Retired Nomads: April 1 to April 30

It has been a very busy month with the Coiba trip, birding, friends visiting and our usual “stuff”. Add in planning our trip to visit family, friends and shopping in the States and time has flown by! We even skipped the monthly CASA morning get together. We have finalized our online shopping list and stuff has started to arrive at my son’s house.

First I had to drag out stuff in space-saver bags under the bed to see if anything that we used for Alaska still fit, before ordering what we need for Antarctica. (I’ve gained weight) Wow, I can tell you it was hard to get in the mood to try on fleece and long underwear in this tropical paradise. LOL However, I finally got it done and there are a few things that will work for the Antarctica trip. I suspect it will be equally difficult to try them on in the Arizona heat as well.

It took a few tries to get the clips replaced on the blackout curtains in our bedroom, but when the guys came they were done in about 5 minutes flat! Only about 3 were broken, but they replaced them all. Thanks Sharon!

The other thing that I need to do in the States is to visit a doctor to get a years’ worth of the 2 meds I can’t get here in Panama. It took numerous phone calls to Express Scripts to get the proper expat over-rides for the 2 meds. It was messed up beyond belief last year and we are doing everything possible to make sure it is done properly. We were told “exactly” what to do last time and we and the doctor did exactly as we were told and then were told it was all done wrong. So, this year I have had numerous chats on their online secure mail and have made lots of phone calls and have received a ton of wrong info and calls to the wrong people because of the bad information and then finally I found someone that seemed to understand what we need. They need 72 hours to process which works out to be 9 working days. ***update. I called to see if the over-ride was done and approved and I was told that it once again had been done wrong. The guy filled it out correctly but didn’t do the last step of sending it to the committee for approval. I was told again to wait the 72 hours (9 days in their world). I said we don’t have time for that as we want it all in place and correct before we arrive in the States. Finally, the person on the phone got a supervisor to expedite the process. I was told to call back the next day to make sure it was approved. I was told it was. So, fingers crossed that all goes smoothly this time!

We have gotten a tiny bit of rain here, so the wet season should be here soon. It kind of cools things down and of course greens everything up as well as a bit of cloud cover. Most of us that live here year round prefer the green season to the dry/windy season. ***update. We got a nice rain today! Yeah!!! It has cleared all the smoke from the air and it's "cooler" out. (the burning in the dry season leaves quite a smoky haze)

My latest interesting thing at the supermarket was buying a box of quart sized Ziplock bags and a jar of jam was taped to it. Hmmmm.

We had 2 group dinners out this month. The first one was at Restaurante El Meson Suizo, a local Swiss place that was pretty good. Only 4 of us went to that one. One couple had company in and another weren’t fond of the food there and opted out. So, it was just Adam and Mary and us. We enjoyed the food and their company. The next group dinner was at Cholo’s Mexican Food (cook is from Mexico) and we had 12 of us for that one. We won’t have another one until early June as we are gone 2 weeks in May and another couple won’t be back from their Mediterranean cruise until early June. Have a great trip Jim & Jennifer!

Swiss restaurant

A couple of days in a row we saw 30 plus Eastern Kingbirds migrating through on our usual trail. Greg saw some parrots from our balcony and they turned out to be Scarlet-fronted Parakeets which aren’t usually anywhere near this area. A local bird expert confirmed the sighting and said they have started to spread out and even have a small group of them in the city. Our bird count is now at 315 different types of birds! (only about 1/3 of the birds in Panama)

We leave on the 6^th for Phoenix and look forward to spending time with Scott & Sonya and grandkids and my BFF Mary!

Here are a few photos from this month: