June 8 marked our 1 year
anniversary here in Panama. It was only
coincidence that we flew back to Orlando on the same day. I needed to get a
script from my U.S. doctor for the one med we can’t get here or shipped into
the country and we needed some travel clothes for the next 2 trips and a host
of other things we can’t get here, we decided to fly back and do it all at
once.
Instead of driving and
parking at the airport we had a driver pick us up. Copa Airlines allows two 50#
bags per person so we packed an extra empty suitcase in each of our checked
bags to have room to bring back lots of stuff. We left on Sunday and returned the
next Saturday morning. Ironically, neither one of us likes to shop but it is a
necessary evil. (don’t know how as a woman I am missing the shopping gene…) We
had ordered quite a bit of stuff online to be delivered to the hotel and had to
shop for a bunch of other stuff.
We normally stay at various
Marriott hotels and we had never stayed at SpringHill Suites before and decided
to give them a try based on great reviews. It was not a great experience.
Normally getting packages is easy at hotels, you just pick them up at the front
desk. Maybe because there were 3 Marriott brand hotels all right there together
they only kept the packages at one hotel and had to send someone to get them
and wait for them to be delivered to the room. It took them forever which
wasted a lot of our time. The internet was always going on and off. A few other
minor irritations with the room had us saying we will never use that brand of
Marriott again. On our last morning we had no bill under the door and went down
to the front office to check out. There was no one there but a phone that you
could use to call the person at one of the other hotels. They said just leave
the key on the desk. (the guy on the phone wasn’t talking into the phone and
despite asking several times to speak up so he could be heard he did not) We
would have liked to have seen a bill in case there were charges on it that we
didn’t make.
Now for our next irritation
of the trip. Before making my doctor appointment I contacted the prescription
mail away place to make sure we did everything properly. I needed an over-ride
to get a “vacation supply” and was to call back in a couple of days to make
sure that was done. I did and was told they both were approved for 365 days to
be dispensed at once and to make sure the doctor wrote the script correctly.
(she did) I called ExpressScripts to make sure they had the address of the
hotel to mail the meds to when they were ready to ship. I had been told we
could pay an extra $21 to get them overnighted since we had limited time in
Orlando.
I received an email saying I needed to call them to verify the
ship to address as it didn’t match what they had on file. I did that and asked
when they would be delivered and to verify the quantities of each. I was told
that the pharmacist refused to dispense the hormones for the 365 days and would
only dispense 90, despite this being treated as a “vacation supply”. Then, I
was told it wouldn’t mail out until the week after we were back home. I said we
were told we could get it overnighted for an additional fee. The woman said
“You don’t understand what “overnight” means. She said after they take 3 to 5
working days to process them, then it would be overnighted.” I think she’s
confused on what “overnight” means to most people. I demanded to speak to a
supervisor who was nice, but other than agreeing to expedite them so we would
receive them by Friday, she was of no help. I don’t understand why we could not
get the 365 days of meds when I called in advance and the over-rides were
supposedly in place and my doctor wrote them correctly to be dispensed all at
once. When we retired we went on a 4 month cruise and traveled for an
additional few months before coming back to Panama. We were given 9 months of
ALL meds (including both of these) with NO problems. The hormones can’t be
mailed into Panama, but can be carried on your person when you fly in.
Plus, the other medication’s over-ride was not written properly
and had only been written for 140 days or 160 days depending on which person I
spoke with at ExpressScripts. I was told it would take too long to get an
over-ride rewritten while we were there. Not sure when it was a mistake on
their part why it couldn’t be taken care of that same day. Then after we
are home I read the bottle and they only say 1 refill. So, my doctor writes for
365 days, the pharmacist refuses to dispense more than 90 with 1 refill??? ARGH!!!! So, now I need to call and see how
they correct this mess. ***update on the ongoing saga of ExpressSripts’
incompetence: We were told that the reason that the over-rides did not work was
because they weren’t filled out properly. So, the nice lady fills out all new
ones and assures me (with the assistance of a supervisor on another line) they
will send the balance of meds to equal the 365 days were should have gotten.
Then, she corrects herself to say they can only do 360 not 365. OK,
whatever…. So we were tracking the order
on their website and see that again only 90 days of the hormone is being sent,
though the other med was correctly done. So, I call again and the person on the
phone tells me that the pharmacist again will not fill the script. She proceeds
to tell me she is sorry, but nothing can be done. So again I ask for a
supervisor who isn’t helpful either. He gets the pharmacist on the line to tell
me he won’t fill more than 90 days. Says the script is only good for 6 months
and I will need a new script from my doctor to fill for the rest of the year. Said
it was now considered to be a controlled substance and the law went into effect
of April this year. Despite numerous web searches we found no such law. Back in
‘09 they reclassified it, but I guess they are just now enforcing it. Then he
tells me they will send 6 months’ worth. I think he misspoke or was just saying
anything to get me off the phone. He put in a formal complaint to go to upper
management since we were given false information every time we called and did
exactly as we were told and made a special trip to Florida only to have only
partial prescriptions filled.
OK, enough complaining. For the FUN part….we had a list of our
favorite places to eat and while we didn’t have time for ALL of our faves, we
chose the ones we most miss. We had fried shrimp and onion rings at Boston’s
Fish House, tapas at Café Tu Tu Tango, Coconut shrimp and 2 other appetizers at
Bahama Breeze, salads at Panera, flatbreads at Crispers, 3 different appetizers
at Season’s 52, Mexican Tortilla salads at the Cheesecake Factory , Roy’s
Hawaiian Fusion (had the best steak and lobster and Greg had the Ono which they
fly in from Hawaii and of course the molten lava cake for dessert), 5 Guys
hamburgers & fries, Ribeyes and bloomin’ onion at Outback Steakhouse and
desserts at Jeremiah’s, Cheesecake Factory and hot fudge sundaes at Ghiradelli.
In between eating we managed to get some shopping done. Mostly at
Bass Pro Shop and Columbia Outlet store. Greg got the newer version of his
camera, an Olympus Ultra
Zoom camera STYLUS SP-100. The new one is 50X zoom (old one was
30X).
I got new Monarch 5 8X42 binoculars. They are a bit heavier than I
would like, but for birding in lower light conditions it really makes a big
difference. I also can see way more detail and it’s easier to spot and track
them when they fly.
We both needed hiking clothes, casual clothes for here (in my new
larger size until I can get this last 10lbs off….ok this last week didn’t
help), Wal*Mart & Target for cosmetics and meds we can’t get here. We got
an iPad mini since we have 33 lb weight limits for our next 2 trips and we
needed something light to back up photos on the trips. The hardest thing for me
is finding a sun hat to fit. I have an extremely small head. I did find 2. The
first one fits, but it says it can’t be washed or dry cleaned? So, found
another one that works well and can be washed. I got everything except for new
bathing suits. Just couldn’t find any I liked and quite honestly I was just
tired of trying stuff on.
We ordered a couple of field guides for the next 2 trips. The one
for the Amazon is kinda heavy, but looks good to leave on the boat and use
between outings and at night. The one for Africa is a good size to carry in the
safari vehicle and another is more of a foldable checklist with pictures as
well.
We also got a few new Wii games. I got Zumba World Dance Party and
a boxing game called Punch-Out. Picked
up 2 picture frames for the small Papyrus painting we got in Egypt and for the
entrance tickets from the Golden Pavillion in Kyoto, Japan. They really looked
like artwork so I thought they would look nice framed. (I think they do)
It rained every afternoon while we were there except for Friday
our last day, it rained really hard from mid-morning on. We finally had all of
our shopping done and wanted to check out a few RV’s for when we start that
chapter of our lives. The second place we went to it started to pour rain while
we were in one and the parking lot turned into a lake. We got soaked to the
bone getting back to the car! The worst part for me was the ice cold A/C in the
restaurants. So not used to that. I did remember to bring a sweater, but…. I
really like the open air restaurants here in Panama and even if we are in an
indoor one, the A/C isn’t THAT cold. I did miss having a neighborhood cat or
dog wandering through though…. And we didn’t hear one rooster crow while in
Florida. Appreciated the nice roads vs the potholes here! It was nice to get
back to the peacefulness here at the beach.
We were walking the Sendero and thought it was going to be a bust
since we hadn’t really seen anything when this bird that looks like it is
injured flopping around on the trail. I thought it was an injured Potoo, but it
was a Night Jar which is similar but it lives mainly on the ground. It wasn’t
injured, but we think it was the male distracting us from his nest. He would
fly no more than a foot off the ground and at one point he flew right at me and
hovered. Then he took off along the path ahead of us probably so we would
follow him and ignore his family. You have to look pretty close at the pictures
to find him.
Common Pauraque
Common Pauraque
Today we went back to look for it, but didn’t see him. We did
however see a very small (about 5 inches) snake which is a Lansberg’s Hog-nosed
Pit Viper. Yes, they are dangerous. There were also lots of Honeycreepers
again. We hadn’t seen them in quite a while there. There also were quite a few
Motmots since I imagine the young ones are learning to fly and be on their own.
We also have seen a few immature Manakins. The young males have the red cap,
but the blue on the back is barely there. We also saw a couple males trying to
do the mating dance.
Lansberg’s Hog-nosed Pit Viper
male Red-legged Honeycreeper
female red-legged Honeycreeper
Manakins doing mating dance
Roufus-breasted Wren
dragonflies
"porn" mushroom
snail on tree trunk
At the pond we saw the biggest caiman since we have been here. We
heard this loud splash and saw a small one in the water and a huge one behind
it. It also was the fastest one we have seen. Yikes!
Caiman
Yellow-crowned Night Heron
immature Great Blue Heron
Yellow-crowned Night Heron
Cormorant
Jesus Christ Lizard lounging on branch
Egret
Yellow-crowned Night Heron
More pics from walks and Greg just playing with the new camera:
moon from balcony
taken from balcony
Yellow-headed Caracara
Yellow-headed Caracara
very young iguana
Ruddy Ground Dove (on razor wire fence)
parakeets
moon
young lizard
We still walk the beach when the tide is low. Someone told us that
they talked to a couple that saw baby leatherback turtles scrambling to get to the
ocean.
We are still doing Spanish with Jasmine and at Picasso. (Plus
numerous other online programs) Our newest one is Duolingo. It’s pretty good.
It all helps! Picasso will close for a month to go on vacation, but Amanda (who
also teaches Spanish there) will do our Wednesday Chat Club until Claire gets
back.
My cedula is finally ready to be processed! Just need to
coordinate a date with our attorney. It will be fantastic to have that process
DONE! (got appointments for July 10)
I had an old filling removed and filled with better material. The
dentist was worried that the hairline crack was leaking the “silver”. Next
Monday I go in to get my “plan” for crowns/bridge replacement.
OK, no plan was done as she wanted the oral surgeon to look at my
bone structure first to see if I am a candidate for an implant. Since there was no plan ready she decided to replace another filling. We went back
the next day and received all of our options. So now I just need to decide
which course to take. Replace the old bridge with a new one, or do 1 implant
and 3 to 5 crowns. Dental here is anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 the cost in the States. It can be much less if you don't choose to see a dentist that speaks at least some English and has a "nice" office.
We finally got car insurance. Our agent totally bailed and we were
without insurance for a day or 2. We contacted another local agent here and got
it done this morning on the spot. (on a Saturday)
My son and daughter in law (they live in Arizona) went to Iowa to
visit my Dad and her mother’s family. They spent a couple of days with grandpa
and everyone said they had a really great visit. Scott (my son) had not seen
his grandpa for many years. He spent a couple of summers with Dad in Iowa when
he was a teen. So, it was neat that he could see it again as a grownup. (yes, everything seemed smaller)
OK, this has gotten long so will sign off until July!
