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/

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


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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!!!

Carnival Part 2. The start of the Deposito

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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.

Drunk Mel, love his rum

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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!