August 19 to 25

Riba Smith Supermarket opened over the weekend and we waited until Tuesday to check it out.  It is a mini one, but has a lot of great stuff. Is a nice addition to the 3 large stores we have here and perhaps they will have what we want if the others don’t. They also have a nice bakery and they serve sandwiches and have gelato which is pretty tasty. They have a lot of premade casserole type things and brochettes of chicken, beef or pork already made up and seasoned ready to grill. For under $4.00 we tried the chicken ones and it was dinner for both of us.  They had onions and peppers between the chunks of meat. Very tasty!



Wednesday Greg got his passport back with his multi entry visa stamp and then went to get his Panamanian driver’s license. First we went to a local clinic to get his blood test. They put your blood type on your license and if you don’t come from a state that already has your blood type on it then you need the blood test. Then, we were taken to the driver’s license place where there was a huge line. Our attorney went in to see if they had a line for jubilados and they did, so we went to the head of the line so to speak. He had an eye & hearing test.  

We stopped at the Albrook mall and had lunch at Lenos y Carbon which has the best food. We had Brochettes of beef and/or chicken that came with a tasty salad, vegetable rice, an arepa and sweet plantain all for around $7.00.



We stopped at the shipping company (Panama Packers), to give them the documents they need to ship our container. Everything  should arrive around Aug 28 or early September. Then before the drive home we stopped at PriceSmart  came home long enough to put away the groceries and then went to the Playa Community mixer at Picasso’s. It was hosted by the people that publish the website/newspaper for the Playa Community. It was a different crowd than usual. It seemed a bit more cliquey, but is always interesting.

We finally ate at Locos in Gorgona. Good Mexican food. They are only open Thursday, Friday and Saturday for dinner. We kept trying to go for lunch. A guy came in and asked if he could sit with us and was quite interesting to talk to. At first we thought he was going to try and sell us something, but he just wanted to chat. We talked about restaurants and travel around the world. He was interesting and has traveled and lived all over. Plus, he has 5 kids that live all over the world. Amanda was there and we talked to her before this guy came to our table. Amanda is the niece of the lady we met at the Canada Day Party on the roof when we first moved in. Amanda works there and is a nice young lady.

We have been experiencing some unusually high tides in the evening and unusually low tides morning to midday. It always varies, but this is really extreme. It can make for a really extra wide beach exposing lots of rocks we don’t normally see and the surf can come all the way up to the sea walls to people houses. With the newly exposed rocks we saw a lot of locals harvesting oysters.

The low tide let us follow the beach all the way to Gorgona beach (neighboring town) for a nice 2.5 hour round trip walk. It had to be one of the most beautiful days we have had here. Sunny with beautiful shades of ocean waters. I have been finding some really different shells this week. On the walk to Gorgona I found 2 HUGE sand dollars about the size of my hand.  Greg said those aren’t sand dollars, they are “sand ten dollars”. They are also really thick and heavy. I have bleached them and have them drying in the sun on the balcony. We see the occasional iguana on our walks as well.

We saw the young Caracara again. He almost has all of his adult feathers and seems to be eating on his own now.

Greg has had a cold all week and I didn’t get it as strong as he did, but still feel a bit draggy.

I am still waiting for my letter from the FBI to see if I got my background check completed or NOT. With most of the immigration stuff behind us (at least until I get my BG check), we will start checking out the surrounding areas to see other condo options.

Hasta Luego!

August 12 to 18

Another week has flown by here in paradise……

 me on the beach

 view from the balcony

 fishing village

 

Tuesday we went into the city to Panama Migracion and Greg got his temporary visa that is valid for 1 year. He was to get his driver’s license the same day, but he needed a multi entry visa and they kept his passport to get that visa. So, next week we go back and pick that up and then get his driver’s license. There was a younger guy there also applying for his visa and he said he had waited 7 years to get his. He owns a coffee plantation and Panama recently passed a new visa process called a “Friendly Nations Visa”. For those that don’t have a pension and want to work here they can apply for one of those. Of course the jobs can’t take away the job of a Panamanian and usually means owning a business that employs a minimum number of Panamanians, but Real Estate people also seem to get them. This guy said he had been leaving every 3 months for the past 7 years. I think he actually said 6, but for driving on a non-Panamanian license the law is leaving every 3. If you don’t drive then you can leave every 6 months. He was antsy that he wouldn’t get his passport back because if he didn’t get it back in time he would have to leave the country one more time to get his passport stamped or stop driving.

Of course we maximized our drive into the city by visiting PriceSmart and the mall to get a few things. Next week when we go we need to stop at the office of our shipping company to get them the information they need to ship our things to us. It is located in or near the Albrook Mall so it should be easy to find.

We went to Orele’s Taco & Tequilas last Sunday and noticed a building that has been under construction for quite some time had a Riba Smith sign on it. Riba Smith is a grocery store that really is only in the city and it caters to getting specialty foods from all over the world and people say that if you request something they can usually get it for you. It will be a “mini” one so it will be interesting to see what they have. They opened this weekend, so will check it out next week. They are supposed to have a great bakery and prepared foods center as well diet type foods etc. So, we were excited to see it! (now we have a 4^th store to add to our shopping afternoon….and it normally takes a whole afternoon!) Luckily, the 4 stores are just across the street from each other with Riba being just a few minutes more down the same road……

Wednesday we went to Picasso’s and a couple we meet while walking on the beach one morning were there and some of the real estate people sat with us. They invited us to go whale watching with them the next day. We have been wanting to do that, but unless you have a group it’s really expensive, so we of course said “YES!”.

Three cars of people drove to the city. The couple we met on the beach rode with us. They are here checking out options for retirement. Like us they scoped out a few other countries before deciding. We had a private boat that the Inside Panama couple had rented and they brought tons of food. There were about 16 of us with a couple of crew. We had a welcome aboard mimosa and they served us a nice brunch and had snacks out all day. Then, a late lunch of chicken sandwiches, beans and chips etc. We lucked out and had a beautiful day weather-wise. They stopped at one point to let people swim if they wanted to, but we still hadn’t seen any whales. Then, on the way back we saw quite a few of them. Huge ones! No breaching, but lots of bodies and tails. There was rain all around us, but we missed it all until we got back to the city and there was a light rain.

 Bridge of the Americas

 transport to the whale boat

 our host & crew

 shrimp boat

 somebody's yacht is being delivered



One of the ladies that had been visiting here is headed back to the States to sell everything and she plans to return next June. Another lady is still in the Air Force Reserves plans to return when she gets finished with her last project. Interesting that there are so many single women down here. I knew there were quite a few single men here as it is “easy” to find a nice Panamanian woman. Also quite a few young people raising their families here. Most from the U.S. or Canada. There was a young woman on the whale tour that took some fantastic photos of our trip and I will post those when I get a chance. She is from the Netherlands. Came down as a nanny for a Dutch family visiting and stayed. We are meeting lots of interesting people!

We have been watching a family of Yellow Headed Caracara raise their baby. I think the young one has finally gotten his adult feathers because we have not seen him lately, but still see the adults. We also have tons of parakeets here. They chitter in the trees all the time, but can be hard to see. We have seen a few pairs nesting in holes in palm tree trunks lately. When I get through our Panama pictures I will put some of them in the album. They are pretty green & blue with peach bills & chins.



We also see blue & grey tanagers and others. (yes, we are bird nerds…) Today we saw a very different hummingbird and we are trying to identify it.

Well, not much else new this week……