The 4 of us packed in the car and headed out of Pedasi around 7:30 AM for our long trip up to the mountains. Not 5 minutes into the ride and BOTH dogs decided they needed a front row seat, MY LAP! So for the next several hours the 3 of us got cozy. Made a stop along the way for lunch, then through the town of David to hit PriceSmart..kind of like a BJ's. Totally missed the signs to Boquete so pretty much ended up very close to the Costa Rican border. Hmmmm, I see mountains to our right so why am I not driving up to them? I'll never make it as a tour guide. Any way, what's one more hour of driving.
We finally arrived at our destination, Momentum at around 3:00. Funky place and an equally funky owner. There were about 4 or 5 private cabins which we were in and then he had rooms in his house as well. I'm glad we chose the cabins. The B&B rooms opened out into his living room where you could find the dance floor and a disco ball. Ummmm, ok. Every morning around 8 or so booming out of his 26 Bose speakers came on....'Once I had a love and it was a gas. Soon turned out had a heart of glass....' Actually used to be one of my favorite songs. Then in the evenings we'd see the flashing disco lights and more 'good' music. Mind you, this is just his house. It's not advertised as a bar, disco, etc. So it was pretty interesting. Super nice guy and so far we've come to terms that anyone who moves here, well they've got to be a little off. The place had a great pool. Solar heated so not hot but very nice and refreshing.
We spent a lot of time exploring Boquete. Ton's of coffee farms and beautiful gardens. There's almost a constant mist but the sun is still out. We didn't see one but we heard they get great rainbows there. Rivers and streams everywhere...waterfalls too. Wayne heard there are actually trout in the rivers. Several weeks ago they got so much rain that roads were flooded. We tried to drive a loop but had to turn around as big boulders blocked our path from going over a bridge that looked to be pretty much washed out.
The dogs had a blast. They had full run of the place and they took total advantage of that. We'd open the front door and that would be last we'd see of them. Thankfully they were both smart enough not to jump off the edge of the property which was pretty much straight down.
Even though it was cool there at night it still felt strange not to be freezing and having a fire going in the fireplace on Christmas. We had the Christmas spirit going though with all the great classic movies. Rudolph, Christmas Story, etc.
We headed out the day after Christmas, and took our time. Stopping again at PriceSmart for a TV. YAHOOOOO! We got a TV. Now we can watch movies on a big screen. As for TV stations....we are not ready to even try to tackle how we get that service.
We are still trying to purchase our 'cow field' piece of land. Yet again another cluster &^%$. Money was wired and is sitting at the bank. Bank wants an ORIGINAL letter from the sending bank stating that they are wiring money for 'x' to 'y' for the purpose of 'z', blah, blah. If I could hand the bank in Panama an ORIGINAL letter then couldn't I have just handed them cash and not gone through the hassle of a wire. HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Lawyer is now going to see about setting up an acct so we can put the money in escrow. ESCROW, well there's a friggin concept. Again, HELLOOOOOOOOOO! We have some other options too and I'm sure we'll go through all of them before it's said and done.
We are having a couple friends down for New Years eve. Kristine and Mitch are coming with their 2 dogs. Melvin's dad and brother. So it's like a family get together!!!! We aren't sure what to expect for New Years Eve here because really, how much harder can they really party here.
Well, HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hitched!
The knot has been tied
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Merry Christmas!!! some pics of wind, big clam, burn worm
Merry Christmas everyone. We actually kind of miss all the hustle and bustle that goes along with the holidays. For all the b*tching and moaning I did when we were back home during this season, I guess looking back now I can say it wasn't that bad and we miss it......To a degree of course!!!!
I needed to clean out the camera for our upcoming holiday get away so there are some new pictures posted on the blog. Nothing mind blowing. Huge moth, green caterpillar that if it touches your skin will feel like a hot poker. Some shots of the beach now that it's windy season and boy is it windy season. Poor Melvin had his little eyes crusted shut after our walk. Some HUGE CLAMS....bought 3 of them and then had no idea what to do with them. Thought about a clam sauce until I saw the 'sauce' that came out of the clam. Scrapped that idea and just chunked up the pieces that looked a little less like something the devel threw up and cooked it for hours in tomato sauce. When in doubt cook the day lights out of it in sauce. It worked and we survived. Actually tasted pretty good too.
We are headed to the moutains for Christmas. We'll be packing jeans and fleeces!!! Guess it gets pretty cold where we are going. I hope the pups handle it ok. We might need to pick them up jackets too. We've got a little cabin, they allow dogs and they have a heated pool. Like I was saying.....We miss being back home for the holidays only to a degree!!! :))))
Wayne's had some pretty awesome fishing trips. Lots of tuna, mahi, sierra mackeral, wahoo. He hooked into a black marlin...actually 2 of them. Got one of them to the boat. Cool. Our boat is out of the water now resting up during windy season. Still there are lots of places to fish with other guys who have their boats out of the windy areas
I needed to clean out the camera for our upcoming holiday get away so there are some new pictures posted on the blog. Nothing mind blowing. Huge moth, green caterpillar that if it touches your skin will feel like a hot poker. Some shots of the beach now that it's windy season and boy is it windy season. Poor Melvin had his little eyes crusted shut after our walk. Some HUGE CLAMS....bought 3 of them and then had no idea what to do with them. Thought about a clam sauce until I saw the 'sauce' that came out of the clam. Scrapped that idea and just chunked up the pieces that looked a little less like something the devel threw up and cooked it for hours in tomato sauce. When in doubt cook the day lights out of it in sauce. It worked and we survived. Actually tasted pretty good too.
We are headed to the moutains for Christmas. We'll be packing jeans and fleeces!!! Guess it gets pretty cold where we are going. I hope the pups handle it ok. We might need to pick them up jackets too. We've got a little cabin, they allow dogs and they have a heated pool. Like I was saying.....We miss being back home for the holidays only to a degree!!! :))))
Wayne's had some pretty awesome fishing trips. Lots of tuna, mahi, sierra mackeral, wahoo. He hooked into a black marlin...actually 2 of them. Got one of them to the boat. Cool. Our boat is out of the water now resting up during windy season. Still there are lots of places to fish with other guys who have their boats out of the windy areas
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Our first confirmed kill :(
Well, just when we thought things couldn't get any more exciting...(I'm being sarcastic)....we hear a screetch and then another. Then we hear a few words we recognize. Grande, serpiente, MAMA!!!!, en casa, ayuda!!!!! (help), WAYNE, WAYNE!!!! We go running out and there is a 6-8 foot snake on our neighbors porch. I think the poor kid next door who is just hitting that puperty stage may have set himself back a couple years. I never heard a GIRL screetch like HE did!!! I have to hand it to Wayne, he handled a shovel like John Wayne with two six guns. I pretty much tested the strength of the hood of our truck. I can confirm it can handle 160 pounds of flying flesh no problem! Toyota tough! After a few whacks in the cabeza (head), also a word we recognized as the mother next door kept screaming it, the bugger was pretty much dead. We scooped him up and put him in a bucket for the father next door to see. He doesn't think he was a bad one :( So we might have gotten one of the good guys but we were caught up in the moment and trying to calm our neighbors. I've attached a picture to our blog and on facebook. If anyone has a clue what it is, let us know. we are having a hard time finding out.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
The Three Amigos
The Three Amigos!
We now have witnesses that can validate what we’ve been saying all along: Panama is NOT an island. You can drink the water. People do not walk around in grass skirts with bones in their noses….well at least not here in Pedasi. The napkins do indeed suck here. Chickens and roosters do not sleep, ever, EVER!!!! Men absolutely do bark at each other, on occasion even the ladies get into it. If you order fish, expect it to be smiling back at you from the plate.
Amy, Ellyn and Pete arrived here in Panama on Nov. 6th and stayed until this past Saturday. Total travel time for them was about 18 hours. Thankfully Wayne and I are so worth it! They were up at 1:30 AM to drive to JFK, flew to Costa Rica, had minutes to spare before jumping on a plane to Panama where there was a driver waiting for them. Ahhhhh, who wouldn’t be up for a 5 hour drive at this point. The first thing Ellyn said to me was ‘you need to move closer.’ They were beat but were good enough sports to stay awake through dinner. We heard the airport in Pedasi has been stalled for a couple of months but hopefully by the time they come again, or we get some of you others to come, it will be open. It will shorten the 5 hour drive to about a ½ hour plane ride.
Fischer had no problem vacating our spare room for Pete and the girls stayed 2 minutes away…at a place with a pool. I was thinking of me when I had them book there. We got some good use out of it. More use out of the ocean though. One highlight for sure was Ellyn catching a wave on a boogie board and screeching like a schoolgirl for the full 50 feet of travel. Pete took surfing lessons. He managed to at least get to his knees on the board. He was a hurting puppy the next day. Nothing a little rum couldn’t fix. Amy, aka the Snack Queen. Do not let her go hungry. You won’t like Amy if she gets hungry!!!
The week was full of lots of trips to the beach, boogie boarding, canteen visits, pool side cocktails, visits with friends, tons of food, rum, wine, SUNSHINE. Every day was sunny and perfect…..and it’s still rainy season. Since they left we’ve had rain every day. So thanks guys for bringing the SUN.
Given all of our activities during the day, I think the latest we were up was about 10 – 10:30 and that might have been the night they arrived and the night before they left. We had a great send off Friday night at Pedasi Cheese. Yes, it’s a cheese store now turned into a restaurant too. Cheese…..Restaurant…..HELLO. The restaurant allowed the guys to bring their guitars and drums and Kristen had her violin. It was a blast. Nothing like a little ‘hill billy camp fire’ music to really freak out the locals.
THANKS GUYS FOR COMING OUT. IT MEANT THE WORLD TO US. I finally stopped crying around noon the day you left L
Other news. Pictures attached are of a couple fiesta’s that have taken place over the last few weeks. November is a big party month. We actually spent a lot of time listening to live, GOOD music. Well, until the singing started then ‘good’ turned to ‘ok, let’s get another beer.’
Our land purchase continues to be quite interesting. I’m so happy Central American pharmacies do business like they do. “hello, I need something that will make me tranquil.” “Of course, here you go, these work very well.” And indeed they do!!! We have actually put a down payment down on piece of land we were shown just last week. It got Ellyn’s approval while she was here. It’s a local guy and pretty straight forward. So we might be land owners in a couple weeks. Holy crap! Where did I put those pills any way?
Fischer and Melvin LOVE each other now. Of course many pictures of them are attached too. When Melvin squeaks in his cage, The Woo gets out of his bed, and we all know how much Fischer loves his bed, to go investigate. There have been a few moments of heart stopping excitement when Mel won’t let go of the rope that Fischer is swinging around on the bed 3 feet in the air of the hard tile floor. Another really good time is right after washing the floors. The tiles are like glass. Melvin pretty much skids all over on his belly while Woo looks like George Jetson….’get me off this crazy thing!’
We did our required border crossing a couple weeks ago. We are allowed to stay here 6 months before needing to leave for 72 hours. The border between Panama and Costa Rica is a total crap hole. But we did our thing and are now legal for 6 more months...However our drivers licenses are only good for 3. Go figure. We actually stayed in a nice hotel while we were there. The lines to get stamped out/in and out/in again were about an hour long. We had no issues. We did everything by the book this time however, next time we will certaily be taking up the many offers of help to get us in and out in less than 72 hours.
Ok everyone. We miss you all and REALLY, REALLY mean it when we say you are welcome anytime! Please pass along what’s been going on with you. I’ve said it before, we love hearing back and knowing what’s going back home.
We now have witnesses that can validate what we’ve been saying all along: Panama is NOT an island. You can drink the water. People do not walk around in grass skirts with bones in their noses….well at least not here in Pedasi. The napkins do indeed suck here. Chickens and roosters do not sleep, ever, EVER!!!! Men absolutely do bark at each other, on occasion even the ladies get into it. If you order fish, expect it to be smiling back at you from the plate.
Amy, Ellyn and Pete arrived here in Panama on Nov. 6th and stayed until this past Saturday. Total travel time for them was about 18 hours. Thankfully Wayne and I are so worth it! They were up at 1:30 AM to drive to JFK, flew to Costa Rica, had minutes to spare before jumping on a plane to Panama where there was a driver waiting for them. Ahhhhh, who wouldn’t be up for a 5 hour drive at this point. The first thing Ellyn said to me was ‘you need to move closer.’ They were beat but were good enough sports to stay awake through dinner. We heard the airport in Pedasi has been stalled for a couple of months but hopefully by the time they come again, or we get some of you others to come, it will be open. It will shorten the 5 hour drive to about a ½ hour plane ride.
Fischer had no problem vacating our spare room for Pete and the girls stayed 2 minutes away…at a place with a pool. I was thinking of me when I had them book there. We got some good use out of it. More use out of the ocean though. One highlight for sure was Ellyn catching a wave on a boogie board and screeching like a schoolgirl for the full 50 feet of travel. Pete took surfing lessons. He managed to at least get to his knees on the board. He was a hurting puppy the next day. Nothing a little rum couldn’t fix. Amy, aka the Snack Queen. Do not let her go hungry. You won’t like Amy if she gets hungry!!!
The week was full of lots of trips to the beach, boogie boarding, canteen visits, pool side cocktails, visits with friends, tons of food, rum, wine, SUNSHINE. Every day was sunny and perfect…..and it’s still rainy season. Since they left we’ve had rain every day. So thanks guys for bringing the SUN.
Given all of our activities during the day, I think the latest we were up was about 10 – 10:30 and that might have been the night they arrived and the night before they left. We had a great send off Friday night at Pedasi Cheese. Yes, it’s a cheese store now turned into a restaurant too. Cheese…..Restaurant…..HELLO. The restaurant allowed the guys to bring their guitars and drums and Kristen had her violin. It was a blast. Nothing like a little ‘hill billy camp fire’ music to really freak out the locals.
THANKS GUYS FOR COMING OUT. IT MEANT THE WORLD TO US. I finally stopped crying around noon the day you left L
Other news. Pictures attached are of a couple fiesta’s that have taken place over the last few weeks. November is a big party month. We actually spent a lot of time listening to live, GOOD music. Well, until the singing started then ‘good’ turned to ‘ok, let’s get another beer.’
Our land purchase continues to be quite interesting. I’m so happy Central American pharmacies do business like they do. “hello, I need something that will make me tranquil.” “Of course, here you go, these work very well.” And indeed they do!!! We have actually put a down payment down on piece of land we were shown just last week. It got Ellyn’s approval while she was here. It’s a local guy and pretty straight forward. So we might be land owners in a couple weeks. Holy crap! Where did I put those pills any way?
Fischer and Melvin LOVE each other now. Of course many pictures of them are attached too. When Melvin squeaks in his cage, The Woo gets out of his bed, and we all know how much Fischer loves his bed, to go investigate. There have been a few moments of heart stopping excitement when Mel won’t let go of the rope that Fischer is swinging around on the bed 3 feet in the air of the hard tile floor. Another really good time is right after washing the floors. The tiles are like glass. Melvin pretty much skids all over on his belly while Woo looks like George Jetson….’get me off this crazy thing!’
We did our required border crossing a couple weeks ago. We are allowed to stay here 6 months before needing to leave for 72 hours. The border between Panama and Costa Rica is a total crap hole. But we did our thing and are now legal for 6 more months...However our drivers licenses are only good for 3. Go figure. We actually stayed in a nice hotel while we were there. The lines to get stamped out/in and out/in again were about an hour long. We had no issues. We did everything by the book this time however, next time we will certaily be taking up the many offers of help to get us in and out in less than 72 hours.
Ok everyone. We miss you all and REALLY, REALLY mean it when we say you are welcome anytime! Please pass along what’s been going on with you. I’ve said it before, we love hearing back and knowing what’s going back home.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Dogs, land, rental, life
Hi All
Finally got a new cheap camera so WHEN I break this one it won’t hurt as bad. Attached on the blog are of course lots of pictures of the dogs. Fischer and Melvin seem to finally be getting along, or maybe we should say Fischer is tolerating Melvin. Melvin got to visit his brother recently at our friend’s (Kristine and Mitch) place in Guanico. A VERY bumpy, almost 2 hour drive deeper into the peninsula. Also during that visit we fed their crocs some chicken skin. The crocs are living literally about 40 feet from their house in a small river. Yes, they keep their dogs on leashes!!!! Imagine a Tighes drunk-fest here in Panama!!!! It’s one thing to fall off the dock and skin you knee on a clam shell but a whole different story if you take a tumble here!!!
We are getting very close to actually buying a piece of land. (pics are on the blog) It’s about a mile from the beach. ¾ acres which should do us just fine and give the pups plenty of room to run. If the land deal happens, then we’ll build. YIKES! We are giving ourselves at least 2 years to finish everything. 2 years…..that’s a long time and we’ll probably be very lucky to reach that goal. We want to do a lot ourselves because, well the workmanship isn’t what we are used to. So this should be an experience for sure.
Also on the blog are some pictures of our little rental. A few people were asking just what a Panamanian house looks like. Well here ya go. And driftwood has more uses than you can imagine……dish towel holder, t.p. holder, towel rack, cloths rack, curtain rods…it’s endless really. Pen holders, who needs them. We’ve got rocks with holes in them that seem to have been made just for that purpose. So as long as Wayne and I continue to use rocks and driftwood for our household needs rather than beating each other with them, we should do just fine.
We are gearing up for a big November. Lot’s of parties happening this month. For what reasons, your guess is as good as mine. We are told not to except a lot of business to be conducted in Nov. Most weekends are extended to 3-4 days and then a day or 2 recovery period.
We went to one of the kick off parties this weekend. Live music….actually didn’t make our ears bleed. Bull fights….which even local Pedasian’s said it’s a lame show and that the one to see is coming up in a couple weekends and will be held right here in the streets of Pedasi. We might want to park our car somewhere else. I didn’t bring my camera to this event and really should have but will in the future. I think I said this before….it’s a whole other world here. Kids are sitting right up on the fences that the bulls are fighting in. Guys get knocked unconscious, picked up, dragged away and are treated with a few mouthfuls of Seco (Sugar cane vodka….we think. It’s sugar cane booze of some kind), thrown back in and do it again. Bragging rights goes to the guy with the biggest gash in his head. I WILL bring a camera next time. Words just don’t do it here.
Finally got a new cheap camera so WHEN I break this one it won’t hurt as bad. Attached on the blog are of course lots of pictures of the dogs. Fischer and Melvin seem to finally be getting along, or maybe we should say Fischer is tolerating Melvin. Melvin got to visit his brother recently at our friend’s (Kristine and Mitch) place in Guanico. A VERY bumpy, almost 2 hour drive deeper into the peninsula. Also during that visit we fed their crocs some chicken skin. The crocs are living literally about 40 feet from their house in a small river. Yes, they keep their dogs on leashes!!!! Imagine a Tighes drunk-fest here in Panama!!!! It’s one thing to fall off the dock and skin you knee on a clam shell but a whole different story if you take a tumble here!!!
We are getting very close to actually buying a piece of land. (pics are on the blog) It’s about a mile from the beach. ¾ acres which should do us just fine and give the pups plenty of room to run. If the land deal happens, then we’ll build. YIKES! We are giving ourselves at least 2 years to finish everything. 2 years…..that’s a long time and we’ll probably be very lucky to reach that goal. We want to do a lot ourselves because, well the workmanship isn’t what we are used to. So this should be an experience for sure.
Also on the blog are some pictures of our little rental. A few people were asking just what a Panamanian house looks like. Well here ya go. And driftwood has more uses than you can imagine……dish towel holder, t.p. holder, towel rack, cloths rack, curtain rods…it’s endless really. Pen holders, who needs them. We’ve got rocks with holes in them that seem to have been made just for that purpose. So as long as Wayne and I continue to use rocks and driftwood for our household needs rather than beating each other with them, we should do just fine.
We are gearing up for a big November. Lot’s of parties happening this month. For what reasons, your guess is as good as mine. We are told not to except a lot of business to be conducted in Nov. Most weekends are extended to 3-4 days and then a day or 2 recovery period.
We went to one of the kick off parties this weekend. Live music….actually didn’t make our ears bleed. Bull fights….which even local Pedasian’s said it’s a lame show and that the one to see is coming up in a couple weekends and will be held right here in the streets of Pedasi. We might want to park our car somewhere else. I didn’t bring my camera to this event and really should have but will in the future. I think I said this before….it’s a whole other world here. Kids are sitting right up on the fences that the bulls are fighting in. Guys get knocked unconscious, picked up, dragged away and are treated with a few mouthfuls of Seco (Sugar cane vodka….we think. It’s sugar cane booze of some kind), thrown back in and do it again. Bragging rights goes to the guy with the biggest gash in his head. I WILL bring a camera next time. Words just don’t do it here.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Met Melvin Percy LeBelle-Small
Our new addition. It took us 2 days to figure out a name but finally came up with Melvin. (my grandfather's name). Melvin Percy (Wayne's grandfather's name). We' llprobably just call him Mel for short. He's 7 weeks old and so cute. We've only had him since Wednesday and he's already sleeping most of the night in his little house. He does his 'businss' outside....almost always. We built him little stairs so he can get himself up and down from our bed. We love him so much. Fischer on the other hand isn't feeling the love in the slightest bit. I hope he comes around. Melvin wants to play so bad with Fischer but Fischer just growls at him and runs away. He's never been known for his great social skills. We are paying all kinds of special attention to him though. He's been our spoiled baby for a long time. Hopefully we'll be one big happy family in no time. WOOF WOOF
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Bananama AAAaahOH!
Hello everyone. Hope you had a great summer. Our ‘winter’ (rainy season) is still in force and will be until around Nov/Dec when windy season hits. After that, Mar/April/May will be the hot and dry season.
It’s been a while but with all 3 of our camera’s busted I don’t have any pictures to share and let’s face it, that’s all I’d be interested in! Not to mention, there hasn’t been a whole lot of excitement going on.
Wayne FINALLY has the boat out on a mooring. He bought a small little plastic boat for rowing back and forth to Gato Solo. Or if he’s lucky, he just hitches a ride from someone. They don’t use silly things like bumpers. They bring you to your boat and pretty much just smash right into it. ‘We’re here!’. We were out last week with our friend Kevin and his brother-in-law. 5 grouper and 1 snapper. Not bad for a couple hours and about a 15 minute ride out to the spot. Lots and lots of eels though. BIG ONES! We played baseball with them….their heads were the ball and the guys batted up.
We are in our rental. It’s in a nice quiet part of town right next door to the ex-police chief. It’s great and cheap. Wayne did a lot to it to make it critter proof….like filling 2 inch gaps between the walls and doors to the outside and putting screens over the OPEN, decorative, cement block windows. It’s almost all painted on the inside and furnished enough for us now. I decided to go a little whacky with color. It looks like someone threw up jellybeans all over the place but I like it. The back yard is only about 25 feet long and 10 feet deep but backs right up to a huge cow field. The cows get loose from time to time because the fence in our neighbors yard is down. So we are getting used to cows on our front porch and looking in the windows. We also get our share of stray dogs from the cow fields. One of which who spends a good portion of her day rolling in cow sh*t. I don’t think she liked my color choice for the living room because she ran in our front door and shook sh*t all over. I don’t think the walls had been painted for more than 6 hours! She’s a good girl though. She comes and steals Fischer’s toys, plays with them for the day and then returns them. She actually returns the toys right to the spot she stole them from.
Even with all the critter proofing we did have one unwelcome guest the other day. A nice juicy scorpion. He hadn’t actually made it in the house, just hanging out on the front door jam. The stings from the scorpions here are like a wasp’s sting. Nothing deadly. That’s always a bonus. Any way, a few good whacks and that was the end of him.
We’re still looking for a house/land. We are meeting someone today to look at a nice piece of land about a mile from the beach where we keep the boat. Price and location are right but that could all change. We found one house a couple of weeks ago for about $15,000. We were actually going to buy it until the price went up the day we went to tell them we wanted it. It was tiny…shocker! And who says an OPEN AIR bathroom isn’t a good thing….AKA, pick a tree and squat. It has probably 10 banana trees on the lot so there would have been plenty of choices to change up the scenery. It would have been more of a little project house to get us started and then we could have rented it out, but blah, blah, blah…as I said, the price changed so we walked.
So one thing we miss….being able to go into a store, like a Home Depot, and buying a hammer and having it be a 1 ½ minute transaction. Shopping here can be pretty different. At some stores, as soon as you walk in you’ve got someone glued to your hip. Personal space here doesn’t exist….that’s ok, it’s their way of providing customer service. If you touch something they’ll take it and hold it for you figuring if you touched it you must want it. We quickly learned how to say ‘I’m just looking, thank you.’ Sometimes it works, sometimes not so much. So then you find an actual item you want. Ok should be simple, go to register and pay. Silly, not at all. You have to first go to one group of computers….of course at the other end of the store from where you actually pay…show them what you are buying, they do their thing then send you to the other group of computers. You stand there and wait until your slip is printed out….a 4 page carbon copy thing. The stamps come out and pages are flipped, stamps are stamped, it’s a frenzy. Finally money is exchanged. We are getting close!!!…but don’t get too excited. Each item is then checked by another employee to make sure it’s been paid for. No problem if you just bought a hammer but when you’ve got 3 shopping carts filled, it takes some time. And you think maybe a few items could be skipped since someone was with you pretty much the entire time you shopped and made it up to this point. Not a chance. Ok, everything checks out. Now the bagging starts. I swear if a queen size mattress could fit in a bag it would be put in one. I will say, they are experts at fitting every possible item in a bag. Ok, we are so close, SO CLOSE. But wait, it’s knot tying time. Every bag is now tied in a knot, not just one simple knot either. At least two but usually more. You can be damn sure you won’t be reusing that bag because you are going to need to rip it open if you want your things. I dare anyone to try and untie these knots! Shopping always makes for a few good laughs and raised eye brows.
We’ve got an exciting couple of days ahead of us. This afternoon 3 couples are coming over…there will be 3 guitars, a fiddle, a few harmonics, tambourines and whatever else everyone has that will make noise. Our poor neighbors. They might actually wish for once that there were a noise ordinance. If they can play the accordions while barking at each other (barking is another story) until 4:00 AM EVERY SATURDAY then we can have a Gringo Jam party for a couple of hours.
Saturday we are supposed to go to a cock fight. I know, I know but here it’s like going to a baseball game. Our friend’s neighbor raises the fighters and we were over yesterday checking them out. I doubt we’ll make it part of regular routine but we’ve got to go at least once. Maybe we’ll even win a few bucks! Or sponsor our own bird and if it wins we get a cow!!
Lastly, the barking thing. It’s a way of greeting I guess you could say and it truly is a bark. Not a ‘woof, woof’ type of bark though. It’s got some depth. Wayne’s been practicing which I’m sure is really impressing our surrounding neighbors. It starts off with a sound almost like you got punched in the gut then moves right into sounding like what Horseshack used to do on Welcome Back Kotter. Remember that….Oh, Oh, OHHHH Mr. Kotta. Of course the bark doesn’t include the Mr. Kotta part and it’s got less of the Jewish/NY accent. With that said, I expect you all to practice and bring your best barks when you come visit!! AAAaahOH, AAAaahOH!
It’s been a while but with all 3 of our camera’s busted I don’t have any pictures to share and let’s face it, that’s all I’d be interested in! Not to mention, there hasn’t been a whole lot of excitement going on.
Wayne FINALLY has the boat out on a mooring. He bought a small little plastic boat for rowing back and forth to Gato Solo. Or if he’s lucky, he just hitches a ride from someone. They don’t use silly things like bumpers. They bring you to your boat and pretty much just smash right into it. ‘We’re here!’. We were out last week with our friend Kevin and his brother-in-law. 5 grouper and 1 snapper. Not bad for a couple hours and about a 15 minute ride out to the spot. Lots and lots of eels though. BIG ONES! We played baseball with them….their heads were the ball and the guys batted up.
We are in our rental. It’s in a nice quiet part of town right next door to the ex-police chief. It’s great and cheap. Wayne did a lot to it to make it critter proof….like filling 2 inch gaps between the walls and doors to the outside and putting screens over the OPEN, decorative, cement block windows. It’s almost all painted on the inside and furnished enough for us now. I decided to go a little whacky with color. It looks like someone threw up jellybeans all over the place but I like it. The back yard is only about 25 feet long and 10 feet deep but backs right up to a huge cow field. The cows get loose from time to time because the fence in our neighbors yard is down. So we are getting used to cows on our front porch and looking in the windows. We also get our share of stray dogs from the cow fields. One of which who spends a good portion of her day rolling in cow sh*t. I don’t think she liked my color choice for the living room because she ran in our front door and shook sh*t all over. I don’t think the walls had been painted for more than 6 hours! She’s a good girl though. She comes and steals Fischer’s toys, plays with them for the day and then returns them. She actually returns the toys right to the spot she stole them from.
Even with all the critter proofing we did have one unwelcome guest the other day. A nice juicy scorpion. He hadn’t actually made it in the house, just hanging out on the front door jam. The stings from the scorpions here are like a wasp’s sting. Nothing deadly. That’s always a bonus. Any way, a few good whacks and that was the end of him.
We’re still looking for a house/land. We are meeting someone today to look at a nice piece of land about a mile from the beach where we keep the boat. Price and location are right but that could all change. We found one house a couple of weeks ago for about $15,000. We were actually going to buy it until the price went up the day we went to tell them we wanted it. It was tiny…shocker! And who says an OPEN AIR bathroom isn’t a good thing….AKA, pick a tree and squat. It has probably 10 banana trees on the lot so there would have been plenty of choices to change up the scenery. It would have been more of a little project house to get us started and then we could have rented it out, but blah, blah, blah…as I said, the price changed so we walked.
So one thing we miss….being able to go into a store, like a Home Depot, and buying a hammer and having it be a 1 ½ minute transaction. Shopping here can be pretty different. At some stores, as soon as you walk in you’ve got someone glued to your hip. Personal space here doesn’t exist….that’s ok, it’s their way of providing customer service. If you touch something they’ll take it and hold it for you figuring if you touched it you must want it. We quickly learned how to say ‘I’m just looking, thank you.’ Sometimes it works, sometimes not so much. So then you find an actual item you want. Ok should be simple, go to register and pay. Silly, not at all. You have to first go to one group of computers….of course at the other end of the store from where you actually pay…show them what you are buying, they do their thing then send you to the other group of computers. You stand there and wait until your slip is printed out….a 4 page carbon copy thing. The stamps come out and pages are flipped, stamps are stamped, it’s a frenzy. Finally money is exchanged. We are getting close!!!…but don’t get too excited. Each item is then checked by another employee to make sure it’s been paid for. No problem if you just bought a hammer but when you’ve got 3 shopping carts filled, it takes some time. And you think maybe a few items could be skipped since someone was with you pretty much the entire time you shopped and made it up to this point. Not a chance. Ok, everything checks out. Now the bagging starts. I swear if a queen size mattress could fit in a bag it would be put in one. I will say, they are experts at fitting every possible item in a bag. Ok, we are so close, SO CLOSE. But wait, it’s knot tying time. Every bag is now tied in a knot, not just one simple knot either. At least two but usually more. You can be damn sure you won’t be reusing that bag because you are going to need to rip it open if you want your things. I dare anyone to try and untie these knots! Shopping always makes for a few good laughs and raised eye brows.
We’ve got an exciting couple of days ahead of us. This afternoon 3 couples are coming over…there will be 3 guitars, a fiddle, a few harmonics, tambourines and whatever else everyone has that will make noise. Our poor neighbors. They might actually wish for once that there were a noise ordinance. If they can play the accordions while barking at each other (barking is another story) until 4:00 AM EVERY SATURDAY then we can have a Gringo Jam party for a couple of hours.
Saturday we are supposed to go to a cock fight. I know, I know but here it’s like going to a baseball game. Our friend’s neighbor raises the fighters and we were over yesterday checking them out. I doubt we’ll make it part of regular routine but we’ve got to go at least once. Maybe we’ll even win a few bucks! Or sponsor our own bird and if it wins we get a cow!!
Lastly, the barking thing. It’s a way of greeting I guess you could say and it truly is a bark. Not a ‘woof, woof’ type of bark though. It’s got some depth. Wayne’s been practicing which I’m sure is really impressing our surrounding neighbors. It starts off with a sound almost like you got punched in the gut then moves right into sounding like what Horseshack used to do on Welcome Back Kotter. Remember that….Oh, Oh, OHHHH Mr. Kotta. Of course the bark doesn’t include the Mr. Kotta part and it’s got less of the Jewish/NY accent. With that said, I expect you all to practice and bring your best barks when you come visit!! AAAaahOH, AAAaahOH!
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Designated Drunk
Hi all,
Hope you are enjoying your summer so far. Heard it’s been a hot one. Thanks to everyone who has been in touch wondering if fell off the face of the earth. I’ve been a slacker with the update/blog.
Designated Drunk:
One morning at 9:00 Wayne drove by a cantina on his way to check on the boat. He noticed a guy sitting in the bar enjoying his breakfast of a bottle of Herrando (a sugar vodka) and a bottle of ice cold Panama. In Panama, it doesn’t have to be 5:00 somewhere. At around noon, Wayne drove by again and the same guy was now enjoying his lunch, which was a repeat of his earlier breakfast. At 2:00 it was our turn to stop in and quench our thirst. This time the guy was deep into his siesta. AKA: Totally annihilated and passed out. The bar tender, to our surprise, actually called a cab to come get the guy. WOW, this makes sense and how incredibly responsible!!!! The cab arrives. The driver gets out, walks over to the guy, starts shaking him and doesn’t give up until he’s got the guy upright and awake. Then he sits down and orders them both a beer. Not until after several more rounds does the driver load his pickled amigo into the car and takes him ‘safely’ home. Everyday, many times a day, we look at each other and say….can you imagine that happening in the states!!!!
Wayne’s fishing trip, by Wayne: In my adventures down here in Panama I have got to be friends with a guy who has a 29' Phoenix in the only marina on the Azuero peninsula,Which is private and there are only 2 boats at the Marina,It's at the ex-presidents house who is a woman and a avid fisherman that owns a 48' CABO!!!
We headed out around 6:00 A.M. to get some small baitfish (Green Jacks) that resembled a snapper blue that were plentiful and hit sabiki rigs like crazy..
Headed out about 10 miles to the Tuna grounds and put our artificials in and ran 5 rods. We had consistent action for a few hours and caught about 8 decent sized Mahi with my first Bull about 25 lbs!!
When the action slowed we headed over to Frailles rocks with live bait and tied on a wire leader and circle hook, The water had a nervous look to it and the local baitfish were near the top, Within 30 seconds of letting my bait out I had an incredible runoff on the Avet 30 reel so hard that it seemed like it was in freespool for a while,I got the fish close to the boat and saw it was a nice Wahoo but when he saw the boat took off for another nice run..After landing it I threw out another bait and had another great runoff that came unbuttoned and then came a good rain so we packed it in.
Tally 8 Mahi of different sizes up to 25 lbs. and a 45lb. Wahoo..
It was a great day on the water with Dolphins swimming along with the boat,Giant Leatherback turtles,and Humpback whales freejumping completely out of the water and exploding the surface when they landed!
Back at the dock on our return the Secret service guarding the property came down to check out what we caught toting a full auto machine gun but were very friendly (good thing!).
We are still looking for land or even a small house or fixer upper. We keep telling ourselves to go slow. Going slow won’t be a problem as we are having a tough time making contacts, getting people to call us back and getting to know what is and isn’t for sale. FRUSTRATING!!! We are getting dangerously close to biting the bullet and dealing with a so called real estate agency. This is our last resort though.
We leave our current rental at the end of the month. We decided against renting the beach house. WAY too much responsibility. The lease agreement stated that any damage due to rain or wind would be our responsibility. HELLO!!! I don’t think so. We found another rental...and get this, $200 a month plus electric. It's a typical style house. We can paint and do whatever we want to it. Of course at our expense but it doesn't need a whole lot other than cleaning and paint. We'll have to buy furniture but we'll take that with us when we get something of our own. It's actually in a part of town where they do don't a whole lot of bombings...that's always a good thing.
Took out Gato Solo Tuesday and yesterday with our friend Kevin. Tuesday Wayne caught a 5 foot black tip shark. Friggin wild!!!! He caught it on a FLUKE LURE. Go figure. Thankfully Kevin’s expert gaffing kept it from ever getting into the boat. It did break the gaff though and is swimming around with what probably looks like a huge silver cigar hanging out of his mouth. Then the only other thing caught was by Kevin, a trigger fish. Everyone is saying this week the tide is no good for fishing. We set up a trip for yesterday with a local fisherman to captain our boat. AWESOME trip. I caught an Amberjack and Cubera Snapper. Wayne caught a Red Snapper. Poor Kevin and Wayne had some BIG ONES that got away…so they say. It was probably bottom. What ever! :))
It’s just amazing everything we see from the boat but also just walking the beach, whales, dolphin, sea turtles, sea snakes (not good), all kinds of stuff.
I posted some pictures on the blog/snapfish. Enjoy. They will be last you see as I busted TWO, YES TWO cameras this week. WHAT THE *#&@. We've got a 3rd camera but your guess is as good as ours as to where it is.
Well big fiesta going on down the road. Bongo's were seen being brought into the canteen....WOW, LIVE MUSIC. This will be a first since we've gotten here. God please don't let there be any accordian playing or whistles.
Happy summer everyone. Be in touch. We love hearing from everyone back at home.
Hope you are enjoying your summer so far. Heard it’s been a hot one. Thanks to everyone who has been in touch wondering if fell off the face of the earth. I’ve been a slacker with the update/blog.
Designated Drunk:
One morning at 9:00 Wayne drove by a cantina on his way to check on the boat. He noticed a guy sitting in the bar enjoying his breakfast of a bottle of Herrando (a sugar vodka) and a bottle of ice cold Panama. In Panama, it doesn’t have to be 5:00 somewhere. At around noon, Wayne drove by again and the same guy was now enjoying his lunch, which was a repeat of his earlier breakfast. At 2:00 it was our turn to stop in and quench our thirst. This time the guy was deep into his siesta. AKA: Totally annihilated and passed out. The bar tender, to our surprise, actually called a cab to come get the guy. WOW, this makes sense and how incredibly responsible!!!! The cab arrives. The driver gets out, walks over to the guy, starts shaking him and doesn’t give up until he’s got the guy upright and awake. Then he sits down and orders them both a beer. Not until after several more rounds does the driver load his pickled amigo into the car and takes him ‘safely’ home. Everyday, many times a day, we look at each other and say….can you imagine that happening in the states!!!!
Wayne’s fishing trip, by Wayne: In my adventures down here in Panama I have got to be friends with a guy who has a 29' Phoenix in the only marina on the Azuero peninsula,Which is private and there are only 2 boats at the Marina,It's at the ex-presidents house who is a woman and a avid fisherman that owns a 48' CABO!!!
We headed out around 6:00 A.M. to get some small baitfish (Green Jacks) that resembled a snapper blue that were plentiful and hit sabiki rigs like crazy..
Headed out about 10 miles to the Tuna grounds and put our artificials in and ran 5 rods. We had consistent action for a few hours and caught about 8 decent sized Mahi with my first Bull about 25 lbs!!
When the action slowed we headed over to Frailles rocks with live bait and tied on a wire leader and circle hook, The water had a nervous look to it and the local baitfish were near the top, Within 30 seconds of letting my bait out I had an incredible runoff on the Avet 30 reel so hard that it seemed like it was in freespool for a while,I got the fish close to the boat and saw it was a nice Wahoo but when he saw the boat took off for another nice run..After landing it I threw out another bait and had another great runoff that came unbuttoned and then came a good rain so we packed it in.
Tally 8 Mahi of different sizes up to 25 lbs. and a 45lb. Wahoo..
It was a great day on the water with Dolphins swimming along with the boat,Giant Leatherback turtles,and Humpback whales freejumping completely out of the water and exploding the surface when they landed!
Back at the dock on our return the Secret service guarding the property came down to check out what we caught toting a full auto machine gun but were very friendly (good thing!).
We are still looking for land or even a small house or fixer upper. We keep telling ourselves to go slow. Going slow won’t be a problem as we are having a tough time making contacts, getting people to call us back and getting to know what is and isn’t for sale. FRUSTRATING!!! We are getting dangerously close to biting the bullet and dealing with a so called real estate agency. This is our last resort though.
We leave our current rental at the end of the month. We decided against renting the beach house. WAY too much responsibility. The lease agreement stated that any damage due to rain or wind would be our responsibility. HELLO!!! I don’t think so. We found another rental...and get this, $200 a month plus electric. It's a typical style house. We can paint and do whatever we want to it. Of course at our expense but it doesn't need a whole lot other than cleaning and paint. We'll have to buy furniture but we'll take that with us when we get something of our own. It's actually in a part of town where they do don't a whole lot of bombings...that's always a good thing.
Took out Gato Solo Tuesday and yesterday with our friend Kevin. Tuesday Wayne caught a 5 foot black tip shark. Friggin wild!!!! He caught it on a FLUKE LURE. Go figure. Thankfully Kevin’s expert gaffing kept it from ever getting into the boat. It did break the gaff though and is swimming around with what probably looks like a huge silver cigar hanging out of his mouth. Then the only other thing caught was by Kevin, a trigger fish. Everyone is saying this week the tide is no good for fishing. We set up a trip for yesterday with a local fisherman to captain our boat. AWESOME trip. I caught an Amberjack and Cubera Snapper. Wayne caught a Red Snapper. Poor Kevin and Wayne had some BIG ONES that got away…so they say. It was probably bottom. What ever! :))
It’s just amazing everything we see from the boat but also just walking the beach, whales, dolphin, sea turtles, sea snakes (not good), all kinds of stuff.
I posted some pictures on the blog/snapfish. Enjoy. They will be last you see as I busted TWO, YES TWO cameras this week. WHAT THE *#&@. We've got a 3rd camera but your guess is as good as ours as to where it is.
Well big fiesta going on down the road. Bongo's were seen being brought into the canteen....WOW, LIVE MUSIC. This will be a first since we've gotten here. God please don't let there be any accordian playing or whistles.
Happy summer everyone. Be in touch. We love hearing from everyone back at home.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Links to Tuna Farm and Crocs
For some reason I can't get the videos to download to the blog.
Here are the 2 links to see them on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B1nGoIOD5U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB-U6wsNrYg
Here are the 2 links to see them on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B1nGoIOD5U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB-U6wsNrYg
Bananama
Hello from Bananama,
Hope you are all enjoying your summer so far.
It’s a perfect day to finally get an update out. It’s raining, thunder, lightning and doesn’t look like it’s going to let up anytime soon. YAHOO!
Celebrated Wayne’s birthday on the 22nd. Our original plan was to go to the Auto Lava for a car wash, Cerviche (marinated seafood) and Cervesa (beer). I know what you are all going to wish for for your next birthday. It’s hysterical. All over the place you can pull in, get the car washed and vacuumed for $3 while enjoying an ice cold beer and cerviche. We ended up only at a place with beer and rum while you waiting. You can buy the whole bottle of rum for $2 (a small bottle). You bring along your own mixers and have a good old time! See, there are some things in this country that make sense!
We are spending our days looking at land. It’s pretty apparent if we are going to get screwed over by anyone, it will be a gringo. So we are trying to talk to locals instead which means there is a lot of grunting, drawing in the dirt, etc. Met one rice farmer who brought us back to his place. Amazing how simple they live. Met his wife and son and got to see his small rice production (Pictures attached on blog) As far as land, the prices are all over the place. No idea yet what we’ll end up buying.
Another farmer/bar owner we met showed off his crab harvest to us. Yummy! He gets them in the mangroves. Also while we were there an old man and woman showed up to sell their turtle eggs. Highly illegal to do. It kind of sucked to see it since the turtles are endangered. (pictures of crabs and eggs on blog). I guess they cook the eggs in tomato, garlic and onion and then suck the insides out. They claim it’s incredible. I think I might have finally found something I won’t eat!!!
Met with an attorney the other day. We knew immediately that he was going to be the attorney we use. He began by welcoming us to Bananama. Ain’t that the truth! He is 100% Panamanian. There are a few professions here that only Panamanians can hold, attorney being one of them. Then we noticed an autographed picture of Metalica on his wall. He got so excited when we mentioned it. He said he was a METAL lover. AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, Kiss, etc. He even managed a band that covered Kiss and they won some kind of big award. When he goes to see AC/DC he dresses in a kilt. Yes, this will be our attorney, no doubt! We hear AC/DC will be coming to Bananama after their US tour. Excellent and we’ll probably go with our attorney.
Any way, found out good news. We don’t need to leave the country until November. A new law was passed giving tourist 6 months instead of 3. He also recommended that we don’t bother trying to become residents. Says it’s expensive and no need. As long as we leave every 6 months for 72 hours, we are fine. AND if we don’t really want to leave for 72 hours, he will give us a name of a guy at the Costa Rican border who will go ahead and stamp us in and out in a matter of a few minutes. I said ‘so we just ask for him and tell him who our attorney is’. He said ‘OH NO, NO, NO don’t give them my name!!!’
Went to a tuna lab the other day. Very cool. They do all kinds of research on tuna. They’ve got a huge tank with 15 tuna in it, the largest was close to 200 pounds. We wanted to bring our fishing rods as a joke but decided against it. (Pictures and video are attached on the blog)
We witnessed crocodiles being lassoed (pictures and video on the blog). At the tuna lab there is a pond and the crocs find their way there. They aren’t welcomed guests. The day we were there, they were trying to catch 2 of the bigger ones to move off the property and let them loose about an hour or so away.
Wayne has got almost everything he needs for the boat mooring. That only took about a month. I guess the biggest frustration here would be trying to get stuff and stuff that isn’t crap made in China.
So all in all, nothing too exciting these past 2 weeks.
Hope you are all enjoying your summer so far.
It’s a perfect day to finally get an update out. It’s raining, thunder, lightning and doesn’t look like it’s going to let up anytime soon. YAHOO!
Celebrated Wayne’s birthday on the 22nd. Our original plan was to go to the Auto Lava for a car wash, Cerviche (marinated seafood) and Cervesa (beer). I know what you are all going to wish for for your next birthday. It’s hysterical. All over the place you can pull in, get the car washed and vacuumed for $3 while enjoying an ice cold beer and cerviche. We ended up only at a place with beer and rum while you waiting. You can buy the whole bottle of rum for $2 (a small bottle). You bring along your own mixers and have a good old time! See, there are some things in this country that make sense!
We are spending our days looking at land. It’s pretty apparent if we are going to get screwed over by anyone, it will be a gringo. So we are trying to talk to locals instead which means there is a lot of grunting, drawing in the dirt, etc. Met one rice farmer who brought us back to his place. Amazing how simple they live. Met his wife and son and got to see his small rice production (Pictures attached on blog) As far as land, the prices are all over the place. No idea yet what we’ll end up buying.
Another farmer/bar owner we met showed off his crab harvest to us. Yummy! He gets them in the mangroves. Also while we were there an old man and woman showed up to sell their turtle eggs. Highly illegal to do. It kind of sucked to see it since the turtles are endangered. (pictures of crabs and eggs on blog). I guess they cook the eggs in tomato, garlic and onion and then suck the insides out. They claim it’s incredible. I think I might have finally found something I won’t eat!!!
Met with an attorney the other day. We knew immediately that he was going to be the attorney we use. He began by welcoming us to Bananama. Ain’t that the truth! He is 100% Panamanian. There are a few professions here that only Panamanians can hold, attorney being one of them. Then we noticed an autographed picture of Metalica on his wall. He got so excited when we mentioned it. He said he was a METAL lover. AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, Kiss, etc. He even managed a band that covered Kiss and they won some kind of big award. When he goes to see AC/DC he dresses in a kilt. Yes, this will be our attorney, no doubt! We hear AC/DC will be coming to Bananama after their US tour. Excellent and we’ll probably go with our attorney.
Any way, found out good news. We don’t need to leave the country until November. A new law was passed giving tourist 6 months instead of 3. He also recommended that we don’t bother trying to become residents. Says it’s expensive and no need. As long as we leave every 6 months for 72 hours, we are fine. AND if we don’t really want to leave for 72 hours, he will give us a name of a guy at the Costa Rican border who will go ahead and stamp us in and out in a matter of a few minutes. I said ‘so we just ask for him and tell him who our attorney is’. He said ‘OH NO, NO, NO don’t give them my name!!!’
Went to a tuna lab the other day. Very cool. They do all kinds of research on tuna. They’ve got a huge tank with 15 tuna in it, the largest was close to 200 pounds. We wanted to bring our fishing rods as a joke but decided against it. (Pictures and video are attached on the blog)
We witnessed crocodiles being lassoed (pictures and video on the blog). At the tuna lab there is a pond and the crocs find their way there. They aren’t welcomed guests. The day we were there, they were trying to catch 2 of the bigger ones to move off the property and let them loose about an hour or so away.
Wayne has got almost everything he needs for the boat mooring. That only took about a month. I guess the biggest frustration here would be trying to get stuff and stuff that isn’t crap made in China.
So all in all, nothing too exciting these past 2 weeks.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Darkest Day Yet
My Darkest Day so far:
This might be my darkest day so far here in Panama. Yes, it’s true you can pretty much get anything you want in Panama City…electronics, appliances, good bread, CHEESE. However, in a small village like Pedasi, not so much. The local shrimp man came by today and I bought 10 big, fat langostino’s. Our landlady has a huge basil plant that she said I could help myself too..OK! I’ve got garlic, olive oil and pasta. What’s missing? CHEESE. It almost hurts to type this…..I went to the ‘Chino’s’ (The Chinese own most of the little grocery stores in small towns, called ‘mini/supers’) and purchased a GREEN CAN OF PARMASEAN CHEESE. Ok, I said it. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.
Wayne’s lost 23 pounds since we got here without even trying. I still look like a tick that’s been gorging on the family pet for the last week. WHAT THE %#$@!!!!!!!!!!!
So we almost flipped then sunk our boat the other day. There’s a boat launch in town but it’s only good at high tide. So we headed out a bit before high tide. No problem. Fished for about 2 hours and figured we still had time to make it back up the river. Well, in order to tell if the river has enough water, you kind of need to get close to the river mouth to see. To do that you need to drive horizontal to the beach, which we did. Well, sure enough a pretty big wave smashed the side of the boat. I literally went flying off the boat. I can only imagine what that had to look like. The motor stalled, the boat filled with water. I managed to hold the boat facing more oncoming waves while Wayne got the motor started. Then we bailed water like mad. We were able to take off and let gravity do it’s trick to drain the rest of the water. Ok, next option, beach it. So we headed to the beach where most people just beach or moor their boats. Wayne, not being all that comfortable with driving at ramming speed towards the beach, did his best and got the boat on land….kind of. Looked good at first. Turned ugly though after Wayne left to get the truck about ½ mile away while I held onto the boat. The tide was supposed to be going out but for the small section where I was standing, that wasn’t the case. Wave after wave continued to fill the boat. Ok, how the f*&% do you say HELP in Spanish? I should know this. Maybe it was the look of terror on my face that said it all. 3 locals came to my rescue. Bailed the boat and helped me hold it. Wayne arrived w/the truck and trailer and we had plenty of help tying the boat up and dragging it up onto the beach where it stayed for the night. Next day we returned to the beach and again, lots of help from the locals. I said to them ‘gringos idiotos’ or something like that. They all readily agreed with big smiles!!!! Word certainly spreads because pretty much everyone we come across knows about our ordeal. Great! I’ve got to say, the people here are great. I tried to offer to buy them beer and they wouldn’t have it. No way. It’s just what they all do. They all help each other. It’s nice. (Yes, we know they are totally ripping us behind our backs, but that's ok. We deserve it!!!)
Wayne had a virus of some kind. Came down w/a fever a few days ago. Got a super painful shot in the a&& and within an hour he was drinking fluids as the doctor prescribed. Not sure if she meant beer but in any case he was doing as told. Felt better for a day and then it came back. We are told right now because there is so much moisture there is a lot of mold and it’s causing a bit of bug to be going around town.
Big fishing tournament happening this weekend. Started Fri. and ended Sunday. Obviously if you’ve read the above, you know why we didn’t take part in it!!!! Next year though we’ll know what we are doing. Wayne, once he feels better will work on making the mooring and we’ll buy a small rowboat to get us to and from Gato Solo. He also just got GPS and we are hoping to download more detailed maps and get a transducer. We tried to get one in Panama City but didn’t have any luck. Any one want to come to visit and bring us one????? There are ways to get them, just takes about a month.
I'll work on more pictures. It's so beautiful here but pictures just don't seem to capture it.
This might be my darkest day so far here in Panama. Yes, it’s true you can pretty much get anything you want in Panama City…electronics, appliances, good bread, CHEESE. However, in a small village like Pedasi, not so much. The local shrimp man came by today and I bought 10 big, fat langostino’s. Our landlady has a huge basil plant that she said I could help myself too..OK! I’ve got garlic, olive oil and pasta. What’s missing? CHEESE. It almost hurts to type this…..I went to the ‘Chino’s’ (The Chinese own most of the little grocery stores in small towns, called ‘mini/supers’) and purchased a GREEN CAN OF PARMASEAN CHEESE. Ok, I said it. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.
Wayne’s lost 23 pounds since we got here without even trying. I still look like a tick that’s been gorging on the family pet for the last week. WHAT THE %#$@!!!!!!!!!!!
So we almost flipped then sunk our boat the other day. There’s a boat launch in town but it’s only good at high tide. So we headed out a bit before high tide. No problem. Fished for about 2 hours and figured we still had time to make it back up the river. Well, in order to tell if the river has enough water, you kind of need to get close to the river mouth to see. To do that you need to drive horizontal to the beach, which we did. Well, sure enough a pretty big wave smashed the side of the boat. I literally went flying off the boat. I can only imagine what that had to look like. The motor stalled, the boat filled with water. I managed to hold the boat facing more oncoming waves while Wayne got the motor started. Then we bailed water like mad. We were able to take off and let gravity do it’s trick to drain the rest of the water. Ok, next option, beach it. So we headed to the beach where most people just beach or moor their boats. Wayne, not being all that comfortable with driving at ramming speed towards the beach, did his best and got the boat on land….kind of. Looked good at first. Turned ugly though after Wayne left to get the truck about ½ mile away while I held onto the boat. The tide was supposed to be going out but for the small section where I was standing, that wasn’t the case. Wave after wave continued to fill the boat. Ok, how the f*&% do you say HELP in Spanish? I should know this. Maybe it was the look of terror on my face that said it all. 3 locals came to my rescue. Bailed the boat and helped me hold it. Wayne arrived w/the truck and trailer and we had plenty of help tying the boat up and dragging it up onto the beach where it stayed for the night. Next day we returned to the beach and again, lots of help from the locals. I said to them ‘gringos idiotos’ or something like that. They all readily agreed with big smiles!!!! Word certainly spreads because pretty much everyone we come across knows about our ordeal. Great! I’ve got to say, the people here are great. I tried to offer to buy them beer and they wouldn’t have it. No way. It’s just what they all do. They all help each other. It’s nice. (Yes, we know they are totally ripping us behind our backs, but that's ok. We deserve it!!!)
Wayne had a virus of some kind. Came down w/a fever a few days ago. Got a super painful shot in the a&& and within an hour he was drinking fluids as the doctor prescribed. Not sure if she meant beer but in any case he was doing as told. Felt better for a day and then it came back. We are told right now because there is so much moisture there is a lot of mold and it’s causing a bit of bug to be going around town.
Big fishing tournament happening this weekend. Started Fri. and ended Sunday. Obviously if you’ve read the above, you know why we didn’t take part in it!!!! Next year though we’ll know what we are doing. Wayne, once he feels better will work on making the mooring and we’ll buy a small rowboat to get us to and from Gato Solo. He also just got GPS and we are hoping to download more detailed maps and get a transducer. We tried to get one in Panama City but didn’t have any luck. Any one want to come to visit and bring us one????? There are ways to get them, just takes about a month.
I'll work on more pictures. It's so beautiful here but pictures just don't seem to capture it.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Meeeow. Prrrrrr.
Meeeeow. Prrrrr.
To some of you who have seen me recently, this may come as no surprise, but yeah, pretty much anywhere I go, I get catcalls. They’ll even be with their wives and they will still cat call out to me. I’m pretty much irresistible. No matter where I waddle, I WILL get a catcall. SO finally, I can hold my chins up high and be like ‘yah, that’s right. See this. I know you want it. Sizzle, sizzle.’ I LOVE this place!!!!!
So I was going to put together a list of 1. Things that just don’t make any friggin sense at all here and 2. Things that make total sense. Then I thought, well why I don’t I just let you all be the judges:
1. eggs and milk are not refrigerated. Milk on the shelf today (un-refrigerated) will have an expiration date of Nov. 2010.
2. Light syrup cost less than regular. Less sugar, soooo….
3. Bicycles are required to have license plates. Now mind you, we don’t have one on our truck because they ran out of the metal to make them.
4. Sticking with bicycles, they need to be registered but our boat doesn’t.
5. If you choose to register a boat, you need a lawyer to register it. Granted it only cost $4 to register, but you still need a lawyer.
6. Bottled water is at least 2xs the cost of a beer. Hello, no brainer!!!
7. Electricity and water mix, right? If you are so lucky (or unlucky) to have hot water, the showerheads have a switch, just like a light switch. You turn it on and the electrical coil in the head heats the water before it comes down on you. Remember what I said about the quality of their building here. They use a lot of tape. They are called ‘suicide showers’ for good reason. We take a lot of cold showers. If you can call 80 degree water cold. (See picture on blog)
8. I’m going to just go ahead and tell you this MAKES TOTAL SENSE: went to the pharmacy and here is my actual conversation:
Me: habla English? (do you speak English)
Pharmicist: Si (Yes)
Me: PHEW!
Me: Hello. I just moved here and I’m wondering if I can get birth control without seeing a doctor
Pharmacist: Of course
Me: PHEW!
Pharmacist: What kind?
Me: The kind that doesn’t make babies
Pharmacist: Ah, yes, muy importa (Very important).
Me thinking to self: (Well yeah, I’m not taking them because they taste good like a nice hunk of sheet cake. God what I’d give for a piece of sheet cake)
Pharmacist: (brings me to counter, holds up small box) Ah, yes, yes, these work pretty good.
Me: Pretty good you say? Ok, I’ll take my chances. We can always use the extra bait if they fail.
Pharmacist: GET OUT.
Ok so the last 2 lines I made up. But seriously, ‘these work pretty good’ PRETTY GOOD! Doesn’t that imply some kind of failure rate? In any event, I made my purchase. Will keep you posted.
Remember my frustration with the napkin situation here. (See photo attached to blog.) Notice size of napkins balled up next to fork.
Fischer just loves chasing the ‘flying squirrels’. He goes like mad and then crashes (See photo on blog)
Taking Gata Solo out tomorrow. Wish us luck. It will only be our 2nd trip out on her. Can’t wait!!!! We need food!
To some of you who have seen me recently, this may come as no surprise, but yeah, pretty much anywhere I go, I get catcalls. They’ll even be with their wives and they will still cat call out to me. I’m pretty much irresistible. No matter where I waddle, I WILL get a catcall. SO finally, I can hold my chins up high and be like ‘yah, that’s right. See this. I know you want it. Sizzle, sizzle.’ I LOVE this place!!!!!
So I was going to put together a list of 1. Things that just don’t make any friggin sense at all here and 2. Things that make total sense. Then I thought, well why I don’t I just let you all be the judges:
1. eggs and milk are not refrigerated. Milk on the shelf today (un-refrigerated) will have an expiration date of Nov. 2010.
2. Light syrup cost less than regular. Less sugar, soooo….
3. Bicycles are required to have license plates. Now mind you, we don’t have one on our truck because they ran out of the metal to make them.
4. Sticking with bicycles, they need to be registered but our boat doesn’t.
5. If you choose to register a boat, you need a lawyer to register it. Granted it only cost $4 to register, but you still need a lawyer.
6. Bottled water is at least 2xs the cost of a beer. Hello, no brainer!!!
7. Electricity and water mix, right? If you are so lucky (or unlucky) to have hot water, the showerheads have a switch, just like a light switch. You turn it on and the electrical coil in the head heats the water before it comes down on you. Remember what I said about the quality of their building here. They use a lot of tape. They are called ‘suicide showers’ for good reason. We take a lot of cold showers. If you can call 80 degree water cold. (See picture on blog)
8. I’m going to just go ahead and tell you this MAKES TOTAL SENSE: went to the pharmacy and here is my actual conversation:
Me: habla English? (do you speak English)
Pharmicist: Si (Yes)
Me: PHEW!
Me: Hello. I just moved here and I’m wondering if I can get birth control without seeing a doctor
Pharmacist: Of course
Me: PHEW!
Pharmacist: What kind?
Me: The kind that doesn’t make babies
Pharmacist: Ah, yes, muy importa (Very important).
Me thinking to self: (Well yeah, I’m not taking them because they taste good like a nice hunk of sheet cake. God what I’d give for a piece of sheet cake)
Pharmacist: (brings me to counter, holds up small box) Ah, yes, yes, these work pretty good.
Me: Pretty good you say? Ok, I’ll take my chances. We can always use the extra bait if they fail.
Pharmacist: GET OUT.
Ok so the last 2 lines I made up. But seriously, ‘these work pretty good’ PRETTY GOOD! Doesn’t that imply some kind of failure rate? In any event, I made my purchase. Will keep you posted.
Remember my frustration with the napkin situation here. (See photo attached to blog.) Notice size of napkins balled up next to fork.
Fischer just loves chasing the ‘flying squirrels’. He goes like mad and then crashes (See photo on blog)
Taking Gata Solo out tomorrow. Wish us luck. It will only be our 2nd trip out on her. Can’t wait!!!! We need food!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Gato Solo
You know it’s hot when you can’t wait for the next fly to buzz by you so can catch that little breeze off its wings.
So we got our boat….for now, to hold us over until we know for sure this is where we want to stay. ‘Gato Solo’ is her name. She came with it. A Gato Solo looks like a strange cross between a raccoon, cat, monkey and anteater. Hmmmmm? If you’re just dying to know more about a Gato Solo, Google will give you all kinds of information.
The boat is a 20 foot panga with a 40HP motor. We’ve taken it out once and sure enough, it catches fish! Perfect!!! We were only out for about 1 ½ hours as our current gas tank is small. Within about a ½ mile from shore we caught a nice Cero Mackerel. GOOD EATIN.
As with most things here not a lot makes sense so Wayne is busy trying to make the boat right. For instance, getting a brace made for the motor for when we are towing it since the motor doesn’t have that handy little position just for that purpose, towing it! The seller of the boat said ‘just leave the motor down, no problem’. Perfect, let’s just drag that thing along the road. I’m sure it won’t do much damage. Or as pointed out by someone else, leave it all the way up. So that’s what we did and had a guy pass us on the road with his passenger hanging out the window frantically waving his arms up and down to demonstrate SEVERE BOUNCING…which I understand is not a good thing.
Because we are launching it from a boat ramp here in Pedasi we have to wait for the tide to be right. Our first trip out, the tide was ok until the last 2/10 of a mile of which we had to push and pull it into the ocean. The river was still a bit low. The river by the way is through the mangroves. Mangroves, you know, where snakes and crocs live! Worked off a couple rum drinks so all was good. We’ll eventually moor it and buy a little rowboat to get out to it.
We are having a really hard time finding land. There’s so much of it here but everyone wants to sell HUGE pieces. No one wants to be bothered with smaller lots unless in a development type of community which we don’t want. We found one piece a little over an acre. It’s perfect in every way. 2 miles from the beach, electric, water, nice view, flat to build, etc., etc. And then…..there’s the pig farm. It’s several hundred feet away but we are told depending on the winds, it could get pretty ripe. We keep driving by at different times of the day with our noses out the window.
Because the quality of construction here is so bad, we really want to build something ourselves. Plus it’s a LOT cheaper so we aren’t really looking to much at turn key stuff. Because in most cases, the key probably won’t work any way!!! We met one guy and he’s building a house out of shipping containers. I know what some of you are thinking, shut up. Believe me, you’d never know it was a container. It’s got real walls, floors, etc. and you can cut walls right out so you can have a very open floor plan. Who knows.
Lastly (for now), there’s something else I really miss. A good napkin. What I’d give for a Vanity Fair napkin. What they give you here won’t wipe the snot off a fruit fly. Plus they wrap your utensils in the napkin first so by the time you tear it off you are left with shreds. If you are lucky enough to have some left on your table, you end up going through about 87 of them and the pile at the end of the meal is still only about the size of your baby toe.
So we got our boat….for now, to hold us over until we know for sure this is where we want to stay. ‘Gato Solo’ is her name. She came with it. A Gato Solo looks like a strange cross between a raccoon, cat, monkey and anteater. Hmmmmm? If you’re just dying to know more about a Gato Solo, Google will give you all kinds of information.
The boat is a 20 foot panga with a 40HP motor. We’ve taken it out once and sure enough, it catches fish! Perfect!!! We were only out for about 1 ½ hours as our current gas tank is small. Within about a ½ mile from shore we caught a nice Cero Mackerel. GOOD EATIN.
As with most things here not a lot makes sense so Wayne is busy trying to make the boat right. For instance, getting a brace made for the motor for when we are towing it since the motor doesn’t have that handy little position just for that purpose, towing it! The seller of the boat said ‘just leave the motor down, no problem’. Perfect, let’s just drag that thing along the road. I’m sure it won’t do much damage. Or as pointed out by someone else, leave it all the way up. So that’s what we did and had a guy pass us on the road with his passenger hanging out the window frantically waving his arms up and down to demonstrate SEVERE BOUNCING…which I understand is not a good thing.
Because we are launching it from a boat ramp here in Pedasi we have to wait for the tide to be right. Our first trip out, the tide was ok until the last 2/10 of a mile of which we had to push and pull it into the ocean. The river was still a bit low. The river by the way is through the mangroves. Mangroves, you know, where snakes and crocs live! Worked off a couple rum drinks so all was good. We’ll eventually moor it and buy a little rowboat to get out to it.
We are having a really hard time finding land. There’s so much of it here but everyone wants to sell HUGE pieces. No one wants to be bothered with smaller lots unless in a development type of community which we don’t want. We found one piece a little over an acre. It’s perfect in every way. 2 miles from the beach, electric, water, nice view, flat to build, etc., etc. And then…..there’s the pig farm. It’s several hundred feet away but we are told depending on the winds, it could get pretty ripe. We keep driving by at different times of the day with our noses out the window.
Because the quality of construction here is so bad, we really want to build something ourselves. Plus it’s a LOT cheaper so we aren’t really looking to much at turn key stuff. Because in most cases, the key probably won’t work any way!!! We met one guy and he’s building a house out of shipping containers. I know what some of you are thinking, shut up. Believe me, you’d never know it was a container. It’s got real walls, floors, etc. and you can cut walls right out so you can have a very open floor plan. Who knows.
Lastly (for now), there’s something else I really miss. A good napkin. What I’d give for a Vanity Fair napkin. What they give you here won’t wipe the snot off a fruit fly. Plus they wrap your utensils in the napkin first so by the time you tear it off you are left with shreds. If you are lucky enough to have some left on your table, you end up going through about 87 of them and the pile at the end of the meal is still only about the size of your baby toe.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Bank acct, Altos del Maria, Friends, stuff
First of all THANK YOU to all of you who been responding and calling and keeping us posted on what’s happening back home and with you. We LOVE hearing from all of you!!!!! You guys are great.
WOW. So much has happened over the last week or so.
Opened a bank account. Heard nightmares about the process and that it took a minimum of 10 days before the acct gets opened. I also heard if you beat them at their own game and bury them in documents they will pretty much do whatever you want them to. They LOVE, LOVE paperwork and getting out that little stamp and stamping everything. Goldie, you are right, they actually have to step back and take a breath in between all the stamping. We went into the bank on Wed. They took copies of every page of our passport and our drivers license (Still a US license….we haven’t attempted to get a Panamanian one yet). That took about ½ hour. Returned the next day and 2 hours and 15 minutes later, we had an account. We brought with us the required documents: Passport, driver license, letters of recommendation from 2 people in Panama (we had 3 people willing to do this for us. Go figure!) and a utility bill. The bill could be for anything and in anyone’s name. Seriously! So we got the electric bill from the lady we are renting from. Then we also supplied them with things they didn’t ask for and their eyes rolled back in their head and they shouted with glee. Police records, letters from our banks back home and birth certificates. YIKES, I hope we don’t give them any bright ideas and now they will add those to the requirements.
Some funny stuff about Panama
1. “No necessary, no necessary!” Just go ahead and try to put a seat belt on in the back seat of the car. It’s not the law so if you are in a car with a Panamanian they will literally put their hand over the buckle and say ‘NO necessary’. I mean really for them to obey a REAL law like having to use seat belts in the front seat is like asking them to give birth to a goat. So when someone takes it upon themselves to do something that is not the law…well that’s just f*cking stupid.
2. You can catch a buzz at the grocery store…FOR FREE. Since they sell booze at the grocery store, they have a cute little chica at the end of the isle giving out sample shots of various ‘deals of the day’. We happened to hit on VODKA day. Hello, is this paradise or what! She had 8 different flavors and you could literally stand there and have each and every one. They were REAL SIZE shots too, actually closer to a shot and a half! I had my 2 and while I shopped Wayne held down the vodka fort with some other gringo and went through a good portion of the flavors.
3. The locks of the Panama Canal are fresh water, not salt. Go figure. So the locks are filled with fresh water when a boat comes in in order to lift it up to the next lock. The entire transit through the locks requires over 50,000,000 gallons of water. Once the boat is on it’s way, the lock dumps it’s fresh water into the ocean. It gets its fresh water from surrounding lakes. There can be 40+ boats going through the canal per day!!! That’s a lot of friggin water. Ok, so I asked a dumb question….won’t the lakes run out water at that rate. Since Panama gets 200+ inches of rain per year, not likely!
4. A security guard will stop you at the bank entrance and make you take off your sunglasses and hat if you are wearing one. In most cases he also does a metal detection. At some banks you can’t wear shorts.
5. Panama is the only country in the world, due to it’s ‘S’ shaped configuration of it’s land, where the sun rises in the West and sets in the East.
We spent the weekend away with some great people Friday night that we met on line before leaving the US. Mary and Goldie. We were in Altos del Maria which is up a mountain from the first place we stayed when we arrived. It was AMAZING. The company was too much fun as my head wasn’t right for a good 24 hours after!! Or maybe that was the wine!!! Great conversation, great food, wine and a view to die for. OH MY GOD, the view was incredible and as luck would have it, we got an amazing storm that came thru. We were in the clouds so we were in the storm. It was very cool. Next morning we could see for miles and miles and miles. On a really clear day you can see both oceans from where we were. (is that right Mary and Goldie or did I just make that up?? I know we can see one because I saw it.)
Saturday we went into the THE CITY or HELL as I like to call it. Thankfully this time wasn’t so bad. We didn’t get lost going in, thank you Mary and Goldie. We did some boat shopping. Then headed to a different part of the canal than we’d been before. Because we had The Woo with us we didn’t do the museum but did see a HUGE ship come through the Miraflores Lock. Amazing. We will go back without the dog in the car.
Sunday we enjoyed an AWESOME breakfast with our friend Barbara that we met in Coronada when we first arrived. We had hoped for a Sat. night pool party but it got rained out. Tis the rainy season!!!!
So much more has happened. Bought a boat….or are in the process. Once it’s a done deal I’ll post more. It’s a wee one but will do for now.
Firmed up a deal to rent a house RIGHT ON THE BEACH starting Sept. 1 for 6 months. If anyone wants to visit, this will be the time!!!!!! Will post more info. As we get closer and can get some pictures taken.
Happy SUMMER everyone!!!!!!!!!!!
WOW. So much has happened over the last week or so.
Opened a bank account. Heard nightmares about the process and that it took a minimum of 10 days before the acct gets opened. I also heard if you beat them at their own game and bury them in documents they will pretty much do whatever you want them to. They LOVE, LOVE paperwork and getting out that little stamp and stamping everything. Goldie, you are right, they actually have to step back and take a breath in between all the stamping. We went into the bank on Wed. They took copies of every page of our passport and our drivers license (Still a US license….we haven’t attempted to get a Panamanian one yet). That took about ½ hour. Returned the next day and 2 hours and 15 minutes later, we had an account. We brought with us the required documents: Passport, driver license, letters of recommendation from 2 people in Panama (we had 3 people willing to do this for us. Go figure!) and a utility bill. The bill could be for anything and in anyone’s name. Seriously! So we got the electric bill from the lady we are renting from. Then we also supplied them with things they didn’t ask for and their eyes rolled back in their head and they shouted with glee. Police records, letters from our banks back home and birth certificates. YIKES, I hope we don’t give them any bright ideas and now they will add those to the requirements.
Some funny stuff about Panama
1. “No necessary, no necessary!” Just go ahead and try to put a seat belt on in the back seat of the car. It’s not the law so if you are in a car with a Panamanian they will literally put their hand over the buckle and say ‘NO necessary’. I mean really for them to obey a REAL law like having to use seat belts in the front seat is like asking them to give birth to a goat. So when someone takes it upon themselves to do something that is not the law…well that’s just f*cking stupid.
2. You can catch a buzz at the grocery store…FOR FREE. Since they sell booze at the grocery store, they have a cute little chica at the end of the isle giving out sample shots of various ‘deals of the day’. We happened to hit on VODKA day. Hello, is this paradise or what! She had 8 different flavors and you could literally stand there and have each and every one. They were REAL SIZE shots too, actually closer to a shot and a half! I had my 2 and while I shopped Wayne held down the vodka fort with some other gringo and went through a good portion of the flavors.
3. The locks of the Panama Canal are fresh water, not salt. Go figure. So the locks are filled with fresh water when a boat comes in in order to lift it up to the next lock. The entire transit through the locks requires over 50,000,000 gallons of water. Once the boat is on it’s way, the lock dumps it’s fresh water into the ocean. It gets its fresh water from surrounding lakes. There can be 40+ boats going through the canal per day!!! That’s a lot of friggin water. Ok, so I asked a dumb question….won’t the lakes run out water at that rate. Since Panama gets 200+ inches of rain per year, not likely!
4. A security guard will stop you at the bank entrance and make you take off your sunglasses and hat if you are wearing one. In most cases he also does a metal detection. At some banks you can’t wear shorts.
5. Panama is the only country in the world, due to it’s ‘S’ shaped configuration of it’s land, where the sun rises in the West and sets in the East.
We spent the weekend away with some great people Friday night that we met on line before leaving the US. Mary and Goldie. We were in Altos del Maria which is up a mountain from the first place we stayed when we arrived. It was AMAZING. The company was too much fun as my head wasn’t right for a good 24 hours after!! Or maybe that was the wine!!! Great conversation, great food, wine and a view to die for. OH MY GOD, the view was incredible and as luck would have it, we got an amazing storm that came thru. We were in the clouds so we were in the storm. It was very cool. Next morning we could see for miles and miles and miles. On a really clear day you can see both oceans from where we were. (is that right Mary and Goldie or did I just make that up?? I know we can see one because I saw it.)
Saturday we went into the THE CITY or HELL as I like to call it. Thankfully this time wasn’t so bad. We didn’t get lost going in, thank you Mary and Goldie. We did some boat shopping. Then headed to a different part of the canal than we’d been before. Because we had The Woo with us we didn’t do the museum but did see a HUGE ship come through the Miraflores Lock. Amazing. We will go back without the dog in the car.
Sunday we enjoyed an AWESOME breakfast with our friend Barbara that we met in Coronada when we first arrived. We had hoped for a Sat. night pool party but it got rained out. Tis the rainy season!!!!
So much more has happened. Bought a boat….or are in the process. Once it’s a done deal I’ll post more. It’s a wee one but will do for now.
Firmed up a deal to rent a house RIGHT ON THE BEACH starting Sept. 1 for 6 months. If anyone wants to visit, this will be the time!!!!!! Will post more info. As we get closer and can get some pictures taken.
Happy SUMMER everyone!!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, June 14, 2010
Finally, TUNA
We had a great fishing trip on Sunday. LONG DAY!!! Headed out at 5:00 am from Pedasi to Bucaro which is about 1 1/2 hours away. No real need to drive that far to fish but the guys we were going with like to 'get away' for the day. Bucaro is a very small fishing village. Very remote. If we weren't with people who knew the area, we'd have turned around. Our original captain was a no show. He decided to go hunting instead which is 100% illegal. He was hunting for iguanas and turkeys. So instead we got a great young guy as our captain and his newphew as co-captain who smiled pretty much from the minute we left to the minute we got back. We went out only about 2 miles and started catching fish right away. Wayne got the biggest for the day, a tuna. He also got a cero mackarel and some smaller tuna. I only got a couple small tuna. One guy got a salt water salmon...??? We are going to have a little of all of them tonight. Some amazing storm clouds started coming in so we headed back and got drenched. Some pretty good sized waves too. The boat was so old you could watch the floor flex above where you could see the frame cracking and above that you could see day light shining in. Life preservers. YEAH, RIGHT!! Any way, made it safe and sound. From there I thought the day was over. Nope, not with these guys. We stopped at a great bar/restaurant in the village and ordered up lunch and about 8 beers each for the guys. Not me. I decided I would be the driver. From there we headed home but again made several more stops for the guys to quench their thirst even more. Ok, getting a bit old not to mention I'm in wet cloths and the dog has been trapped in our house for 12 hours. By hour 13 we were home and so ready for showers and poor Woo was ready for peepees. Poor guy. No complaints though as I'm about to get dinner started now and we've got 3 kinds of fish to eat. Yummy.
Also pictured is the little girl that lives next to us. She's so ugly, she's cute. She's in heat so she's got on her 'I need to find a papa' outfit. She loves Fischer and he wants no part of the hussy. Poor girl.
Another thing we witnessed today. A funeral. We heard church bells ringing at a strange time, around 3:30 today. Then saw a large group of people start walking down the street. I'm assuming it was the wife and daughter in the front and behind them the casket being carried by men and then probably most of the town behind them. It was a sad to see but interesting
Oh regarding the bombs. We had the wrong weekend. It's this coming weekend that the bombs will be going off. It's a big celebration weekend coming up. We are not going to be around. We are headed to Alto de Maria, about 4 hours away to visit some people we met online that will be staying up in the montains Friday night, then to visit our friend Barbara in Coronado on Saturday (where we first stayed). From there we are going to head to the dreaded Panama City to look at boats on Sunday. I'm dreading that part.
Also pictured is the little girl that lives next to us. She's so ugly, she's cute. She's in heat so she's got on her 'I need to find a papa' outfit. She loves Fischer and he wants no part of the hussy. Poor girl.
Another thing we witnessed today. A funeral. We heard church bells ringing at a strange time, around 3:30 today. Then saw a large group of people start walking down the street. I'm assuming it was the wife and daughter in the front and behind them the casket being carried by men and then probably most of the town behind them. It was a sad to see but interesting
Oh regarding the bombs. We had the wrong weekend. It's this coming weekend that the bombs will be going off. It's a big celebration weekend coming up. We are not going to be around. We are headed to Alto de Maria, about 4 hours away to visit some people we met online that will be staying up in the montains Friday night, then to visit our friend Barbara in Coronado on Saturday (where we first stayed). From there we are going to head to the dreaded Panama City to look at boats on Sunday. I'm dreading that part.
Friday, June 11, 2010
and this little piggy went to market
....and this little piggy went to market!!! Farmers and fishermen drive around town with all kinds of good stuff. Obviously this one was pork. Over a pound was about $2. Then the shrimp man came around and we picked up 2 pounds for $7. They even have a full grocery truck that comes by with everything from toilet paper to fruit and veggies....Panama's PeaPod.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Bombs AWAAaaaaay
Bombs away!!!!
So we’ve spent our first weekend in Pedasi. I can’t say I wasn’t warned that the weekends can be a little loud. You also have to be a huge fan of roosters and chickens…which we are but that could change. What we weren’t prepared for were the ‘bombs’. Not firecrackers but handmade bombs. Now keep in mind, there is ZERO crime here. ZERO!! In the past 4 years someone heard of having a pair of flip flops stolen during Carnival. All the Gringos leave their doors open, no one worries about a thing. It’s real community feel here. So when a few bombs go off you kind of just have to say, Hey if one hits us we know we can rush out to the hospital and not worry about locking the door. HA! What they do here is make hand made bombs and then there’s a contest to see who has the loudest and biggest. To whet your appetite they start with teaser bombs sometime mid morning on Saturday. These are something you might expect to hear in Bridgeport, CT. Enough to make you ALMOST shit yourself at first then it’s a just an annoyance as you have to hold your conversations until the round is finished. As the day moves into night you think Ok, it’s dark, they’ll be shooting them off and then we can call it day. Well as long as you don’t mind calling it day sometime around Sunday mid-morning, you are fine. Now sometime around midnight right into day light, literally they are BOMBS. They skies light up, the window panes shake and this time you do actually shit yourself!!!! Remember that shinny new blue truck we just bought? Sunday morning is was a nice new shade of ASH with accents specks of brown. Now for the good part, we found out yesterday that last weekend was just a warm up. This weekend there is going to be a carnival and the actual contest. Hmmmm, do we stick around or find a place to stay for the night. Poor Fischer. We try to get excited and say to him ‘is that a squirrel?’ when a bomb goes off so that he won’t be so freaked out.
I posted a few pictures, nothing much:
1 Wayne got a haircut in Las Tablas, $3 and the guy spent about 20 minutes on him. Gave him a ‘flat top’ as that was about the only words that were understood.
2 Found a great rocky beach right next door to the ex president of Panama (the first female). She’s got a heck of a compound and a kick ass Cabo.
3 Went fishing for the first time. Both of us caught bonita, yuck. Our friend Asir caught 3 dorado but none made it into the boat. It rained/stormed most of the trip but still nice to be on the water.
4 Getting the boat in the water is done by truck, same when it’s time to get it out.
5 Our friend Asir lost his truck keys so the locals were more than happy to try to break into it for him. After an hour of no luck our boat captain looked down and there was the key!
6. Fischer has discovered Vultures. We call them Winged Squirrels. This in itself is worth it’s own blog because it’s too friggin funny to watch him try to catch them. I’ll have more on this in the future.
Well that’s all for now and I think we’ll stick around this weekend. Really grab onto that Panamanian culture. I’ll try to get some of the bombings on video. (Can you imagine this happening in the states!!!!!)
So we’ve spent our first weekend in Pedasi. I can’t say I wasn’t warned that the weekends can be a little loud. You also have to be a huge fan of roosters and chickens…which we are but that could change. What we weren’t prepared for were the ‘bombs’. Not firecrackers but handmade bombs. Now keep in mind, there is ZERO crime here. ZERO!! In the past 4 years someone heard of having a pair of flip flops stolen during Carnival. All the Gringos leave their doors open, no one worries about a thing. It’s real community feel here. So when a few bombs go off you kind of just have to say, Hey if one hits us we know we can rush out to the hospital and not worry about locking the door. HA! What they do here is make hand made bombs and then there’s a contest to see who has the loudest and biggest. To whet your appetite they start with teaser bombs sometime mid morning on Saturday. These are something you might expect to hear in Bridgeport, CT. Enough to make you ALMOST shit yourself at first then it’s a just an annoyance as you have to hold your conversations until the round is finished. As the day moves into night you think Ok, it’s dark, they’ll be shooting them off and then we can call it day. Well as long as you don’t mind calling it day sometime around Sunday mid-morning, you are fine. Now sometime around midnight right into day light, literally they are BOMBS. They skies light up, the window panes shake and this time you do actually shit yourself!!!! Remember that shinny new blue truck we just bought? Sunday morning is was a nice new shade of ASH with accents specks of brown. Now for the good part, we found out yesterday that last weekend was just a warm up. This weekend there is going to be a carnival and the actual contest. Hmmmm, do we stick around or find a place to stay for the night. Poor Fischer. We try to get excited and say to him ‘is that a squirrel?’ when a bomb goes off so that he won’t be so freaked out.
I posted a few pictures, nothing much:
1 Wayne got a haircut in Las Tablas, $3 and the guy spent about 20 minutes on him. Gave him a ‘flat top’ as that was about the only words that were understood.
2 Found a great rocky beach right next door to the ex president of Panama (the first female). She’s got a heck of a compound and a kick ass Cabo.
3 Went fishing for the first time. Both of us caught bonita, yuck. Our friend Asir caught 3 dorado but none made it into the boat. It rained/stormed most of the trip but still nice to be on the water.
4 Getting the boat in the water is done by truck, same when it’s time to get it out.
5 Our friend Asir lost his truck keys so the locals were more than happy to try to break into it for him. After an hour of no luck our boat captain looked down and there was the key!
6. Fischer has discovered Vultures. We call them Winged Squirrels. This in itself is worth it’s own blog because it’s too friggin funny to watch him try to catch them. I’ll have more on this in the future.
Well that’s all for now and I think we’ll stick around this weekend. Really grab onto that Panamanian culture. I’ll try to get some of the bombings on video. (Can you imagine this happening in the states!!!!!)
Friday, June 4, 2010
Random stuff
Every night at least 3 times we spring out of bed from a crash sound. The cause: Mango’s falling on the metal roof across the street.
Speaking of mangos. OH MY FRIGGIN GOD. It’s mango madness here. Every day we have a few mangos. Let me tell ya, they do the body good!
Fischer is so proud. He’s been able to actually capture some priced sized flies. We are looking for some driftwood to mount a couple on. I think the heat causes them to be slower than the buggers we are used to at home. We gave him some special bologna as a treat for his hunting skills.
Bologna…the only reason I know how to spell that is because of that commercial years ago w/that little kids singing ‘my bologna has a first name, it’s Oscar. My bologna has a second name, it’s bologna!’ ‘How’s that?!?!’
What I miss? I’ve been asked this a couple of times. 2 things. My nights out with my girlfriends and butter. And not necessarily in that order!!!! Ellyn, Amy, I think you both might be our first visitors….leave room in your bags for a couple of pounds of Land O Lakes Salted Butter. I don’t care what you have to do at customs, just get me the butter man!!!
What I don’t miss. The price of rum. It’s almost free here. Again, it does the body good. NOT!!!..But sure taste yummy.
The tomatoes here are so good. I mean SO GOOD. The best tom you’ve ever had in the US, that’s them.
Washing machines are pretty much located outside. No dryers. It’s all cloths lines. I like that. Ask me in a year if I still like that.
Empanadas. I’ve been on a mission to find some that blow my mind. Ok, toot, toot, that’s me tooting my own horn. I finally just had to make my own which I’m sure is no where near traditional. I did cheat and bought the dough already made. Then, onion, peppers, garlic, local Pedasi cheese and cilantro….but it’s cilantro like you’ve never had. Fry those babies up in a little ‘butter’ aka ‘yellow slippery stuff’. Oh my!
There’s a crazy bird here. He talks to me in Spanish and then yells at me because I’m not responding like I should. I can’t even understand the damn bird. So I’m trying to teach him ‘Hello. I like you’. Wish me luck.
Tried to open a checking acct today. Yeah right. We need 1 commercial reference. Ok we can cover that with the purchase of our truck however, that was 6 hours away and god forbid they allow emails. Then we need 2 personal reference and not from the US. We’ve been here 2 weeks. Helllllooooo!
Speaking of mangos. OH MY FRIGGIN GOD. It’s mango madness here. Every day we have a few mangos. Let me tell ya, they do the body good!
Fischer is so proud. He’s been able to actually capture some priced sized flies. We are looking for some driftwood to mount a couple on. I think the heat causes them to be slower than the buggers we are used to at home. We gave him some special bologna as a treat for his hunting skills.
Bologna…the only reason I know how to spell that is because of that commercial years ago w/that little kids singing ‘my bologna has a first name, it’s Oscar. My bologna has a second name, it’s bologna!’ ‘How’s that?!?!’
What I miss? I’ve been asked this a couple of times. 2 things. My nights out with my girlfriends and butter. And not necessarily in that order!!!! Ellyn, Amy, I think you both might be our first visitors….leave room in your bags for a couple of pounds of Land O Lakes Salted Butter. I don’t care what you have to do at customs, just get me the butter man!!!
What I don’t miss. The price of rum. It’s almost free here. Again, it does the body good. NOT!!!..But sure taste yummy.
The tomatoes here are so good. I mean SO GOOD. The best tom you’ve ever had in the US, that’s them.
Washing machines are pretty much located outside. No dryers. It’s all cloths lines. I like that. Ask me in a year if I still like that.
Empanadas. I’ve been on a mission to find some that blow my mind. Ok, toot, toot, that’s me tooting my own horn. I finally just had to make my own which I’m sure is no where near traditional. I did cheat and bought the dough already made. Then, onion, peppers, garlic, local Pedasi cheese and cilantro….but it’s cilantro like you’ve never had. Fry those babies up in a little ‘butter’ aka ‘yellow slippery stuff’. Oh my!
There’s a crazy bird here. He talks to me in Spanish and then yells at me because I’m not responding like I should. I can’t even understand the damn bird. So I’m trying to teach him ‘Hello. I like you’. Wish me luck.
Tried to open a checking acct today. Yeah right. We need 1 commercial reference. Ok we can cover that with the purchase of our truck however, that was 6 hours away and god forbid they allow emails. Then we need 2 personal reference and not from the US. We’ve been here 2 weeks. Helllllooooo!
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
The little diesel that could..our new truck
We bought and actually received our truck. Whooohooo. We shopped for the truck a week ago Monday. It took ALL DAY in Panama City. Have I mentioned yet how much I do NOT like PC. We got out of there without getting in a horrific accident. We should get a medal for that. We wired money on Tuesday. It came right out of our acct. however took a bit of time to show up here in Panama but it did arrive FOR THE WRONG FRIGGIN AMOUNT. Thank you very much TD Bank. It actually was our banks fault but we didn’t find this out until we were half way to PC on Saturday to pick up the truck. Our phone rings, it’s the salesman and he says, you owe another $1,000. Well we’ve heard how you can buy something here then show up to pick it up and the price goes up. My legs started shaking. OH NO please don’t do this to us. After a few calls back and forth we do find out in fact TD wired less money than we requested. By the time we drove to PC, returned our rental car, made the payment we owed and waited for the truck to show up, it was a full day. Literally about 8 hours….and the truck still showed up without the trailer hitch or bed cover installed. That’s ok, they were in boxes and it gave Wayne something to do for the next day. We narrowly avoided several good crashes on our way out of PC in our shiny new truck! I was so happy to pull into the driveway with all of the truck intact as well as ourselves. Oh and here’s a good one, we didn’t get a license plate. Just a paper one to keep in the vehicle. Why? Because they ran out of the metal they use to make plates. That just cracked us up.
Some facts on buying a vehicle if you are only a tourist....have a drivers license, passport and a way to get money to the dealer. Also, you need to get insurance but the dealer and the insurance co. can speak directly to each other and get everything done for you. You can pay for the insurance with a credit card and it's about half of what it costs in the US.
The downside to buying a new vehicle is Wayne’s mental illness has gotten drastically worse. When he owned his Silverado, he felt a special connection to every other stranger that owned one. He’d point out every single one of them on the road at the same time as us. Well now of course the connection has been made to all Hilux’s, in addition to Silverado’s of course. That’s ok, but it’s progressed now to pointing out Chevy Caravans, Mercury Capris and Datsuns. Well, maybe the Datsun was worth a glace. Not sure if there’s a treatment for this disease. I’ll have to check out WebMD.
Some facts on buying a vehicle if you are only a tourist....have a drivers license, passport and a way to get money to the dealer. Also, you need to get insurance but the dealer and the insurance co. can speak directly to each other and get everything done for you. You can pay for the insurance with a credit card and it's about half of what it costs in the US.
The downside to buying a new vehicle is Wayne’s mental illness has gotten drastically worse. When he owned his Silverado, he felt a special connection to every other stranger that owned one. He’d point out every single one of them on the road at the same time as us. Well now of course the connection has been made to all Hilux’s, in addition to Silverado’s of course. That’s ok, but it’s progressed now to pointing out Chevy Caravans, Mercury Capris and Datsuns. Well, maybe the Datsun was worth a glace. Not sure if there’s a treatment for this disease. I’ll have to check out WebMD.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
How to get a ride with the Policia in Panama City
(no, I didn't steal cheese)
Ask a simple question and you find yourself in the back of a police car. We went to Panama City today to check out the Canal Museum. We are thinking it would be right at the canal and we'd be able to dangle our feet and watch big ships go by. Hellooooooo. Dos stupidos. Any way, the museum was ok but not what we were hoping. Spent some time walking around the city and noticed 'Policia de tourism'. Bright idea, let's go ask them about this 180 visa we are reading about on the internet. Maybe we won't have to leave after only 3 months. We find someone who speaks a little English, we tell him what we want to do. He says 'ok, sit!' So we sit. Two very big policemen come out and say to us 'vamos' (let's go). so we go. They point to the back door of their car. OH MY FRIGGIN GOD what have I gotten us into. We get into the back of the car and we are a little nervous because....HELLOOOOOOO, who wouldn't be. Our nerves did settle some when over the radio there was a lot of talk about 'monkey's' which in turn got our men talking about monkey's too. I'm thinking if they are talking about monkeys then maybe this won't turn out so bad. After a 10 minute drive through the city (Panamanias do not care if it's a police car or not, they will drive right smack into you if you get in their way) they bring us to an immagration office and say 'ok'. OK then. Thanks for the ride. We look back and they are gone. I guess it was a one way ride. We go to immigrations to find out NOPE. They passed the law for a few days but then 'unpassed' it. Alrighty then. We are now 10 LONG minutes away from our car. 1st cab said $15 to bring us back. 2nd cab says $10. 3rd cab says $3. Now the price is right! So we got a little tour of the city in the back of a police car, accomplished nothing else and headed back. Oh we did find a great little Chinese place and had lunch for $7.
I've also attached some pics of the trip to Panama City today on the blog site. You will see them on the left hand side when you go into the blog. http://hahaiguana.blogspot.com/
Wish us luck. We bought a truck on Monday. it's been interesting. We stil don't have the truck but they do have our money. Keep your fingers crossed. Will let ya know how it turns out. We are pretty curious to find out too!!!!
Ask a simple question and you find yourself in the back of a police car. We went to Panama City today to check out the Canal Museum. We are thinking it would be right at the canal and we'd be able to dangle our feet and watch big ships go by. Hellooooooo. Dos stupidos. Any way, the museum was ok but not what we were hoping. Spent some time walking around the city and noticed 'Policia de tourism'. Bright idea, let's go ask them about this 180 visa we are reading about on the internet. Maybe we won't have to leave after only 3 months. We find someone who speaks a little English, we tell him what we want to do. He says 'ok, sit!' So we sit. Two very big policemen come out and say to us 'vamos' (let's go). so we go. They point to the back door of their car. OH MY FRIGGIN GOD what have I gotten us into. We get into the back of the car and we are a little nervous because....HELLOOOOOOO, who wouldn't be. Our nerves did settle some when over the radio there was a lot of talk about 'monkey's' which in turn got our men talking about monkey's too. I'm thinking if they are talking about monkeys then maybe this won't turn out so bad. After a 10 minute drive through the city (Panamanias do not care if it's a police car or not, they will drive right smack into you if you get in their way) they bring us to an immagration office and say 'ok'. OK then. Thanks for the ride. We look back and they are gone. I guess it was a one way ride. We go to immigrations to find out NOPE. They passed the law for a few days but then 'unpassed' it. Alrighty then. We are now 10 LONG minutes away from our car. 1st cab said $15 to bring us back. 2nd cab says $10. 3rd cab says $3. Now the price is right! So we got a little tour of the city in the back of a police car, accomplished nothing else and headed back. Oh we did find a great little Chinese place and had lunch for $7.
I've also attached some pics of the trip to Panama City today on the blog site. You will see them on the left hand side when you go into the blog. http://hahaiguana.blogspot.com/
Wish us luck. We bought a truck on Monday. it's been interesting. We stil don't have the truck but they do have our money. Keep your fingers crossed. Will let ya know how it turns out. We are pretty curious to find out too!!!!
Test
so if you are a follower, do you automatically get something that tells you I just posted something? I guess we'll find out soon :))))
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Celebrating our cell phone purchase
Celebrating our cell phone purchase at an award winning bar. They had the tropies to prove it. Cock fighting trophies that is. Celebrate a cell phone purchase you ask? Believe me, there was reason. It wasn't easy and when you whip out $100 bill, well that brings over the store managers, passports are scrutinized, paperwork has to be filled out...where are you staying, how long are you in Panama, phone #, etc., etc. This while an armed guard stands by the door...armed as in fully automatic weapons. It's pretty much the norm here though so I'm guessing I won't be stealing any cheese in Panama. HA!!! (for those of you who know my stinky little secret!!!)
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Blogging for the first time
I'm not sure what I'm doing. This blogging thing is new to me. So this is just a test.
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