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.
The Panama Adventure 
Thanks for letting us know! Happy to hear you are doing well.
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So wonderful to hear from you and to know all is well with you two.
Hope you have a lovely visit with the family.
safe travels! And we can’t wait to meet up with you in January. I’ll keep you posted once we have our dates for sure!
big hugs!
linda
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Thank you. We are going to have so much fun!
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Thank you 😊
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It’s great to see you back and hear that you are still enjoying the Panama Adventure. Lovely to hear how things have evolved in your life. Looking forward to future posts about all those amazing critters around your home. I love karaoke singing so that new venue sounds like a great place to spend time. Hugs and great to have you back 🤗👍❤️
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Thank you so much for your great comment!
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Lovely reading your blog again Kris! I have a similar response when someone asks why I travel to a certain place or do particular activities, I say it’s just because I can!
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Yes indeed. We can!
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Kris, I just read your latest blog. I am so glad to hear that you have found a way to have fun with your music! I didn’t realize how much work, and danger?, was involved with your previous gigs! All sounds good now. You are having a good time with new friends, live in a place you both love,and are able to keep up with grandchildren, and newly found family! I guess you will be in California for Thanksgiving! Have a happy one. Even though we live closer to our grandchildren, Chris and Rachel’s 5 teens are busy all the time! We do get together for dinner every week or 2. We face time often with Andrew in Denver, but don’t get there as often as I would like! He and Molly now have 3! Greyson is 4 1/2, Cooper is 2 1/2, and Emery Elizabeth is 6 months old! They are so cute and smart( of course!) The greatest joy for me, as a parent, is to see our kids and spouses being good parents!! Jennifer and Shauna are happy together in Boulder. Of course they have no kids, but Shauna has a daughter from her marriage that is 25. She just had her first child, and lives in Louisiana.
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Thanks for the great reply! It’s so fun hearing the news of your family and all the wonderful children. You are right. That’s the best! I’m very glad to hear everyone is well and happy
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Hello I found your blog via Reddit. I hope you will keep it going because I am researching retiring in Panama and wanted to find info from the horse’s mouth, as it were 🙂
If you’re looking for new thing to write about, I would love to hear the following. Or maybe you could answer my questions here:
– update on cost of living
– long-term care: what do expats do in Panama if they get to a point where they need help with daily living? particularly if they are coming to Panama without family or a spouse
– end of life? sorry, not a fun a topic but has to be faced… what happens if you die in Panama and you are not a citizen? can you be buried there?
– how are you finding local food – not restaurant food, but locally grown meats, produce, grains, etc. Here in the US, I buy from our local farms as much as possible to get the ‘cleanest’, highest quality possible. Wondering if similar is possible to find in Panama?
I’m a vocalist and musician… maybe I’ll get to hear your band at some point, or do a couple songs with you 🙂
Cheers!
Rachel
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Whoa! I totally missed this. Sorry for the awfully late response. Thank you very much for your ideas and I will see what I can do in future blogs posts. Let me know if you come to the area and we can share some conversation and music
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