The saga continues

The Panamanians just love to have time off. A holiday. A fiesta. For anything.They have a holiday just about every month. The whole month of Nov. is independence month.
First it's independence from Columbia. Then it's independence from Spain then it's their own independence.

Dec. of course we have Christmas.

Jan. they celebrate martyrs day. That's when the Americans shot a Panamanian(I believe for flying a flag). Then it's flower festival and on it goes.Thank goodness I know the shortcuts around the main drag in Boquete. The flower festival lasts a week. Sat and Sun. were crazy....

Feb. is Carnival(Marte Gras for a week starting the 13th) so that will be fun too.

It has been windy all week..not just a breeze..I'm talking moving a ball on the green,trees falling n the road,power outages.

We explore Palmeri today..and it's still windy.. really windy,the cactus here is 40 feet tall,I left the car in the picture to give you a  perspective.

Aprille found a new hair dresser in Boquete and she got a cut and color for $38. Unreal. It was a great job too.


So...I thought .75 was cheap for a pineapple. How's .42???? Today we paid that at the local super market just below our gym.

We decided to go to Panama City in Feb or March so we can do justice to the environs. A whirl wind tour the last day is not going to cut it. Right now we are looking at a two day excursion.

Today is Jan 18th. Aprille is  a little under the weather but she is a trooper an went to the German brunch at the San Fransisco plaza. It was marvelous. It was extremely plentiful and as good as any home cooked meal. The meatballs were as good as my mom's,so you know how good they were.

I went exploring after dropping Aprille off at home. Thank goodness. The " short cut" to Caldera was an adventure. Wow! I have never been on a road that bad in my life. To call it a road is being generous. An all terrain vehicle would have been my choice of transportation. Imagine in a Nissan March? 8 inch ground clearance.It was more like a wide path.No way!!! "manege con cuidado"

This is the good part ..really this is like a highway.
I now know how to get to the hot springs(we go the long way) in Caldera. That will be a treat.

I then took a ride to Vulcancito ,El Salto and Vulcan Baru.
Beautiful. That's coffee country. That took all afternoon. The pictures don't do the trip justice.
The picture of the hillside house makes you so glad we live in Canada. There is no phone no pool no pets. The white tube to the left is a water line across a canyon.

Talk about walking. This picture of the Panamanian native is of her pushing her two children in a wheel barrow,uphill.

Golf is much better too. I used the same ball for (only nine) and I lipped out three times and still shot "bogie" golf.

This afternoon is football day. Wow, what an ending for the Green Bay Packers!! Next year?
So how about those Patriots? There was another team.....no really there was.....
So how does the pro line work? My money is on the Patriots. It should be awesome. Last time the patriots lost by one....1....point.

Just a parting thought. Have you ever seen a rainbow this short? Just lovely.

Feliz ano nuevo Happy new year

We celebrated New years eve at the MacDonald's with Mike and Katie. What a hoot. Wonderful food too. They left early,around 1030 and we stayed till about 1230. The hydro went out around 9 o'clock and finally came on about 15 minutes before midnight, So we had a wonderful candle light evening.

My gout is gone. I have doubled the allopurinal ( a suggestion from the Panamanian doctor and a neighbour and friend who has been on this medicine for 15 years) and it is working.

I golf at least once  a week..it is a spectacular course.. and we thankfully have a car and we are far afield.

We joined a local, well equipped gym...Por Favor poner las pesas en su lugar...please put the weights back when your finished... and that is 4 times a week. We are glad to get back to our work outs.

But your right(of course) I could not do this for the rest of my life.

Costa Rica is our next big voyage and it could be a challenge. We may have to book a tour as the paper work to get our Panamanian car into Costa Rica is apparently a nightmare. But then again we may never be here again.

We are now into weekly card..games night..Bridge,Canasta,Go(I never played that before.It's a Chinese board game like Othello but more complicated.Check it out on YouTube). I won 5 games the first time into it and we played the kids version ..5 in a row wins..and Dan kicked my ass for the rest of the games and I think we played 20. As we were sitting on the couch, I noticed a carving by their fireplace and I was struck by the figure. It looks like me,I think,you be the judge(Frank and mini Frank)

Ulla finally got her gmail video working and we spent an hour gabbing. Yea!!!!

Skype is now installed and working at the Gaulin's in Toronto and we got to talk to Paul, Rena and Amelia.

We had Vincent down for drinks and dinner last night and we got a whole new insight into the Panamanian wages.
The workers,his employees are entitled to one month paid vacation each year, and,they get a bonus each 4 months which is equivalent to 1/3 of their annual salary and he pays for their health care too. Not bad.
We got some good ideas about Bocas(the Caribbean side) and Costa Rica. I think we might take a bus trip. That will be more relaxing. Oh..we can take a cooler too....Yea!!!

Oh yea,not all things here are cheap. You don't buy cashews. $9.05 Not at the local store anyway.Wait for Price Mart.

But,how about REAL ice cream,made every day,with 12 different flavors (mix and match) in a sugar cone for $1.50??

Some reflections

Price mart prices are special. So are the prices here in general. Can  you get a beer for .50 cents. I don't think so.

Of course Heineken is a little more....LOL

Healthy choice cereals,really?Can you see the chocolate bars pasted to the box to encourage you to buy this? This was at the super Romero in David

One egg at a time? That's special isn't it?

Crazy Christmas T shirt and hats night tonight.
It's a buffet special tonight. My famous mushroom bread,fresh homemade salsa,garlic and butter shrimp,cocktail meat balls,prosciutto and papaya,sausage,three different international cheeses and specialty crackers.For dessert we have truffles,chocolate biscotti and of course.....you know.

We finally found the international store in Boquete. The Deli Baru our new favourite store.
We actually found red cabbage,Johnson sausages and French roast coffee.
I still couldn't find the pickled herring though.

El Posada(resauante Agentino) is a great place for pizza,oh course but the back lot is a marvel too. They brought in an artist and he fit the scenery to his imagination. These are actually painted rocks and wooden dead fall.

Today,Aprille got her phone activated.Unlocked and ready to go anywhere for (I should have found this site first,for $19.95) and, 500 minutes for $5... and...we found a craft store.

So.. how much for a fresh pine apple and a large papaya...

Did you say $1.80?

We have now been to a few functions and have met some wonderful new people.
We have gone to a Christmas dinner at Bob and Mary's, which was our first time meeting all the new neighbourhood friends and we went to an open house at Micheal and Kathies on Sunday(the 28th)
where we met 4 more new people. Awesome.

We have now tried twice to get to Chiraqui Grande on the Caribbean side. The first time we couldn't find the Caldera rd(it is not signed going to David) and the second time we ran into mountain fog.
But..it is beautiful there. It is much more lush and it seems to be a tropical rain forest. So..they probably get rain every day.
Caution..max. speed going from Caldera to Chiraquicito especially, maybe 20 km hr. The road is treacherous(that's a good word) and it can end without warning and can go from 2 to one  lane.

But it is beautiful too.

We.. will... get to the Caribean.Promise.

2 weeks now...really?

I'm back....(a la Jack Nicholson)
I always pick up workers if I see them walking...Que quieres que te lleve(do you want a ride?)
Some of them have miles to get home. I know walking everywhere is a way of life but you have to be nice.

While fixing the hot water, I aquired a broken toe,...maybe, but surely,it inflamed the gout.
So I go to a walk in clinic in Boquete . I see a Dr Chen in less than 5 minutes. His English is excellent and he is very familiar with gout and the uric acid build up and he write me a prescription. The walk in was $10 and the Rx cost me $8. The pharmacy was 4 doors away. It can't get easier than this.

 Dan and Mary Anne come here on Sat.for a Panamanian Danish dinner and Norwegian schnapps.Norwegian schnapps is very good. Even without the pickled herring,we had sardines in tomato sauce instead. Followed by garlic shrimp,meat balls sans the ground pork(you can't find that here) but I will try to ask them to grind pork chops. Of course we had the ubiquitous cheese plate and dessert.  It was a blast.
We have found out we can buy the pickled herring(which I found out, is on my don't eat list) in town.We just went to the wrong store.
I went golfing on Sunday and that was a BIG mistake. My gout flared up in a catastrophic way and I can't walk on Monday. Duh!!!!I am on the couch for two days.

This is where I read and study.

Aprille  is on golf car with MA and now appreciates why I love the course.

Mid Dec. is now the dry season and night sky is fantastic. There is no ambient light. We can see for miles, it is that clear.

Duolingo and ispeak Spanish (both are apple down loads)are working wonders for our conversational Spanish.I am reading a child's series Guillermo Gusano(William the worm) and that combined with the other aids is making this a work in progress. It's fun.

 Aprille went to David with Dan and Mary Anne today. I stayed home to rest my foot.

We are now well acquainted with the pueblo de Boquete and we now wander further afield.

 

 In order of appearance,
We enjoy a pizza, no booze at all,no really,just water and light Coke(you can't say diet because they don't understand that) at Restaurante Argentino  a super pizza $22 including tip. We still have three pieces for a great lunch,or snack,...WHAT EVER(say this with a valley girl accent)
This is a valley shot from the far end of town.
The third is a  bus stop near Bajo Mono,no money up there,it is deep in the mountains about 3,900 feet or 1,300 metres. We will explore further but that was enough for Aprille for one day.
And that is Aprille near a coffee plantation. We have many local fields but the major ones are Ruiz,Jansen and Balboa. They all get their beans from different fields and blend them to their specifications.We will get there too,but that's for another day.

Both of our phones are now"unlocked" and we can use them anywhere in the world.All we need is a SIM card for the new carrier. Lo hice.(I did it).
Yesterday,and I should have taken a picture,the gardener used a  Stihl "whipper snipper" to cut the entire lawn,front and back instead of using a lawn mower.Maybe they don't have that either.

The dollar store must just love us.Too much to mention it all. I will mention one thing though.

Yesterday,we bought a glue gun(they did not have the glue sticks). So we went to the local hardware store. They had the right size, and, two one ft sticks cost 20 cents.I thought it was 20 cents each and I was looking for more change when the clerk walked away with the quarter. It was only then that I realized,it was 20 cents for both. Keep the change.

And so it continues

We are now settled in to our new digs. We are seeing Boquete for the first time courtesy of Dan and Mary Anne.
We need a lot of groceries and  course, booze. We shop at the local grocery store Romero, there is a tax on all luxury items but all the staples are tax free. I looks like there is a 13 % total tax on all the luxury stuff and of course 10% it appears, on the booze.

We filled a shopping cart for $143.00, that includes wine,red and white,rye,and scotch.The wine was $6.00 for two litres,Ballantines scotch was $18 and the crown royal rye was $24. We found a Canadian club at the Chinese super market for $17, so no more Crown Royal.
Oh..no more Ballantines either.We found a Johnny Walker red for $19 there too.
I look into a Panamanian phone and a rent a  car. We need a car.
It is 9.8 km to the highway and 13 km to the town. We rent a Nissan March,for $750 a month. Buying a used vehicle made no sense at all,you also need a separate Panamanian insurance, and the paper work in Panama is ridiculous.

So cheap to drive too. Only 83 cents a litre and it is a 1.6 4 cylinder vehicle.
The road into Lucero is now paved all the way.Thank goodness. It is easy sledding. Before it was paved it took 30 minutes a low speeds to navigate the road. If it was anything like I saw yesterday on an excursion up hill from here,Yikes!! I will have to take a picture.

We have to go to Costa Rica before 90 days is up to re start our driving privileges. Oh  well. LOL

I learned that I can become a pensionado here in Panama, if I have the right paper work,from Canada, that includes a current,30 days,police check, a bank statement that proves that between the two of us,we have a guaranteed income of $1,100.
This entitles us to a 25% saving on most things.That is a big plus. It costs of course,maybe $2,000 but you get it all back in a hurry.

We are invited to the MacDonald's for our first dinner party and we meet Bob and Mary.
The gourmet meal was fabulous and the company was super.
We make a date to go golfing at Lucero GCC the following day and what a track it is. It just takes your breath away.

We have our first lunch,that became super, in Boguete at El Sabrason. It was only $13 for the two of us. Nothing fancy,picnic tables for dining at but the food was superb and all home made.

Her walking across the street was really and accident.May God bless
I get an unlock code for the Samsung phone off the Internet and I am now good to go anywhere in the world. I get a new SIM card from Digitel a Movistar,for $1.50 that's right $1.50 and a phone card for $6 that should last me for the time I am here. We also  bought a 2 ft Christmas tree,already decorated, and with lights too, and now we can relive Fort Myers last Christmas.

Watch out for the wild life on the road.It could be horses,cows,dogs and the  people here like to wear dark clothing at night on an unlit rd. Be careful.

The iguanas are on the main rd, It is now the beginning,almost..Dec 15th.., of the dry season.We will not get rain for at least 4 months. So,,,,we will get a nice dry 75 degrees every day.

The hot water is on demand and the owner is away.  We have no hot water, Aprille notices the water has been running too long.Well guess what..the water feed has become disconnected. Good thing I am handy and I know where to tool box is. Just a little Teflon tape and an adjustable wrench and we are back in business.
Maybe I broke my toe,water and smooth terrazzo do not mix.Very slippery.I almost fell.So thanks Mr. Nice guy.

On our way to David we stop a a bookstore that sells used books from A to Z a great pass time.
We go to David,about 35 minutes away from us here in Boquete, but a world apart. Too busy,too hot and humid and aggressive driving has a whole new meaning. A stop sign is merely a suggestion. But..the shopping is wonderful and so is the restaurant we go to have lunch.

As I alluded to, I now have a Price Smart membership and I already saved the $35 it cost me to buy
a membership. You can actually sample alcohol the same way you have cheese bits on little crackers.
Dan and I had a sample of a rum cream...yummy.
I bought this Samsung 4 GB with all the bells and whistles for $359. Oh yea...another full cart. We saved a bundle.
The fresh sea food shopping was spectacular. Fresh off the boat.Just name it. We got some Red snapper and some shrimp. Aprille fried up the snapper on Thursday,yesterday, and it was wonderful.
Now we go to another shopping mall and go to Mary Anne's favorites grocery store. Another full cart...whew!!!. Now we are all set.We need a bigger fridge.Thank you.
Its off to the hardware store for propane..and we get free pop corn and coffee...nice.
Okay that's all for now.
More to follow.

Well I finally found it. The blog dashboard that is. Yea!! I have a new Samsung lap top that is why. I am now a member of Price Smart..really Costco,more on that later.The ipad is not very helpful in that regard.

Here we are safe and sound. It is just lovely. Pictures do not do it justice.

Day 1...up at 5 am shuttle to TO airport a 2 hour wait,they are slow at Copa,book on line to avoid the line up.
Just made the flight with 5 minutes to spare,
Ok, we flew out at 647 am and we were in the airplane line at 640 am.That close. A 6 hour flight to Panama City with real cutlery and free booze!! I had a tomatoe juice......No really.

Ok, then it was a trip through immigration. Picture,fingerprints,passport, immigration details,please fill this out on the plane. Ok. We clear immigration and pick up or luggage. We are finished right..then...we have to go through customs,more paper work,get this on the plane too, and a further xray scanning of the luggage,she really was more interested in her iphone and her friends. We are finally finished.

There was then a taxi ride from the airport to the Tryp hotel.All pre arranged with the driver waiting for us at the airport,sign in hand,thank goodness. There is now  a connector flight to David so there is more traveling from Tocumen airport to Albrook.$40 with a tip. It was a 30 minute ride. Can you say aggressive...this is not for the faint of heart driver
.
So we are pre booked at the Tryp and we have a great dinner and a local beer. Nice.
This picture is a summary of all we took for 4 months.

We stayed at the Tryp hotel in Panama City.Busy wow!! I saw 13 buses in a one second frame.

We toured the bottom section of the Albrook Mall.It is huge. It took an hour to go once around the bottom,never mind the top floor.There is every store you can imagine. Galleria mall, eat your heart out.
We had to ask for directions to get back to our hotel. Aprille found the carousel and had a little ride.She was too old,apparently, for the horses so she rode the coach.

The next day it is a few km ride to the Albrook airport. We called for the taxi to arrive at 720 and the cab did not get there till 740am for a 5 minute ride that took 15 minutes.Thank goodness there was no accident.Can you say aggressive..oh..I already asked that.
We got through check in quickly this time but we are allowed only 28 kg. and we had 56 kg of luggage.There goes another $40.
It was only a 1 hr trip to David by air or, we could have done it cheaper but that entailed a seven and a half hour bus ride,No thanks.

Our friends Don and Mary Anne pick us up from David after our luggage is again inspected for drugs. They have an absolute zero tolerance for drugs.

I don't know if it is clear,but there is a dog sniffing for drugs in this picture.

Nothing but the rustle of the wind or the song of birds,or maybe both.We overlook the Lucero golf course and we can see 6 of the 18 holes.

There is much more. More later. That is all I have time for LOL.

One week to go

Well here we are with only a week till we leave.
So we decided to go to a body building contest. What else is there we havn't done. Last Sunday we went to the NPC (National Posing Competition) in Bonita Beach. I should have brought a better camera. I only had the phone and none of the "lovlies"(that's females) turned out. But Aprille is happy. It was only an amateur unsanctioned event but it was as inspiring as watching a Rocky movie.
It was a good way to spend a few hours.

Okay, so Boston is out and so are my chances of winning the pool. I don't have a single Montreal player. So go Habs  go!!! his our friend and neighbour, Nick, who is a HUGE Habs fan. Guess who just scored?

What's left to do? Undoing everything is a real pain. I'm glad we don't move very often.

Last week, on Wed. I road down to the Everglades for an air boat ride and to catch the local history,flora and fauna. It took me almost 3 hours to get to the Midway Campgrounds. Then I turned around as it was getting to be"more of the same scenery" and I had made  plans to go to Peter's to watch the hockey game.

Anyway, I digress(as I am prone to do). The Opachee post office, seen below, is the smallest postal station in the U.S.A. I placed my bike in front s you can get a good perspective of how small it is.

Just down the road I stopped at Joanie's Blue Crab Cafe and enjoyed some really great catfish.
The airboat ride at Wooten's was a blast,but, it was really just an amusement park ride as we never experienced the Everglades and we saw no...no wild life except for a few birds. I must say though that low water is the time to go as we did have a good time. This was the first time I really got to experience my Gopro camera for some good action footage.

This Tue. I road my  motorcycle all the way to Key west. That was a trip. Nearly 1,000 km round trip.
My rear end is still complaining. I took two full days to complete the experience. I road through the Everglades (again)and stopped at a few of the sites to take it all in.

 The photo above was taken at the H P Williams Park. How many gators do you see(clue look for five) and across the road in a smaller pond there had to be 10 more. Stay in  the pool LOL.
I stopped to get some gator and some frogs legs with hush puppies at the Miccrosukee Restaurant. They claim to be the Indian tribe of the Everglades. I thought it was the Seminoles. Who knew? Great lunch.

I stopped at Florida City Tourist information,to see about accommodation down the road. I didn't want to be too far from Key West on Wed. They recommended a few places and I decided to stay in Marathon at the Kingsail. Old but spotless and the location was beautiful.

The woman at the front desk recommended the Sunset Grill for supper and it was wonderful. I didn't stay for the sunset. I do have pictures but they are on the Gopro and I have to capture them as stills. You will see them later.
The food was hot and good and the scenery was awesome with a swimming pool by he bar and just below the restaurant.. They also had a very talented one man band entertain us.It was a great experience overall.

The second day I set out around 8 am and planned to have breakfast in the Keys.And I did.
At Banana cafe(day time) and the Francais Restaurant( in the night time). I didn't look at the dinner menu or prices. The breakfast was wonderful.

Okay I did it. Should you go that far? It depends on your attitude. Going as far as Islamorado down Craig's Key or Long Key is probably far enough. But I'm a tourist so I did get to see the furthest point in the U.S.A. with a sign posted 90 miles to Cuba.

On Tue. I got to go to Corksrew golf course. What a treat. I wish I was rich(oh? did I say that before?)
Normally,during season, it costs $175 to lay there. We (Peter and I ) played for only $44. That's a treat.
Here's why you don't look for golf balls. I was cruising the shore line(I thought I went in the water.. I didn't) and this fellow was only 2 feet away when I finally saw him.

The experiences and the photos are too many to go into detail but you get the idea.
Trailer and truck are rented. The hotel rooms are booked(Jacksonville Fl., Charlotte NC and Morgantown WV) nice easy day drives.About 350-370 mi. a day so there should be no surprises.
Well this will likely be the last time I get to ramble. See you soon.