The Panama Adventure

It is the end of summer here when you can expect very hot, dry weather, and different flowers and fruits. One of the most spectacular things of this time are the guayacán trees. The article below says they bloom when the rains come back, but here it seems to happen when we still have dry summer. If we are lucky the trees burst out with brilliant yellow flowers and if there is no wind to blow them all off the trees, they will last for a few days.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/guayacan-forest-ecuador

Today was a good day! I set off on a longer bike ride and the trees were gorgeous all over town. These are a few pictures, but they hardly do the trees justice. They are brilliant yellow and will catch your eye every time you see one. I wish I could bring you all with me so you could see them for real!

It has been an odd summer though. Summer is from about mid December to mid April. We may get some rain in December but by late January, we are lucky if we get one or two rains before April. This year, however, we have gotten a number of rains, some of them impressive downpours. People who count on the dry weather of summer may not be happy, but the plants and those of us who appreciate some cooling and more greenery are very happy.

I have planted mani (perennial peanut) as a ground cover in the back yard. Usually by this time of year it looks brown and toasted, but as you can see here, it is lush and green, and if the picture was better you could see how many yellow flowers it has.

Another very favorite part of summer in mangoes! There are many varieties of mangoes here, and some very old trees that are amazingly big. One advantage of my running around is I know where there are some trees on unoccupied lots where you can pick up the fruit off the ground. Or if you ask nicely, chances are that anyone with a full mango tree will be happy to share.

Avocadoes are also hanging off the trees, and should be ready in another month or two. I remember the joke in Florida – Why do you need to lock your car? Because if you don’t, you will come back and find it full or oranges! It’s kind of like that here, Anyone with avocadoes will have tons of them, and will be looking to share with anyone who likes them. The avocadoes here are large and delicious, so of course I am happy to help.

These are another of my spring flowers, corcuma. They are a member of the ginger family and closely related to tumeric. The bulbs have many health benefits and can be use to flavor food. I bought one flower from a guy in the street for $1, and over the last few years they have grown and multiplied so much that I have had to thin them a lot, and I still have clumps in many places. I think the flowers are beautiful, and then later they will have pretty green leaves with purple veins. They die back in the dry season and reappear, flowers first, when the rains are coming back.

So, that is what is happening here, where nothing much ever happens. We read about awful storms, fires, and other disasters up north, and we feel so bad for the people suffering in all that. Here, we are just hot, or maybe wet if we get another rain, and we are very thankful.

Yes. I know. It’s been forever! Things have been going on. Things are always going on but now maybe less things are going on, or at least different things and I’m rearranging my time a bit.

The main change is the band. When we started with our drummer, he was just starting a new job. He has been enormously successful, but with this has come more work and many more demands on his time. We are thrilled for him, but it’s been hard for him to do any music. Right now we are taking a break for a couple months while we decide what we want to do. Will we miss it enough to play more and figure out how to do that, or will we want to just retire? I haven’t picked up my bass in a week and I am enjoying the break. But, do I want to put aside all the mega hours I spent becoming a competent musician, and all the gear I have acquired? Or, do I want to enjoy all this free time, permanently, going forward? Right now, I really don’t know.

This year, I had a few things I wanted to change. I want to spend less time on line. There are so many good things, of course, but I feel like I need more balance. I want to ride my bike more. I used to go all over the place but now, when a 5 mile ride seems like a lot, I know I have lost a lot of ground. But, I’m getting better! I’ve done quite a few 10-15 mile rides, and even a 20 mile ride recently and I can really tell the difference in how I feel. And, for me there is nothing like the freedom of peddling along, breeze in my face, enjoying the world out there.

I have also given a lot of thought about money. Travel is so tiring at our age. I dislike shopping, or more accurately, I really hate shopping and there is nothing I want to buy. But I like spending time with friends and listening to our fellow musicians. It all started with my friend’s birthday. I hired our friends’ band to provide the music for the party. It was such a success we did it the next month. The owner of Hops, our favorite venue in our neighborhood said I was free to do whatever I want, so what was to prevent me from making music happen on a regular basis?! So now, if you want live music, you’ll find it at Hops every Thursday evening. Saturday nights are still for the big bands, but Thursday evening are for smaller events, more intimate, and more relaxed.

These are the main things, but before the band I used to spend a lot of time on the blog, taking photos, painting, and socializing, so these are some other things I hope to bring back more. I am getting older and the time ahead is shorter, but I don’t ever want to stop evaluating how I can use this time. That is the only thing that is limited, and when it is gone you can’t get it back or buy more.

I still take pictures, maybe even more now that it is so easy to grab my phone with it’s nice camera. So, I have many pictures of bugs and critters and other things I find interesting. You have been warned! 😁 My favorite these days is the little lizard that lives on the shelf next to my table on the terrace, and comes out every night to catch the bugs that are attracted by the desk lamp. I believe she is a female yellow-headed gecko. We see them around here a lot, though the males seem to have heads that are more red than yellow. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow-headed_gecko The first picture I have was taken on Christmas eve, so she has been here for three months. I have a deflated Luci light on my shelf, which I have covered with a towel for more protection, and that’s where she lives.

I have written all this and I still don’t know what to call this post, but here we are. I am not good at beginning or ending, but sure can run on in the middle. ha! Maybe now that I have some free time, and I can share more of what is happening around here, and some more of the pictures I have set aside. So, until next time, you all take good care of yourselves and each other!

We have so many birds! I have heard it said that we have more birds in this little country than in the whole of north America. Maybe this is true. Yesterday morning I identified 13 birds just while I was having breakfast.

My Son-in-law introduced me to a great app, Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Labs. It will listen to bird songs and tell you what bird it is, or you can take a picture of a bird and it will identify it for you. We live next to a woods and I have wondered for years who has been singing a couple songs I especially like. I have a couple bird books that I use a lot but I think the app has allowed me to identify birds I didn’t know or make more accurate identifications of other birds.

I’ve taken screen shots of the birds, as identified in the app. I’ve heard this mournful call for ages, but I’ve never seen the bird. Who would have thought it is this one! What an odd little bird.

I’ve also heard another beautiful song in the woods. It makes me happy every time but again, I had no idea who was singing. It turned out to be a thrush! These birds are in my yard all the time. But apparently, they only do the beautiful song when they are down in the woods.

There are many other birds that have been identified by the app. Many of them I already knew. There are others I didn’t know, or I wasn’t sure if I had identified them correctly. Rather than write an epic length post, I’ll just post all the screen shots here with some captions.

Of course we can’t forget the toucans! (aracari, the official name)

Whew! That’s a lot of birds, and all of these ID’s have been done right here in my yard. This isn’t counting other birds that live near the water, in the mountains, or in other areas of the country. It’s no wonder that a lot of bird watchers like to come to Panama.

We’ve been back to the USA numerous times, and I’ve written about it in the past. I have family and young grandchildren so it’s very important to me to visit periodically. Otherwise, I wouldn’t go there much. I’m too used to life here and too content.

Many of the same things come to mind on every visit. It’s so orderly and attractive. Roads are clearly marked and in good repair. Green areas are landscaped. It looks nice but there is something to be said for a more relaxed lifestyle where nobody fusses if your grass gets long or your horse is in the street again.

There is so much stuff!! The many stores are so full of things to buy and Amazon delivers things immediately, if not sooner. I wonder about the amount of cardboard and packaging that is used every single day. Sure, we have stores and things to buy here, and mailing services for Amazon and internet shopping, but it just seems so much more there. And, it’s so much more expensive. It’s almost shocking what things cost. There is no way we could make it there.

It’s cold! I admit, I’m a total lightweight. If it’s in the 70’s I’m starting to feel the chill. I lived in thermal underwear and layers the whole time, even inside. And, it’s dry. I needed liberal doses of skin lotion and lip balm. The grandkids are running around happily in shorts and we are all bundled up, much to the amusement of the locals but hey, we’re very well acclimated to a climate of 80+ degrees all the time. We’ve been here 12 years and in Florida for 17 years before this.

Then there are random weird things. We went to numerous places, various hotels, and multiple airports. Everywhere has a different toilet. Do we have one with a lever, or buttons on the top? Or is it one of those automatic sensors on the wall that I can seem to trust enough, so I have to look for some way to flush the thing. Why are there never night lights in hotels? Many of us have to get up during the night so I have learned to bring a light with me. I have a bidet in the house and I really missed feeling clean and fresh, and it was harder to get myself in the shower when I was cold.

Everything tends to be locked with different locks. One hotel has a card you touch to the lock on the door. Another has a code. Another has a special app on your phone. The last time I couldn’t get it to work because I thought you had to touch it to the lock. Then I learned you touch the app and that makes the door unlock. Old people… technology… 🙄 But I sure appreciate the technology and my phone service that gives me roaming that works in the US. I have become very dependent on Google navigation and the various apps to keep in touch with my people.

We had the most awesome time with family! My grandkids get more interesting and fun every year. Thanksgiving was especially great since we were all together, and the cousins all played and played together. We also visited my new family in Oklahoma, and spent some time with some of their kids and grandkids. So in spite of some minor things, it was a wonderful trip and I wouldn’t miss it for anything!

We came back to summer weather. Summer is December – April, and you can expect little to no rain most of the time. We have had some rain which is appreciated but as we get further into the season, we can expect less and less. This dry weather is especially welcomed by people who have to be out and about and are tired of the rain and the mud. It’s interesting to see different flowers and fruits that come at this time of year, especially the mangoes, my favorites. I prefer the rain but I will appreciate what is, and look forward to more visits with family when they have gotten past the worst of the winter.

Happy Holidays to all of you, and best wishes for the coming year.

Papayas are common in our area. They seem to just pop up even if you don’t plant them. They are very popular with wildlife so I imagine the seeds are scattered by birds and other critters. We have a surprise tree in our backyard that makes big, round, very sweet fruits. We enjoy some and give away others. There was one getting ripe that I planned to give away to a friend the next day, but when I went to get it there was a hole. The fruit is barely ripe when the little black bees make a hole and then eat the fruit inside at a surprising rate of speed. So, I decided to just leave the fruit on the tree.

We had seen a toucan in a high tree the day before. That was fun since we don’t see them very often but we didn’t think much about it. In hindsight I think it was eyeing the papaya. (To be accurate, the toucans in our area are fiery billed aracaris.)

The day I left the papaya out it attracted an impressive number of visitors! First, I saw a couple woodpeckers. Look closely on the right side of the trunk and you can see one of them at the level of the fruits.

Then, two toucans came and started eating the fruit! They would eat a bit, fly off, and then return for a bit more.

Meanwhile the squirrels were noticing the activity. One came, then two, and later four! I think they were a family since two of them were noticeably smaller annd a bit lighter color. (Our squirrels are black and larger than the squirrels I’m familiar with in the US.)

We also had some tanagers visit, and then the toucans brought another and there were three of them. It was interesting to see them take a bite, look up to swallow it, and then repeat the process.

By now the fruit was fairly destroyed and the paisanos were eying it. Unfortunately the squirrels were still there. One paisano was bold enough to land on the fence nearby but I’m not sure if they ever got any fruit. It was raining and he looked pretty pitiful so I have included a better picture. Otherwise, even if you spot him in the picture, it would be hard to know what one looks like in better conditions.

This is my favorite picture of a toucan.

I spend the majority of my time on the terrace. I really enjoy being outdoors and I love seeing all the birds, bugs, and critters. We are lucky that we can be outdoors all year around. I especially appreciate now that we are in the US, and there was frost this morning 🥶. Thermal underwear is a wonderful thing!

I am really happy to be here with family and the rest of the family is on their way here. I hope you all have a good time however you spend your holiday. Since many expats and others can’t be with family, we can just adopt each other and make our own families if we wish. Happy Thanksgiving

You wouldn’t know from the amount of time I haven’t spent here. I never wanted it to be an obligation, and I haven’t had anything I felt like writing about for a while so it’s been a dormant blog. It’s just been regular life here doing the regular things, nothing out of the ordinary. But today we are at a hotel all day, waiting for our flight to California in the morning. Maybe I could use this time here.

What has happened in the last few months? We passed our 12 year anniversary of living here. By now we are very well settled in, of course, but the time has also gone quickly so it doesn’t seem that long. It’s nice that we know our way around and how to get things done. Even better, as we have gotten older and lazier, we know other people to call on to get things done. We are more content just chillin these days instead of looking for new adventures or challenges.

We continue to go back to the USA to see family every few months. The grandkids are 6-11 years old and more fun all the time. We can play and do things and have much more interesting conversations. I have learned a lot about Taylor Swift and Harry Potter, among other things. My relationship with my sisters and wonderful extended family continues to develop also, and I look forward to more visits with them. But other than family, the USA doesn’t hold any appeal and we have no desire to spend much time there.

The band has also had major changes. We used to play in Boquete every week, which is a mountain town 45 minutes up the road. This involved practicing for gigs, hopefully learning some new material to keep things interesting, loading a lot of gear in the car, unloading it all up there and hoping we didn’t have any equipment issues, playing the gig, loading up again, and driving home late at night, often with rain and/or fog, and unloading it all back into thru house to start preparing for the next gig. When our drummer was away for a few weeks we gave our dates to another band, our friends who wanted more work, and we realized how much easier life suddenly became.

Also, Hops opened up in David, just down the road from us. It’s a friendly, relaxed bar that has live music every weekend, karaoke nights, open mic nights, and other activities. They wanted us for a while so we started playing there once a month. It’s perfect! They have their own PA equipment and a sound man, so we have much less to carry and manage. We enjoy adding new material to keep it interesting and fun but with only once a month, the pace is so much more manageable. Our drummer didn’t want to work in David, so we have someone else we’ve known for years and it’s going wonderfully. We have even made friends with the bartender who is an excellent singer, and he sings a few songs with us at our gigs and brings a fun, new energy to our group. Now it’s much less like work and much more like fun and enjoying the camaraderie of playing music together. Who would have thought?

Oh, there was other news in the area recently. It’s the rainy season so we expect a lot of rainy afternoons and evenings. But, sometimes there is a storm system or even a hurricane above us and we get seriously soaked. This year though, my goodness! It rained and poured day and night for three weeks. There was flooding and landslides. Flights were cancelled. Roads and bridges were washed out. Restaurants and businesses were closed and sometimes flooded, and homes were flooded. Thank goodness construction here is concrete block, but the muddy water still leaves an awful mess. And, when things are closed, income is lost, often causing considerable hardship. The sun started coming out a few mornings ago and it was wonderful! It’s good to see things getting back to normal and recovery starting. The rainy season will be ending soon so hopefully there won’t be any more weather related problems, at least for us. Other parts of the world, however, aren’t as fortunate.

Other than that news, things are good. I’m spending more time with friends. I’m getting back to painting a little and I’m riding my bike a lot more. I still spend the majority of my time outside and there is more goofing off these days, just because I can. But outside is also interesting because I share it with so many birds and other critters. I’ll have to write a bit about that soon.

I hope all is well with you all out there! Take care of yourselves and each other.

It was a short visit, but a wonderful time! These are some pictures from our last full day in the city. My daughter found a walking tour based on the show “Hamilton” and life of Hamilton, so we headed to the south end of Manhattan.

There’s Fraunces Tavern where Hamilton and many other leaders met to discuss politics and make decisions. Federal Hall is on the site of the old City Hall, which was used as the Capital Building of the newly independent United States. Trinity Church is also down here, and there are photos of the cemetery on the grounds. Alexander Hamilton, his wife, and many others are buried there. The last time I saw it was not long after 9/11. The fences were covered with photos, flowers, and gifts from all over the world, and inside was still set up as a place for rescuers to sleep. I think this moved me more than the actual hole that was the former World Trade Center.

Anyway, moving on… Here are your Amazon packages being delivered, the Trump building, the NY Stock Exchange, and a big line. Who would have thought that there would be a big line to touch the balls of the Charging Bull of Wall Street! But as you can see, it happens enough that his balls are polished gold while the rest of him is just aged bronze. No, we did not wait in that line. 😁

Then, we headed to the 9/11 memorial. It was a gorgeous day, and the shiny, silver buildings like this one at the 9/11 memorial looked spectacular against the sky. I also got a photo of some of the bicycles that can be rented. These bike places can be found all over the city and look like they are used a lot.

There were a lot of people catering to tourists in the area, and many were trying to sell boat trips around the island or other sightseeing opportunities. But, the Staten Island Ferry is free! It was a beautiful day, the boat ran every 30 minutes, and it was a very pleasant half hour ride each way. The skyline was beautiful as we were leaving. I especially like the photo of the Statue of Liberty with another ferry passing in front. We saw two cruise ships leaving the area, clouds obscuring part of a bridge in the distance, and a beautiful view coming back to the city.

And, one last photo of nothing scenic, but something that struck me as very different from what I am used to. We went to CVS to get some little thing and I was surprised to see almost all the merchandise was locked up! I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. In the past we went to a Walmart to get Joel some socks, and all the socks were locked up. They took his socks up to the front, and we had to ask for them when we checked out. Socks?? And here in CVS, vitamins and supplements?? We don’t think much about shoplifting and theft here in Panama, but it has become a huge thing in the US and really bites into the operating budgets of the stores.

But, it was an absolutely wonderful time in NY, and I’m not going to leave with a downer thought, so here’s a picture of a horse and carriage on a beautiful day in Central Park.

We got very lucky with the weather in NY. Now we see news about excessive heat in so many places, storms and tornadoes, and my California daughter is being affected by smoke from nearby wildfires. There are so many things anywhere you look! You all be very careful and take good care of yourselves and each other.

I’ve got this section down to 25 pictures 😁 There are too many interesting places in the city, and the weather was perfect for taking beautiful pictures. Most of the pictures have captions so with any luck, when you click on them, you can see the descriptions.

We bought tickets to two performances. The first was Cabaret on Broadway and it was fabulous. The show had been redone, even including the theater. The stage was in the middle and they wanted the audience to feel like they were in an actual nightclub. But, the show was only part of the whole experience. You came in through the basement storage area like you were sneaking into an actual nightclub. There were cherry liquor shots waiting at the top of the stairs if you wanted one, and stickers were put on your phone to cover the camera. Then you find yourself is a large bar area, which was worth the price of admission right there. There were wandering musicians and dancers on the stage, on the bar, in a corner, and in the audience and what amazing dancers there were! We got to enjoy this for maybe an hour before we went into the theater for the actual performance. Of course that was amazing, like we knew it would be from reading reviews and information on line. One thing that impressed me was the diversity of the performers both in the bar and in the show. There were various colors, sizes, and ages but all were wonderful.

Our adventure the next day was the opera Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera House. This is one of the best opera houses in the world so you know you are going to see top notch performances, and this one was no exception. The music, the singing, and the acting were amazing. I’m not sure about the sets though. The opera was written about 150 years ago, but they took a modern approach with sets that looked like scaffolding, rusty trucks, and modern dress. I prefer a more traditional look but this was ok except the very end. It’s a love story between Carmen, a free spirited gypsy, and Don Jose, a soldier. He falls totally in love and gives up everything to follow her, but she tires of him and falls for a bullfighter. At the end they are outside the arena. She wants to go in to be with her bullfighter, but Don Jose is desperate to keep her. The very last thing, as she rushes toward the entrance, he lifts his hand with a knife and plunges it into her chest, killing her. There just is no substitute for that visual, and their version where he wackes her head with a bassball bat just didn’t do it. But, it’s hard to complain too much when you are in NYC at the most amazing performance you can see anywhere!

The opera was a mantanee so we had time to wander around afterward, and have a most interesting dinner! Gayle’s Broadway Rose is a restaurant where the waiters and waitresses are also Broadway singers, so between taking care of customers they went through the restaurant singing show tunes. It was really cool, and they were really good! It was loud and a bit chaotic but the food was very good, and we had a lot of fun watching and listening to the performances. It’s definitely a unique restaurant!

We wandered around the theater district and these pictures are pretty self explainatory. It was fun to see theaters that we have heard about for ages, where shows are made that we have watched on TV. We were excited to see Hombres G was performaing at Radio City Music Hall. They are a band from Madrid that we like, and we do a couple of their songs. If you want some fun look them up on YouTube.

I have a few other random things here… The market down the street apparently is a recycling center. You can bring your things there, and they had a big shipment on the curb packed up and waiting for pickup.

The Steinway Tower is the world’s skinniest skyscraper. I wonder what it looks and feels like inside. Each apartment is one full floor and 4500 square feet, so it can’t be too cramped. I don’t think I would like it on a windy day though. It’s been built to be flexible, which is better than stiff and breakable. In this bunch of photos are also a couple scenes of the theater area going down Broadway towards Times Square. It was quite crowded with tourists, traffic, street vendors, bicycles, and tons of activity. I often walked to classes through Times Square and don’t remember it being quite like that, but back in that day it was full of porn theaters and less attractive things.

There are also a couple pictures of Rockefeller Center and St Patrick’s Cathedral.

I that is about it for this collection of photos. I’ll try and get to the last batch soon.

Of course lots of things in NYC were different. I left there in 1979! But, a lot of things were the same, or maybe the same but bigger. Zabar’s, the great deli was there but 3-4x bigger, and Fairway, my favorite produce store was also much, much bigger. There were many new buildings all over the city, but also many buildings that I remember well. I don’t think the subway has changed one bit, except how you pay. We had tokens back then, and now you have a card, or you can even touch your credit card to allow the turnstile to turn. I had many $2.80 charges on my credit card! (and that price has definitely changed over the decades, but it’s still a super efficient way to get around).

Another thing I don’t remember at all is bicycles. They were everywhere! There were stations of rental bikes in many places, and those bikes could be seen on the streets along with personal bikes. There were bike lanes in some areas, but people rode right in traffic down Broadway and didn’t seem to have any problems. It was a joke in the past that you could instantly tell a NYC car because it was banged up, but I noticed that the cars were almost all free of dents and scratches. I wonder if people drive better these days, or electronic sensors in the cars help, or what, but it seemed much better than in the past.

Oh my though, speaking of driving, we took a taxi from Newark Airport to our hotel. What a trip! He had a big Surburban without a scratch on it, so I guessed he has been pretty good at driving but my goodness. He switched from English to Arabic on the phone for very heated conversations. Apparently, his daughter was taking extra math classes, and they were expecting him to pay for what he thought they had already paid for. It sounds like this was a HUGE deal and he went back and forth with mom and grandma for much of the trip. He started texting which I immediately told him he couldn’t do, so he put that phone down. Then he proceeded to pluck his nose hairs for a good while. The rest of the time he used his vape and cussed at the other drivers in colorful language, telling us that this language was mild compared to what he would use if we weren’t there. He even got into a fight with another driver. They put down their windows at a stop light and yelled names at each other! There was enough traffic to keep us at a reasonable speed and we were in a huge vehicle so he probably couldn’t kill us, so I figured it was a colorful NYC adventure. Decaf though… I recommend decaf, nothing but decaf 😁

We are gearing up for a band gig this coming week so that is keeping us busy, but I’ll try to get to the rest of the pictures soon. Then I’ll go back to posting about Panama, where not much is going on. The joke is the conversation around here is – Is it going to rain? or is it not going to rain? Ha! It’s rainy season so chances are good it’s going to rain. Sometimes it rains a little, and sometimes it rain a whole lot but it’s cooler and the plants are happy. The canal is happy too as they are able to increase traffic and return to more normal operations. So, until next time, you all take care!