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.
Hitched!
The knot has been tied
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
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.
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