November 11 to 17

This past Monday’s holiday (Independence from Spain) wasn’t as busy as the last ones. A few more people than usual, but really not a big deal.

Wednesday was busy at Picasso again. About 20 people at our table. Met some new people that just moved down and another couple that come once a year for a month until they can move down here. Family obligations are keeping them from moving now.

Thursday we went to the bank and Greg had all of the documents and the application filled out as well as answering some other questions the bank had. We go back next Tuesday to see if we are approved to open a bank account.

We then drove to Penenome for my hair appointment and to have lunch at the place we couldn’t find last time. We had been given the wrong name (not even close) so that explained why we didn’t find it. Mezon de Santa Cruz restaurant is themed like an old Spanish-themed monastery. Statues of the saints adorn the decor. Food was to die for. Beautiful setting. We sat outside in the courtyard and enjoyed the fantastic weather and enjoying Langostinos in garlic sauce and Corvina in garlic sauce.

 

 Greg in the courtyard of Meson de la Santa Cruz Restaurant

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Round building sells cakes in Panama City

My hair appointment didn’t go so well. Last time I was pleased. This time I don’t know what happened. I think I confused her with only wanting my grey touched up to my natural color underneath, since my highlights were still really good. I normally only have the highlights done a couple times a year. Since she doesn’t speak English and my Spanish is meager, I looked up a bunch of phrases and wrote them down hoping that would help her. The cut was good again, but somehow matching my natural color (which my old hairdresser told me is medium to dark blonde), meant to her dark brown. Plus, I only had spots of highlight left. There was a lady there that spoke some English and she was trying to help explain what I wanted. So, I walked out with dark brown hair and she added in some highlights (and charged me quite a bit more ($25 more than my last visit). So, I guess I will bite the bullet and put on my big girl panties (granny panties?) and try to color my own hair with whatever I can find in the stores here. There aren’t any places like a Sally’s beauty supply here so it will be grocery store stuff. I will ask around again and see if someone else can recommend someone who can do a gringas hair.

Tonight we went to a play at Picasso. "El Grande de Coca Cola”. Billed as a hilarious laugh-a-minute, "Spanglish" comedy by the Boquete Community Players. “A simple show that is a laugh a minute and ridiculously wonderful! The action takes place in a terrible part of Trujillo, in a nightclub, which isn't too far from terrible itself. A local impresario, Senor Don Pepe Hernandez, has announced in the local newspapers that he is going to bring international cabaret to Trujillo. Eventually he succeeds, and we see the cabaret within the cabaret as it unfolds. A company known as the "Low Moan Spectacular' causes all the laughs, as conjuring tricks don't work, people trip up, a blind American folk singer falls off the stage, chorus girls collide, etc.”

Exclusive Dinner-Theatre Menu: 

“We have had collaboration from external chefs for this show's menu and are super excited to share it with you. Dinner will be as follows: 

* A welcome beverage of Wine*/Beer*/Sangría/Iced-Tea/Mojito

* Fresh Seabass Ceviche with Tropical Salad

* Chicken & Veggie Jalfrezi Stew, Fresh Greek Yoghurt and Coconut Rice 

* Heavenly Coconut Flan (by Café Viana) with fresh Strawberries” 

Food was very good and the play was just pure silliness. The actors were hilarious and the Spanish easy to understand and there was some French and Italian as well. The premise of the play was Don Pepe couldn’t get professionals so he uses his family, who of course are not very talented. Very enjoyable night.  A nice couple that is staying for a month to check out Panama for retirement sat with us eager to pick our brains about living here. They have only been here 3 days, but so far they are liking it here.  

So, I bought some hair dye and despite the light blonde shade I’m still way darker than usual, but it is a start. I was worried with so much dyeing so close together my hair would fall out. LOL Next time we are in the city I will see if I can find a highlight kit that should help. This is closer to my natural color I suppose. I’ll try again in 4 weeks to give my hair time to recover.  

Today we ran into 2 couples walking on the beach that we met at Picasso over the past couple of weeks. Both seem to really like Panama.  

Dad is scheduled to come out the middle of January…exciting news! So I am busy researching things to visit.  

The 22^nd of November is our 22^nd anniversary though we have been together 27 years now! We are spending 3 nights at the Gamboa Rainforest Resort. http://www.gamboaresort.com/ 

We leave on Wednesday and return on Saturday. It’s near the city and is very close to Gatun Lake. We plan on hiking on Pipeline Road and visiting the Discovery Center. http://www.pipelineroad.org 

Here are a couple of photos from this week’s walks.

 

 Clay-colored Thrush

 Crimson-backed Tanager

 Blue-grey Tanager

 Yellow-crowned Night Heron

 

This little House Wren appeared to be singing and bouncing along with the loud music from the house next door. The birds were really enjoying the ripe bananas and gave us great photo ops.

 

Greg is off to the dentist for a tooth that has been hurting a bit, tomorrow we go back to the bank in hopes of getting our bank account set up so I can finish my visa. Then Wednesday we are off to the Rainforest!

 

Until next time.....

November 4 to 10

Well, while the beach was busier than usual on a weekend, we here in the condos did not experience any loud all night parties or any fireworks celebrating the holidays. When we went for our morning walk through the neighborhood, there were a lot of cars parked on the street and lots of litter along the road. Despite the 9:00 hour some people were drinking beer by the guard gate. Lots of traffic and you could hear music all over the neighborhood and people were out in their yards enjoying the day; cooking food, singing to the music, kids playing and just being with family. It was almost disappointing that we weren’t kept awake all night with their celebrations…lol.

We went to our first CASA meeting this Tuesday. CASA stands for Coronado Area Social Assoc. We paid the small dues to join. Normally, it is $5.00 per year, but since it is past the halfway mark it was only $3.00pp. It is designed to be another venue for expats to socialize and also people talk about any causes they may be involved in.

There are at least 2 groups (Spay Panama and Spay the Strays) that work very hard to spay/neuter the dogs and cats that are strays or are brought in from people who can’t afford to fix their pets. Vets volunteer their time as do many regular people that assist doing various jobs (shaving, vaccinating, etc.). While the animals are there they give them vaccinations, clean their ears and do flea & tick treatments. It’s at a reduced rate, but if they can’t pay it that’s OK. Many people donate time and money. It’s not uncommon to spay/neuter around 80 to 100 animals each time. (once a month there is a clinic) It really has cut down on the stray dogs & cats seen here. Others talked about families of handicapped children (mental & physical) and put together baskets of essentials to help them.

The main thing talked about was the Christmas Party which we signed up to attend. Buffet and dancing at the Coronado Golf Club at the Bahia room. A local band called Poco Loco will play and a DJ plays on their breaks. He also played music at our meeting. Louise’s Bohio is huge and has a bar, lots of tables and lots of ceiling fans. This meeting was coffee, iced tea and cookies. Next month will be wine and cheese.

Picasso was crowded this week. Seems many snowbirds are down already. Our table just kept getting longer and longer as people added tables to our usual place. All tables were full and many had to stand. We are told it gets really busy in the dry season.

This week we had lunch at the Coronado Café. I had Philly cheesesteak and Greg had a chicken sandwich. Quite tasty!

We drove to the U.S. Embassy on Thursday to get the affidavit of Greg’s pension letter. (AGAIN!) On the walk up the hill we saw an Agouti under a tree. After surrendering all our electronics and going through the metal detector we had no problems getting the letter done. It wasn’t lunch time yet so we killed time at The Discovery Center. I found my “normal” toothpaste there! Wow, was I excited. I’m one of those people that doesn’t like paste (makes me gag), and that was all I was finding here. They have the same brand though, in fact Colgate seems to be about the ONLY brand here. Anyway, they had my gel flavor there and that made my day. Gotta love a store where you can buy toothpaste and a kayak all in one store!

We went in search of a Chinese Restaurant called Jumbo. It didn’t look impressive on the outside (or inside for that matter), but the food was very good! We’ll definitely go back. Then it was off to PriceSmart to pick up a few things…since we were in the neighborhood.

Our best new bird this week was a Ringed Kingfisher. Huge beautiful bird. Though not a new bird, we saw 3 Squirrel Cuckoos and got some better pictures of it. Their tails seem to move in all directions. (straight up and sideways) Oh, and even though I have seen Jesus Christ Lizards before, I finally saw one “walk on water”.

Here are a few of my favorite shots:

 Yellow-headed Caracara in front yard

 tiny crab eating a wasp

 Jesus Christ Lizard

 House Wren

 Ringed Kingfisher

 Southern Lapwing

 Clay-colored Thrush eating bananas

 Black Vulture on gate

 Squirrel Cuckoo

iguana on power lines

I've added a new album called Playa Coronado Nature Walks with these and more on Picasa.

Still waiting for our banks in the States to send reference letters. Once we get those (or at least one) then we can go to Banco General in hopes we can open a bank account to satisfy our attorney to get me added on to Greg’s visa. Seriously, this saga must come to an end soon!

Until next time….

October 21 to November 3

Greetings from paradise!

 

I had gotten in the habit of not including any photos to the blog since it took so long on the cruise to upload them and realized I don't have that issue here. I will try to share a few here and there, but the Picasa Web Albums link is still the best way to view our adventures.

 

This month’s Playa Community Mixer was Indian themed. I wanted to wear one of the Saris the tour company that we used while touring India on the World Cruise sent me, but lacking the 2 undergarments that should be worn under it, I gave up. I said there were not enough youtube videos to assist me in making it look nice. I think it required several people to wrap me into it as well. So, I copped out and wore the tunic I got in Little India in Singapore called a Kurti.

Here is a description of our evening:

Break out your India themed clothing, as this is the night to wear it - for prizes!

***********************************
INDIAN DINNER MENU
***********************************

APPETIZER
Samosas and Pakoras with tamarind dip or Curried chickpeas and potatoes

MAIN
Chicken Tikka or Goat curry or Veggie Curry

ACCOMPANIMENT
Basmati Rice with mustard seeds and Sag Paneer

DESSERT
Gulab Jamun or Ice cream with Rose Syrup

Greg and I chose one of each course so we could taste everything. (except for the main dish where we had to only choose 2 and we went with the chicken and the goat dishes. Everything was wonderful. The only thing that would have been nice to have been offered would have been a tasty garlic naan. We had it several times in India and loved it!

Only a few people wore Indian garb and only 1 Sari was worn by a young woman who wore it well. As the lady in front of me as we were lined up to parade our outfits to the crowd for applause said “we don’t stand a chance against her” (cute, young and really in shape). She was right, as of course the one in the sari won. (as she should have) The second place was a guy who was dressed in Indian dress. (I think he is actually Indian) There are quite a few Indians living here in Panama and there is a store here called Sol de la India where a few people had bought their tunics. The lady who owns the Playa Community website/newspaper is Indian.  

We have done some more “birding”. Walking around our neighborhood we spotted a Squirrel Cuckoo. Big colorful bird with a huge long tail. We didn’t get great pictures of it, but I have them on my web albums site.

We took a drive to Parque Nacional Altos de Campana and did some hiking trails there. It’s more challenging hiking than at the park in town. We had planned a picnic, but it rained and we ended up eating in the car. Greg spotted a La Loma Robber Frog that leaped across the trail and posed on some bark. Of course we didn’t know what kind it was until we got home and ID’d it and it is endangered. We also saw some male & female Green Honeycreepers and some other birds.  We didn’t get a photo, but saw 2 Rufous Motmots, beautiful birds! Hopefully, we will get pics next time. They are a bluegreen bird with an orange head and a long tail and is a pretty good sized bird.

La Loma Robber Frog

 Spotted Woodcreeper

 

As we were driving back home we passed what looked like a hawk on a cow. We often see egrets on them eating bugs, but not a large hawk. We backed up and tried to get a shot, but we didn’t get a decent one. It does look like an immature Caracara sitting on a Brahman Cow (eating ticks/bugs).

So, to update the saga of the process of getting our pensionado visas, we have encountered a few new hurdles we need to jump. On the upside, our attorney rushed Greg’s visa and it is finished in record time.  Normally takes around 6 months and it was closer to 2. So, again we thought now I can be added on with no problem. Wrong! We now have been told we need to go back to the U.S. embassy and repeat the process of getting an affidavit of Greg’s pension letter. Nothing different than we did last time, just do it again. OK, we have an appointment for next Thursday to do that. Also, we need to provide a signed copy of our condo rental agreement. No problem got that. Then, the last thing is we need to open a local bank account with at least $5,000 in it. None of these things would have been required if we had applied at the same time. It would have been nice to know that in advance and we may have chosen to wait and do it together. At the very least if we knew those things were needed we could have been working to get them so we could have proceeded as soon as his visa was final. ARGH!

So, we went to Banco General today and they told us what we needed to open an account. We had wanted to wait and open a local account after Greg got a cedula which is a national ID card that supposedly makes it very easy to open an account. Hopefully, it will go smoothly without the cedula. We need to provide2 local reference contacts and a letter from our bank in the U.S. which luckily they want emailed to them. (waiting for it to be mailed would take a LOT longer.) Once we get that, we should be “good to go”. I kept thinking that our attorney was confused about what kind of visa we were applying for since there is a visa called the Friendly Nation’s Visa that does require a bank account with that much money in it, but when I asked again, she stuck by us needing all 3 of those things. Aw well, such is life here in Paradise. The bank was decorated for the upcoming holidays with lots of Panamanian culture being displayed. The tellers were dressed in more native dress as well. Beautiful lace blouses and fancy hair combs. Banks here are interesting in that there is a guard outside that controls how many people that can be inside at once and one inside controlling when they are let out. There is a dress code of sorts to get into a bank or any government office. No shorts or sleeveless shirts and no sun glasses can be worn. They wand you going in and check your purse. (yes, they are well armed) We were taken right in past the line. We waited in line and one of the associates in Spanish asked what we needed and we were told to sit and wait. The manager arrived and took us to her office. She spoke enough English to make it easy for us to understand what was needed.

All stores, ATMs, malls etc. have armed police inside and out. This seems pretty common almost everywhere in the world except the U.S. Perhaps if we did we’d have less crime?

Anyway, we went to immigration yesterday to pick up Greg’s permanent residence card and met another couple going through the same process with the same attorney. They don’t live here yet, but have gotten their visas for when they are ready to come down. Since we live here they had some questions about how we handle things like watching TV, mail, medical etc. We exchanged info to keep in touch. I think they are considering the Boquete area at this point. We had something in common that he had poor ridge quality as well, but it only took him 2 submissions to get his FBI report with his poor fingerprints.  Mine was 3 submissions with a total of 11 print sets. Yes, I’m special! (and not in a good way….)

Panama does not use Daylight Saving Time. We pretty much have 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of night year round, so it’s not needed here. So, for Dad in Iowa we will be 1 hour apart instead of the same time and for friends and family in Arizona who also does not observe Daylight Saving Time, we remain just 2 hours apart. (which is way easier than the 3 hour difference when we lived in Florida)

Holidays in Panama are a BIG deal. Lots of fiestas which include loud music, dancing and partying until dawn. Fireworks are common just on weekends, much less a holiday. (we’ll see…) Government offices and banks are closed. We are experiencing our first major ones this weekend. So, in preparation we did our grocery shopping in advance so we don’t have to be out in the madness and often things run out with people buying more than usual for parties etc.

Here is a rundown of the November holidays:

2 November is the Day of the Dead (All Soul’s Day): It is a serious day of respecting the dead and liquor stores are closed. People visit cemeteries and bring flowers. (unlike in Mexico where it is a big celebration day.)

3 November 1903 Panama declares independence from Colombia: With the support of the U.S. government, Panama issues a declaration of independence from Colombia. The revolution was engineered by a Panamanian faction backed by the Panama Canal Company, a French-U.S. corporation that hoped to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans with a waterway across the Isthmus of Panama.

4 November Flag Day:  Panama’s Flag Day commemorates the adoption of the national flag of Panama on November 4, 1925. 

 

Major office and most businesses will be closed for most of the week (as the 2nd is All Souls’ Day and Thursday, the 5th, will be a day of recovery).

5 November Colon Day: Panama’s version of Columbus Day.  It commemorates Christopher Columbus’s (Cristóbal Colón’s) arrival to the Americas.

10 November Anniversary of Los Santos Uprising: Primer Grito de Independencia de la Villa de los Santos - its first cry for independence from Spain.  On November 10, 1821, villagers in the small town of la Villa de Los Santos wrote a letter to Simon Bolivar.  The letter complained about the Spanish governor and asked Bolivar for revolutionary assistance.

11 November banks are closed

25 November Inauguration Day – Government Holiday

28 November Independence Day: Panamanians celebrate their independence from Spain.  On November 28, 1821, eighteen days after Primer Grito de Independencia, Panamanians took the first step towards this sought-after independence.  A meeting was held in Panama City and it was decided that Panama would cut off ties to the declining Spanish empire and join Gran Colombia.

There is definitely an increase of people on the beach (but still not that much) this morning. We went down this morning to catch some rays on the beach before it gets too busy here. We’ll see what tonight brings.

Here are a couple pics of birds/critters from various day trips.

Keel-billed Toucan

 Iguana

 

Gecko eating a moth (on our balcony)

 









For full albums check out https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/myphotos

Until next time.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 10 to 20

Well, we picked up my Background check which had the proper verification stamp on it this last Friday. Excitedly, I emailed our attorney. Then, I get an email back saying that I can’t be added to Greg’s Pensionado Visa until he gets the permanent one. We thought mine could be started and just would take longer than Greg’s to finalize since it was started later. So, unless his comes back in record time (normally takes approx. 6 months) I have to leave the country and get my passport stamped to restart my tourist visa. Mayra (our attorney) says she told us, but even though I could have missed that fact, Greg doesn’t miss a trick. Anyway, the attorney said the fine for being here on an expired tourist visa is only $50 per month if caught. She said you may choose to pay the fine instead of paying to make a trip over the border. Hmmmm. She did say that she is trying to push his through as fast as possible and since she knows our situation she will see if there is any way to expedite it.  ARGH! Ah well, just a bump in the road. Since Greg has his temporary one he is good for a year. If we do need to make a border run then I will be good for another 6 months. (I can’t drive here as my license from the States is only good here for 3 months) 

There still aren’t any deposito units available with A/C so we are trying our best to get everything to fit into this condo. We got a couple of wardrobe size cabinets for the bedroom and a skinnier one for the dining area. Greg has 2 bikes & quite a bit of cycling gear. He has his trainer bike set up out on the balcony and the other one will go behind the couch in the dining area. Not ideal, but it works.  

I’m missing the beach walks, hopefully this groin pain will work itself out.  

Wednesday at Picasso was typical. Lots of regulars with 2 couples down checking out the country for possible retirement or investment. The couple from California were interesting to talk to. Not retirement age and he was all “type A” personality. Much of his conversation was how he could improve this or change that if he lived here. While we are pretty “type A” people ourselves, we knew moving here would be accepting the culture and not trying to change it. (no matter how much sense it would make for a small change to make a difference.) I had read chat boards for years on Panama and that was a common theme. Things don’t always make sense, but TIP. (This is Panama) Love it or leave it! It’s way more laid back here which is a nice change of pace, but of course many things leave you scratching your head and thinking “Seriously?” The other couple were Canadians (which there are a lot of here) and they seemed pretty serious about moving. Another couple we met early on and are always a joy to talk with sat with us as well. Plus, our realtor and her mother were there. We all sit at the same table each week and whoever gets there first saves the table. Last week was Claire’s birthday (the owner) so there was a DJ and disco lights and “fog”. When they released the fog we all joked that we were lucky the Brigada de Bomberos (fire station) was right across the street.  

Greg was craving Mexican food so we went to Cholos on Friday. It poured rain ALL day. Saturday was very nice out so we drove to El Valle in search of birds. We have looked twice now for this trail and can’t find it. Since I can’t really do any serious walking right now, we just wanted to find it and just drive around and watch for birds. We had lunch at Buon Apetito (yes, we finally found it open!) We did see about 5 different birds to add to our sighting list. The best sighting of the day was the Keel-billed Toucan  (fruit loop bird) in a Norfolk Pine that flew to a Palm tree and started eating the berries. Then it flew to a tree without a lot of foliage and Greg was able to get some great shots. What a beautiful bird! We stopped at the panaderia (bakery) for orejas (elephant ear pastries) for the drive home. 

 

 

At Picasso this week we met a nice couple (Terry & Clyde) that has a blog we have been following for quite a while. (Along The Gringo Trail) Very interesting couple and it’s nice to get different perspectives on life here. They asked if were knew about CASA (Coronado Area Social Assoc.) that meets about once a month. We’ll email them to get more info on that. As Clyde put it “you can’t have too many Gringo friends here”.  They also told us about a store that they really like called the Discovery Center. We checked it out on our way back from PriceSmart and wished we’d had more time to look at everything there. They seemed to have everything. 

Sharon asked if we liked board games because she enjoys them and we do. In fact of the few things we shipped down, we brought a bunch we never had time to play when we were working. She also said they play mahjong twice a week. I’ve never played, but she said they would teach me. Sharon also lives at the Bay.  

Thursday we drove to Panama City (the locals just call it Panama…never “The city”, but I think it’s confusing to call the city and the country by the same name to people that don’t live here…or even if you do….lol)   

We got off to a later start for our trip into the city since it had rained really hard the night before and the parking garage leaked some weird stuff (like paint) and Greg worked for 45 minutes trying to get it off the windshield so he could drive. Finally, he tried a razor blade and that scraped it off. He emailed our rental agent and she assigned us another parking space.  

We found Metropolitan National Park and checked in with the visitor’s center and paid the small $1.00 fee to use the park. (it was lower cost since we are residents and not visitors)They spoke English well and showed us where some of the trails started. The Metropolitan Nature Park, or Parque Natural Metropolitano, is located within 15 minutes of downtown Panama City. 

The park consists of approximately 573 acres of pacific dry forest, which is home to many species of butterflies, birds, reptiles and mammals. The park has three or four trails that are well maintained and easy to access. We did the Sendero Cienequita to the lookout and then took the Sendero Mono Titi back. The trails had several look out points that provided beautiful panoramic views of Panama City. We saw lots of birds and an Agouti. There were a lot of turtles at the pond and Jesus Christ Lizards. The agouti is a rodent from Central and South America rain forests that looks a bit like a really large guinea pig. Jesus Christ Lizards are lizards that when moving quickly, can cross a surface of water before sinking. Next time we will explore the other 2 trails. 

 sunrise from our balcony

 immature Black-crowned Night Heron

 Slaty-tailed Trogan

 views from the lookout

 Red-crowned Ant Tanager?

 Blue-crowned Motmot

 



We grabbed a late lunch at Pizza Hut before shopping at PriceSmart. Then we stopped to check out the Discovery Center which is huge and has tons of things there. I had been trying to find a good digital cooking timer and they had several to choose from. They had everything there. Household, beauty, tools, grills, safety equipment, clothes, Christmas stuff and well, just about anything you could think of. We will definitely go back when we have more time to just look around.  

I’ve resumed the beach walks (just walking slower than usual). I did ok on the trails at the National Park so will slowly try to get back to “normal”.  

I posted our used moving boxes on the chat boards to see if anyone could use them. Hated to just throw them out if someone could use them. Interesting that the first person to respond had a very familiar name, but I doubted it was our attorney since they live in the city, not in our area. Last night Greg met them to give them the boxes and it was our attorney and her husband. Too funny! They must have bought a place in Playa Blanca as they were traveling back to the city from there and picked them up on the way. She had emailed me a couple of days ago letting us know that Greg’s visa is about to come out and she will let us know as soon as it does.  

Well, that is about all of the “excitement” going on with us. We are headed to La Runia tonight for dinner. They have killer garlic shrimp there. It’s located in Gorgona (about 10 minutes from here) and they have been closed for their 2 month vacation so this will be our first time there since they got back.  

I have posted a couple more albums of Panama on my Picasa Web albums site. Mostly birds and such, but I think I also added some of the Coronado area too.