Restlessness is contagious

I am a restless person.  That is so deeply ingrained in me that even when I am trying to stay somewhere, I keep looking for opportunities to go to other places. This restlessness is fed by all the people I meet who are either coming or going to places.  I am feeling particularly restless these recent days.

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About ten days ago, I received an email saying that I had a message waiting for me on facebook.  I'm on something of a facebook break which meant that I was about to ignore the message when Ariel said, "You should check it! It might be something important."  So, I went and read the message --ignoring all other facebook temptations-- and saw that it was kind of important.  

A few years ago, I lived for a few months in El Salvador.  I was blessed by an amazing family who invited me --a complete stranger-- to live with them during that time.  They became a second family for me.  How that all came about is another long story, but what is important is that one of their sons lives in Venezuela and the message I received was from him.

He asked me if I would know of a place that two friends of his -who were traveling from Argentina on their way to Alaska- would be able to stay when they arrived in Panama and if they could contact us.  We thought we could help them so, Ariel was wonderful enough to follow up with them and send them his contact information.  They sent us a message saying that they were going to be coming to Panama on a sailboat through the San Blas Islands and that they would call us when the had arrived in Panama.

Several days went by.  We assumed they were having a fabulous time in the Islands and didn't worry about them.  Finally, this week they called Ariel and told him that they had arrived and would be coming as soon as they got their van out of customs and sorted out their own entry.  So, without telling all details, they finally arrived.

Once they had eaten something they told us a bit about some of their adventures driving from Argentina through South America and then told us all about their misadventures on their sailing trip from Colombia to Panama.  As it turns out, their trip was awful and they almost died at sea without hardly a drop of water or a bite of food for almost 5 days.  It was an amazing story which I'm sure they will write on their blog when they get the chance.

So, we have enjoyed hearing their stories and even got them to play a game of Settlers of Catán with us.  They will be in Panama for a period of time, traveling, and then continuing their trip --enjoying each part of each country they go through. 

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Now, with that clarified my recent bout of restlessness is explained.