Friday, September 30, 2016

August & September


Actually, I don’t have much that is all that “blog worthy” since we got back from Canopy Tower & San Blas Islands. Greg finished a compilation of Go Pro videos from that trip with mostly toucans and monkeys. https://youtu.be/0r-yXJXX5H0

We scrapped our trip to Medellin, Colombia. We just felt that we were running out of time to get things organized for our move back to the States to prepare for the 2017 World Cruise and the RVing after that.

My son and my dad have September birthdays. We had a nice 3-way chat.

We had a group lunch at Fosters Panama. The place was LOUD, but good. It’s too bad, but it was so noisy (constant blenders going and no acoustics so just people talking was just too noisy).

Mary heard of a new place Las Bovedas at Ensada. (new neighborhood close by) So, we went there for the new group lunch. Atmosphere was better and the food was good. I ordered poorly and didn’t like mine. It was really salty. Greg was a sweetheart and traded me half of his club sandwich.

Our next group lunch was at Hotel Cocle in Penonome. Food was good and atmosphere was great. This one was to say goodbye to friends Steve & Sally as they are moving back to the States. Such a nice couple and they will be missed. (a reminder to myself that soon it will be us leaving)

Friends Rick & Francine had a party for birthdays and anniversaries. They had a nice spread of food and that was topped only by the good company.

On another note, we made our final payment on the World Cruise! Whoo hoo! We also booked a shorter cruise for 2018. It’s a 60 day cruise of South America on the Island Princess. We have been on the sister ship the Coral Princess a couple of times, but not the Island.

We wanted a shorter cruise since we plan to spend as much of the “good weather” in Alaska that we can fit in and this will give us time to make our way across North America (some States and some Canada) to get there.

Here is the itinerary for that one:

24-Jan
Wednesday
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
25-Jan
Thursday
At Sea
26-Jan
Friday
At Sea
27-Jan
Saturday
St. Maarten
28-Jan
Sunday
Martinique
29-Jan
Monday
St. Vincent & Grenadines
30-Jan
Tuesday
Grenada
31-Jan
Wednesday
Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago 
1-Feb
Thursday
At Sea
2-Feb
Friday
Devil's Island, French Guiana
3-Feb
Saturday
At Sea
4-Feb
Sunday
At Sea
5-Feb
Monday
Fortaleza, Brazil
6-Feb
Tuesday
At Sea
7-Feb
Wednesday
At Sea
8-Feb
Thursday
At Sea
9-Feb
Friday
Ilhabela, Brazil
10-Feb
Saturday
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
11-Feb
Sunday
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
12-Feb
Monday
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
13-Feb
Tuesday
At Sea
14-Feb
Wednesday
At Sea
15-Feb
Thursday
Montevideo, Uruguay
16-Feb
Friday
Buenos Aires, Argentina
17-Feb
Saturday
Buenos Aires, Argentina
18-Feb
Sunday
At Sea
19-Feb
Monday
At Sea
20-Feb
Tuesday
Puerto Madryn, Argentina
21-Feb
Wednesday
At Sea
22-Feb
Thursday
Falkland Islands (Stanley)
23-Feb
Friday
Cape Horn (Scenic Cruising)
24-Feb
Saturday
Ushuaia (Tierra del Fuego), Argentina
25-Feb
Sunday
Punta Arenas, Chile
26-Feb
Monday
Amalia Glacier, Chile (Scenic Cruising)
27-Feb
Tuesday
At Sea
28-Feb
Wednesday
Puerto Montt, Chile
1-Mar
Thursday
Chacabuco, Chile
2-Mar
Friday
At Sea
3-Mar
Saturday
At Sea
4-Mar
Sunday
Santiago (Valparaiso), Chile
5-Mar
Monday
La Serena (Coquimbo), Chile
6-Mar
Tuesday
At Sea
7-Mar
Wednesday
At Sea
8-Mar
Thursday
Pisco (San Martin), Peru
9-Mar
Friday
Lima (Callao), Peru
10-Mar
Saturday
Lima (Callao), Peru
11-Mar
Sunday
At Sea
12-Mar
Monday
Salaverry, Peru
13-Mar
Tuesday
At Sea
14-Mar
Wednesday
Guayaquil, Ecuador
15-Mar
Thursday
Manta, Ecuador
16-Mar
Friday
At Sea
17-Mar
Saturday
Puntarenas, Costa Rica
18-Mar
Sunday
At Sea
19-Mar
Monday
Panama Canal (Scenic Cruising) Panama
20-Mar
Tuesday
Cartagena, Colombia
21-Mar
Wednesday
At Sea
22-Mar
Thursday
Aruba
23-Mar
Friday
At Sea
24-Mar
Saturday
At Sea
25-Mar
Sunday
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

We have started the sorting and packing process. The movers will come out in early October to assess the amount of our stuff and give us a more accurate quote, then come and pack it and pick it up for shipping towards the end of October. Since the apartment was furnished, it came with a lot of things we didn’t care to use (old pots & pans, pillows, extra blenders, bedding & towels that would be better rags etc.) and there was nowhere to store the items, so we stashed stuff anywhere we could here to make room for our stuff. So, our first task was to gather it all together and make sure we found it all.

I started with travel trinkets and Christmas ornaments which I wanted to pack myself. Then, it was going through all the clothing to see what will be given to families in need here. The rest was sorted into staying here to wear now and then brought back in suitcases. We booked business class on Copa so we each get two 70 lb. bags plus our carry-ons. The rest was divided into shipping and staying in storage until we RV and the rest will go into shipping to be taken on the world cruise. (I’ve kept a few key items for the cruise just in case the shipment doesn’t make it in time) We leave on Dec 5 for Florida.

The decision to leave Panama has nothing to do with Panama. We have enjoyed it here and there is a LOT we will miss about it. Mostly we will miss the great friends we have made here. We had planned to stay 3 to 5 years and since we “aren’t getting any younger” we wanted to start our next adventure before health or age slows us down too much. When we leave in December we will have been here 3 and a half years.

I had a pretty funny doctor story. About a month ago I woke up in the morning feeling like I had a broken neck….just slept goofy I guess. Anyway, it wasn’t getting any better so I went to see the doctor for what seemed like a pinched nerve. I went in and it was Dr. Levy’s day off so I had to see another doctor. Dr. Levy speaks fluent English and the one I saw spoke none. He relied on Google Translate which we both spoke into on his phone and he also used a phone ap to diagnose me. Google Translate gets creative with translation so that was interesting. His ap said my cure was to sleep without a pillow for a week. Uh, REALLY?

Then, he was going to prescribe an anti-inflammatory, but I’m already on one for my feet. Finally, I asked if muscle relaxers would work (speaking into his phone and it translated) and he wrote a script no problem. I know some Spanish, but explaining medical stuff can be difficult. Too funny! (good thing it wasn’t brain surgery...lol) He wants me to get an x-ray which I will if these muscle relaxers don’t do the trick. I think he was a cardiac doctor and was filling in seeing routine patients as well. So, Spanglish, an ap for diagnosis and Google translate got the job done!

The muscle relaxer did the trick and I am feeling much better.

The next thing on the medical list was to see the dermatologist. I had a skin tag burned off and he gave me some cream for a “pre-cancerous” thing on my face. Greg had a punch biopsy which was negative. The cream for my face did not help. He said if it didn’t then he would give me a more hardcore cream that is harsher but should take care of it. He said these things could or couldn’t turn into anything, but it’s best to treat it. He said to wait a month and then come back.

Our next adventure was our annual eye exams to get new glasses. They should be finished soon. Next week we go in to make our appointment for our final dental cleaning here.

We should then be caught up with routine medical stuff before the world cruise.

The only thing we have planned right now other than some birding day trips is in November for our anniversary we are going to our favorite place in El Valle to spend a couple of nights. Los Madarino’s is where we always stay so it will be our last time staying there.
We already made our last visit to Pricesmart. Our cards were going to expire so we made one last visit to stock up on a few things.
I must have some virus or something as I have been under the weather for several days now. Hopefully, it will leave me soon.

We still do our morning walks either on the beach, the local trail here or even just walking the ramps in the parking garage when the weather isn’t good enough to walk in.

Here are few of the photos from our walks:
 young Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl
 young Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl
 with the rainy season comes fungi



World’s smallest snake. Often called Blind snake or Thread snake…less than 4” long and about the size of a strand of pasta. It could easily curl up on a quarter. They burrow into the ground easily. It’s the second one we have seen on our usual trail.
 Neotropical Slender Blindsnake
 close-up of the head of Neotropical Slender Blindsnake
 Golden Ceiba Borer
 Golden Ceiba Borer
 Thoas Swallowtail
 Dorantes Longtail
 Iphiclus Sister
 Malachite
 Malachite
 Dirce Beauty
 Long-tailed Metalmark (Rhetus arcius)
 Long-tailed Metalmark (this one was taken over a year ago, but is a better photo than the ones we got this time we sited it
 Sky-Blue Hairstreak
 Black Witch moth was on our balcony
 Thamyra Satyr
 Pale Owl-Butterfly
 Pale Owl-Butterfly
 Golden White
 Erato Longwing
 Albinus Metalmark
 Orange-patched Crescent
 Opossum on the walkway to the beach
 Opossum crossed over into the grass
 Orange-chinned Parakeet
 Crested Caracara on top of a house - there was a family of 3

 young Great Black-Hawk
 young Great Black-Hawk
 young Great Black-Hawk
 At a pond close to our apartment there was a tree with several Anhinga nests each with 1 to 3 chicks in them. Greg was taking a photo of the babies when the parent photo-bombed the picture.
 One chick being fed



 immature Yellow-faced Grassquit
 male Thick-billed Seed-Finch
 female Thick-billed Seed-Finch
 Blue-crowned Motmot (Whooping)
 Roadside Hawk

We had a really heavy wind and rain storm a while back and the day after we found a young bird in the parking garage. It looked dazed and I guess it had been blown in. It wasn’t flying well and when it tried it kept hitting the partial roof. When we came back from our morning walk we went to check on it and it seemed to be in a puddle of water in the parking garage. Greg commented that at least it was getting something to drink. We got closer and it became clear that it had knocked itself out trying to get out of the parking garage. It was lying in a pool of blood. UGH. Not the kind of “birding” we like to do. Here is a “before” photo of the little guy.
 young Dickcissel
 Mourning Dove
 Gray-headed Chachalaca
 Gray-headed Chachalaca
 whoever bought this corner lot started the landscaping outside of their fence
 probably the nicest looking corner in the neighborhood
 "peeps" on the beach
The hawk migration has started. This was just a small portion of them.
A big thank you to Jenn at Canopy Tower for helping me identify all of the butterflies and the beetle. There has been an explosion of butterflies and young birds on our morning walks.
We enjoyed the Harvest Moon a couple of weeks ago. Greg had the Go Pro out, but I don’t have the video yet.
We had 2 of the A/C units go out in our apartment and they have been here a couple of days on and off fixing them. Both are done now. It delayed my “practice packing” to make sure it all fits or if I need to add more to the “ship back to the States” pile.
Next week the movers come to see what we have so when they come to pack it up they will be prepared. We will also start our Visa for India since there is an Embassy in Panama City. Hopefully, things will quiet down after that.
Princess finally opened up the shore excursions for the world cruise. We booked the 2 we are doing through the ship. The rest are all private tours and I had those booked already.
Hopefully, I will have more “blog worthy” stuff in my next update.

Until next time…..

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