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.

September 16 to October 6

Monday we met the movers at the deposito. (storage place) We each had around 20 small to medium boxes and there were about 10 guys that piled out of the truck to unload. All were pleasant and 2 spoke some English. It appeared that no boxes had been opened by customs and so far everything seems unbroken. The only unpleasant thing is that they have been stored without A/C, so a bit of the mildew smell. So, our first task is sorting and washing of all clothing. Most are “cruise/vacation/winter” clothes that we will put in vacuum storage bags for when we need them. We will store as much as we can fit in the condo as there were no A/C storage units available and everything is still in the regular ones. (not good in this humidity) We also have a unit about twice as big as we need so we will downsize to a smaller one as well. In fact, we may not even need the storage if we can get it all put away here.

We found a decent cabinet at the mall to store lots of stuff. The condo is small, but it does have a large master bedroom and walk in closet. There are some smaller cabinets we will get for the other wall. That will keep the rest of the place less cluttered.

Wednesday we went to Picasso which was quite busy this week, but didn’t meet anyone new until we were leaving when a couple we knew introduced us to a couple that are staying here at the Bay for a month. We talked to them this week and they already have decided Panama is not right for them. The price of groceries seemed to deter them. While there isn’t the savings there used to be in the past few years, I would say we still save about 30%. Some things cost a lot more since it has to be imported, but local foods and some brands are way less. What I don’t find here are the “specials” supermarkets do in the States. (the 2 for 1 or just sales on soda or something) They are Medicare age and we aren’t, so I can see that without the healthcare savings it wouldn’t make as much sense to live here for economic reasons. (the less hectic lifestyle is another story) I met another couple at the pool that morning and they were at Picasso as well and they were really loving Panama. However the couple that has decided Panama isn’t for them did admit there is quite a savings on medical here. In fact she was here to have dental work done.

It was an interesting week of beach walks. Saw a pair of Bat Falcons, a pair of American Oyster Catchers, tons of pelicans diving for fish, a pair of woodpeckers and the usual bunch of wading birds. We had a low tide again and the locals were out harvesting oysters again. After seeing the American Oyster Catchers, Greg said the locals were Panamanian Oyster Catchers. Ha ha. We have noticed that one of the Sandpipers is missing part of his foot, but gets around well. Also, a Willet that is missing his entire foot and he just hops around on 1 just fine. Then, yesterday we saw a pelican on the beach that appeared to be dying. He could barely walk. It looked like he had a broken wing and probably hadn’t eaten in a while. We gave him a wide berth, but one guy got right up to it and was taking pictures. The pelican was bothered and weakly tried to snatch the phone from him. Today, he was gone. I saw some vultures on the beach and pelican was on the menu. I know, circle of life and all that, but…..

Here are some shots from our beach walks:

 Southern Lapwiing

 Little Green Heron

 Snowy Egret

 

 



It was a party weekend on the beach. It was the Jewish High holiday of Sukkah. We had noticed quite a few wooden structures being built on some nice properties here on the beach and wondered what the heck? A quick Google search explained the Jewish holiday that we had never heard of. The temporary wooden structures were built to commemorate the years the Jews wandered the wilderness after leaving Egypt, participants built a sukkah, a temporary dwelling. Anyway, there were lots of fireworks both Friday and Saturday nights. Normally, it’s pretty quiet here. I imagine the Jews are supposed to build their own, not their Panamanian workers, but…… (they also sell kits on the internet so I guess it’s more symbolic than the actual act of building it yourself.) They are to sleep out there and take all their meals in the structure.

Well, I haven’t posted in a while, just busy living life I guess. The monthly Playa Community social was at Lunarossa an Italian restaurant. It was packed and other than a few people we know from Picasso, most are different people than those that frequent Picasso. The restaurant gets rave reviews, but they had a special menu for this event (2 options to choose from) and neither was very good. It was our first time eating there, but others said their normal food is really good and agreed the food wasn’t good that night. The only thing worse than the food they served that evening was the service.

Saw 2 more pelicans than were near death on one of our walks. They seemed old and just worn out. I pulled a muscle or something and I have had to stop the walks on the beach and exercising with the wii fit until it gets better. ARGH!

For anyone still interested in my continuing saga of my fingerprints:

My fingerprints took a week to be delivered to the State Department despite the priority envelop. The State Department’s 3 day turn around promise turned into 3 weeks. I finally called as I was worried it got lost or something. The woman said they need to change the website since they are so backlogged. Then she tried to search for me in the system and couldn’t find me. Luckily, I got a very patient helpful lady as she literally went line by line for each entry with the Miami zip code. (they are filed by the zip code on the return addressed envelope, not the handy barcode number on each form) She still couldn’t find me. Then she zeroed in on ones for Panama and asked if I knew this person’s name and I said, he’s my dad and he mailed them in for us. Phew! Anyway, she said it had just been finalized and was mailed out the day before. It arrived in Miami last Friday to be consolidated with the shipments coming to the MBE here in Coronado. It’s Friday and still no word on its arrival. I image we will get them next week, hopefully in time to get with the attorney and finish my Pensionado visa. Then, we can start our search for where we want to stay more full time. It may turn out to still be here at the Bay, but we want to explore our options. We are still debating the wisdom of buying a condo vs. renting. Renting leaves our options open to moving to a different area of Panama or even other countries. We don’t plan on returning to the States until 1 or both of us qualify for Medicare.

Our car guy’s wife, Lynn recommended her hairdresser to me. Liza is about 45 minutes away in Penenome, but not a bad drive. Despite Liza not speaking very much English and me not speaking a lot of Spanish, she did a fantastic job. I told her Rubio but no Amarillo. (blond highlights not yellow) and the color came out great. She didn’t really do the lowlights, but will have her only do those next time. The cut came out nice and has been easy to take care of. She is the owner of the salon and had 2 other ladies helping her. One held the color and the other handed her the foil. Too funny!

Lynn also recommended a nice restaurant to have lunch, but we never found it. She had the name wrong, but the directions were a bit off too. Now that we have the correct name we should be able to find it next time. We ended up at a Chinese place (more Panamanian food than Chinese) and the food was pretty bad. Crossed that one off the list.

Friday we decided to drop by the MBE to see what day they get the shipments from Miami and the lady told us they just got a shipment but hadn’t gone through it yet. She checked and my background check was there! Whoo Hoo! I emailed the attorney so hopefully next week we can get my temporary pensionado visa. I had until the 7^th of December to get it before I’d have to make a run for the border and stamp back in to start the tourist stamp over in my passport.

Until next time…..