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…..