The Panama Adventure

Weekly Photo Challenge: Changing Seasons

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Kris Cunningham

The weekly Photo Challenge: Changing Seasons

Changing Seasons? We are in Panama. There are no seasons. Well OK yes, in a way there are. We are going in to summer when there is less rain, and maybe more wind, so I am told. But, there is no guarantee of anything. Sometimes the dry season isn’t very dry. Sometimes it is. Either way though the length of days will remain the same, and the temperatures will fluctuate slightly more but still average out to just about the same as well.

How do we know there is a season? LIGHTS! Parties. Fireworks. Decorations. Shopping. It’s HOLIDAY SEASON! Mother’s Day was Saturday and this is a HUGE holiday here. Friday evening the streets were jammed with shoppers and there was no space in any parking lots. It seemed like the whole city was out buying gifts for mothers. Saturday was a national holiday. Even the corner fruit market was closed.

Saturday was a big family get together day. The neighbors across the street had their parents, the kids, the grandkids and extended family for a BBQ and much laughing and fun well into the evening. The people on the corner are Colombian, and they celebrated a Colombian holiday – Day of Candles with an evening of fireworks, lights, candles and fun both Friday and Saturday night. They are the ones who surprised us with treats which prompted my recent post The Kindness of Strangers.

Then, of course, it’s almost Christmas. There are every bit as many decorations, lights, and festivity as I remember in the US. Since this is supposed to be a picture post, I suppose I should post some pictures!

Our Colombian neighbors with lights, candles, fireworks, and many friends and family celebrating their Day of Candles.

A store has Rudolf hanging out on the roof!

We may not have snow here, but that hasn’t stopped the Nissan dealership from having a big holiday snowman out front. (Yes, we have McDonalds here, and KFC, Pizza Hut, TGI Fridays, Domino’s Pizza, and more. One day I will have to post about how the US is taking over Panama with fast food)

Our neighborhood has many houses decorated with cheerful Christmas lights, and others can bee seen all over town.

Feliz Navidad! Here in Panama, it is the season to have fun and celebrate.

Posted in culture, Panama, Photo Challenge, photography | Tagged Central America, Chiriqui, Chiriqui Province, Christmas, David, holidays, International Living, mother's day, Panama, photography, postaday, seasons | 2 Comments

A Word a Week Photo Challenge – Blue

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Kris Cunningham

I can do this one! Here in Panama, we also have lots of blue. So, since this PHOTO CHALLENGE landed in my mailbox, I figured why not.

I was going to post these photos anyway, so this is a perfect opportunity to share a couple of my favorites. We went to Las Lajas a couple days ago, my favorite beach. It is so beautiful there!

All that beach, all that beauty untouched, hardly even another soul around. It truly is a paradise.

Posted in Exploring Panama, Exploring the Area, Panama, Photo Challenge, photography | Tagged beach, Central America, Chiriqui, Chiriqui Province, David, International Living, Las Lajas, nature, Panama, photography | 9 Comments

The Kindness of Strangers

Posted on December 8, 2012 by Kris Cunningham

It surprises me how kind and giving the people are here. It happens every day. Strangers on the street help me find things, sometimes taking a fair amount of time to personally walk me to the location and speak to someone else on my behalf. Our neighbor took a morning to help us fix our car and refused anything in return. When I told my teacher about it, she asked – “don’t people do this in your country?” No, they do not. Of course people are helpful when asked, and someone who has been a friend and neighbor for years will stop his work and help you with your car but in general, it’s different. People here help you like they have been friends and neighbors for years, even when they have known you for only moments.

We made friends with a man in the tennis group. He took us to the best store to buy a bicycle, and yesterday he enlisted another friend of his to come with us to Pedregal to find the best fish seller. Then he took us to his house to meet his family.

Our friend at the fruit and vegetable market picks out the best pineapples for us, and tosses in a few free bananas every time we visit.

A stranger at the bus terminal walked me to the bus I needed and handed me off to the bus assistant to be sure I got where I needed to go.

I can site example after example, but last night was one of the most touching. It was Friday night, the night before Mother’s Day, a very big and important day in Panama. The neighbors had friends over and they were celebrating with fireworks in the street. We don’t know these people, but we have said hello a few times as we pass by their house. Last night after the fireworks they come over with a plate of sweets for us, and to wish us happy mother’s day.

So, today I am thinking about the people here. Anytime you pass someone, there is always a smile and greeting. Anytime I talk to someone, there is always patience for my limited Spanish and help offered if needed, help given with a smile and no apparent thought to the time it may take. There is a different sense of community here, a much more open attitude and I like it a lot. I know we are very much in the honeymoon phase of this journey so I wonder how I will feel in a year. From here though, I can’t imagine feeling much differently about smiling, friendly people.

Posted in culture, Panama | Tagged Central America, Chiriqui, Chiriqui Province, David, expat, expatriate, International Living, Panama, photography | 15 Comments

We’re Off to See the Sunset

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Kris Cunningham

There were fabulous clouds all afternoon so we thought it might be an interesting sunset.

First, we noticed this towards the south.

Quick! Grab the cameras and lets go up the hill where we can see more of the sky! The neighbors dogs like to tag along if we go walking.

We actually ended up driving to a field nearby where we could see the whole sky with minimal utility wires in the way. There may be more spectacular sunsets but we were happy with this one. Any pretty sky is a great ending to a good day.

Posted in Exploring the Area, Panama, photography, sunsets | Tagged Central America, Chiriqui, Chiriqui Province, David, International Living, nature, Panama, photography, sunset, sunset photo, sunset photos | 3 Comments

The Lizard Encounter, and whatever else is on my desk at the moment

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Kris Cunningham

We went to the tennis court yesterday morning and it was in use, so we came back in the afternoon. This turned out to be a lucky thing. When we arrived, there was this huge iguana in the road just before the parking area!

I know, I know, this is nothing new around here but for us, it was really cool. My neighbors say there is a season of the year when iguanas are more likely to be out and about and apparently this isn’t it because I haven’t seen any. So, we were very excited to see this impressive beast!

Who would have thought that iguanas can climb trees? When you look at the claws on him though, I guess they have the equipment for it. I actually have a video too! when we saw him in the road I quietly got out of the road and walked towards him. When I got too close he went off towards the trees, and then up a tree! Link to Video I know I need to learn to walk and video more smoothly. Sorry if I gave you a moment of motion sickness, but I’m glad I caught this with my camera.

So, now we have an iguana up in the tree.

He climbed a bit higher until he reached a more horizontal branch, and then he tried to hide on the back side of that. (see the picture in the header of this post) My husband came and stood on the other side of the tree which made the iguana move away from him, and right into perfect camera range for me!

After this, we decided that we had bothered the poor iguana enough for one day and headed off to play some tennis. I’m sure we’ll get more used to seeing these large lizards at some point but for now, we think this is totally cool.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lets see what else is on my desk at the moment.

This beautiful tree is also near the tennis court. Actually there are a number of them in the area. The bark is fantastic!

The hummingbirds are still entertaining us daily with their antics around the feeder. I caught a photo of this pretty one in the tree.

Yesterday we had some fabulous clouds and I got some shots of the birds in front of a great sky scene.

There will be more on that later because it turned into a beautiful sunset.

This little bird visited our yard and perched in the fence for a while. I hadn’t seen this one before.

That’s enough for one post. What a good day!

Posted in bird watching, Panama, photography, wildlife | Tagged Central America, Chiriqui, Chiriqui Province, David, iguana, International Living, jungle, lizards, nature, Panama, photography | 12 Comments

Lets Go Hunt for Bananas!

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Kris Cunningham

Actually, we didn’t set out to hunt for bananas, but when we go walking in the forest who knows what will happen.

We set out into the beautiful forest

Those trees are tall!

A butterfly! Of course I couldn’t resist taking a few pictures, and then switched to my macro lens for this one. This butterfly was wonderfully cooperative and sat quietly while I took photos.

beautiful butterfly

Since I had my macro lens, why not photograph these tiny flowers?

These little seeds are interesting too!

OK, OK, I’m coming! Wait for me.

We climbed up a small hill and found this spot with all these crazy vines hanging down from the trees.

Then, farther along, bananas! What a beautiful spot. Nothing says tropical jungle to me like bananas growing wild in the forest.

Look, bananas! This tree fell over with its stalk of bananas just waiting to be picked up. We must take them home and try them.

So, we set off for home, down the other part of the hill, bananas in hand.

This was last week. We set the bananas aside to get a little riper and then we tried them. They are short, plump, slightly pink, and very delicious! We decided that these are better bananas than we get from the produce vendors around town. What a nice surprise.

So, thinking about how we love to grow things that look beautiful and also produce food, what’s better than bananas! Yesterday, we set out for the banana spot again in search of pups, and sure enough there were many. Most of the pups were just growing out of fallen banana tree trunks, sitting on the ground rather than actually growing in it so it was very easy to get pups. We freed three of them in minutes with only a pocket knife.

We set off for home with our baby trees, and we even found some more bananas as well!

One of them is more than a baby, probably more like an adolescent but it was also sitting on top of the ground and easy to get.

Here is our new garden spot with the new bananas. I also put in a few pineapple tops, and soon I will have some tomato plants ready to set out. Nothing says tropical jungle garden like beautiful banana trees!

The photo at the top of the page was also taken near the banana spot. I think that twisted tree is so interesting.

Posted in Exploring the Area, Panama, photography, wildlife | Tagged banana trees, bananas, Central America, Chiriqui, Chiriqui Province, David, forest, International Living, jungle, nature, Panama, photography | 15 Comments

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Ups and Downs of Outdoors

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Kris Cunningham

This week your challenge is to show off a few photographs of the how people and move up and down outdoors.

For this challenge, some pics my husband and I took a couple weeks ago immediately came to mind. My neighbor showed us how to get to the river behind our neighborhood. You go down these 200 steps…

the stairs to the river

If I understood my neighbor correctly, an American lived in the area for quite a few years. He loved the river so much that he build these stairs to make it easier for everyone to get down there.

these are the stairs we came down

and after the stairs, the path

Follow this path. We are almost there.

After the path are a few more steps. While you are sitting on the bottom steps, this is what you see.

Sitting on the bottom steps with my neighbor and her grandson looking south.

If you look to the north, it’s equally beautiful

Sitting on the bottom step, looking north

We are so lucky to have these stairs just a couple blocks from our house, to have this river right behind us, and to have a great neighbor and friend to show us the way.

Posted in Panama, Photo Challenge, photography, the River | Tagged Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge, Central America, Chiriqui, Chiriqui Province, David, International Living, jungle, nature, Panama, photography | 6 Comments

Why Would Anyone Want To Stay?

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Kris Cunningham

Why Would Anyone Want To Stay?

I really like this post and wanted to share it on my blog. I feel very much the same way about moving to another country, but she says it better than I ever could.

Posted in culture | 2 Comments

Boquete, Chiriqui, Panamá

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Kris Cunningham

Pavimento desnivel (uneven pavement) This word, desnivel, strikes me so funny. We see it quite a bit since the road to Boquete is under construction, and there is other construction going on around town too.

heading up the road, Volcan Baru in the distance not too much desnivel.

We’ve made two trips to Boquete in the last week. When we went last Saturday evening it was raining. The scenery was beautiful, especially the huge white clouds that always seem to hang around the lower parts of Volcan Baru. That was very surreal looking but, it wasn’t a good day for photos. We were in the car with a mission, get to the restaurant so Joel could meet some people and play some music.

In David, it’s always nice and warm. You don’t think about how freezing it can feel only 45 minutes away. Boquete was cold, windy, and wet. I was so thankful the previous owner of the car (one of the musicians) had left a nice hoodie behind. I gave it back to him, but not until the end of the evening. It was a great evening though, good food (Mike’s Global), good company, interesting new friends, and fun music (but definitely chilly for my thin blood).

farther up the road, Volcán Barú getting closer, peak above the clouds

We went back to Boquete on Tuesday for my Spanish class and to go to the market. Class wasn’t the usual class since we planned to go to the beautiful garden, and then a strawberry place. But since she doesn’t speak English, it’s always Spanish practice with her, and it was a real pleasure to be together in person instead of on the internet. Tuesday was the first work day after a three day holiday though, and apparently everyone has so much fun they didn’t want to go back to work. Everything was closed, the garden, the strawberry place, another strawberry place, and even the tourist center closed their doors shortly after we got there. No matter though, we had a lot fun driving around, chatting, and just enjoying ourselves.

Halba Ya, my Spanish school is in this little complex in Boquete

The market was also good. There are a lot of English speaking expats there, so its interesting to talk with others sharing a similar experience. Some good friends of ours are vendors there so we were able to see them also. And, there is always something I think I need to buy.

Mainly though, it was a great photo day. The Boquete area is spectacularly beautiful. Words and photos cannot do justice to the beauty of the mountains with the clouds hovering around the tops, the lush green hills, and a day with a wonderful blue sky and perfect white clouds. I am amazed every day by the beauty of this country, and Boquete is like beauty central. I can certainly see why people want to live there. It’s a lovely little town full of flowers and wonderful scenery, and if you prefer to have a large expat community with lots of activities and events, that’s definitely a place to consider.

You know I couldn’t go there without my camera, and you know I can’t resist posting some of my favorite photos, so here you go!

I love the clouds on the tops of the mountains

more mountains in the clouds

enchanted land

you could literally see the clouds flowing up over the tops of the mountains

I zoomed in on the top of Volcán Barú, and you can see the communication towers on the very top, of you look very closely

Another beautiful view, taken from the road on the way back home.

Posted in Panama, photography | Tagged Boquete, Central America, Chiriqui, Chiriqui Province, David, International Living, mountains, nature, Panama, photography, Volcan Baru | 2 Comments

Weekly Photo Challenge: Reflections

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Kris Cunningham

This week’s photo challenge is reflections, so this one was easy for me. I love water, and I love reflections in water, so the challenge was to limit this to a reasonable number of photos.

This was taken with my camera phone. I saw these trees reflected in a pond, and snapped a photo. Maybe it is the subdued feeling, the hazy reflections, and the mellow colors that make me like this one.