The Panama Adventure

I have a blog? Oh right, yes I do but you wouldn’t know it by the long time I have been ignoring it. I have been in the US first with my California daughter and family, and now in Seattle with my other daughter and her family. I’ve been enjoying time with them, playing with the grandchildren, helping out with the workloads of the busy working families, and generally having a wonderful time.

I have paid no attention to the blog though, as you all can see. It’s spring and I have photos of some beautiful flowers and scenery, and of course photos of the grandchildren which I will get to at some point but I think right now, it’s been time for focusing on different things.

I will be back soon. Panama is where I am most happy and as wonderful as this is, it will be good to be home again. Right now though it’s time for Saturday morning Sesame Street. It takes me back to when I watched Sesame Street with my own kids. Good times!

Boca Chica is my favorite place on the water in Chiriqui, and Seagull Cove Lodge is my favorite resort in Boca Chica. Today the Ofertasimple folks came out with a deal I had to share with you all.

http://ofertasimple.com/ofertas/panama/seagullcove-resort-boca-chica-chiriqui-coctel-bienvenida-kayak-bungalow-deluxe-vista-mar-2may17-e   $89 (normally $191) for a bungalow, welcome cocktail, 2 hours of kayaking, and discounts on a sunset cruise and/or a relaxing massage.

I have written about the resort in the past HERE. It’s a very special place with only six lovely bungalows, all with wonderful views of the water and islands beyond. The grounds are beautifully landscaped and there is an excellent restaurant on site. There is a small beach area and sitting area for hanging out and relaxing, and a dock to a cute tiki bar where they serve grilled food and drinks on weekend evenings. You can get a water taxi to Boca Brava if you want to check out that restaurant or go looking for howler monkeys, or you can hire a boat for a tour around the islands.

(Caution – the resort is built on the hillside so if you have trouble climbing up and down stairs this might not be the place for you. )

I have written other posts about visits to the area HERE (the ride down to Boca Chica), and HERE (Boca Brava and monkeys), and HERE (includes a boat tour of the area), and HERE (our recent day at Isla Seca, one of the nearby islands)

You can use the offer from May 9th through August 9th. If you want a beautiful little getaway, or want to include it as part of a vacation or exploratory tour in Panama, here you go. It’s a unique and special place.

Remember the pretty trees I’ve been seeing around town?

I stopped by one for a closer look a while back. I think it is a Crepe Myrtle. The flowers look right, though the leaves look a bit different than what I found on google and what I remember from the smaller variety that commonly grew in Florida. They sure are pretty!

I have a few other photos to share too –

I saw some other pretty shrubs in someone’s yard

what a pretty yard!

Once a banana fruits, it’s done for. It’s up to the pups to grow up and carry on. We recently had a nice bunch of bananas so we cut down the trunk, and this is what the interesting inside of the truck looks like. They must hold tons of water too because if you cut them, they drip juice everywhere. Be careful because it will make some serious stains on your clothes.

Pretty bougainvillea

Other than this, there hasn’t been much going on here lately. I’ve had such a bad cold that I’ve done pretty much nothing for the last week. Even paradise isn’t all rainbows and unicorns. One still has to do the laundry and weather the occasional illness. I’m still super tired but at least I’m finally showing signs of recovery. I actually slept through the night without coughing, and my head isn’t in such a fog.

Of course, Joel got it too so he’s coughing and sniffling today but thankfully isn’t nearly as sick as I was. Thank goodness, because we have to get our act together by Thursday because we are leaving to visit family in the US. I’m really excited to be seeing everyone, and the grandkids are growing so fast. I may not be blogging as much in the near future either but I might have some pretty pictures. It’s spring on the west coast and word is that everything is blooming and looking beautiful.

Everything is looking better here too. We’ve gotten some rain almost every day and it didn’t take any time at all for everything to get green again. Right now it’s 3PM, some showers just came through, and it’s a very pleasant 78F on my terrace. The birds are singing everywhere and the iguana with the pink face just strolled through the yard. It will be good to see family but it’s always wonderful to come back to our home in Panama.

Yaira, my Spanish teacher and good friend has been teaching privately for over a year now. I studied with her for 6 months before I arrived in Panama, and she helped me SO much! She is patient, kind, professional, capable, and Panamanian so she can talk about the local customs and culture in the local accent.

She has gotten very positive feedback from other students but this one really blew me away. I don’t know this man, but he obviously has studied a lot and speaks a lot of Spanish.

I have had the pleasure of working with Yaíra a few times over the years and  will certainly study with her again in the future. I have studied Spanish for many years, in many different schools with many different professors; I can say Yaíra is easily amongst the best. She creates engaging lessons, excellent materials, and is able to explain the Spanish language in a way that all students can understand. Her online classes are well organized and allow me to study Spanish despite my busy schedule. I personally have worked with Yaíra on different occasions to improve my Spanish for various jobs and job interviews and on each occasion she has prepared me not only to achieve the Spanish required but actually exceed it. I will continue my studies with her again in the future to prepare for my DELE exam.  Yaíra is an amazing person and an excellent teacher. Whether you are a beginning Spanish learner or advanced, she can and will help you achieve your language goals. (from Nick)

I was very excited to get this recommendation! (it was sent to me because I maintain her website http://www.yairatutoria.com/). It isn’t just me and my bias towards a good friend. She really is as good as I think she is!

I thank Yaira and my Panamanian friends every day for my ability to communicate. I know my experience of living here has been much more rewarding because I can speak the language well enough to converse on most topics. It’s difficult. I’m not good at languages, so it took me a long time and I still have a lot to learn. But, it’s so worth it! It’s a whole different experience when your best friends are Panamanian.

OK, I will put that soap box away and stop going on about Yaira. She is trying to take care of her family and go to university, so if she gets overrun with students she will be working overtime. She loves what she does though and seems to have endless energy, and I’m really happy to see her succeeding on all fronts.

It wasn’t me! Of course it is an unfortunate thing when anyone has to go to the hospital though. This friend was kind enough to share his story with me, including a photo of the final bill. He’s also doing much better now and feeling like himself again.

(by the way, the banner photo was lifted from the hospital website http://www.hospitalchiriqui.com/  It’s worth a visit if you want to know more about the hospital, their staff, their services, etc.)

First, a bit of background. There are two health care systems here, the public system and the private system. In the public system, word is you can see a doctor for $.50. I’ve heard really low prices for other things too. At the hospital it is said that your family is expected to take care of you as much as possible, but the hospital staff is there for all your medical needs. I haven’t been in a public clinic or hospital so I have no first hand knowledge of anything, but it’s nice to know you can get care even if you don’t have much money.

The other system is private and priced accordingly. A visit to a doctor is $30-50 depending on specialty. My friend’s hospital care was professional and appropriate. The room was larger than some I’ve seen in the US. There was a standard bed with buttons to adjust the head and foot, a call light, a TV, just what you would expect to see in the US. They had modern IV pumps to regulate the IV’s and medications, and a modern oxygen concentrator. The nurses were kind and came promptly when called. They didn’t speak English though so my friend was happy to have his translation app in his smart phone.

It started on Monday afternoon when I took my friend to see a lung doctor recommended by another friend. The doctor saw him almost immediately, was very concerned about his condition and admitted him to the hospital. There was a visit to the admissions clerk to share some standard information and get a deposit of $500 (credit card works). Then he was taken directly to the room and settled in. He was there until Friday afternoon, $1673.55.

The breakdown of the bill – the room was $1572.58. Additional charges – $125.80 respiratory care (probably the oxygen equipment), dietetic $6.25, general chemical $12 (I think laboratory tests), x-rays $45, serology $30 (more lab tests), hematology $7, bacteriology $17.50, and special chemical $150 (all of those lab tests, I believe). These charges include the doctors fees of $600 for his stay. The total was actually $1966.33 but with the retired senior citizen discount of $292.78 his total was 1673.55 for the four days he was hospitalized, for everything.

Thank you my friends for sharing your experience with all my blog readers! A big concern for many people, of course, is the availability, cost, and quality of health care. This is even a huge relief to me. We are healthy and have opted to pay cash rather than get insurance here (we have coverage in the US but we’d have to get there) and this tells me that our savings though miserably inadequate for anything in the US, would cover quite a lot in Panama even in the private system.

I’m a retired nurse so in a better position than some to judge care, and what I saw was very good. The doctor spoke English which was a big help to my friends, and he recognized what needed to be done immediately and got things moving. I didn’t stick around that night, but the next morning my friend was getting oxygen, IV fluids, antibiotics and appropriate treatment for his condition.  When things didn’t move forward as well as hoped, other treatments and medications were prescribed. After what I saw I would feel very confident going to the hospital and my friend says he was very happy with his care there.

My friends were only visiting here in preparation for moving in the future. It is recommended that you check out the health care when you visit to be sure it provides what you might need. I think these people did that and then some!! Best of all though, my friend is feeling ever so much better and now maybe he and his wife can actually enjoy their last week here.

The rain is back! It came in with a sudden roar. The weekend was sunny and really hot. Even I was complaining about the heat in day after day of upper 90’s temperatures.

Monday started out cloudier. We were out for lunch and when we returned we saw really dark clouds to the north and it looked like heavy rain moving in. By the time we got home it was pouring. I needed to go across to the south side of town so I hoped I could leave the rain behind, but no such luck. I drove in heavy traffic and a blinding rain that was quickly flooding the streets all the way. The rain finally eased up later in the afternoon but it didn’t stop raining completely until late evening, and even through the night and into the morning we had intermittent light rain.

Tuesday was pleasantly cloudy but it didn’t rain until after dark. Then, it was one of those pounding rains that makes so much noise on a tin roof that it’s hard to even hear yourself think.

This morning, Wednesday, I spent the morning in Boquete where it was breezy and chilly. I was happy to get back to David where it was partly sunny and pleasantly warm. Later in the afternoon though, the rain moved in and the air quickly cooled down.

I know you all are laughing, but for those of us accustomed to the really hot summer weather, this feels very chilly.

I am currently sitting on my terrace wrapped in a thick beach towel to keep warm! We haven’t wanted to use the oven because of the heat but today it sounds like a very good idea.

The rain pours off the roof

It is amazing how quickly things get green! I’ve worked at removing the weeds from the front yard so the nice grass could fill in. We’ve watered it some to keep it alive but it still has looked brown as much as green. Now though, in two days it’s almost entirely green. My neighbor’s brown yard that didn’t get watered at all is also totally green.

This the color of Panama in the rainy season – everything lush and green.

I planted perennial peanut  in the back yard, and I have gradually removed the weeds as the peanut took over. Joel has also been working hard to get out clumps of weeds before the rain encourages them so the yard is going to look good. Perennial peanut is a great ground cover, attractive, low growing, and needs minimal care when established. We replaced our grass in Florida with peanut and eventually threw away our lawn mower. Ours here was suffering in the hot, dry Panama summer though. Joel had been watering it a bit and it was looking better, but look at it now! I’m seeing the same thing all over town, patches of very green perennial peanut sprouting yellow flowers where just days ago, it looked baked and pitiful.

Happy perennial peanut and purple gingers.

The purple gingers are also flowering. They die back in the summer, but as soon as they get some rain they put up these beautiful, interesting flowers. This year they seem to be making leaves at the same time instead of later, but we should enjoy the green foliage with purple veins all season.

I can run on! I only wanted to say the rainy season started in a big way, and here we are 600 words later 😀 My friend gave me some slippers for Christmas, so I think this is a good time to close here and go look for them.

Friday we went to Isla Seca with friends. This island is a protected wildlife area about 40 minutes by boat from Boca Chica. It is gorgeous, and I took so many photos it was hard to choose which ones to share.

My German friend Steffi had a friend of hers visiting from Germany which was what prompted the outing. Also along were Steffi’s Panamanian roommate, her boyfriend, and a couple of her girlfriends, all Panamanians. It was an interesting mix of communication in Spanish, English, and German and Steffi said even her and her friend don’t always understand each other because they speak different dialects of German.

Anyway, on with the story of the day. We met at the bus terminal and caught a bus that dropped us off at the intersection of the PanAmerican highway, and then caught a busito (little bus/big van) that took us into Boca Chica. From there we had a 40 minute trip by water taxi and we were at the island.

The bus was standing room only

our fancy bus

waiting in the water taxi. The guy forgot the keys and had to go back to his house to fetch them

Our group

we passed this big boat

arriving at the island

It was a beautiful day with blue sky, minimal wind, perfect temperature, we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day! There is another gallery of just scenery photos below. It looked like something one would advertise in a travel magazine!

We found this colorful crab in the roots of a coconut palm

Joel plays with one of the many hermit crabs

Our view overhead, and thankfully none of the coconuts fell down on us

napping was part of the pleasure

Steffi chases a hermit crab with her phone camera

more napping, swimming, hanging out, and enjoying the day

There was also a Costa Rican couple on the boat. The boat was $150 for the whole day so with the other couple there were 10 people, $15 each, darn good price for a whole day’s outing.

Hold my beer and watch this! (Joel did not actually climb the coconut tree)

Joel finds some fallen coconuts and attacks them with a rock

Fresh coconut! yummm

There are photo ops

more photo ops

a lot of looking at phones

we gave some coconut to the crabs who were enthusiastic, along with a fly

more crabs visit the piece of coconut

a game of Frisbee breaks out

our group on the beach

We stayed on the island until mid afternoon, and then went to Boca Brava, another island very close to Boca Chica. We had a wonderful surprise on the way back – a group of dolphins! The boat slowly circled the area so we were able to see them very well. One even surfaced just a couple feet from the boat!

We all ate at the restaurant on Boca Brava overlooking the water, and Steffi and her friend went looking for howler monkeys. They said they saw a whole troop of them in the trees so between the dolphins and monkeys, they had a very fortunate day indeed.

Dolphin!

Joel got some good video, and this excellent photo is a still from the video

The clouds got more and more beautiful as the day went on, and I love the distant mountains in the soft clouds

We stopped at this interesting rocky area

The man attraction is this passageway through the rock, but it isn’t deep enough for the boat to go through so we only looked at it from either side

more clouds and mountains

The view from the restaurant on Boca Brava

The trip home was a little complicated. We caught a busito in Boca Chica that took us back to the highway, but there we got stuck. It was Good Friday and many people were traveling for the holiday weekend, and many people also went to Alanje where they do a religious walk or pilgrimage. There was another group of people who had been waiting for a hour and said every bus that passed was full and wouldn’t stop. There was a taxi truck across the street waiting for business so Max from our group went over to talk with the driver. He said he knew someone who for $3 each would bring his busito and take the entire group to David, which sounded like a great idea to all of us. Not long after, here comes a school busito (another small bus/big van, yellow colored with “Colegio” – high school written on the side). The 15 of us along with a couple babies all pile in, the last one sitting on our cooler and off we go to David. There were plenty of taxis at the terminal so from there it was smooth sailing.

Last, but not least, here is a gallery of scenery photos.

our boat waits. I expect the two guys are taking an extended nap out there

It’s interesting how the tree roots cling to the side of the rock

for a while, more boats arrive and there are more people on the beach

This boat had a BBQ on board and they were making a wonderful smelling lunch!

Some of the group walks over the rocks to the main concentration of coral and fish

the boat we saw earlier was on the move

The coral was located around and beyond the outcropping of rock to the left of the beach. There were lots of colorful fish and the water was so clear you didn’t realize you were swimming in deep water.

What a great day, and many thanks to my friend Steffi for arranging it all!

Sunday Joel’s band had a late afternoon gig at the Boquete Brewing Company. It also happened to be the end of the Boquete Orchid Festival, which we hadn’t thought much about as we left and we didn’t know there was also a parade in town that afternoon as well.

We knew there might be something happening when we saw horses in Alto Boquete.

Horses at the bus stop

As we drove down into town we saw more and more horses, and the traffic got slower and slower.

The horses were making their way down the sidewalk into town. Judging by the condition of the sidewalk, there had been a lot of them.

Many trucks and horse trailers were parked all over town

Some horses were in the street as well

By the time we got near the center of town we had passed many people waiting for the parade to start, and the traffic was all jammed up. I was thankful I wasn’t driving that big white bus!

The center of town was closed, and I could hear a band approaching

Boquete is a small town and there aren’t that many ways to get through. To make it even more interesting they have been digging up the streets to put in water lines, and most of the streets are rough and bumpy. Thankfully the traffic kept moving even if slowly, and we managed to make our way around on a back road to our destination. After the usual setting up routine, it was time for music and fun!

This young girl was having a great time dancing to the music with her mother.

It was a really fun evening! Some people were already there, others arrived later, people heard the music from the street and came in, and the dance floor had more and more people as the evening went on. Victor, the owner, is a musician with a very successful band in Panama City. He sat in for a song too, which was awesome. He wants this band back as many Sundays as possible which is a great compliment from another musician and business owner.

Gary, the bass player goes over to entertain the excited young girl, while Joel makes his way on the table behind him

Now everyone is on tables!

Victor gets a lap dance from Joel and his guitar

Darkness falls, and the fun rises

musicians on tables!

It’s hard to get a clear picture of musicians who are in constant motion!

That was only one of quite a few things I’ve been doing lately. This is another wonderful thing about retirement. If you overextend yourself and get tired, you can take a day off any time you wish. Yesterday was one of those days and I just chilled at home and didn’t do much of anything. Mi vida difícil en Panamá. 😀

Now that you are retired, what do you DO all day?? This is a question I’ve heard quite a few times. Believe me, keeping busy has not been a problem. I often wonder how I had time to work.

Lately it seems like I have been even busier than usual. I am taking a weekly painting class in David, and a watercolor class in Boquete and also painting some at home. I try to spend time with my friends and I usually come along when Joel’s band has a gig. I’ve been riding my bike a bit more. I can give me house a fairly decent cleaning in less than an hour, but that’s still an hour that needs to be spent now and then. We make almost all of our food from scratch because it’s healthier, cheaper, and tastes better but that’s also takes time. That doesn’t count shopping, puttering around in the yard, getting lost reading various things on line, and watching Netflix. Keeping busy is definitely not a problem.

My camera is always with me so there are photos to sort and edit periodically. You would think I’d run out of things to point my camera at, but this hasn’t been the case so far.

The bougainvillea continue to bloom all over town.

pretty!

I found a pink flowering tree of the same type as the purple flowering trees behind Chiriqui Hospital

Look closely in the leaves and you’ll see the chicks

She had 7 chicks, but they are hard to see in the leaves

Nearby this guy was washing a horse beside the house

Yesterday these cows were in the vacant lot just outside our neighborhood.

It seems like I have been seeing more iguanas lately, many of them in our yard. We have been watering a bit to keep our grass and ground cover alive so maybe they are enjoying something green to munch on.

Iguana on the wall

There were three iguanas this day! Another was nearby almost hidden and munching on weeds

A young one on the wall

I stopped by the construction site for the new bus terminal and Federal mall a couple days ago. I don’t remember seeing the tall construction cranes before, and it seemed like a lot more concrete had been poured at the mall site.

the bus terminal, with construction cranes

the growing concrete area for the mall

I often take my bike to do errands instead of the car.  Downtown is really crowded with traffic, taxis, buses, and pedestrians but the bike takes a lot less space on the road, and you don’t need a parking space so it works out better. I’ve gotten much more used to riding in traffic and people are considerate. Errands also give me a reason to get out there.

The photo below was what was on my bike when I returned home. I went to a pharmacy and got some water color paints (TIP – this is Panama and where you find things sometimes doesn’t make sense). As I turned away from downtown I saw some street vendors. The bag of tomatoes weighed about 2 1/2 pounds, $1. The big pineapple was $2 and it was SO good! The other bag is mariñon, or cashew apples picked up for free along the road. One of the veggie markets down the road sells pipa fria (cold coconut water). The guy used his machete to whack off enough to make a hole, fill my water bottle, and gave me the shell to bring home so I could enjoy the coconut meat inside. Thank you daughter for my panniers. I use them a lot!

My errands the other day

Mangoes are coming soon!

Then, the big event last Sunday. It rained!! Real rain, get everything good and wet rain. Since then we have had a few sprinkles, some clouds rolling by that looked like they could rain, along with days of intense hot sunshine and some wind. There has been a lot more rain in the mountains but it continues to be very windy up there too. So, the season is changing and none to soon for me. The sunny days have been intensely hot and I’m looking forward to some cooling.

Rain!!

Water falling from the sky!

Yesterday I drove to Boquete,. There were a few sprinkles in David, the ride up was dry, but as you can see I was heading in to the rain. Boquete was wet, cold, and very windy all morning. I was happy to see the sun come out closer to noon.

So, just life, doing things that need to be done, doing things I enjoy, and observing the world around me in my little part of Panama. It’s a good life.