Weekly Photo Challenge: Horizon

Posted on October 28, 2013 by Kris Cunningham

Weekly Photo Challenge: Horizon

Horizon. The space or line where the sky meets the earth. So many places where the sky meets the earth around the world, and millions of interactions between two elements. It can be water, a city skyline, a forest, a wasteland, a desert, a sunset outside your bedroom window. Is there a particular horizon which speaks to you?  In a new post specifically for this challenge, share a photo which means HORIZON to you!

We are in Pedasi, Panama for a little excursions and getaway, so this is an easy one at the moment!

Boats wait on the beach. Our destination is the island in the distance. The gorgeous clouds really put this day over the top.
This is the beach on the island, and the water is a gorgeous clear turquoise. The mainland is visible on the horizon with the mountains in the far distance.
A postcard sort of photo of the beach through the trees, and the horizon in the distance.
The view from the other side of the island facing the open water, where the blue sky meets the blue Pacific Ocean.
Later in the afternoon we head back towards the mainland. Here again you can see the distant mountains on the horizon, but they are eclipsed by the huge clouds that are forming over the land.
Our Panamanian boat driver takes us back, while the island fades in the distance against the horizon of blue sky and blue sea.
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Bloggers Evening in Boquete

Posted on October 25, 2013 by Kris Cunningham

We had a great evening of bloggers and readers in Boquete last night! Our friend Holly invited us to her house, and her husband Scott prepared a fabulous meal. Cindy and her husband came, and so did Jerry and his wife who are visiting from the US. Of course there are pictures!

Our friends Jerry and Jennifer rode up to Boquete with us from David. Since we drove right by the waterfall on the way up, we had to stop for a moment.

The river and the waterfall are as beautiful as ever!
But, the building has deteriorated further and the roof has fallen in.

Then, it was onward to Boquete. Our friends had reservations at the Boquete Garden Inn, so we went there first to drop off luggage and get them checked in. This place is a few minutes out of town, but it’s really beautiful. There are flowers everywhere and the rooms are just lovely. I was very impressed.

The hotel is also fairly close to Holly and Scott’s house, and the hotel staff explained exactly how to find our way (in Spanish, and I understood all of it. I’m getting better!) Scott and Holly’s place is just gorgeous. As she told me, it’s a constant photo op because the light and the clouds are constantly changing. We were also lucky that the rain pretty much cleared up for the evening. Here’s just a few of my photos.

Dinner was on the terrace overlooking the banana trees, gardens, and distant mountains. What a lovely setting. Everything was delicious – appetizers, salad, a variety of entrees, good wine, and cheesecake. The company was wonderful also, and conversation flowed constantly around the table as people caught up, shared experiences, and enjoyed being with each other. What more could a person possibly want for a great evening!

The view from the dinner table.
The dinner crowd, Holly and I in front of the fireplace, Cindy and her husband in front of us, Scott in the white hat at the other end of the table, Jerry and Jennifer on the right. My husband Joel is behind the camera taking photos on his iPad.
The fire was very welcome. The Boquete folks seemed fine, but I was cold in my jeans and sweater. This is why they live there, and I live in warmer David.
Holly and I doing something – maybe looking for tea mugs in the cabinet?
A blogging friend is a wonderful thing, and an in person friend is an even more wonderful thing 😀

Boquete is a well known tourist and expat destination, so it’s no surprise that Zemanta pulled up some related articles.

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The River – more photos

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Kris Cunningham

We live next to a river and it’s a really beautiful place. I never get tired of going there with my camera! We are in the rainy season now and everything is incredibly green and lush.

The water levels are high at this time of year.
Water swirls around a fallen tree.
Small debris gets caught on larger debris in the water, and vines hang down from the trees above looking for new places to grow roots.
A large Jesus lizard watches me from his perch on the debris.
Another Jesus lizard is spotted in the logs on the river bank.
So much green!
The water is definitely moving along.
This large tree on the river bank is only one of many large trees, some much more massive than this one.
A pretty vine climbs up another large tree trunk.
The water rushing over the rocky areas makes quite a bit of noise. We can always hear it from our house, especially now when there is so much water.
Lots of water!
The water swirling around the river bank catches the blue and white of the sky.
I love the reflections in the water.
The woods are green and everything is growing.
Every possible space has things growing on it, like these ferns and orchids growing on tree branches.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: The Hue of You

Posted on October 19, 2013 by Kris Cunningham

Weekly Photo Challenge: The Hue of You

For this challenge, we want to keep it simple: share a photograph with a prominent color (or assortment of colors) that reveals more about you. It could be a symbolic, meaningful shade; a color that expresses how you currently feel; or a combination of colors that excites you and tells a visual story.

I love color! What color though? That depends on the circumstances. I am happy to paint a wall red or orange, but I’m likely to wear more subdued colors. In a photograph though, all colors can be interesting. These photos are some of the colors that caught my eye yesterday.

The river is one of my favorite places! Right now at the height of rainy season it is incredibly green. The sun shining through the green leaves and reflecting on the water yesterday was so beautiful. The green here makes me feel very peaceful and happy.
A wild heliconia looked spectacular in the sunlight. This splash of color and beauty makes me smile.
This tiny butterfly revealed the iridescent blues on the wings when the light caught it just right. I love this beautiful blue color! The metallic sheen makes it even better.
I saw these tiny orange berries in the forest catching a bit of sunlight. This bit of bright color in the green forest is a splash of joy.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Infinite

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Kris Cunningham

Weekly Photo Challenge: Infinite

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO THAT SHOWS US A GLIMPSE OF THE INFINITE.

It’s the height of rainy season here in Panama. I’ve been thinking of “infinite” all week and my mind keeps coming back to water. It’s been raining pretty much every day, and some rains are real downpours. It seems like we have infinite amounts of water at the moment.

Water swirls around the edge of the river bank, ridged from the higher water during the storm.
Water rushes around a fallen tree in the river.
More water rushes by a muddy spot on the river bank.
Water splashes on the surface of a rain barrel in a heavy rain.

I know it won’t be long before we head into the dry season and we will be wishing for rain, but right now we have lots of water!

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What is This Bird?

Posted on October 17, 2013 by Kris Cunningham

The other morning our attention was attracted by a couple birds making a heck of racket in a nearby tree. Naturally we grabbed the cameras and went out to see what was going on.

I looked in my bird book and nothing matches these birds exactly, but the closest kind I could figure is some kind of falcon, maybe a forest falcon. Unfortunately the light wasn’t ideal to photograph any colors, but the calls came out clearly in the video.

You just never know what you are going to see around here!

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Our Cost of Living in David, Panama – September 2013

Posted on October 16, 2013 by Kris Cunningham

This month, Joel did the cost of living report.

joeltc1's avatarFindingMySelfinPanama

Hi- Kris usually posts our cost of living on her blog and since she is quite busy with all her interests she asked if I would put up a post. “Sure”, I said, and now here it is.

The accounting for September is as follows:

TOTAL $2316.39

Basics:

Rent– $385 Fixed, includes trash and water.

Cable/internet was $59.06

Electricity-$31.59   This is probably the last low bill, I bought a split LG air conditioner  and had it installed in our bedroom. I remembered the house being pretty intolerable (95 INSIDE!) last summer (December15-April 15) and bit the bullet and bought one on sale for $635 installed. It’s not being used much but will be soon. I also painted our metal roof with white silicone paint (Lanco brand) and that dropped the temperature from 127 to 104.

Food- $288   This is in line with what we paid previously…

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Panamanian Water Supplies

Posted on October 15, 2013 by Kris Cunningham

Panamanian infrastructure is some of the best in Central America. Roads aren’t perfect but generally they are quite good. Here in David we have seen a lot of repairs and resurfacing. There is more to do, and repairs don’t always hold up as long as one would hope, but they are definitely working on things.

We have heard from others that electricity isn’t always reliable, but here in David it’s been very good. We probably had more outages in Florida than we have here.

Internet is available for free in many public places, and easily available in your home for about half what we paid in the US. It also has been very reliable.

The water though… there have been a lot of problems. In the dry season supplies run low and the water runs only intermittently. In the rainy season if there is a very heavy rain, the water intakes get clogged with dirt and debris. Then, the water has to be turned off for cleaning and repairs. When the water comes back on it’s usually full of mud and dirt, and you have run it for awhile to clear out the pipes.

MuddyWater

The water in the bowl is water out of the tap!

But, we are not alone. Many areas have pipes just lying on the ground, often taking water from a nearby stream. If the stream runs dry or the pipe develops a leak, no more water. Water storage tanks are very common so people have their own water supply on hand to cover them for the times when water isn’t flowing.

Panama is working on this also though, and there are many planned improvements in the works. $700 million has been allocated with the goal of having reliable water for 96% of the population within 20 years. When you consider how many people live in very basic conditions and/or in very rural areas, this is a huge undertaking.

It’s not convenient to have water outages, but it isn’t a huge deal either, especially since they never have lasted more than a day (though it has sometimes been out all day for days on end). We have learned to keep plenty of water on hand in gallon jugs for essentials. We have been known to wash dishes and do laundry at 3AM when we discovered the water back on. It sure makes you think about all the countless people in the world who never have running water, and have to hand carry every bit of their water to their homes.

While I was looking for a link about the water improvements, I came across this interesting link about major projects in general that are going on in Panama. As you can see, there is a lot going on in this relatively small country!

As I sit here on the patio watching it rain, with two 5-gallon buckets full of fresh rainwater, I will leave you of this video of the water coming back on one evening.  It was unusually full of air and mud that night, and made quite a commotion! 😀

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The Army Ants Return

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Kris Cunningham

The week before last, we had a very interesting encounter with army ants (identified by Kathy, one of my blog readers – thank you!). It was interesting for us, but not so much for our bees who got evicted from their home and all their larvae carried off.

armyAnts4

Since then we have had two more visits from these ants but nothing really happened. About a week after the first visit I again noticed the ants in the driveway. They were going up the side of the house in a few areas but with no real purpose, and they were also exploring any outside walkways and patios. A few of them went in the front door but didn’t get much farther than a couple feet from the door. They hung around for a couple hours, apparently finding nothing that interested them, and again vanished without a trace. I couldn’t get a clear idea of where they were coming from or where they went, and they just milled around in a disorganized fashion while they were here.

armyAnts5

Yesterday we had another visit and again, disorganized milling about. They seemed less interested in going up the side of the house and more interested in the patio and outside walkways – the carport, the patio, and the laundry room between, and they only ventured a very little ways into the house. We went bike riding and again, when we returned, they had all vanished.

armyAnts1

There was a small beehive in the bush outside the front door, and yesterday my husband found it empty and abandoned. I didn’t see it get attacked but it’s certainly possible. The beehive on the side of my next door neighbor’s house is still active and thriving though, so all is not lost (like one ant attack will wipe out the bee population 😀 )

armyAnts3

Very curious creatures, these army ants. I’m glad I have a bit of experience with them, and understand that they don’t seem to be a threat to us or our home. Just give them a little time and they will move on.

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An Indian House?

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Kris Cunningham

IndianHouse

We’ve passed this house a number of times on our bicycle rides. It’s not far from El Rey and the big shopping center near us. I never took much notice of the green shack next to the house until the other day when I saw an Indian woman come out of it in her traditional ngobe bugle dress. Is it possible that she works for this house, and they have put her up in this shack next door? Many of the Ngobe Indians live in very basic housing and live on very little money. Maybe she is happy to have the job and the shack? It looks so primitive to me though, especially in this upscale neighborhood.

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