August 26 to September 8

Two weeks have flown by as we have settled into our new beach life rhythm.  Now that Greg has gotten his visa we haven’t had to make the trips to the city and since we have gotten most everything we needed for the condo we haven’t had to make the weekly trips to the mall.

The only really big news is that I finally got my FBI background check! I guess the lady at the FBI was right that after 3 submittals (total of 8 sets of fingerprints) were  rejected by the machine, then they would look at them by hand.  They do need to be authenticated (Apostile) and that can’t be done here in Panama, but only in the States. So, we had our mailing service send them directly to my Dad. We filled out the forms and sent him instructions to get them to the proper place for apostle and then the State Department will mail them directly to Miami where they will send them to the MBE here in Coronado. Phew! Thank you so much Dad! After we get those back then I can finish getting my visa.

We have met some nice people up at the pool and at Picasso’s. We had worried about a lady we hadn’t seen in about a month and she was at Picasso’s this week. She had a severe case of pneumonia and she barely had been out of bed for a couple of days.  Yikes! It was good to see her again.

We tried California Burger for the first time, but we preferred the burgers at Coronado Café, so for the rare times we actually splurge calorie wise and eat burgers and fries we will return to Coronado Café. They have a large menu there, so lots to try.

Since Buon Appetito in El Valle is only open for lunch on the weekends we purposely went on Saturday only to find that they were on vacation until the middle of the month. ARGH! We ate at Don Pepe, a place that we tried a year ago when we were there and really liked it. So, we’ll wait a couple more weeks to get that fantastic pizza at Buon Appetito.  The rain did let up and we were able to visit the Serpentario. It’s really a rescue center for the snakes and is quite small, but we enjoyed it. There was a small Rainbow Boa named Houdini that I held. We got to see the Fer-de-Lance, a venomous viper that is found here.



It is the rainy season here and while it doesn’t rain all day very often, we have had some pretty lightening shows in the evenings. One day we had a huge beautiful rainbow. The huge arc started in the trees in front of the mountains and ended in the ocean.



The kids have had a week off from school so the beach and stores in town have been busier than usual. We wondered how long the school day is since we have seen them waiting at bus stops at 6 in the morning and after 6 at night. Someone told us that the school day is split into 2 shifts so it’s not the same kids. They get their summer break starting in mid December (the dry season) and they return the end of February or early March.

I finally have added some Panama pictures to my web albums if you want to check them out. I posted some El Valle, Coronado neighborhood, whale watching, sea shells and am working on birds, beach & more which should be done in a few days.