Christmas in Boquete, Panama

The 4 of us packed in the car and headed out of Pedasi around 7:30 AM for our long trip up to the mountains. Not 5 minutes into the ride and BOTH dogs decided they needed a front row seat, MY LAP! So for the next several hours the 3 of us got cozy. Made a stop along the way for lunch, then through the town of David to hit PriceSmart..kind of like a BJ's. Totally missed the signs to Boquete so pretty much ended up very close to the Costa Rican border. Hmmmm, I see mountains to our right so why am I not driving up to them? I'll never make it as a tour guide. Any way, what's one more hour of driving.
We finally arrived at our destination, Momentum at around 3:00. Funky place and an equally funky owner. There were about 4 or 5 private cabins which we were in and then he had rooms in his house as well. I'm glad we chose the cabins. The B&B rooms opened out into his living room where you could find the dance floor and a disco ball. Ummmm, ok. Every morning around 8 or so booming out of his 26 Bose speakers came on....'Once I had a love and it was a gas. Soon turned out had a heart of glass....' Actually used to be one of my favorite songs. Then in the evenings we'd see the flashing disco lights and more 'good' music. Mind you, this is just his house. It's not advertised as a bar, disco, etc. So it was pretty interesting. Super nice guy and so far we've come to terms that anyone who moves here, well they've got to be a little off. The place had a great pool. Solar heated so not hot but very nice and refreshing.
We spent a lot of time exploring Boquete. Ton's of coffee farms and beautiful gardens. There's almost a constant mist but the sun is still out. We didn't see one but we heard they get great rainbows there. Rivers and streams everywhere...waterfalls too. Wayne heard there are actually trout in the rivers. Several weeks ago they got so much rain that roads were flooded. We tried to drive a loop but had to turn around as big boulders blocked our path from going over a bridge that looked to be pretty much washed out.
The dogs had a blast. They had full run of the place and they took total advantage of that. We'd open the front door and that would be last we'd see of them. Thankfully they were both smart enough not to jump off the edge of the property which was pretty much straight down.
Even though it was cool there at night it still felt strange not to be freezing and having a fire going in the fireplace on Christmas. We had the Christmas spirit going though with all the great classic movies. Rudolph, Christmas Story, etc.
We headed out the day after Christmas, and took our time. Stopping again at PriceSmart for a TV. YAHOOOOO! We got a TV. Now we can watch movies on a big screen. As for TV stations....we are not ready to even try to tackle how we get that service.
We are still trying to purchase our 'cow field' piece of land. Yet again another cluster &^%$. Money was wired and is sitting at the bank. Bank wants an ORIGINAL letter from the sending bank stating that they are wiring money for 'x' to 'y' for the purpose of 'z', blah, blah. If I could hand the bank in Panama an ORIGINAL letter then couldn't I have just handed them cash and not gone through the hassle of a wire. HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Lawyer is now going to see about setting up an acct so we can put the money in escrow. ESCROW, well there's a friggin concept. Again, HELLOOOOOOOOOO! We have some other options too and I'm sure we'll go through all of them before it's said and done.
We are having a couple friends down for New Years eve. Kristine and Mitch are coming with their 2 dogs. Melvin's dad and brother. So it's like a family get together!!!! We aren't sure what to expect for New Years Eve here because really, how much harder can they really party here.
Well, HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas!!! some pics of wind, big clam, burn worm

Merry Christmas everyone. We actually kind of miss all the hustle and bustle that goes along with the holidays. For all the b*tching and moaning I did when we were back home during this season, I guess looking back now I can say it wasn't that bad and we miss it......To a degree of course!!!!

I needed to clean out the camera for our upcoming holiday get away so there are some new pictures posted on the blog. Nothing mind blowing. Huge moth, green caterpillar that if it touches your skin will feel like a hot poker. Some shots of the beach now that it's windy season and boy is it windy season. Poor Melvin had his little eyes crusted shut after our walk. Some HUGE CLAMS....bought 3 of them and then had no idea what to do with them. Thought about a clam sauce until I saw the 'sauce' that came out of the clam. Scrapped that idea and just chunked up the pieces that looked a little less like something the devel threw up and cooked it for hours in tomato sauce. When in doubt cook the day lights out of it in sauce. It worked and we survived. Actually tasted pretty good too.

We are headed to the moutains for Christmas. We'll be packing jeans and fleeces!!! Guess it gets pretty cold where we are going. I hope the pups handle it ok. We might need to pick them up jackets too. We've got a little cabin, they allow dogs and they have a heated pool. Like I was saying.....We miss being back home for the holidays only to a degree!!! :))))

Wayne's had some pretty awesome fishing trips. Lots of tuna, mahi, sierra mackeral, wahoo. He hooked into a black marlin...actually 2 of them. Got one of them to the boat. Cool. Our boat is out of the water now resting up during windy season. Still there are lots of places to fish with other guys who have their boats out of the windy areas

Our first confirmed kill :(

Well, just when we thought things couldn't get any more exciting...(I'm being sarcastic)....we hear a screetch and then another. Then we hear a few words we recognize. Grande, serpiente, MAMA!!!!, en casa, ayuda!!!!! (help), WAYNE, WAYNE!!!! We go running out and there is a 6-8 foot snake on our neighbors porch. I think the poor kid next door who is just hitting that puperty stage may have set himself back a couple years. I never heard a GIRL screetch like HE did!!! I have to hand it to Wayne, he handled a shovel like John Wayne with two six guns. I pretty much tested the strength of the hood of our truck. I can confirm it can handle 160 pounds of flying flesh no problem! Toyota tough! After a few whacks in the cabeza (head), also a word we recognized as the mother next door kept screaming it, the bugger was pretty much dead. We scooped him up and put him in a bucket for the father next door to see. He doesn't think he was a bad one :( So we might have gotten one of the good guys but we were caught up in the moment and trying to calm our neighbors. I've attached a picture to our blog and on facebook. If anyone has a clue what it is, let us know. we are having a hard time finding out.

The Three Amigos

The Three Amigos!

We now have witnesses that can validate what we’ve been saying all along: Panama is NOT an island. You can drink the water. People do not walk around in grass skirts with bones in their noses….well at least not here in Pedasi. The napkins do indeed suck here. Chickens and roosters do not sleep, ever, EVER!!!! Men absolutely do bark at each other, on occasion even the ladies get into it. If you order fish, expect it to be smiling back at you from the plate.
Amy, Ellyn and Pete arrived here in Panama on Nov. 6th and stayed until this past Saturday. Total travel time for them was about 18 hours. Thankfully Wayne and I are so worth it! They were up at 1:30 AM to drive to JFK, flew to Costa Rica, had minutes to spare before jumping on a plane to Panama where there was a driver waiting for them. Ahhhhh, who wouldn’t be up for a 5 hour drive at this point. The first thing Ellyn said to me was ‘you need to move closer.’ They were beat but were good enough sports to stay awake through dinner. We heard the airport in Pedasi has been stalled for a couple of months but hopefully by the time they come again, or we get some of you others to come, it will be open. It will shorten the 5 hour drive to about a ½ hour plane ride.
Fischer had no problem vacating our spare room for Pete and the girls stayed 2 minutes away…at a place with a pool. I was thinking of me when I had them book there. We got some good use out of it. More use out of the ocean though. One highlight for sure was Ellyn catching a wave on a boogie board and screeching like a schoolgirl for the full 50 feet of travel. Pete took surfing lessons. He managed to at least get to his knees on the board. He was a hurting puppy the next day. Nothing a little rum couldn’t fix. Amy, aka the Snack Queen. Do not let her go hungry. You won’t like Amy if she gets hungry!!!
The week was full of lots of trips to the beach, boogie boarding, canteen visits, pool side cocktails, visits with friends, tons of food, rum, wine, SUNSHINE. Every day was sunny and perfect…..and it’s still rainy season. Since they left we’ve had rain every day. So thanks guys for bringing the SUN.
Given all of our activities during the day, I think the latest we were up was about 10 – 10:30 and that might have been the night they arrived and the night before they left. We had a great send off Friday night at Pedasi Cheese. Yes, it’s a cheese store now turned into a restaurant too. Cheese…..Restaurant…..HELLO. The restaurant allowed the guys to bring their guitars and drums and Kristen had her violin. It was a blast. Nothing like a little ‘hill billy camp fire’ music to really freak out the locals.
THANKS GUYS FOR COMING OUT. IT MEANT THE WORLD TO US. I finally stopped crying around noon the day you left L

Other news. Pictures attached are of a couple fiesta’s that have taken place over the last few weeks. November is a big party month. We actually spent a lot of time listening to live, GOOD music. Well, until the singing started then ‘good’ turned to ‘ok, let’s get another beer.’
Our land purchase continues to be quite interesting. I’m so happy Central American pharmacies do business like they do. “hello, I need something that will make me tranquil.” “Of course, here you go, these work very well.” And indeed they do!!! We have actually put a down payment down on piece of land we were shown just last week. It got Ellyn’s approval while she was here. It’s a local guy and pretty straight forward. So we might be land owners in a couple weeks. Holy crap! Where did I put those pills any way?
Fischer and Melvin LOVE each other now. Of course many pictures of them are attached too. When Melvin squeaks in his cage, The Woo gets out of his bed, and we all know how much Fischer loves his bed, to go investigate. There have been a few moments of heart stopping excitement when Mel won’t let go of the rope that Fischer is swinging around on the bed 3 feet in the air of the hard tile floor. Another really good time is right after washing the floors. The tiles are like glass. Melvin pretty much skids all over on his belly while Woo looks like George Jetson….’get me off this crazy thing!’
We did our required border crossing a couple weeks ago. We are allowed to stay here 6 months before needing to leave for 72 hours. The border between Panama and Costa Rica is a total crap hole. But we did our thing and are now legal for 6 more months...However our drivers licenses are only good for 3. Go figure. We actually stayed in a nice hotel while we were there. The lines to get stamped out/in and out/in again were about an hour long. We had no issues. We did everything by the book this time however, next time we will certaily be taking up the many offers of help to get us in and out in less than 72 hours.
Ok everyone. We miss you all and REALLY, REALLY mean it when we say you are welcome anytime! Please pass along what’s been going on with you. I’ve said it before, we love hearing back and knowing what’s going back home.

Dogs, land, rental, life

Hi All

Finally got a new cheap camera so WHEN I break this one it won’t hurt as bad. Attached on the blog are of course lots of pictures of the dogs. Fischer and Melvin seem to finally be getting along, or maybe we should say Fischer is tolerating Melvin. Melvin got to visit his brother recently at our friend’s (Kristine and Mitch) place in Guanico. A VERY bumpy, almost 2 hour drive deeper into the peninsula. Also during that visit we fed their crocs some chicken skin. The crocs are living literally about 40 feet from their house in a small river. Yes, they keep their dogs on leashes!!!! Imagine a Tighes drunk-fest here in Panama!!!! It’s one thing to fall off the dock and skin you knee on a clam shell but a whole different story if you take a tumble here!!!

We are getting very close to actually buying a piece of land. (pics are on the blog) It’s about a mile from the beach. ¾ acres which should do us just fine and give the pups plenty of room to run. If the land deal happens, then we’ll build. YIKES! We are giving ourselves at least 2 years to finish everything. 2 years…..that’s a long time and we’ll probably be very lucky to reach that goal. We want to do a lot ourselves because, well the workmanship isn’t what we are used to. So this should be an experience for sure.

Also on the blog are some pictures of our little rental. A few people were asking just what a Panamanian house looks like. Well here ya go. And driftwood has more uses than you can imagine……dish towel holder, t.p. holder, towel rack, cloths rack, curtain rods…it’s endless really. Pen holders, who needs them. We’ve got rocks with holes in them that seem to have been made just for that purpose. So as long as Wayne and I continue to use rocks and driftwood for our household needs rather than beating each other with them, we should do just fine.

We are gearing up for a big November. Lot’s of parties happening this month. For what reasons, your guess is as good as mine. We are told not to except a lot of business to be conducted in Nov. Most weekends are extended to 3-4 days and then a day or 2 recovery period.

We went to one of the kick off parties this weekend. Live music….actually didn’t make our ears bleed. Bull fights….which even local Pedasian’s said it’s a lame show and that the one to see is coming up in a couple weekends and will be held right here in the streets of Pedasi. We might want to park our car somewhere else. I didn’t bring my camera to this event and really should have but will in the future. I think I said this before….it’s a whole other world here. Kids are sitting right up on the fences that the bulls are fighting in. Guys get knocked unconscious, picked up, dragged away and are treated with a few mouthfuls of Seco (Sugar cane vodka….we think. It’s sugar cane booze of some kind), thrown back in and do it again. Bragging rights goes to the guy with the biggest gash in his head. I WILL bring a camera next time. Words just don’t do it here.

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

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!