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.
Central Park is known for their horse and carriage rides.
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!
We travelled to NYC recently, and I have a ton of pictures so I’ll spread them out over three posts. It was a really fun time for my two daughters, Joel and I. I love my grandkids but it was very unusual for just the adults to have some time together, and it was really nice.
The weather was just perfect! It was warm, but not hot, blue skies, and beautiful enough to look like a travel advertisement. There were many special things, but one big one was the Bellclaire Hotel. It was an apartment building back in the 70’s, and I lived there. It was almost surreal to be back there in the same place! The downstairs has been remodeled beyond recognition, but the upstairs had the same hallways I walked down countless times. This picture below was my living room. There was a sofa bed where the bed is now, and a grand piano on the right. I had plants on all the windowsills, and the windows had a view both up and down Broadway since the road bends a bit right there. The place is full of so many memories!
My daughters stayed next door in what was my kitchen. The stove and fridge were on the right, and we had a table in the middle. Many meals and good times were shared there with friends, and many a homework assignment was typed at that table. I made cushions for the bay window but since I didn’t spend much time sitting in it, it ended up full of plants. The bathroom was between the living room and kitchen, but now it has been enlarged a bit so it could be made into two bathrooms, one for each room. There was a hallway going from the kitchen to the large bedroom, but since it is now another hotel room we didn’t see that room. But, I remember painting it a forest green and one wall had a wallpaper mural of a rainforest scene. It was like a relaxing oasis, and little did I know I’m be living in an actual rainforest many years later.
These are the views up and down Broadway. I was used to noise 24/7 – traffic, car horns, firetrucks, street musicians, and whatever so it was a big adjustment to move to a quiet place and I’ve never been comfortable in total silence. The hotel has replaced the windows with new ones that keep out the majority of the street noise, so it wasn’t quite like it used to be.
We went walking to Riverside Park and Central Park, so I have a collection of random pictures. I’ll add captions to them to explain what they are.
OK, I’m off to sort through more pictures. See you again soon!
Going to the US always involves an overnight stay in Panama City, and the Riande is our go to place. https://riandehoteles.com/aeropuerto/ The rooms are comfortable, the grounds are beautiful, the staff is very nice, and there is an on site restaurant. There is a buffet breakfast and an hourly shuttle to the airport. It has everything we need for our stopover time in Panama City.
We fly in the morning in the rainy season, so we had most of the day in the hotel. We got restless and decided to stretch our legs and go walking, and we discovered parts of the hotel we had never seen before.
There is paintball.
There is a tennis court and shop
There is a garden area where they grow the plants that make the grounds beautiful
There is a casino (but we didn’t take a look at it)
The grounds that we usually see are really beautiful. There are many palm trees with orchids in them, and other plants everywhere. There is a lovely pool, and a swim up bar. We have enjoyed dinner and drinks on the dining side of the bar many times in a beautiful evening. You can get food from the restaurant, and sometimes the BBQ place is open for other options. We have found the food delicious, well presented, and affordable. The hotel suffered badly during COVID and showed signs of the struggle, but since then we have seen the place improved, upgraded, and made more comfortable.
One thing that is fun is the cats. The white one lives outside the front door, and the yellow and white one hangs out on the outside patio and bar. We found the black one out back on the way to the paintball fields. We see food and water dishes hidden discretely so we know they are cared for.
It’s funny how you can go to a place many times and not know half of what is going on there! I’m glad we went walking and wandering to find all these new things.
In other news, there isn’t much news which at our age, is a good thing. We have a band date on the 20th at Hops, our favorite place, so we are starting to gear up for that. We are recovered from a wonderful NYC trip (more on that later!) We are getting some rain, so everything is green and growing, and the rains have a welcome cooling effect. I’ve been spending more time on my bike and making a little progress toward building up my distance and endurance. If I ever want to make it back to my favorite routes though, I still have a way to go. But, life is good.
We see the news and the trouble, both natural and man made. Sometimes I feel almost guilty that we are so unaffected by all of it, but we feel for the people who are in the path of various things. Life is really hard for a lot of people. We are so thankful every day for our lives here.
there has been a fair amount going on, but I’ll start with a few bug pictures that I have been collecting. I spend most of my time outside, and interesting bugs are often attracted to my desk lamp. It’s also early in the rainy season and more bugs seem to come out at this time. It is so interesting to see the large variety of bugs and insects that can be seen here! I’ve been in Panama for a while, but I still see bugs and critters that are new to me quite often.
So, there is the moth, a cute little striped bug but I don’t know what it is (there seem to be quite a few of them lately), the spider web, the stink bug, the tiny silver and black bug (one day I had a a speaker outside to work on, and a number of them were running around on it. They were in constant motion and hard to photograph), and the big ass ants, or big butt ants. We only see them occasionally at the start of rainy season. They are collected and roasted as a delicacy in Colombia! We didn’t have enough to roast so that is my excuse for not trying them 😁 https://www.tastingtable.com/1139773/big-butt-ants-are-a-south-american-delicacy/
We have leaf cutter ants here and they are fascinating. They cut pieces of leaves and carry them to their nest, where they use them to grow fungus which is their food. I watched them, and they are very organized. Some will be up in the plant or tree cutting pieces, and others will be below collecting the pieces and carrying them off. They can carry pieces bigger than themselves, and often for what seems like great distances if you are the size of an ant. They are capable of destroying a plant overnight, or a fair size tree in a few days. If they have been working for a while you will find ant “highways” in your yard, pathways that have been cleared to make their work easier. We have them here, but they have been eating our mani lately (perineal peanut) and we have plenty to share, so not a problem. I took a couple videos when we saw a neighbor’s flowers and plants crossing the road and disappearing into a vacant lot across the street.
Technology is great but also frustrating. WordPress “improves” things, so I got to spend time trying to figure out how to order the photos in this gallery, or find out how many words are in the post. YouTube now has “shorts”. I could not find the second video anywhere on my channel, but it had a red splotch on the lower right corner of the thumbnail. I finally discovered that it was a short. If your video is less than 60 seconds YouTube makes it into a short, no matter if you want that or not, and there is no undoing it. At least, this is what yesterday’s research led me to believe. At least the videos seem to look ok in this blog post. This is what I get when I don’t come here often enough. I get to learn new things!
We had two band gigs a couple weeks ago after quite a few weeks off. I think it really pointed out how much time, effort, and energy it takes to play. It had been a while, so we started planning and practicing daily a couple weeks ahead of time. Thursday, we played at Hops where there is a PA, sound man, and young guys with muscles which is a great help. But we still had to bring our own personal equipment, be “on” for 3 hours, and then reload our equipment and bring it home. Getting out of the car at the end of the night reminded me of how we felt every week when we got back from Boquete. Friday we had another smaller gig at a restaurant, but we had to bring the PA as well as our own equipment. Saturday we were totally worthless! We were tired and didn’t have enough energy to do anything. Thank goodness we had until Wednesday to get our act together for our upcoming trip (more about this soon!)
I don’t know what will happen in the future. The restaurant was a special occasion. They mentioned having us back occasionally but we’ll see what happens. Hops begged us for ages to play there, but once we ended our commitment in Boquete I had to ask repeatedly if we had a date. So we’re going to let that go. If they want us they can contact us, but we’re not asking any more.
So bottom line, we are realizing how much it takes out of us to play, and maybe it is time to hang up the guitars. If someone wants us they can ask but we are not going to pursue opportunities. This frees us up to go out and relax, and watch other people work. We can hear other music, and make friends with other musicians that we didn’t know before because we had little energy to go out while doing our own gigs. I didn’t realize either how much band work cut into time and energy for other things, like riding my bike and walking. At our age exercise is a critically important priority.
I’ve also had a great time painting. I think I mentioned that my granddaughters created art for my bass speakers, but I don’t think I shared the final results. Here they are on stage ready for the gig.
How cool is that! I liked the process and the final results much more than I imagined. When I look at them I remember sitting at the table with the girls while they created the art, and I feel like they are with me in spirit when I’m next to the speakers. And now, I have other ideas and the time to implement them 😁
Life is good, and we are happy. I’ll even have more time to write in the blog now and then.
I hope you all out there are doing ok. We see news of bad weather is much of the US, and so many other problems around the world. We wake up every day with thanks for our chill life here, and with hopes that the rest of you are well.
Occasionally someone shares one of my posts to their blog or website. That’s fine. This is a public blog. Of course it’s good internet manners to give credit, which is done automatically with a reblog, and I don’t like people passing off my photos as their own (which thankfully has only happened a couple times).
This is my space where I post whatever I want to, and where I write in my own voice and my own style. Recently I have had a couple posts reblogged on https://financialeyeus.com/ I don’t know why since I never post about financial matters. But the most bizarre thing is the posts are rewritten using some very odd language, certainly not my voice and style. I do not want my name on this writing that is clearly not mine!
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For example, this is a bit of my writing in my last post “About the Comments” –
I really appreciate all of you who read my blog and those of you who take the time to comment. But, I’m sorry for the frustrations this has caused some of you!
I checked my settings, and if you have a previously approved comment your comment should go through immediately. The settings say you don’t have to be logged in, and you don’t have to put in your name and email address. But, if WordPress sees you as “anonymous”, which I’ve seen quite a bit, I’m guessing it won’t see you as someone who has a previously approved comment.
I actually recognize all of you who learn my weblog and people of you who take the time to remark. However, I’m sorry for the frustrations this has induced a few of you!
I checked my settings, and you probably have a beforehand accepted remark your remark ought to undergo instantly. The settings say you don’t must be logged in, and also you don’t must put in your identify and e mail tackle. However, if WordPress sees you as “nameless”, which I’ve seen fairly a bit, I’m guessing it gained’t see you as somebody who has a beforehand accepted remark.
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What the heck is going on here! It’s like they ran it through a bad translation program. But WHY? So, whoever you are reblogging my posts, please use my original writing.
Yes, I also wrote to them directly. Sometimes this world is a very strange place!
I really appreciate all of you who read my blog and those of you who take the time to comment. But, I’m sorry for the frustrations this has caused some of you!
I checked my settings, and if you have a previously approved comment your comment should go through immediately. The settings say you don’t have to be logged in, and you don’t have to put in your name and email address. But, if WordPress sees you as “anonymous”, which I’ve seen quite a bit, I’m guessing it won’t see you as someone who has a previously approved comment.
If your comment doesn’t go through, it is put in the cue and I get an email to go look at it, and manually send it through. This will take as long as it takes for me to check my mail and take care of it. I’m pretty good at checking my email a couple times a day, but it might be some hours before I realize there is something to do. So, if your comment doesn’t appear, don’t worry. It’s just stuck and waiting for me.
So, that’s all I know about comments. Good luck, and thank you so much for visiting my blog!
I ran across this video that make me think of water, especially clean water. If the colors are representative of what is really going on, a lot of people have contaminated water. You can read more about this art, and the shocking and deadly effects of lack of clean water at this link https://ofnotemagazine.org/2016/06/05/serge-belo/
We are used to having water. You open the faucet and clean drinking water comes out. We don’t even think about it until we open a faucet and nothing comes out. This happened to me within a few days of moving here, and I couldn’t believe it. I asked a neighbor who nonchalantly told me that yes, that water was out, but there is a river down there.
We soon became familiar with working around water outages. We stored water for those times. Sometimes we did laundry or showered at odd hours or late at night to work around water availability. Eventually, when we could afford it, we put in a water tank and pump. The tank would refill when there was water, and it would be there anytime we needed it. But, one time the tank did not refill and we were without water for a week, just us and the neighbor next door. The water company did nothing. Someone suggested we call our plumber who diagnosed the problem immediately. We are at the end of the water line, and our meters had become clogged with mud and debris. I was SO happy when he got everything cleaned out and we had water again!
I think it only happened once or twice in 11 years that we were without water for more than 24 hours (not counting the clogged meter), When that happens, they send around a tanker truck to refill any container that you provide. So, it’s not like we suffer much. It’s just inconvenient, especially if you don’t have a tank. It’s the end of the dry season now, and you can expect frequent water outages because there just isn’t as much supply, so they do something like rolling blackouts. When there are heavy rains, sometimes the inlets to the water plant become clogged with debris, and then they have to shut off the water to clean everything out. Sometimes after this, the first water you get will be full of mud, (though thankfully this hasn’t happened for a long time). Sometimes they are working on repairing or upgrading something. Most of the time though, nobody knows what’s going on and they just patiently wait for the water to come back.
And, it’s not just the people here. The last rainy season brought much less water to the area, and the Panama Canal has been having a very hard time. When they raise the water level in the locks, the water comes from Lake Gatun, and when they lower the level it flows out to the sea. The new, larger locks have a water conservation system in place, but it still takes a considerable amount of water to operate those locks. With water levels alarmingly low in Lake Gatun, they have had to restrict the number of ships coming through the canal. They have had to offload cargo to lighten many ships so they can make it through with the lower water levels. It has caused ship traffic to back up considerably and it’s just a mess.
I will never ever take water for granted again! It makes me think of all the people in the world who never have clean water, or they have to carry water sometimes at considerable distances. Now every time I open a faucet and clean water comes out, I give thanks. Now that we are transitioning back into the rainy season, we all hope we get plenty of rain, not only for us, but for many parts of the world that have been affected by low levels of rainfall.
Thank you for the clean water that we enjoy every single day!
The Panama Adventure 