What the heck is Mexican Train??? It’s a table game played with dominoes by up to eight people. I play with a group at a local restaurant & bar called Big Daddy’s on Wednesday afternoons from 3 until around 5 p.m. Different people show up on occasion, so I get to socialize and get to know them in a smaller group, which is much more suited to my somewhat introverted nature.

The dominoes used in this game have a maximum of 12 spots on each end of the tile, as opposed to the limit of 6 for standard dominoes. Each of the radiating lines of tiles is one the player’s “personal train” that they play subsequent tiles on. The group of dominoes at the far end of the table is the “public train” that anyone can play on.

To start the game, a “double” (same number of spots on each end) is placed in the little central hub (called the “engine”). Each player has to place a domino that matches the central domino in one of the notches of the hub, and the game proceeds from there around the circle. There’s a fair bit of strategy to the game, regarding how you play to maximize the number of moves you have available before having to draw from the “train yard” (bone pile of unused dominoes) because you have no further matches.

The small colored markers on a couple of the personal trains are, in fact, little plastic trains. If someone has to draw and still can’t play, their train goes up and their train becomes public, meaning anyone can play on it. If on the any subsequent turn, they can play on their own train, the little train comes off and it’s private again.

My explanation is probably confusing, but it’s not difficult to learn and a lot of fun to play. I found a web page with more detailed rules, if you are interested. Those are not exactly the rules we play by, but it gives you an idea.

There are other Mexican Train gatherings around town (at least two others that I know of), and I hear that some of them count points (having the smallest number of spots on your remaining dominoes after all hands are played). Others even play for money. Both of those groups sound way too serious. The group I play with just plays for the laughs – and we do laugh a lot!

While I was in the US, the seasons changed dramatically in Boquete. When I left, it was still the rainy season, with rain most every afternoon. It didn’t rain at all for the first week when I returned, and the winds were very gusty much of the day and night (perhaps up to 50 mph, which is pretty breezy, even for Oklahoma!).

The first little shower happened yesterday afternoon, and was hardly enough to dampen the roads. Today there was a brief shower that lasted maybe 5 minutes. Other than that, the weather has been gorgeous – sunny and a little warmer than it was during the rainy season. Perfect!

It’s now the dry season, which people call “summer” here. This will likely last until March or April, when the rains will begin to increase again.

As I’m working this afternoon, I hear the birds singing outside. Their calls are very different from those in Oklahoma – very exotic-sounding. It makes for some very pleasant background music! I couldn’t wait to return to Boquete, and it’s days like this that are part of the reason.

I made it back home to Boquete about 8 a.m. today. The travel time was long (almost 24 hours, in total), but I made all my connections along the way just fine. I’m really glad that I checked my carry-on bag – since there were four legs on this flight, I couldn’t see lugging it around and trying to find space in the ever-crowded overhead compartments four times. That decision made the trip a lot less stressful, believe me!

The airport is on the far east end of Panama City, and the bus depot is at the far west end, so it’s a bit of a hike from one to the other. I could have called an Uber and probably saved a little, but from what I’ve read, Ubers aren’t allowed in the same area as the taxis, and I didn’t want to have to figure out where to meet them. By the time I went through immigration and customs, with little sleep the night before, I just wanted to get there with a minimum of effort, so I took a taxi instead.

I got to the bus terminal in plenty of time to catch the midnight express bus to David. The bus ride from Panama City was long (about six hours), but I had a great seat. It’s a nice double-decker bus, and I had one of the front-row seats. It was like a huge picture window with a live-action movie. Granted, it was night time, but it was nice to have an unobstructed view of the highway and towns that we went through.

I got a taxi in David to take me to my house. Taxi drivers cluster around the buses when they arrive, to catch a fare. This guy was very nice, and helped me with retrieving my luggage from the bus and carrying them to his taxi. When I explained to him that I lived about five kilometers before Boquete proper, he gave me a break on the usual price for the ride.

It was wonderful to get in the house and collapse in my comfy recliner! After taking a nap until mid-afternoon, I felt more like a human being. I think I’ll skip being a vendor at the Tuesday market tomorrow – this week’s Tuesday talk is about our neighboring volcano, Volcan Barú, and I’d like to hear about it, so I’ll do that instead for this week.

I’m on my way home to Boquete, and will be so glad to get there! Right now, I’m in Miami and have a little time before boarding my flight to Panama City, so I’ll post an update.

My route was a little circuitous – OKC to Dallas on a 7 a.m. flight, then on to Charlotte and Miami, finally ending up in Panama City at 9:25 tonight. I got a surprise in Charlotte – there was a fair amount of snow on the ground. I didn’t expect that! The temperature was just below freezing, so it was slushy and not frozen hard. The snow actually helped, because the connection from Charlotte to Miami was really tight, and the snow caused a 15 minute delay.

The clouds were gorgeous as we approached Miami – they looked like icebergs. The weather was in the low 80s, much warmer than Charlotte!

I’ll say one thing for Miami, their airport has the most beautiful floors! They’ve inlaid brass images of seashells in the floor, both on white and black backgrounds. One section looks like a hurricane on the black floor, composed of chips that looked like mother-of-pearl.

Time to check in at the gate – after I arrive in Panama City, I still have a long bus trip. I should arrive in Boquete on Monday morning, tired but happy!