Well by this time I can say I'm fully recovered from my brother and Kristen's visit. Phew, just in time for our trip back to the US on the 20th. We had an awesome time with Tom and Kristen. They've only been gone a couple weeks but it feels like forever. I want to say we partied like rock stars, but, well, let's just say we've matured some and realized the benefits of a good nights sleep.
I've switched over to Kodak. Hopefully you can see photos here. Here are a bunch from Tom and Kristen's visit and another link with the latest on the house.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=330289463214%3A1415046935
http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=730289463214%3A843419563
One of the highlights had to be our fishing trip. Kristen started the day by catching her first fish EVER. From there it just never ended. We ended up with 1 dorado, 2 Marlin pecking at the lures, 2 yellow fin tuna and 9 skip jack tuna....equally if not better than yellow fin to eat. Of course that evening we gobbled down plenty of sushi before the gourmet meal I'd been waiting for....Kraft Mac & Cheese and Shake N Bake pork chops. Good, sh*tty food all at the same time.
We spent Thanksgiving at our friend Joe's place. There had to be 40 people there. Tons of good food, drinks and fun. His house looks out to the ocean but most eyes were glued to the HUGE TV watching football. That's ok, that's what Thanksgiving is all about in addition to eating and drinking yourself silly.....Kristen...whooops, I mean, I'm not going to mention any names....KRISTEN...whoops.
Kristen and I stayed pretty much intact. My brother and Wayne....well, boogie boarding got the best of them. A couple smashed toes and some bruised ribs. No hospitals required so nothing too serious. Although Wayne's toe is still huge and blue...it's pretty much broken.
The weather held out pretty good for the most part. Even rain in 90 degree weather doesn't dampen things too much. We had a great trips to Playa Venao, Playa El Toro and Isla Iguana. Spent a few afternoons pool side at Play El Toro until it became apparent that cleaning the pool once a week is too much to ask. Hey, they had domino's to play and soccer to watch....we understand. NOT!
We hired a driver one day to bring us to the Abuelo and Seco distillery. They weren't harvesting sugar cane so the tour was quick but we got to sample some rum. Glad we hired a driver....as he got right up in there too and swigged a couple down. Not having reached our goal of stupidness we then headed to the Casino...free drinks while they take our money....somehow that's not really free. Lunch followed and still we weren't feeling we were getting our money's worth out of the driver.....who also enjoyed a few beers at lunch...again, why did we hire him?...Oh, he's just a super nice guy. So a jug of grape juice and a bottle of seco guaranteed the results we were looking for.
WOW, it was just good to have family here!!!!!
House update...well it's still coming along great. Septic is just about in. I do believe it could handle all of Pedasi after a night of drinking...and that's saying something!!!! Our wood for our roof came in...well most of it. The almond wood which will be used for our beams all came from ONE tree. Amazing. It's gorgeous wood and super heavy. All of the wood we are using came from Bocas del Toro on the Caribbean side of Panama. Permits are required to harvest the wood...believe it or not...and that's a good thing. This wood was cut and then carried, CARRIED out of the jungle. It took a couple of months to get it from the time we ordered it. We'll put everything on hold while we are away...so that will set us back 3 weeks, but hey, what's the rush..
We are looking forward to our trip which will start off in Panama City. We'll FINALLY go on a canal tour and visit some friends in the city. We fly to FL on the 20th, we'll enjoy the holidays with family and of course the big day will be on the 28th. Wayne is so lucky. He can hardly believe it himself!!!! :) Hopefully the weather will be with us and we can get married outside and then enjoy the afternoon at Hiram's bar/restaurant with about 30 people.....We are so lucky to have our family and friends willing to travel down to be with us. We've even got some friends we made here in Panama that live in FL and will be attending. Cousins, aunts, moms, dads, sister, nephews, friends....WOW, we'll all be together and it's not for a funeral.
Hitched!
The knot has been tied
Monday, December 12, 2011
Monday, October 31, 2011
http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/fe/l=en_US/p/Organizer/AlbumID=8382300013/a=124922891_124922891/s_c=0/s_se=FDR/s_pt=REP,PRE/s_ccmpg=cjcmpg#state=%7B%22pl%22%3A%7B%22uc%22%3A2%2C%22aid%22%3A%228382300013%22%2C%22vp%22%3A%22g%22%2C%22sb%22%3A5%7D%2C%22ovm%22%3A%7B%22v%22%3A%22s%22%7D%7D
Here is the link to Snapfish. Once again I can't seem to share my photos like I had been. A few of you said you weren't able to see the pics. Sorry, not sure what is happening. Hopefully this time you can see them.
Even tho this is a new blog, I can't seem to remove the picture of Melvin with the chicken in his mouth.
It's only been a month since my last update but lots has been happening and with the arrival of my brother in just 16 days!!!!!! a lot more will be happening. So I figured I'd get a quick update out now and start fresh after my brother's visit.
In just 3 weeks we went from a dirt foundation to having all the walls up to 7 feet. I don't even have the most recent pictures here. The house is coming along great and Wayne is really happy with the guys he has working for him. There are usually 8 guys there at all times. Juan, the boss, is great (I have a crush on him...will posts pictures and girls, you will see why :). Him and Wayne have full conversations on the phone, see each other the next day and both admit that neither of them had a clue what the other was saying. Lots of head shaking up and down and 'ok, ok, si, si, good, good, bien, bien'...next day they are both like, WHAT/QUE???? It's pretty hysterical.
My boss Jack is in town. Great guy. I love working for him. He took Wayne and I, Jose (my manager), his wife and Ingrid (the girl I replaced) and her husband to lunch at Villa Camilla. WOW, what a place. There are a lot of pictures from that day. For my rich friends, this is where you will stay when you come visit. Do I have any rich friends????
This past weekend was a total blast.... Friday night was a great party at Casa de Campo (great B&B here in town). Great people, food, drinks and music. The next day we met back to Casa de Campo so that we could walk along the parade route with everyone. Now here's something you don't see in most parades back in the states....a mule leading the way, pulling a cart full of coolers and the coolers topped off with everything you can imagine. And it wasn't serve yourself...they had staff working it and making sure that if you were part of this group, your hands were never empty and your thrist always quenched. I kept saying to Wayne...'how did we get here! I can't believe this is my life!'...I repeat....A mule, with staff, serving me drinks while I walked in a parade! Seriously!!!! Ok, downfall.....they just don't do the port-a-potty thing here.
Here is the link to Snapfish. Once again I can't seem to share my photos like I had been. A few of you said you weren't able to see the pics. Sorry, not sure what is happening. Hopefully this time you can see them.
Even tho this is a new blog, I can't seem to remove the picture of Melvin with the chicken in his mouth.
It's only been a month since my last update but lots has been happening and with the arrival of my brother in just 16 days!!!!!! a lot more will be happening. So I figured I'd get a quick update out now and start fresh after my brother's visit.
In just 3 weeks we went from a dirt foundation to having all the walls up to 7 feet. I don't even have the most recent pictures here. The house is coming along great and Wayne is really happy with the guys he has working for him. There are usually 8 guys there at all times. Juan, the boss, is great (I have a crush on him...will posts pictures and girls, you will see why :). Him and Wayne have full conversations on the phone, see each other the next day and both admit that neither of them had a clue what the other was saying. Lots of head shaking up and down and 'ok, ok, si, si, good, good, bien, bien'...next day they are both like, WHAT/QUE???? It's pretty hysterical.
My boss Jack is in town. Great guy. I love working for him. He took Wayne and I, Jose (my manager), his wife and Ingrid (the girl I replaced) and her husband to lunch at Villa Camilla. WOW, what a place. There are a lot of pictures from that day. For my rich friends, this is where you will stay when you come visit. Do I have any rich friends????
This past weekend was a total blast.... Friday night was a great party at Casa de Campo (great B&B here in town). Great people, food, drinks and music. The next day we met back to Casa de Campo so that we could walk along the parade route with everyone. Now here's something you don't see in most parades back in the states....a mule leading the way, pulling a cart full of coolers and the coolers topped off with everything you can imagine. And it wasn't serve yourself...they had staff working it and making sure that if you were part of this group, your hands were never empty and your thrist always quenched. I kept saying to Wayne...'how did we get here! I can't believe this is my life!'...I repeat....A mule, with staff, serving me drinks while I walked in a parade! Seriously!!!! Ok, downfall.....they just don't do the port-a-potty thing here.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Tastes Like Chicken
We moved (that's why we have new neighbors) into our friends Sam and Angela's house. We call it Samgela's house. Sam and Angela were lost a couple of months back in a car accident. Their wonderful daughter Heather was here to get things in order and didn't want the house left empty or unattended. So we are caretaking for her. Angela is looking down and cheering Melvin and Fischer on....'get those chickens and squeak the life out of those rabbits!!!' It was a never ending battle for Angela to keep all the neighborhood critters from getting into her yard and eating her healthy grass and plants. Don't worry Angela, there will be more to come. My boys are on a constant prowl looking for more viddles!!!
Sam and Angela are now resting peacefully among all the beautiful sea life off of Punta Mala. Us, Heather, Janice and Lynn brought them out on our panga and Heather was able to sprinkle their ashes. It was a gorgeous evening, water like glass, sea turtles, dolpins, full of life. It was a very special moment.
Biggest and best news of all....well actually there are a couple big news items and not any particular order :) We'll be back in the states in December and we are going shopping at WALMART!!! YAHOOO!!! Oh, and we are getting married. Many of you already know. December 28th in Florida. We are visiting Wayne's mom and family for the holidays and we can't wait. We are very excited....Wayne's Dad, step mom, my father and step mom and a handful of friends and family will be joining us. I still can't believe that some of you are coming. :))) You make us so happy.
The other big news items is the house is STARTED. We are about a week into it. Foundation, sub walls are in. Should have the floors poured this week. Wayne shopped, and shopped and shopped for a good builder and I do believe we got one. There was no way we could do this ourselves. So there's a crew of about 10 guys working on it. The first day was interesting....3, THREE trucks got stuck delivering materials to us. One 22 wheeler and 2 more big flat bed trucks. They all sunk into the mud on our road. It took a good half day to clear them out. Imagine....they HAND loaded these trucks with blocks and sand, then got stuck, had to hand UNload them and hand REload them onto smaller trucks to then bring to our lot to hand UNload them again. Screeeew that!!!!!!!!
Let's see....Almost lost Melvin again. He lost use of his back legs and his whole back end became infected. He was in the hospital for 3 days. It was horrible. Not really sure what caused it. Maybe a dog bite...FISCHER!!! Thanks to Connie for coming with me for a vet visit, thanks to Carment, Ingrid and Charlie for all their translation services with the vet.
I posted some pictured on Snapfish. In some you will see Susie. She's a sloth. Our friends Connie and Don are renting a place from a guy who owns Susie. She was quite a treat to have at the dinner table.
I'm also working now at a B&B, doing all their English reservations. Problem is, the Spanish calls don't stop coming in just because it's my shift. So this has been a bit of a challenge. I'm still baking cakes and brownies for a couple local restaurants. Wayne is on the contruction site pretty much from sun rise to sun down. We can't wait for our first round of visitors so we can take a break!!!! (Come on Tom and Kristen!! We'll see you in Nov. and then Kenny and Brenda in February)
In between all the work we've been managing to have plenty of fun too. Not sure why, but any party where Tom, Judy, Mary and John are involved, we end up with cloth napkins on our heads!...as the pictures will show!!!
The boat is out of the water now. Sad for Wayne. He's just too busy and he kept getting reports from the local fishermen that his boat was full of sh*t. Well they weren't lying. Maybe it's the color. Who knows, but the damn pelicans love his boat. A nice aqua blue toilet for them We'd go down to the beach and the fishermen would point to our boat and say to us...Mucho caca (I'm not sure if that's how you spell it)....basically, a lot of poop. So the sh*t ship is out of the water until Wayne has some spare time to use it again.
I'll try to write more often but I always say that. Internet is slow, I'm lazy.....not good combinations
Brain fart. Can't remember my login info for Snapfish to give you a link on the side bar of my blog...so here's the long address...Hopefully it works for ya if you want to see pictures.
http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/fe/l=en_US/p/dasta/Main/s_c=0/s_se=FDR/s_pt=REP,PRE#state=%7B%22pl%22%3A%7B%22uc%22%3A2%2C%22aid%22%3A%228212701013%22%2C%22vp%22%3A%22g%22%2C%22sb%22%3A5%7D%2C%22svm%22%3A%7B%22v%22%3A%22s%22%7D%7D
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Water, Electric, Our Stuff, OH MY!
Hi Everyone,
Lot’s of stuff has happened over the last couple of months. I tried my best to keep it brief. I really did. Any way, here it goes: (Pictures will be posted on Snapfish soon)
1. We got our electricity. Thanks to our friend Martin. He knew all the right people. We had it within just a couple of DAYS..DAYS, not months.
2. GOT WATER! Had a well drilled. 170 feet. Looked like chocolate milk for the first couple of weeks but is now clear enough for a shower. Would we drink it?…probably not just yet. Need to have it tested. We built a small house around the well and pump. That’s almost done. Just needs paint and a little finishing up inside.
3. WE HAVE OUR BUILDING PERMIT for the house. That involved about 6 or so different offices needing to give their ‘stamp’. The funniest one being ‘Salud’/the Health Dept. On Thur. we went to their office with our friend Martin. We needed to have the soil tested to make sure it would drain well when we put in the septic. Guy says…my friend can do it for $60 or you can have someone in your town do it for $100. No brainer. We ask, when should we come back? He said tomorrow. We figure based on what we’ve heard that we’d return in the afternoon…to give them time to DIG the BIG hole that is required to do the test. No, no, come by in the morning he says. Ok. We go and we are handed our test results, OUR test results, plans are stamped and away we go. Ummmmm, must have slipped their mind about that BIG HOLE requirement. Oh well, some nice person is $60 richer and we have our stamp!
4. About a month ago our container was shipped from NY to here. Door to door service. They did everything…loaded out of our storage unit in CT into the container, brought it to NY, shipped to Panama, went through customs, paid the taxes, container unloaded and reloaded into box truck (Containers are searched, box trucks are not…Wayne wishes he packed his guns now!), arrived in Pedasi at 3:30, schedule arrival was 4. THEY WERE EARLY. Early is not really in the vocabulary here. Opened the back of the truck and WOW, not pretty. We expected half of everything to be broken. SURPRISE, not a thing. The Driver and co driver helped unloaded and we were done and drinking beer with them in about 1 1/2 hours along with our friends Jerry and Coco who were kind enough to bring some yummy food too.
5. Deposito/bodega/workshop/garage….whatever the hell it’s called is DONE and we finished it just a day or 2 before our shipment came. Still some painting to finish, cleaning and organizing. We went through 3 different roofer…one we fired, one we think quit, and the current one that is now fixing what one and two did. Thanks to our friends Janice and Lynn I’ve got a great start on the landscaping around it. Lot’s of nice plants and MAN things grow here. You just cut a branch off something, stick in the ground and it grows. I planted lots of basil. My favorite
6. I got the license plate for my bike. Yes, we drove a year without one for our car because they ran out of the metal for them. I guess they had enough for the mini plates that they require for bikes. Isn’t that funny. I can’t wait for my first traffic stop…Pardon me but I’ve got my plaque so let’s just move it along Senor Policia.
7. Metal production must be in full force because we were also able to get a plate for our truck. To bad it can’t be mounted just anywhere. It would be nice to try to hide some of the many little dents we have on it. A car with no dents sticks out like a sore thumb here!
8. 3RD PLACE IN THE FISHING TOURNAMENT!!!!!!!!….for dorado. Weighed in at 27 pounds. Wayne, Jeff (Captain), Denny, Jerry and Will fished Friday and Sunday. Weather was terrible Friday, much better Sunday.
9. I’ve been working on and off at a couple different restaurants. Pasta y Vino (guess what they serve. HA!) needed help during the big WORLD Surf Competition. Now I’m helping another place, Smiley’s. Mostly just working in the kitchen, following their recipes. It’s fun. I’m surrounded by food, what could be wrong with that.
10. A few girls here have put together a Girls Night every 3rd Tuesday of the month…YAHOOO…tonight is one of them!!!!! This will be the 3rd one. I went to the 2nd one and it was a blast. It’s a good place for me to practice my Spanish. Tonight’s is going to be held at Smiley’s and they asked me to make some homemade bread to put out on the tables. I hope I don’t get too sweaty before sitting down to join the girls.
11. Lots of other fun things….Doggie sat for our friends Ingrid and Roy’s baby girl…Lou. She’s such a great dog. Many pictures attached of Lou. Lou likes to suck on the end of Panama bottles so Lou is all right in our book. There always seems to be something going on….a little party here, a little party there. We try to make as many as we can….but having to get up at 6 everyday to start working on the house makes it tough sometimes.
12. Sad note. We were friends with Sam and Angela. Really great couple. They had moved here about 1 ½ years ago. Recently they were headed back to the states to visit their daughter’s family for 3 weeks. On their way into Panama City, they were hit head on and killed. They really touched a lot of people. There was a nice memorial held at our friend Alan’s house. Lots of food, friends, champagne and a nice toast to Sam and Angela.
13. We aren’t going to end this on a sad note though. Here’s probably the best news of all….Beer prices went DOWN. Yes, yes, you read that right. DOWN. Now for a case of warm beer it’s $7.50. This is for Panama….which has won several gold metals. If the print on the bottle wasn’t so small, I could probably give actual details of the awards. It’s not my eyes, it’s the print!
14. Lastly, we have a great line up of visitors coming….My brother and Kristen for TURKEY DAY!!! Yahooo, family for the holidays!!! Wayne’s mom wants to fly us to Florida to spend Christmas with her and the family. Then in January Wayne’s Dad and Pat might be coming again…we hope so. In February we’ve got Brenda & Kenny along with 2 of their friends. KEEP EM COMING!!!!!!
So that about wraps it up. For the most part life is good. Perfect?..No. Stress-free?..No. Challenges?..Yes. Always Hot?…YES! Are there things we miss about back home?…NO DOUBT…Friends and family the most. Although, we have been very lucky in making some truly great friends here. Having our boat and hanging around Tighes Marina. Taking the dingy to Mermaids for the weekend’s stock of beverages. Good pizza. UPS delivery. Pinenuts. Uninterrupted electrical service. Edamame…Oh what I’d give for some of those babies in soy sauce and wasabi (both of which we can get)!! But it all leads back to #13…Read again, $7.50!!!
CHEERS everyone!!! We love you, miss you and you are ALWAYS, ALWAYS welcome!!!
Lot’s of stuff has happened over the last couple of months. I tried my best to keep it brief. I really did. Any way, here it goes: (Pictures will be posted on Snapfish soon)
1. We got our electricity. Thanks to our friend Martin. He knew all the right people. We had it within just a couple of DAYS..DAYS, not months.
2. GOT WATER! Had a well drilled. 170 feet. Looked like chocolate milk for the first couple of weeks but is now clear enough for a shower. Would we drink it?…probably not just yet. Need to have it tested. We built a small house around the well and pump. That’s almost done. Just needs paint and a little finishing up inside.
3. WE HAVE OUR BUILDING PERMIT for the house. That involved about 6 or so different offices needing to give their ‘stamp’. The funniest one being ‘Salud’/the Health Dept. On Thur. we went to their office with our friend Martin. We needed to have the soil tested to make sure it would drain well when we put in the septic. Guy says…my friend can do it for $60 or you can have someone in your town do it for $100. No brainer. We ask, when should we come back? He said tomorrow. We figure based on what we’ve heard that we’d return in the afternoon…to give them time to DIG the BIG hole that is required to do the test. No, no, come by in the morning he says. Ok. We go and we are handed our test results, OUR test results, plans are stamped and away we go. Ummmmm, must have slipped their mind about that BIG HOLE requirement. Oh well, some nice person is $60 richer and we have our stamp!
4. About a month ago our container was shipped from NY to here. Door to door service. They did everything…loaded out of our storage unit in CT into the container, brought it to NY, shipped to Panama, went through customs, paid the taxes, container unloaded and reloaded into box truck (Containers are searched, box trucks are not…Wayne wishes he packed his guns now!), arrived in Pedasi at 3:30, schedule arrival was 4. THEY WERE EARLY. Early is not really in the vocabulary here. Opened the back of the truck and WOW, not pretty. We expected half of everything to be broken. SURPRISE, not a thing. The Driver and co driver helped unloaded and we were done and drinking beer with them in about 1 1/2 hours along with our friends Jerry and Coco who were kind enough to bring some yummy food too.
5. Deposito/bodega/workshop/garage….whatever the hell it’s called is DONE and we finished it just a day or 2 before our shipment came. Still some painting to finish, cleaning and organizing. We went through 3 different roofer…one we fired, one we think quit, and the current one that is now fixing what one and two did. Thanks to our friends Janice and Lynn I’ve got a great start on the landscaping around it. Lot’s of nice plants and MAN things grow here. You just cut a branch off something, stick in the ground and it grows. I planted lots of basil. My favorite
6. I got the license plate for my bike. Yes, we drove a year without one for our car because they ran out of the metal for them. I guess they had enough for the mini plates that they require for bikes. Isn’t that funny. I can’t wait for my first traffic stop…Pardon me but I’ve got my plaque so let’s just move it along Senor Policia.
7. Metal production must be in full force because we were also able to get a plate for our truck. To bad it can’t be mounted just anywhere. It would be nice to try to hide some of the many little dents we have on it. A car with no dents sticks out like a sore thumb here!
8. 3RD PLACE IN THE FISHING TOURNAMENT!!!!!!!!….for dorado. Weighed in at 27 pounds. Wayne, Jeff (Captain), Denny, Jerry and Will fished Friday and Sunday. Weather was terrible Friday, much better Sunday.
9. I’ve been working on and off at a couple different restaurants. Pasta y Vino (guess what they serve. HA!) needed help during the big WORLD Surf Competition. Now I’m helping another place, Smiley’s. Mostly just working in the kitchen, following their recipes. It’s fun. I’m surrounded by food, what could be wrong with that.
10. A few girls here have put together a Girls Night every 3rd Tuesday of the month…YAHOOO…tonight is one of them!!!!! This will be the 3rd one. I went to the 2nd one and it was a blast. It’s a good place for me to practice my Spanish. Tonight’s is going to be held at Smiley’s and they asked me to make some homemade bread to put out on the tables. I hope I don’t get too sweaty before sitting down to join the girls.
11. Lots of other fun things….Doggie sat for our friends Ingrid and Roy’s baby girl…Lou. She’s such a great dog. Many pictures attached of Lou. Lou likes to suck on the end of Panama bottles so Lou is all right in our book. There always seems to be something going on….a little party here, a little party there. We try to make as many as we can….but having to get up at 6 everyday to start working on the house makes it tough sometimes.
12. Sad note. We were friends with Sam and Angela. Really great couple. They had moved here about 1 ½ years ago. Recently they were headed back to the states to visit their daughter’s family for 3 weeks. On their way into Panama City, they were hit head on and killed. They really touched a lot of people. There was a nice memorial held at our friend Alan’s house. Lots of food, friends, champagne and a nice toast to Sam and Angela.
13. We aren’t going to end this on a sad note though. Here’s probably the best news of all….Beer prices went DOWN. Yes, yes, you read that right. DOWN. Now for a case of warm beer it’s $7.50. This is for Panama….which has won several gold metals. If the print on the bottle wasn’t so small, I could probably give actual details of the awards. It’s not my eyes, it’s the print!
14. Lastly, we have a great line up of visitors coming….My brother and Kristen for TURKEY DAY!!! Yahooo, family for the holidays!!! Wayne’s mom wants to fly us to Florida to spend Christmas with her and the family. Then in January Wayne’s Dad and Pat might be coming again…we hope so. In February we’ve got Brenda & Kenny along with 2 of their friends. KEEP EM COMING!!!!!!
So that about wraps it up. For the most part life is good. Perfect?..No. Stress-free?..No. Challenges?..Yes. Always Hot?…YES! Are there things we miss about back home?…NO DOUBT…Friends and family the most. Although, we have been very lucky in making some truly great friends here. Having our boat and hanging around Tighes Marina. Taking the dingy to Mermaids for the weekend’s stock of beverages. Good pizza. UPS delivery. Pinenuts. Uninterrupted electrical service. Edamame…Oh what I’d give for some of those babies in soy sauce and wasabi (both of which we can get)!! But it all leads back to #13…Read again, $7.50!!!
CHEERS everyone!!! We love you, miss you and you are ALWAYS, ALWAYS welcome!!!
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Happy Anniversary to Us! 1 Year in Panama
Hi All,
The good news is I haven’t heard from any of you that you’ve gotten snow recently!!!
Yahooo….we’ve got more visitors on the schedule. My bro and his wife in November..possibly for Thanksgiving!!!!! Then Brenda and Kenny in February (with another couple too…the more the merrier). I love having visitors to look forward to.
The last 6 weeks have been jammed packed. Work started on the deposito (storage shed) and we are just about ready to have the roof put on. Wayne started out wanting to do all the block work himself. HUGE undertaking and it was taking a long time. Our friend Alice…in addition to making a kick ass lasagna…recommended a guy who was like Flash Gordon with the blocks. It was whirlwind of blocks and cement and a week later all the walls were done! We are under the gun to get it finished before the middle of June because our container from the US will be here and we need a secure place to put our stuff. Having a deadline isn’t a good thing in Panama. Manana, manana, manana!!!
Wayne’s proven to be a pretty good jefe (boss) so far…He only had one guy walk off the job site….in tears. COME ON….TEARS!?!?! Good kid but loved his cell phone and figured on this one particular day it was ok to take 2 lunch breaks while the rest of the crew worked. So Wayne said a little something and after stewing for an hour, the kid starts packing up his stuff and choke breathing trying to hold back the tears. Wayne felt terrible. Oh the drama. They were able to work it out and he did come back to work. Things went along just fine UNTIL OF COURSE he got paid, drank himself silly and was a no show on Monday. Wayne’s not a good babysitter, so came the end to that relationship. He’s got a great guy working with him now. Shows up EARLY and EVERY DAY even if he’s just gotten paid.
We also had our well put in. 170 feet deep. We had hit water at 40 feet and were jumping up and down thinking how cheap this was going to be. Ok, so I guess you don’t just stop there….you’ve got to go down past rock, through rock, blah, blah, blah. In any event, crystal clear water and plenty of it.
BIG news. We got our electricity hooked up. We were told it could take up to 6 months. Start to finish, I think it took us 3 weeks. We can’t take the credit though…it was our friend Martin who worked his magic. We met Martin at our local cantina….bought him a few frosty ones, became friends, found out he was an electrician, hired him for some work and then further found out he was the God Father of Electricity. So for the price of a few cold ones, $20 bucks to the guy who climbed the pole and made the connection, we are live!!!! All legal too which is something!
Now that we have electricity we can start the roof. The materials for our windows and doors have come in and work has started on those. Our worker guy, Manuel and I have been de-barking our support beams which are a wood called canalu. Really neat stuff and looks great after it’s cleaned, sanded and varnished. It comes from the mountains.
Had a crocodile on our lot a couple of days ago. A baby…3-4 feet. No idea how he got in and neither did he as he couldn’t figure out how to get out and back to the water down below. Wayne was finally able to get him to bite onto a piece of steel rebar and then fling him over the fence. A few locals took full advantage of this and the poor fellow ended up on their dinner plates
Also had a snake a couple weeks back. Fischer tried taking him on. It was either a coral snake or the kind of snake that looks like a coral but isn’t deadly. How’s that go….Red next to black kills Jack. Red next to yellow is friend of a fellow. Shoot, or is it Red next to black is a friend of Jack and Red next to yellow will kill a fellow. See my confusion. Any way, nothing a machete can’t fix. The next day the ants had completely eaten him and only his skeleton remained.
Then, yesterday we had yet another snake. Wayne thinks it was a Fer de Lance…one of the deadliest snakes in the world. Our friend, who is kind of ‘in the know’ says it wasn’t. So that’s good news as they will actually go after you. So we are still trying to figure out what it was. Again, machete fixed the problem. What exactly was I thinking when we decided to move here!? Our house will be built up by about 2 feet. People say this will help keep snakes out. Hmmmm, last time I checked, snakes knew how to climb.
In between the construction of the deposito we’ve been able to get out and have a little bit of fun. Our friends Greg and Eva have a great piece of property down along the river and have great parties. Lots of food, wine and mosquitoes!!! A shout out to Pete for bringing me that Jungle Juice and to Jim for bringing me the Boy Scout’s first choice in bug spray. DEET! DEET! DEET! Come on, I dare you to bite me!!!!!!!!!!
Our friends Kristine and Mitch returned to the US for a 2 ½ week visit and we were lucky enough to watch their 2 dogs. Melvin’s father (P-nut) and brother (Q). So we had 3 Chihuahua’s and Fischer. Our neighbor actually asked us when our friends would be back to get their dogs! HA!!!!! How about after you kill all the roosters, hens and chickens in your yard. Speaking of chickens. Somehow the 3 Chihuahuas cornered a chicken in our bathroom. I thought the crowing was louder than normal and I didn’t remember having a hole in our feather pillows. Hmmmm something must be going on. Sure enough we had our very own cock fight right here behind our toilet. It was a total photo-op but I do have a bit of a heart and felt the chicken needed rescuing more than I need a picture. Poor thing, half his feathers were flying throughout the house and his little heart was beating out of his chest. Q (Melvin’s brother) sneezed for the next day and half. I guess he’s allergic to chicken feathers.
A huge fair was recently here. Spent the day there with Ed and Cindy. Kind of like the Big E…but no fried dough with chocolate sauce. Total bummer. Plenty of ice cold beer and farm animals so really, do you need anything else.
The pups are great…NOW. Had a rough time for a while. Poor Mel…we decided to have his ‘nuggets’ snipped. So cute they were. I didn’t want to do this but Wayne did…yes, I’m blaming Wayne. Any way, the first surgery did not go well as he swelled up and his blood wouldn’t clot. So a second surgery was done and this was to take his little pals completely off. He’d been under so much anesthesia that his little body couldn’t take it. He actually started dying right in my arms. Rushed him back to the vet and they cleared his throat…he was choking to death. Ugh, what a horrible day. Through all this we found out both dogs had Tick Fever. So they have been on a 28 day cycle of meds to clear that up. They are feeling MUCH BETTER now and although Melvin might be a little lighter in some areas, he’s making up for it in his belly. Fat little burrito! He is calmer which makes Fischer a very happy boy.
Our citrus trees made it through the dry season and are doing great. I planted a few pineapples and they are really taking off. I heard a year or 2 before I will get fruit. The papaya’s are already about 2 feet high and should have fruit in a year or so…if they don’t get blown over.
As I always say, please email us and let us know how you are doing. We really miss everyone. Oh what we’d give to belly up to a bar with some good old friends and family. Ok, ok, so we have no problem with the belly up to the bar part J
Cheers everyone. COME AND VISIT!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh and happy anniversary to us! We’ve been here a year as of May 21st. Who would of thunk!
The good news is I haven’t heard from any of you that you’ve gotten snow recently!!!
Yahooo….we’ve got more visitors on the schedule. My bro and his wife in November..possibly for Thanksgiving!!!!! Then Brenda and Kenny in February (with another couple too…the more the merrier). I love having visitors to look forward to.
The last 6 weeks have been jammed packed. Work started on the deposito (storage shed) and we are just about ready to have the roof put on. Wayne started out wanting to do all the block work himself. HUGE undertaking and it was taking a long time. Our friend Alice…in addition to making a kick ass lasagna…recommended a guy who was like Flash Gordon with the blocks. It was whirlwind of blocks and cement and a week later all the walls were done! We are under the gun to get it finished before the middle of June because our container from the US will be here and we need a secure place to put our stuff. Having a deadline isn’t a good thing in Panama. Manana, manana, manana!!!
Wayne’s proven to be a pretty good jefe (boss) so far…He only had one guy walk off the job site….in tears. COME ON….TEARS!?!?! Good kid but loved his cell phone and figured on this one particular day it was ok to take 2 lunch breaks while the rest of the crew worked. So Wayne said a little something and after stewing for an hour, the kid starts packing up his stuff and choke breathing trying to hold back the tears. Wayne felt terrible. Oh the drama. They were able to work it out and he did come back to work. Things went along just fine UNTIL OF COURSE he got paid, drank himself silly and was a no show on Monday. Wayne’s not a good babysitter, so came the end to that relationship. He’s got a great guy working with him now. Shows up EARLY and EVERY DAY even if he’s just gotten paid.
We also had our well put in. 170 feet deep. We had hit water at 40 feet and were jumping up and down thinking how cheap this was going to be. Ok, so I guess you don’t just stop there….you’ve got to go down past rock, through rock, blah, blah, blah. In any event, crystal clear water and plenty of it.
BIG news. We got our electricity hooked up. We were told it could take up to 6 months. Start to finish, I think it took us 3 weeks. We can’t take the credit though…it was our friend Martin who worked his magic. We met Martin at our local cantina….bought him a few frosty ones, became friends, found out he was an electrician, hired him for some work and then further found out he was the God Father of Electricity. So for the price of a few cold ones, $20 bucks to the guy who climbed the pole and made the connection, we are live!!!! All legal too which is something!
Now that we have electricity we can start the roof. The materials for our windows and doors have come in and work has started on those. Our worker guy, Manuel and I have been de-barking our support beams which are a wood called canalu. Really neat stuff and looks great after it’s cleaned, sanded and varnished. It comes from the mountains.
Had a crocodile on our lot a couple of days ago. A baby…3-4 feet. No idea how he got in and neither did he as he couldn’t figure out how to get out and back to the water down below. Wayne was finally able to get him to bite onto a piece of steel rebar and then fling him over the fence. A few locals took full advantage of this and the poor fellow ended up on their dinner plates
Also had a snake a couple weeks back. Fischer tried taking him on. It was either a coral snake or the kind of snake that looks like a coral but isn’t deadly. How’s that go….Red next to black kills Jack. Red next to yellow is friend of a fellow. Shoot, or is it Red next to black is a friend of Jack and Red next to yellow will kill a fellow. See my confusion. Any way, nothing a machete can’t fix. The next day the ants had completely eaten him and only his skeleton remained.
Then, yesterday we had yet another snake. Wayne thinks it was a Fer de Lance…one of the deadliest snakes in the world. Our friend, who is kind of ‘in the know’ says it wasn’t. So that’s good news as they will actually go after you. So we are still trying to figure out what it was. Again, machete fixed the problem. What exactly was I thinking when we decided to move here!? Our house will be built up by about 2 feet. People say this will help keep snakes out. Hmmmm, last time I checked, snakes knew how to climb.
In between the construction of the deposito we’ve been able to get out and have a little bit of fun. Our friends Greg and Eva have a great piece of property down along the river and have great parties. Lots of food, wine and mosquitoes!!! A shout out to Pete for bringing me that Jungle Juice and to Jim for bringing me the Boy Scout’s first choice in bug spray. DEET! DEET! DEET! Come on, I dare you to bite me!!!!!!!!!!
Our friends Kristine and Mitch returned to the US for a 2 ½ week visit and we were lucky enough to watch their 2 dogs. Melvin’s father (P-nut) and brother (Q). So we had 3 Chihuahua’s and Fischer. Our neighbor actually asked us when our friends would be back to get their dogs! HA!!!!! How about after you kill all the roosters, hens and chickens in your yard. Speaking of chickens. Somehow the 3 Chihuahuas cornered a chicken in our bathroom. I thought the crowing was louder than normal and I didn’t remember having a hole in our feather pillows. Hmmmm something must be going on. Sure enough we had our very own cock fight right here behind our toilet. It was a total photo-op but I do have a bit of a heart and felt the chicken needed rescuing more than I need a picture. Poor thing, half his feathers were flying throughout the house and his little heart was beating out of his chest. Q (Melvin’s brother) sneezed for the next day and half. I guess he’s allergic to chicken feathers.
A huge fair was recently here. Spent the day there with Ed and Cindy. Kind of like the Big E…but no fried dough with chocolate sauce. Total bummer. Plenty of ice cold beer and farm animals so really, do you need anything else.
The pups are great…NOW. Had a rough time for a while. Poor Mel…we decided to have his ‘nuggets’ snipped. So cute they were. I didn’t want to do this but Wayne did…yes, I’m blaming Wayne. Any way, the first surgery did not go well as he swelled up and his blood wouldn’t clot. So a second surgery was done and this was to take his little pals completely off. He’d been under so much anesthesia that his little body couldn’t take it. He actually started dying right in my arms. Rushed him back to the vet and they cleared his throat…he was choking to death. Ugh, what a horrible day. Through all this we found out both dogs had Tick Fever. So they have been on a 28 day cycle of meds to clear that up. They are feeling MUCH BETTER now and although Melvin might be a little lighter in some areas, he’s making up for it in his belly. Fat little burrito! He is calmer which makes Fischer a very happy boy.
Our citrus trees made it through the dry season and are doing great. I planted a few pineapples and they are really taking off. I heard a year or 2 before I will get fruit. The papaya’s are already about 2 feet high and should have fruit in a year or so…if they don’t get blown over.
As I always say, please email us and let us know how you are doing. We really miss everyone. Oh what we’d give to belly up to a bar with some good old friends and family. Ok, ok, so we have no problem with the belly up to the bar part J
Cheers everyone. COME AND VISIT!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh and happy anniversary to us! We’ve been here a year as of May 21st. Who would of thunk!
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Crunch - small update on gate
Knock on wood the start of the deposito (storage shed) is going smoothly. Wayne bought a brand new cement mixer yesterday. He's very excited! Loads of rock and sand have been delivered now we are just waiting for the blocks and cement. Should have some signs of an actual building sometime next week.
We had a gate made and installed. It was far from perfect but ok. We've been hounding the guy to come back and straighten it out and level it. Of course he's got his money so we knew there would be little chance of him returning. The good news is that while having the temporary drive way dug out and stone put down the bulldozer demolished our gate. The gate builder is off the hook and the bulldozer owner will be having the gate repaired. See how things work out sometimes. It's all good.
A couple shots of the dug out foundation and bright yellow, brand new cement mixer. WOW http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=7061003013/a=124922891_124922891/
Saturday, March 26, 2011
It's a Vanity Affair!! also, address and flight info
WE HAVE AN ADDRESS....well, P.O. Box
Panama, Republic of Panama
Province of Los Santos
Pedasi, 0749
Apartmento/Box 00001
BDA El Progreso
Calle La Policia Final, Casa #3
A few people have asked for airport information: You'd be flying into Panama City. Tocumen Airport. Airport code = PTY
http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=7044388013/a=124922891_124922891/
Well as I said, I won't say any one set of visitors was better than the last but Kim and Jim brought me a 4 pack of Vanity Fair napkins and 4 boxes of mac and cheese.....with the gooey cheese. No dust cheese from them!!! Needless to say we ate without utencils the entire time they were here because WE HAD NAPKINS! We even thought about using them as bath towels. I've got one box of mac and cheese left and 3 packages of napkins. We are building an underground bunker at a secret location to keep our bounty. The pups even got new toys and Melvin and Fischer are in a constant battle for the duck. I'm spoiled with the homemade soap Kim made me. MMMMM, smells so good I could eat it!
So, I think in order to beat out Kim and Jim as our favorite guests the bar has been risen. I'm thinking fresh button and shitake mushrooms would get you there. Yes, I can get them but it's hours worth of driving. I think bringing agricultural items through customs is no problem. Or just lie. It's ok, they are lied to all the time. Believe me, it will be worth it.....You will be our favorites!!!
Kim and Jim's trip went pretty much without a hitch. Well, the bus ride from Panama City to Pedasi (4 1/2 hours) was probably not Jim's favorite part as his knees were pretty much up to his chin. Jim = big guy. Bus = mini. Not a good combination. SORRY JIM!
We spent the first couple of days here in Pedasi at the various beaches. We thought Kim might be floating out to the Galopogas Islands at one point. Man, she was out there! Went to Playa Venao a famous surf beach....in fact coming soon they will be hosting The Billabong World Surfing Games. We've got Jim's name already on the list of competitors. As for Wayne, he's pretty much going to kick a$$ in the boogie boarding competition. Got himself a set of flippers and now he's out there with the surfers showing them how it's done!!! I'm thankful our friends Kristen and Mitch, who are actually surfers, still show their faces with us :)))
We headed to Boquete for 3 nights to show K&J the mountains and get them on a coffee tour. It was a great time. Even the pups were able to come along. There's a debate with Jim as if the visit to the mountains was worth it or should we have stayed right here and just made the trip all about the cantinas here in Pedasi. I'm afraid if we had done that, Jim and Wayne would have 'barked' themselves silly....or should I say sillier.
After all our talk about the 'barking' we were hard pressed to find any going on. Carnival had just finished up so we think folks were still in recovery mode. We hit every cantina within barking distance and finally struck gold on their last night. Three, count them....THREE bottles of Seco were consumed and a countless numbers of cervesas. Of course having a table full of locals, it really was surprising that only 3 bottles were had. Our friend and garbage man had hid his talent from us until this night. He's gotta be one of the top 3 barkers on the Azuero Peninsula. The lesson he gave Jim and Kim can been seen on Youtube if you haven't already had the chance to view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPVVyVLMzb0
For some of my friends (you know who you are and usually read everything in my blog!!!) I took some pictures just for you. There are HOGs here in Panama!!!
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Carnival Part 2. The start of the Deposito
http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=6986422013/a=124922891_124922891/
We couldn't resist and returned for another day/night of Carnival. This time we ended up at the cock fights. We are both worried because we like them now. Plus we made money!!!! We bet $5 while the locals are betting $100 +. We must look like fools. Oh well. We won each time! YAHOOO!
We started building the deposito (storage shed). Well at least the ditches are being dug for the foundation to start. Wayne's got a cement mixer on order so things are starting to move along.
Melvin and Fischer continue to think they scare the cows that come and feed in our back yard. Fischer actually does scare them a little but come on, Melvin. He makes a fool of himself out there trying to scare them away. It's very fun to watch!
Kim and Jim arrived yesterday after a lovely bus ride all the way from Panama to Pedasi on a SMALL bus!!! Poor Jim still has his knees up around his chin. Any way, they made it and we are off to have a great 10 days with them.
We couldn't resist and returned for another day/night of Carnival. This time we ended up at the cock fights. We are both worried because we like them now. Plus we made money!!!! We bet $5 while the locals are betting $100 +. We must look like fools. Oh well. We won each time! YAHOOO!
We started building the deposito (storage shed). Well at least the ditches are being dug for the foundation to start. Wayne's got a cement mixer on order so things are starting to move along.
Melvin and Fischer continue to think they scare the cows that come and feed in our back yard. Fischer actually does scare them a little but come on, Melvin. He makes a fool of himself out there trying to scare them away. It's very fun to watch!
Kim and Jim arrived yesterday after a lovely bus ride all the way from Panama to Pedasi on a SMALL bus!!! Poor Jim still has his knees up around his chin. Any way, they made it and we are off to have a great 10 days with them.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Drunk Mel, love his rum
Mel like his drink. Good thing his head is so small or he might miss that last drop at the bottom of the glass! Well Carnival is in full swing. It kicked off Friday night. We closed the doors and windows. Put the a/c on and got a nice good nights sleep so we'd be ready for Saturday. You gotta love a Carnival when you are checked at the entrance and they want to see what's in your drink cooler. You open it up and it's a bright green margarita, he takes a look, a little snif and passes us through. Have we mentioned yet how much we love it here!!! We watched the parade, got drenched by the big trucks with fire hoses that hosed down the crowd. Since we didn't see any port-a-lets the crowd probably needed more hosing than you'd think!!! We spent a good part of time with our friend Fabian's family. They played some great music and were overly generous with the Seco. We also connected with a great old man that we used to live near. It was his birthday and boy was he celebrating. Somehow he managed to get us back to his house that was full of family. He sat us down and his wife fed us. Just us, sitting at this table eating with the family all around. I had some Seco in me but not enough to make me say more than once to Wayne....how the &$#% did we end up here and how do we make a polite exit!? We did manage to exit and ended our day with more good music before calling it an early night. We figured we'd do the right thing and get another good nights sleep. Great idea until we lost electric...no fan, no a/c. Thankfully sometime in the middle of the night HALF our electric game back. Phew, we had the fan back and got a fairly decent night of sleep. Today, Sunday....we shall see about a return into town!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Rummy, Rummy in my Tummy
Hi everyone,
I’ve updated my blog with a few new sets of pictures. We hope you are all doing well and we are getting pretty good at being tour guides so book your trip and come on down!!!!
Well this is going to be one long blog because I don’t want to forget anything myself and I’m going to go a little bit backwards here and start with the recent visit we just had with Wayne’s dad (Gil) and step mother (Pat). In fact they are still in Panama. We shipped them out on the bus Friday for 3 days in the city. Yesterday they are toured the canal and we can’t wait to hear all about it. We have YET to do that ourselves. Pathetic. So hopefully you enjoy if you end up reading this whole damn thing otherwise we hope to hear from you or better yet, SEE YOU sometime. We are also wishing you all a quick end to winter.
Any way, how we managed to fill over 2 weeks with things to do here in little old Pedasi is beyond me but we did it and had a great time. The first 3 days were spent here in town. We toured the beaches, some of the new developments going in and of course our local cantina’s.
We spent 3 nights in Boquete. The 4 of us and the 2 dogs. Made for a cozy trip. In David (close to Boquete) we ate at TGIF’s!!! Pretty much our first American food chain since we got here (well ok, had a milkshake or 2 from McD’s). We stayed at Momentum B&B in Boquete where we’ve stayed before. Had a little snag in our reservation so we didn’t get our cabin the first night, but had 2 rooms in the B&B. Ken, the owner is a great guy and a little on the wild side. As you will see in the pictures, Ken has a disco ball in his living room, which is right outside the bedrooms. He used to be a DJ and still loves to dance. Go for it! We never did kick up our heels. Instead we chose to spend our afternoons sipping cocktails in the pool after our days of touring.
Our first full day there we drove all through the mountains. The views are incredible. We stopped at ‘mi jardin es tu jardin’, ‘my garden is your garden’. It’s a privately owned home that has opened it’s garden for people to tour. It’s amazing. Lots and lots of pictures were taken there. From there we stopped for a fresh cup of coffee looking out over the mountains.
Day 2 Pat and I did the Ruiz Coffee Tour. WORD OF WARNING…..If any of you drink Folgers or Nescafe, STOP!!!!!!! We learned about floaters. Yes, yes, I’m sure we are all familiar with the term floaters but in this case we are talking about coffee beans. Floaters are beans that have been eaten by bugs, or have rotted or mildewed. They float to the top, while the good beans sink. The floaters are scooped out and in their entirety are dried…bugs and all. Once dried….again, in their entirety….they are shipped off to be roasted, dyed, and whatever else they need to do to make them look like coffee flakes. I believe this is all done in the US. So anywhooooo, I’d stay away from the instant coffees.
We learned so much on our tour and I’m glad I took the time to go. Real estate in that area has become crazy and people are selling off their fields to become millionaires, which they never would become no matter how long they owned their fields. Hopefully some of the big families will stay, like the Ruiz family. For the most part, the beans are shipped off and roasted elsewhere. A small portion is roasted in Panama for distribution in the country only. We had our coffee tasting at this facility and wow, did it smell good.
We ended our stay in Boquete by having dinner at The Rock. A restaurant that had existed until it floated down the river during the last flooding. It’s been rebuilt and it was the best food I’ve eaten in the 8 months we’ve been here. The entire restaurant was windows and it looked out onto the huge rock walls that have been built around it. Hopefully now it won’t float away again. Pat and I had Bourbon spiced pasta with shrimp. OMG! The boys had filet. Excellent. We were so happy.
Back in Pedasi we booked Gil and Pat at Casa de Campo rather than where they started their stay. This hotel is awesome with an awesome pool and real COTTON SHEETS! All that you could hope for in a small hotel. We spent just about every afternoon/evening in the pool before heading to dinner. I even got permission to use their pool daily for one hour to do laps. HA, anyone who knows me knows I can’t do an hour of laps. Today I did 15 minutes. Whatever, it’s cool, it’s wet and it’s all mine!!!
We spent this last week exploring different areas around Pedasi, introducing them to some of our friends and relaxing by the pool. But the highlight had to be the rum factory in Pese. About 1 ½ hours from us. They produce Abuelo rum, Seco (the national drink of Panama), Jumbie (flavored rum) and a few others. When we arrived we were handed the new Seco drink in a can. We each got our own can. YAHOO! Ice cold. Similar to those Smirnoff drinks. Then we moved onto sampling the Abuelo; Unaged, 7 year old and 12 year old. The only thing we couldn’t sample was the 30 year old. We also sampled some of the flavors and ended up buying a coconut and a pineapple rum. Along with a 12 year old. On our way out we were handed 4 more cans ‘for the road’. Have I said how much I love it here!!!
Some interesting facts….the barrels that they age their rum in come from Jack Daniels in TN. They are used 1 year by JD first. Sugar cane is brought to the factory in both large and small amounts. We saw a bunch of steer driven carts coming in with their load of cane. It was very cool. Some farmers will burn the cane first because it makes for easier harvesting. When they do that though, they get less money. The factory crushes the juice out of the cane and uses the leaves to fuel the factory. 70% of the energy the factory uses is powered by sugar cane.
On our way back from the rum tour we hit the casino in Chitre. We had to check our firearms at the door. Wayne won $25 and I spent about that losing. Gil and Pat didn’t do much better.
Friday we brought them to Las Tablas to catch a bus back to the city. The bus waiting was an old run down thing but it was ready to go and it happened so fast. Our goodbyes were quick and sad. Of course as soon as their bus pulled out, a brand new one pulled in that would be leaving in 1 hour. Oh well. They got to the city safe and just a little dirtier than they hoped to be.
Ahhhh, it was just great having some familiar faces here and we explored areas we probably wouldn’t have bothered with otherwise. We are hoping by the time they come again, they said they would come again, that we’ll actually have a house for them to stay in. Although they might opt for the hotel since it was so nice.
Other stuff: Land deal is done. Dirt road somewhat put in, drainage pipe along the road is in. Permit to build our storage shed has been granted….we were able to go into the mayors office and actually communicate in SPANISH and get our building permit. We presented them with our drawing, in colored pencil (my idea). They laughed at my artistic ability! It was a day of celebration!!! Permit to build; $10. NICE. All 10 citrus trees that we planted at the beginning of dry season are alive and well. Fence posts are in. Fencing still needs to be put up. Gate is being made and should be done soon….although 6 weeks ago we were told it would be 2 weeks. It’s ok, it’s ok. We’ve met with 4 different architects so far. Might meet with one more who speaks only Spanish so that might be tough but he works in the mayors office. Good be a good thing, then again ya never know. We’ll get there…..when exactly is anyone’s guess. We are in no rush….THANKFULLY!
Wayne fished yesterday. Left at 8AM and wasn’t back until after midnight. The boat had to wait for the tide so there’d be enough water to get back in. We’ve got about 100 pounds of tuna sitting in the fridge right now. Not a bad thing. While he’s off cleaning the boat today, I’ll run around town giving tuna away.
The dogs are great but we might need to bring Melvin to AA. If it’s got booze in it, he’s on it! A tablespoon is all he needs. He’s ‘maturing’ now so after he’s a had few, well he gets to feeling randy and poor Fischer gets the brunt of it. I know, I should probably be a better mother but there just isn’t that much entertainment here. You don’t just throw this kind of fun out.
Fischer is off limits to the property until it’s fully fenced in. As some of you already heard, he’s a new breed of dog. A Schitzwoo (Woo being his nickname). Pictures are attached that pretty much tell the story. Not 30 seconds after a cow ‘did his business’ Fischer ran to it and rolled in it. Not just a little. This was a body roll. Legs in the air, smile on his silly face. I guess you can equate it to how Wayne would look rolling around in a large keg of beer, with tuna swimming in it! He couldn’t have been happier. Made for a great ride home in the truck.
We made another border crossing at the end of January. It was actually FUN this time. We used the bus system. It was so much less stressful and a lot more entertaining. There were several stops along the way, some obvious that they were terminals, other’s not so much. Really, we wait here for a bus? OK. Sure enough, here comes the bus. On our arrival at the border we were the only one’s in line to leave Panama and then the only ones in line to enter Costa Rica. And it was a Saturday. How we managed that, I have no idea. Leaving would have been no hassle either but we got caught up trying to get ourselves out of buying a bus ticket to Costa Rica. Yes, in order to ENTER back into Panama you have to buy a ticket TO Costa Rica. It’s proof to the government that you promise to leave Panama after your timeframe is up. HELLO! The ticket cost $15. If I were a drug dealer, I think I might be ok buying this damn ticket and then doing what ever the f I wanted to. Crazy!
Travel info. That none of you would be interested in reading. I just want for my records:
Going to CR (Saturday)
Caught the Chitre bus to Davisa at abot 8:15-8:30
Arrive Divisa 9:15
Caught Divisa bus to Santiago at 9:30
Arrive in Santiago around 10 for ½ hour stop
Leave Santiago around 10:30
Arrive David around 1:15
Leave David around 1:30 to Frontera
Arrive Frontera, can’t remember, maybe 3:00. NO LINES, NO WAITING
Leaving CR (Monday)
8:25 no lines at CR border
Small line at Panama
Well I’ve managed to bore myself at this point so if any of you are still reading, you are a good friend J)) or really, really bored.
I’ve updated my blog with a few new sets of pictures. We hope you are all doing well and we are getting pretty good at being tour guides so book your trip and come on down!!!!
Well this is going to be one long blog because I don’t want to forget anything myself and I’m going to go a little bit backwards here and start with the recent visit we just had with Wayne’s dad (Gil) and step mother (Pat). In fact they are still in Panama. We shipped them out on the bus Friday for 3 days in the city. Yesterday they are toured the canal and we can’t wait to hear all about it. We have YET to do that ourselves. Pathetic. So hopefully you enjoy if you end up reading this whole damn thing otherwise we hope to hear from you or better yet, SEE YOU sometime. We are also wishing you all a quick end to winter.
Any way, how we managed to fill over 2 weeks with things to do here in little old Pedasi is beyond me but we did it and had a great time. The first 3 days were spent here in town. We toured the beaches, some of the new developments going in and of course our local cantina’s.
We spent 3 nights in Boquete. The 4 of us and the 2 dogs. Made for a cozy trip. In David (close to Boquete) we ate at TGIF’s!!! Pretty much our first American food chain since we got here (well ok, had a milkshake or 2 from McD’s). We stayed at Momentum B&B in Boquete where we’ve stayed before. Had a little snag in our reservation so we didn’t get our cabin the first night, but had 2 rooms in the B&B. Ken, the owner is a great guy and a little on the wild side. As you will see in the pictures, Ken has a disco ball in his living room, which is right outside the bedrooms. He used to be a DJ and still loves to dance. Go for it! We never did kick up our heels. Instead we chose to spend our afternoons sipping cocktails in the pool after our days of touring.
Our first full day there we drove all through the mountains. The views are incredible. We stopped at ‘mi jardin es tu jardin’, ‘my garden is your garden’. It’s a privately owned home that has opened it’s garden for people to tour. It’s amazing. Lots and lots of pictures were taken there. From there we stopped for a fresh cup of coffee looking out over the mountains.
Day 2 Pat and I did the Ruiz Coffee Tour. WORD OF WARNING…..If any of you drink Folgers or Nescafe, STOP!!!!!!! We learned about floaters. Yes, yes, I’m sure we are all familiar with the term floaters but in this case we are talking about coffee beans. Floaters are beans that have been eaten by bugs, or have rotted or mildewed. They float to the top, while the good beans sink. The floaters are scooped out and in their entirety are dried…bugs and all. Once dried….again, in their entirety….they are shipped off to be roasted, dyed, and whatever else they need to do to make them look like coffee flakes. I believe this is all done in the US. So anywhooooo, I’d stay away from the instant coffees.
We learned so much on our tour and I’m glad I took the time to go. Real estate in that area has become crazy and people are selling off their fields to become millionaires, which they never would become no matter how long they owned their fields. Hopefully some of the big families will stay, like the Ruiz family. For the most part, the beans are shipped off and roasted elsewhere. A small portion is roasted in Panama for distribution in the country only. We had our coffee tasting at this facility and wow, did it smell good.
We ended our stay in Boquete by having dinner at The Rock. A restaurant that had existed until it floated down the river during the last flooding. It’s been rebuilt and it was the best food I’ve eaten in the 8 months we’ve been here. The entire restaurant was windows and it looked out onto the huge rock walls that have been built around it. Hopefully now it won’t float away again. Pat and I had Bourbon spiced pasta with shrimp. OMG! The boys had filet. Excellent. We were so happy.
Back in Pedasi we booked Gil and Pat at Casa de Campo rather than where they started their stay. This hotel is awesome with an awesome pool and real COTTON SHEETS! All that you could hope for in a small hotel. We spent just about every afternoon/evening in the pool before heading to dinner. I even got permission to use their pool daily for one hour to do laps. HA, anyone who knows me knows I can’t do an hour of laps. Today I did 15 minutes. Whatever, it’s cool, it’s wet and it’s all mine!!!
We spent this last week exploring different areas around Pedasi, introducing them to some of our friends and relaxing by the pool. But the highlight had to be the rum factory in Pese. About 1 ½ hours from us. They produce Abuelo rum, Seco (the national drink of Panama), Jumbie (flavored rum) and a few others. When we arrived we were handed the new Seco drink in a can. We each got our own can. YAHOO! Ice cold. Similar to those Smirnoff drinks. Then we moved onto sampling the Abuelo; Unaged, 7 year old and 12 year old. The only thing we couldn’t sample was the 30 year old. We also sampled some of the flavors and ended up buying a coconut and a pineapple rum. Along with a 12 year old. On our way out we were handed 4 more cans ‘for the road’. Have I said how much I love it here!!!
Some interesting facts….the barrels that they age their rum in come from Jack Daniels in TN. They are used 1 year by JD first. Sugar cane is brought to the factory in both large and small amounts. We saw a bunch of steer driven carts coming in with their load of cane. It was very cool. Some farmers will burn the cane first because it makes for easier harvesting. When they do that though, they get less money. The factory crushes the juice out of the cane and uses the leaves to fuel the factory. 70% of the energy the factory uses is powered by sugar cane.
On our way back from the rum tour we hit the casino in Chitre. We had to check our firearms at the door. Wayne won $25 and I spent about that losing. Gil and Pat didn’t do much better.
Friday we brought them to Las Tablas to catch a bus back to the city. The bus waiting was an old run down thing but it was ready to go and it happened so fast. Our goodbyes were quick and sad. Of course as soon as their bus pulled out, a brand new one pulled in that would be leaving in 1 hour. Oh well. They got to the city safe and just a little dirtier than they hoped to be.
Ahhhh, it was just great having some familiar faces here and we explored areas we probably wouldn’t have bothered with otherwise. We are hoping by the time they come again, they said they would come again, that we’ll actually have a house for them to stay in. Although they might opt for the hotel since it was so nice.
Other stuff: Land deal is done. Dirt road somewhat put in, drainage pipe along the road is in. Permit to build our storage shed has been granted….we were able to go into the mayors office and actually communicate in SPANISH and get our building permit. We presented them with our drawing, in colored pencil (my idea). They laughed at my artistic ability! It was a day of celebration!!! Permit to build; $10. NICE. All 10 citrus trees that we planted at the beginning of dry season are alive and well. Fence posts are in. Fencing still needs to be put up. Gate is being made and should be done soon….although 6 weeks ago we were told it would be 2 weeks. It’s ok, it’s ok. We’ve met with 4 different architects so far. Might meet with one more who speaks only Spanish so that might be tough but he works in the mayors office. Good be a good thing, then again ya never know. We’ll get there…..when exactly is anyone’s guess. We are in no rush….THANKFULLY!
Wayne fished yesterday. Left at 8AM and wasn’t back until after midnight. The boat had to wait for the tide so there’d be enough water to get back in. We’ve got about 100 pounds of tuna sitting in the fridge right now. Not a bad thing. While he’s off cleaning the boat today, I’ll run around town giving tuna away.
The dogs are great but we might need to bring Melvin to AA. If it’s got booze in it, he’s on it! A tablespoon is all he needs. He’s ‘maturing’ now so after he’s a had few, well he gets to feeling randy and poor Fischer gets the brunt of it. I know, I should probably be a better mother but there just isn’t that much entertainment here. You don’t just throw this kind of fun out.
Fischer is off limits to the property until it’s fully fenced in. As some of you already heard, he’s a new breed of dog. A Schitzwoo (Woo being his nickname). Pictures are attached that pretty much tell the story. Not 30 seconds after a cow ‘did his business’ Fischer ran to it and rolled in it. Not just a little. This was a body roll. Legs in the air, smile on his silly face. I guess you can equate it to how Wayne would look rolling around in a large keg of beer, with tuna swimming in it! He couldn’t have been happier. Made for a great ride home in the truck.
We made another border crossing at the end of January. It was actually FUN this time. We used the bus system. It was so much less stressful and a lot more entertaining. There were several stops along the way, some obvious that they were terminals, other’s not so much. Really, we wait here for a bus? OK. Sure enough, here comes the bus. On our arrival at the border we were the only one’s in line to leave Panama and then the only ones in line to enter Costa Rica. And it was a Saturday. How we managed that, I have no idea. Leaving would have been no hassle either but we got caught up trying to get ourselves out of buying a bus ticket to Costa Rica. Yes, in order to ENTER back into Panama you have to buy a ticket TO Costa Rica. It’s proof to the government that you promise to leave Panama after your timeframe is up. HELLO! The ticket cost $15. If I were a drug dealer, I think I might be ok buying this damn ticket and then doing what ever the f I wanted to. Crazy!
Travel info. That none of you would be interested in reading. I just want for my records:
Going to CR (Saturday)
Caught the Chitre bus to Davisa at abot 8:15-8:30
Arrive Divisa 9:15
Caught Divisa bus to Santiago at 9:30
Arrive in Santiago around 10 for ½ hour stop
Leave Santiago around 10:30
Arrive David around 1:15
Leave David around 1:30 to Frontera
Arrive Frontera, can’t remember, maybe 3:00. NO LINES, NO WAITING
Leaving CR (Monday)
8:25 no lines at CR border
Small line at Panama
Well I’ve managed to bore myself at this point so if any of you are still reading, you are a good friend J)) or really, really bored.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Cock-a-doodle-dooo
Cock-a-doodle-dooooo!!!
Happy New Year everyone and we are feeling for you all back there in all the snow and cold. You guys are having a hell of a winter.
2011 is already proving to be a great year. We aren’t sure what we are more excited about…..that we finally bought land, or that we went to our first cock fight, or that we’ve got Wayne’s father and Pat coming for 2 weeks in Feb., Kim and Jim coming for 10 days in March, Rusty and Jeff coming sometime in March or April and Wayne’s mom and Kenny sometime in late spring. For sure we are more excited about the cockfights than the visit from Rusty and Jeff. Shhhhh, Rusty doesn’t have a computer (HELLO!) and I’m pretty sure Jeff can’t read. We are so excited about all the visits. We were major home sick over the holidays.
So the cockfights were interesting. Not for everyone that’s for sure. We ended up bringing 4 guys (stuffed in our back seat) along with their 2…..heeeheeeem ‘birds.’ The Panamanian’s being the gentlemen that they are figured I would be honored to assist in getting the birds ready for the fight. So I held on to them (their body temp is really high…who would have known) while the guys put the spurs on their legs. If they built houses with the same precision as they used to put the spurs on, well gee, I might not be able to reach my hand from the inside of the house to the outside….and I’m not talking about through windows and doors. I was also lucky enough to get right inside the ring, have the spurs sharpened before the big event and then introduce my bird to the other bird. After the introduction you put the birds on the ground, hold him by his tail feathers for a couple of seconds then let them have at it. It’s taken VERY seriously. Lot’s of betting, screaming, banging on the ring side…of course barking always comes into play. Now we can say we’ve been there, done that. Not really sure we need to see it again. Oh and my bird won!!! Whooohooo, we bet $10, got back $20. Ok, so we lost on the next bird…..which also explains why we had one less bird with us on the drive home.
We had a great day of fishing a week or so back. 16 tuna in about 3 hours. Not huge but certainly yummy. We are headed out again on Wed to try for Wahoo first thing in the morning then bottom fishing for a few hours after that. We are hoping for some snapper or grouper. It’s so windy here in Pedasi now that we don’t have our boat in so we’ve been going out with friends about 1 ½ away from here.
I’ve posted some pictures of the land we bought (3/4 of an acre). It’s basically one big cow patty right now. Took Fischer and Melvin there and within 30 seconds Fischer pretty much looked like a 4 legged cow pie after rolling himself around in it. Melvin decided to lie down and make a meal of it. So that’s that for them for a while. We are having a fence put up and since it’s dry season, those yummy pies should be dried up fairly quickly then we’ll bring the dogs back to run around. We are hoping to meet with an architect sometime this week. See what he thinks of our plans so far. We’ll be happy if we have something close to a house in 2 years. We aren’t expecting things to move very fast.
As always we love hearing from you all back home so please write. I’ll probably be updating my blog a little more often to keep track of the house building but I’m sure none of you care to hear from me that much so feel free to check the blog when you’ve got nothing better to do.
Happy New Year everyone and we are feeling for you all back there in all the snow and cold. You guys are having a hell of a winter.
2011 is already proving to be a great year. We aren’t sure what we are more excited about…..that we finally bought land, or that we went to our first cock fight, or that we’ve got Wayne’s father and Pat coming for 2 weeks in Feb., Kim and Jim coming for 10 days in March, Rusty and Jeff coming sometime in March or April and Wayne’s mom and Kenny sometime in late spring. For sure we are more excited about the cockfights than the visit from Rusty and Jeff. Shhhhh, Rusty doesn’t have a computer (HELLO!) and I’m pretty sure Jeff can’t read. We are so excited about all the visits. We were major home sick over the holidays.
So the cockfights were interesting. Not for everyone that’s for sure. We ended up bringing 4 guys (stuffed in our back seat) along with their 2…..heeeheeeem ‘birds.’ The Panamanian’s being the gentlemen that they are figured I would be honored to assist in getting the birds ready for the fight. So I held on to them (their body temp is really high…who would have known) while the guys put the spurs on their legs. If they built houses with the same precision as they used to put the spurs on, well gee, I might not be able to reach my hand from the inside of the house to the outside….and I’m not talking about through windows and doors. I was also lucky enough to get right inside the ring, have the spurs sharpened before the big event and then introduce my bird to the other bird. After the introduction you put the birds on the ground, hold him by his tail feathers for a couple of seconds then let them have at it. It’s taken VERY seriously. Lot’s of betting, screaming, banging on the ring side…of course barking always comes into play. Now we can say we’ve been there, done that. Not really sure we need to see it again. Oh and my bird won!!! Whooohooo, we bet $10, got back $20. Ok, so we lost on the next bird…..which also explains why we had one less bird with us on the drive home.
We had a great day of fishing a week or so back. 16 tuna in about 3 hours. Not huge but certainly yummy. We are headed out again on Wed to try for Wahoo first thing in the morning then bottom fishing for a few hours after that. We are hoping for some snapper or grouper. It’s so windy here in Pedasi now that we don’t have our boat in so we’ve been going out with friends about 1 ½ away from here.
I’ve posted some pictures of the land we bought (3/4 of an acre). It’s basically one big cow patty right now. Took Fischer and Melvin there and within 30 seconds Fischer pretty much looked like a 4 legged cow pie after rolling himself around in it. Melvin decided to lie down and make a meal of it. So that’s that for them for a while. We are having a fence put up and since it’s dry season, those yummy pies should be dried up fairly quickly then we’ll bring the dogs back to run around. We are hoping to meet with an architect sometime this week. See what he thinks of our plans so far. We’ll be happy if we have something close to a house in 2 years. We aren’t expecting things to move very fast.
As always we love hearing from you all back home so please write. I’ll probably be updating my blog a little more often to keep track of the house building but I’m sure none of you care to hear from me that much so feel free to check the blog when you’ve got nothing better to do.
Monday, January 10, 2011
We are land owners!
WOW, as of Jan. 7th we became land owners here in Pedasi. This time around the process was not very painful at all. We bought land from a local family. 3000 sq meters which is about 3/4 of an acre. Now the fun begins. Plans, approvals, stamps, stamps, stamps, etc. We met with one architect already. He only spoke FRENCH. So we had a couple from SPAIN, translate for us. Hmmmm, ya think some things could get lost in translation here. Yeah, I'm thinking so. Tomorrow I call the people to do a septic inspection...I'm told they speak English. They will come out and do some tests on our land and give the ok or not. We're told it won't be a problem and things like how far the house is from the septic is 'no important'. WHAT!?!?!
Today is a holiday, or maybe yesterday was the holiday. Any way, it was some king of celebration of the dead. We just had one of those holiday's in Oct. but this was different some way. Any whooo, yesterday you couldn't buy booze anywhere and all the cantina's were closed. The town was very quite. Then at the stroke of midnight all hell broke loose. Fireworks, music, cantina's open for businss. We of course were sleeping and woke to all the excitement. I guess the living had had enough celebrating the dead and worked up a hell of a thirst. This place is crazy....and we love it!!!!!!!!!
Melvin's had his second crab attack. One latched right onto his little face. Lot's of screeching, shaking, rolling, running...on Mel's part. Finally the crab let loose but the pincher stayed on. Poor Mel. But what did he do the minute he saw another crab? He went hunting after it. Idiot!
Fischer is loving his walks on the beach. He likes his brother well enough but if Mel got carried away by a big crab I don't think Fisch would shed a tear.
We are still awaiting our health insurance approval...or not. A full day of tests and paperwork about 3 weeks ago and still no word. They must be calling in the experts to look at our liver results. HA! Doubtful, here we've probably got some of the healthiest livers in the country!!!!!
Today is a holiday, or maybe yesterday was the holiday. Any way, it was some king of celebration of the dead. We just had one of those holiday's in Oct. but this was different some way. Any whooo, yesterday you couldn't buy booze anywhere and all the cantina's were closed. The town was very quite. Then at the stroke of midnight all hell broke loose. Fireworks, music, cantina's open for businss. We of course were sleeping and woke to all the excitement. I guess the living had had enough celebrating the dead and worked up a hell of a thirst. This place is crazy....and we love it!!!!!!!!!
Melvin's had his second crab attack. One latched right onto his little face. Lot's of screeching, shaking, rolling, running...on Mel's part. Finally the crab let loose but the pincher stayed on. Poor Mel. But what did he do the minute he saw another crab? He went hunting after it. Idiot!
Fischer is loving his walks on the beach. He likes his brother well enough but if Mel got carried away by a big crab I don't think Fisch would shed a tear.
We are still awaiting our health insurance approval...or not. A full day of tests and paperwork about 3 weeks ago and still no word. They must be calling in the experts to look at our liver results. HA! Doubtful, here we've probably got some of the healthiest livers in the country!!!!!
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