The Panama Adventure

It’s still summer with bright sun, 94 degrees, very windy, and no rain in sight. I’m glad I didn’t plan to go biking today with this wind. Instead I cut up yesterday’s mangoes and did other chores at home, and sorted through some photos from yesterday.

They are building a huge mall nearby so I went over there to see what is going on. I could see quite a bit of progress, the outside walls looking better, coverings over entry doors, and men hard at work. Word is that the most serious work is now going on inside. It’s a huge project which is expected to take many more months to complete.

Here’s a video with a look at what has been going on inside.

A couple pictures from yesterday.

Summer is also a time of flowering trees. The guyacan can be spectacular but you have to catch them before a windy day blows off all the flowers. These other yellow ones are also beautiful and seem less prone to being stripped by the wind. The other tree with the big balls is also interesting. The balls are hollowed out and dried, and used for cups and bowls.

This is one of the mango trees I have been visiting. It looks very old but has been trimmed back quite a bit. This is the first year I have seen it with fruit.

This is another tree nearby that we visited a few days ago. It is really huge and must be very old, and this is also the first year I have seen it fruit. If you stand below these trees in the wind you can hear fruit hitting the ground all around you! The fruit is small, yellow,  but sweet and delicious. Mangoes in the freezer all year? Oh yes, thank you mango trees!

It’s now after lunch and the wind is still blowing like crazy. It’s time to go inside and practice new songs 🎸 😊

Not much 😁

Again, days and days have gone by since I’ve been to the blog. When I first got to Panama everything was new and interesting. Now a trip to the supermarket or to the chino (neighborhood convenience store) is so routine it’s not at all remarkable. It’s easy to forget that routine stuff is interesting to people who aren’t here but unfortunately, I don’t sit down and write about it.

We are settled back in after our travels to the US, the band hasn’t been super busy, and I’ve had a bit more free time than usual. So, other than the usual chores and errands …. which we have managed to minimize…. we have a freezer so we can avoid going shopping for many days and housekeeping…. I need a certain level of order but not enough to obsess about spiders in the corner or spots on the floor. I’ve tried to cut down on time spent on line. I don’t need to read everything, or get engaged in every forum, or write detailed answers for people who haven’t done even basic research (this one I’m still working on.., I tend to be too “nice”). But still, time is always in short supply.

Anyway, free time, it’s mainly been used to learn new songs, go biking, talk with friends and family, cut up fruit or make juice for freezing, or enjoy a bit of yard work. Mangoes are in season and falling from the trees. We had a really large head of bananas ripen, the limón tree is loaded with fruit, and the guanabanas (soursop) are also in season.

It’s still hot summer and we are anxiously waiting for the rains to return. Some days the clouds come by and tease us, or drop rain in only a few areas. Today is overcast, the first day we haven’t been baked in the hot sun. I’m not sure what that means but we are thankful. Boquete, however, has ranged from cool a breezy to cold, wet, and windy. It’s like a different world up there.

Utilities in David tend to be reliable (except for water, but we have a tank now). There was a very strange thing last week though. Half the house went out. I figured there was something very wrong in the breaker box and we needed an electrician, so I called the neighbor for the number of one nearby. It turned out to be an electric company problem. Half the neighbor’s house was also out, and other houses in the neighborhood were half out as well. How strange is that?! It was like that for a while, and then the power went out entirely. They got busy fixing it though and power came back an hour or two later. I’ve never heard of such a thing. Apparently houses are wired differently here.

That’s all that comes to mind at the moment.  Maybe today I’ll finally get to make those healthy oatmeal banana cookies I’ve been meaning to try.

Mamey Sapote….  well it’s new to me and I love this fruit!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pouteria_sapota

I first saw it in Cuba a couple years ago when our hostess served it for breakfast. Then, I saw it again the last time we were there, and then again, recently, at a produce market here in David. Word is that Mamey is only found in March and is used for making “chicha” (the word for pretty much any fruit drink).

In Joel’s hand

If a bit of skin is removed and the fruit is bright orange, the fruit is ready

The fruit here is considerably bigger than what we saw in Cuba, and tends to have fiber below the skin but the flavor and appearance is the same. It reminds me of a cooked sweet potato but very sweet, and I’m happy to just eat it with a spoon.

The recipes for drinks all seem to ask for fruit, ice, milk, and sugar. I made a drink and it was wonderful but you definitely don’t need sugar! I found it to be super sweet.

I didn’t have any luck sprouting the Cuban seeds/pits, but I have a couple more here in damp paper towels, a method I found recommended on line. Maybe with luck I’ll have a tree someday. I was told they are very large trees so if it doesn’t work I’m happy buying the fruit in season and putting some aside in the freezer for later.

It’s summer here in David, Panama, the height of summer. The dry season is mid December to mid April so by now we are tired of hot, dry weather and we are wishing for rain. Usually we have the most intense heat in April right before the rain but this year it seems to be here early, but there is no sign that the rain will also be early. (I know the weather report above predicts rain but I’ll believe it when I see it)

This is our thermometer this morning, about 10:20 AM.

The last couple nights it only went down to the low 80’s. We almost never use AC at night so the unit is in the living room (for those hot afternoons). But, even with AC and fans to blow the cool air down the hall, it was still hot.

Let night, however, we had a band gig in Boquete, only 40 minutes up the mountain. It was probably around 70 degrees, breezy, and wet! It wasn’t raining but the misty bajareque was rolling through leaving a layer of moisture on everything it touched. It often feels like a different world up there! Here we are approaching Boquete, heading into the clouds.

But, with bajareque comes rainbows! This is the view while we unloaded the band equipment.

We think we have the best of all worlds. We like the warmth of David (even if we are whining a bit at the moment) and the convenience of all the city has to offer nearby. But, we go to Boquete a lot. On the way we see gorgeous views of the mountains. We get a bit of cold weather, we get to see friends and play some music, and then we come home to our David  neighborhood and the dog who is always happy to see us.

There is no snow, ice, flooding, blizzards, and we’ve had much hotter weather in many other places we’ve lived in the US. All in all it’s pretty darn good here.

There are many mango trees in Panama, and they thrive here. I have seen huge trees and talked to people who say they can be more than 100 years old. People say that you plant mangoes for your grandchildren because by then, they will be large and very productive.

It’s coming into mango time now. We have been watching the trees flower, then the little fruits develop, and now there are many trees with large clusters of fruit hanging and waiting to ripen.

Last year there were no mangoes. Word was there was a storm with lots of wind that blew the flowers off the trees. No flowers – no fruit. This year I’m happy that this didn’t happen again.

We went biking a couple days ago and checked one of my favorite trees. The fruit is small but ripens earlier than most. A lot of it is close to the ground so it doesn’t bruise when it falls, and it tastes good.

The fruit is low…

The fruit is high….

The fruit is ready to spread on a cookie sheet for freezing….

The fruit is frozen, packed, and ready to store in the freezer… By the end of the season I hope to have a few bags to last until next season.

I love that there is so much growing everywhere here. Just in our yard alone we have bananas. We left them up a little too long so they are sunburned but they will still taste great.

We also have yuca, pineapples, passion fruit (but no fruit because the iguanas keep eating the flowers), plantains, and citrus. We have oranges and now something they call “mandarinas” that are large, dark green, orange inside and so sweet and delicious! We also have tons of limóns, funny green fruit with beige patches, tart orange fruit and tons of juice. We have been freezing lots of juice for later. We have soursop, ginger, culantro (not cilantro, but another herb), and we are waiting on coconuts, huge yellow lemons, avocados, and some other fruits I grew but don’t remember now what they are. The land here provides a lot, and the people here tend to appreciate that and grow a lot of food producing plants and trees in their yards.

I owe many thanks to our neighbor Luis, good friend of our landlords. He planted all these fruit trees that we all enjoy so much. Gracias Luis.

I have just read (in audiobook form) a most compelling book. I was raised in the classical music world so I have heard the music of Dimitri Shostakovich, but I never realized what a story there is about his life and music. He lived through the time of Stalin, and then the invasion of the Germans. He was evacuated from his home in Leningrad where many tens of thousands of people starved and froze to death. His music was a life sustaining force in Russia, giving the people hope, courage, and a voice to their emotions and grief.

My life overlapped with his by more than two decades. I know other musicians who left Russia to live in the US, but I never really thought about what they must have experienced or the case of colleagues, what their parents and families experienced.

As a fairly new musician, I’m beginning to realize the impact music can have on people so for me, it was so interesting to learn how music was life sustaining to the Russian people during these difficult times. I don’t expect to do anything near that level, but I’ll keep on keeping on a hopefully brighten people’s evenings along the way.

Another point that stuck with me – Those who ate their meger rations and curled up in bed to conserve energy usually didn’t make it, but those who went to work had a better chance of surviving. There is no physical/scientific explanation for this. And, working together and taking care of each other was also huge. The power of the human spirit is an awesome thing.

Read the book.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve written anything. I think this week is the first one in a while where we haven’t had a lot going on. We went to Cuba. Soon after, our band drummer came back and we had to quickly get back in the grove with him. The day of our first gig together my daughter and her friend arrived for a visit. Then, after a few days in Chiriqui and couple days in Panama City, we all went to the US. Along the way we both had bad colds and a lingering stomach bug. We got back to Panama just in time for another round of practice and gigs, and now here we are almost to the end this week already. Whew!!

What will you DO with yourself when you are retired and no longer working??? Ha! I don’t know how I had time to work. Even before the band I was always busy with one thing or another. Now, add hours of practice, rehearsal, driving to and playing gigs, and I never fit in everything I want or need to do. I’m sure the most listeners have no idea of the many hours of preparation that go into each and every song.

But, we have no travel plans or upcoming commitments besides the band, so maybe little by little I can do some catching up. I owe people emails and visits. I have things I want to write about. There are always chores and errands and in the dry, windy (dusty) season I could clean the house more. Mangoes are ripening, ready to cut up and freeze, and we have oranges and limons for juice to freeze. Thankfully, the dried out yard isn’t growing much but there’s lots of cleanup I could do. And, some reading and relaxing time is always good, and biking! I’ve been out a few times this week and it feels wonderful, but I’m really out of shape (I know, round is a shape 😁).

Yeah… bored…. LOL Never. I’ve had some new experiences, found a new fruit (but no new bugs recently so you all are safe there). Thankfully no Panamanians were watching the cane toad incident or they would have been very entertained.  We had a big old toad in the laundry room, and they are deadly to dogs so it had to go. These two gringos had a heck of a time catching and killing a toad! We are such incompetent killing machines.

Anyway, little by little I’ll catch up on things. And now that we have the band pretty much back on track, there is a list of cool new songs to tackle.

It’s summer in Panama which means hot, dry weather. Rain is very unusual and the sun is intense. Everything turns brown and crispy and fires are common. No one seems to know for sure how the fires start (there isn’t lightning or electrical problems that I can see) but there have been rumors that fire is a good way to clean a field or other area. Since this isn’t legal, people set a fire (and run) on a windy day so it will keep burning, but of course it’s easy for it to get out of hand and burn larger areas than intended.

The woods across the street burned (like they seem to do every year). My neighbors have learned to keep a large enough clean area to prevent the fire from coming through their yards, but it’s still scary to see fire approaching and the smoke is very unpleasant. Thankfully, the houses are cement block with metal roofs so they are not in danger of burning. And, fires happen enough that the vegetation can’t get thick enough to fuel a crazy inferno.

The fire make for very pretty photo ops

The fire/pickup truck parked at the neighbor’s house

You can’t see the fire truck in the dark very well

The next day the fire restarted

The neighbors seemed fine with having the wooded area “cleaned” even though they got a lot of smoke from it

In the past, firemen have come with water tanks on their backs and nozzles to squirt water on the perimeter of the fire to keep it from spreading. This year they came in a pickup with a water tank in the back, and a motor to run a fairly large water hose which they used to wet down the perimeter. This worked temporarily but in the dry and very windy conditions, the fire soon flared up again. Later they sent an actual fire truck to put more water on the fire, which seemed to take care of the progression. The next morning however, when the winds picked up again, smoldering areas were able to break into flames again.

We were afraid the fire would come into our yard. We have it cleaned up fairly well,  but the heat from burning vegetation outside the fence is probably enough to cause our fruit trees to drop their leaves and then the fruit. This happened once in the past and it was two years brfore we had fruit again. Thankfully though this didn’t happen this time and we can continue to enjoy our oranges and limons.

Summer is not my favorite time. It starts in mid December which is fine, and January is OK. By February though I am tired of high winds and no rain, and I’d be happy for rainy season to return. This doesn’t happen until mid April though. People worry about the rainy season and sometimes have the idea that it rains all the time, which is not the case. Mornings are clear and beautiful, clouds gather in the afternoon and then it rains, sometimes a little, sometimes in buckets, but it usually settles down by dark and the evenings are cool and beautiful. Of course there are some days with no rain, and some days with rain from early afternoon into the night (or even 24 hours if there is an unusual weather system), but in general the rain is fairly predictable and it keeps everything lush, green, and beautiful.

I still have quite a few photos from our trip to Cuba. That was quite an experience! Living like a Cuban and hunting for daily food and necessities was quite an eye opener, and a huge lesson in appreciation in what we have available to us every day. For a reminder, read. Friday, Food Shopping in Cuba

Joel did some research on the food situation and learned the soil isn’t as fertile as one would hope, and all the sugar cane growing by the US and Russia hasn’t helped it either. Cuba is able to grow little of its own food and the vast majority is imported. There are the beginnings of sustainable farming efforts and measures to heal the soil but it’s not at all widespread and there is so much more to be learned and done before things can even begin to turn around.

So anyway….

Monday, we went walking in another direction, (down Simon Bolivar, if my map and memory serve) for some shopping we were told about. On the way we passed this beautiful church, Iglesia Del Sagrado Corazón de Jesus Then, we found PlazaPlaza Carlos III, one of the largest shopping complexes in Cuba. There was a variety of stores but we only visited the supermarket which had a better selection, but still hardly anything like we are accustomed to in our lives. There was only instant coffee, plenty of oil, rum, and fruit juice, and even some small frozen chickens (which we didn’t try)

Later on after we got back, we were hanging out on the balcony watching the world go by, including some furniture moving across the street. The stairs are steep and narrow but the guys were experts at hauling things up to the balcony with ropes.

The neighbor was putting lacquer on these chairs

The. Eighbor lady watches the street below

Transporting beer by bicycle

Cookies, anyone?

The last of the photos, in no particular order….

The bread line

The lady selling bags to people in the bread line

Bread line again

We have no idea what this commotion was all about

Whew! I’m sure there is a whole lot more to be said about Cuba but this is it for me, and I’m turning my attention to more recent things now. Chao Cuba

That’s me, MIA (missing in action). There’s been too much going on and the blog got pushed to the back burner where it has been sitting for weeks. But, that’s the thing with retirement and blogs that aren’t meant to produce income. You can leave things on the back burner and not worry about it.

Our band drummer came back! We have had a good time with our substitutes Mike 1 (from the Still Kickin country band) and Mike 2 (from the Hashtag band and others) and Mike 3 (the drum machine) but it’s great to have Chris back. We know each other and play together so well after all this time. You can imagine. But it’s been a lot of organization and practice and extra time to keep all the gigs and drummers going.

My daughter and her friend came for a visit which was fantastic. More on that later. Besides seeing them and being able to show them our Panamanian life, we got to play tourist which we usually don’t do in our daily lives. We had so much fun!

And, we both got colds *sigh*. It’s not a huge deal but it doesn’t leave a lot of extra energy. Thankfully, except for some leftover coughing and congestion, we are doing fine now.

So, that’s the short version of most of February. We are in Seattle now with my younger daughter and family, and since it’s a school/work day I have some down time. It’s too cold to go out so I’m happy doing things in the house. Later in the week we’ll head to California for some more family time with my other daughter, and then back home to Panama.

I’ll leave you with an interesting fly (I have been very deficient in bug pictures 😀 ). I was sitting on the terrace in Panama one morning when I heard this fly repeatedly buzzing towards my shelves and a folded towel. It looked like a fly and sounded like a fly,  but I’d never seen a fly do this. It was carrying either small leaves or flower petals to make some sort of nest in the towel!

I folded back the top layer of towel and found this

Deeper in the towel was the main nest area.

Flying in, flower petal in hand (or foot)

Flying in another petal

Disappearing into the towel with the latest petal

I have quite a few more pictures stored away ready to include in blog posts, so more things will be coming along. I also have emails and correspondence to catch up on, so stand by….