The next morning we went kayaking because the lake was calm, unlike the day before. After that she was eager to get back home to the dog, and for hiphop classes, so we caught a boat home. Great little getaway. What I won’t forget about this weekend is the amount of time we spent enjoying each other with no distractions. So whether we were playing games, kayaking, reading books in hammocks, or me picking through her scalp for hours on end, we had some great time connecting sans wall, in a beautiful place.