The Panama Adventure

Yesterday a good friend and I decided to go downtown and look around a bit. It was Mothers Day so it was unusually quiet, but most of the stores were open so it was a good day to go. There is more activity during the Christmas season but it didn’t look like everything was quite in full swing yet.

Street food. We had lunch here and it was excellent.

Amusement park rides

More street food

The Hotel Iris second floor bar overlooking the park is a popular hangout

I think Joseph was wearing the trash bag for transport.

They were in the process of assembling a big Christmas tree here

There were many gift wrapping stations scattered around downtown

The park is a fun place to hang out anytime. There are big shade trees, plenty of benches, lots of people to watch, and if you are lucky you will see one of the iguanas who live there.

The fountain wasn’t on today

Christmas decorations

This iguana had no problem with the people nearby

This tanager wasn’t shy either

Cool iguana

This one seemed to know how to pose for photos

That was yesterday. Today and for the coming week we are house sitting nearby. As we went home this morning to pick up a few things we saw Volcan Baru! Between the rain and the daily clouds that have covered it, we haven’t seen the volcano for weeks.

Life in the tropics. My Seattle daughter is sending me pictures of snow and I am looking at palm trees and parrots.

After travels and crazy amounts of rain, our life in Panama is more or less returning to normal. I’m finally biking a bit again and my muscles are slowing getting some strength back. I like getting out too because I always see something interesting.

This, however, is pretty unique. This guy said he was tired of pushing the lawn mower so he invented this remote control mower. It looked like a regular mower below with a couple car batteries on top, and some other parts that included some bright lights which is what first caught my eye, and a controller is from a remote control plane. How cool is this!

I decided to revisit one of my favorite routes northwest of town through Aguacatal and beyond. The Walmart lot still has corn growing but the sign is gone. Only the frame remains.

There have been rumors that the Walmart sign was only a joke. Could this be true?!

Villa Patricia continue to grow. These houses weren’t there a couple months ago.

The first houses now have people living in them

What a nice road to ride

I love the scenery

This route involves crossing the highway a couple times, and traffic was crazy when I came back. The Pan-American highway is always busy near the Terronal shopping area, but yesterday it was backed up all the way to KFC. I also had to wait a long time to cross the old Via Boquete. Joel and I went out to do a couple errands later in the afternoon and it was even worse. There were long lines of people waiting to turn into the shopping area and probably no parking. It’s Christmas season!

the Pan-American Highway

the old Via Boquete

But, it was one of those perfect days, not too hot, light breeze, blue skies, and really beautiful clouds. We were just a little late though with errands in the afternoon. We saw the sky darkening in the distance, and we were maybe half way home when it started to rain, and then pour, and then do one of those epic downpours that immediately floods anything that can possibly flood. Almost as soon as it started though, it was over.

Beautiful skies

Probably after no more than 20 minutes of downpour, it stopped and patches of blue appeared in the sky. I was able to quickly dart out and finish my last errand.

Today we decided a Pricesmart run was in order. The store was fairly crowded for a Tuesday morning and again, any time you go out there will be something interesting.

It is very common to see people selling things on the street. People walk around with buckets of tamales and bags of other things, put a table in front of their house, and there are many of these more substantial operations. There is always something going on in front of Pricesmart because there is space and many shoppers coming and going.

But, live chickens?! I know the pictures is bad, but there is a cage on the ground with chickens, and a guy holding up bags of guandu (pigeon peas, pretty much a requirement for holiday dinners)

There is another supermarket under construction on the Pan-American highway and it looks huge

The highway also has more and more of these potholes. It looks like whole sections of asphalt have gone missing, exposing the concrete road below. People say the heavy rains are to blame for a lot of this.

Life in Panama, always something interesting.

The Centro de Arte José Cáceres O. is not far from my house, and I have been taking painting classes there with Víctor Aguirre Chirú. (There isn’t much about him or the school on line except for their Facebook page HERE) It is an interesting and growing school offering classes in music, dance, and art. There is an occasional adult student but the majority of them are children, and many of them are very young children.

Last night they had a very well attended event and art exhibition.

This is only a few of the many people who attended.

José Cáceres and another guitarist provide the music

Victor Chirú (right) and the wife of José Cáceres (left with an orange necklace) confer on the upcoming activities.

Victor Chirú addresses the crowd

There was some social time for the crowd and beautiful guitar music by José Cáceres. Then people from the school, including one of the students, addressed the crowd.

This darling girl shows off her dance moves

The “stars” of the school

Some of the youngest students were brought on stage and honored for their achievements in art, dance, and music. Then, there was an interesting dance performance, a shadow dance behind a large piece of fabric.

The dance performance

The fabric was lowered so we could applaud for the dancers

The dinner crowd

Next was a drawing for gifts, one of which was a small painting by Chirú, and then dinner was served. There were long breaks between each activity for socializing, and dinner took a while too. Small plates were made up as people came through with green salad, potato salad, a bit of chicken, a piece of sandwich, and a square of flan for dessert. But, it was all very good. There weren’t enough chairs for everyone though and by now I was tired of standing. We decided to call it a night but Chirú caught us on the way out and took us to the kitchen for a celebratory glass of wine.

What a nice evening. I’ll leave you with a ton of photos of the art work. There was art outside, inside, and on every available flat surface! Keep in mind that many of these students are as young as four, and the more advanced looking paintings are probably done by students around 10-14 years old. Unfortunately the information included the name, but not the age of the student on each painting or drawing so I can’t say the age of the specific artist.

My friend Haydeé discuses a painting with Joel

This is one by Chirú

Mine is the lower painting. Haydeé insisted on taking a photo of me with it.

I’ve really enjoyed art classes. I like working beside the little kids and seeing how well they do, and I am enjoying exploring my own abilities with paint and canvas. You just never know what interesting things you may end up doing, especially when you are retired and your time is your own.

Joel had a problem with a filling, so a trip to the dentist was in order. We had been going to Dr Spiegel but he was appointed ambassador to Singapore! His practice is still active though, and is being maintained by other dentists who come in to cover.

Joel went in last week and the filling was fixed ($25). Yesterday he had an appointment for a cleaning (many dentists don’t even require appointments. You just walk in and wait your turn. But, us gringos who are used to appointments like the appointment system too). Anyway, the cleaning appointment… I went with him this time.

It turns out that the dentist is a very lovely woman who lives in our neighborhood about three blocks away! What a small world. He liked her so much that I wanted to go meet her, and while I was there she was happy to clean my teeth too ($30 each, done by the dentist. There is an assistant and a secretary in the office but no hygienists). We had so much fun talking that it is a wonder we got the cleaning done 😀

I didn’t take pictures of the dentist, so instead you get to see another absolutely beautiful morning in Panama.

I have had trouble with my teeth pretty much all of my life. I went in for cleanings every three months. I had the gum surgery (I’d rather lose teeth than do that again!), I had many deep cleanings, I used the water pick every time I ate along with flossing and brushing but if I let up for an instant on my constant care, my gums would start to bleed. They were always measuring my pockets and tisk tisking, and I have lost one of my back teeth entirely.

I came to Panama and my dental problems were GONE! Immediately! It’s crazy. The water pick is gathering dust. I still floss after eating and if  I’m even somewhat consistent with that my gums never bleed. I went for cleaning every six months with Dr. Spiegel and he always said everything was fine. This time though, I hadn’t been in for well over a year. She said I had some cemento (tartar) on my teeth but other than that everything looked fine, no gum disease, no cavities, no problems, nothing.

Why is this?! I haven’t changed my diet much, but I think the fruits and vegetables are fresher since they are grown so close by. I have a lower stress life because I’m not working, but maybe higher stress navigating a new culture and language as I adapted to living here, at least at first (and we won’t mention living with mother in law). I am happier and I have stronger connections to my friends, neighbors, and the people around me. I think happiness and connections need to be given more credit in physical health. But even with all these points, why did it change so quickly after arriving, before I had barely settled in and started to make friends? I noticed I also felt generally better within a month of arriving and I have a feeling it’s the fresh produce. Here it’s grown for flavor, not appearance, and it only spends hours in shipping, not days or weeks. Maybe it has nutrients we don’t even realize we are missing when things are shipped in from a long ways away. Who knows, but I am very happy for my improved dental and general health.

I love beautiful skies with interesting clouds, and today you can see this everywhere you look.

We have found that if you need dental care here, it is much more affordable and of very good quality. If any of you need a dentist here let me know. This lady doesn’t speak English, but if that is necessary a friend raves about another dentist who does speak English.

This morning the sun was shining, there were great cloud formations against a blue sky, and a very light breeze was blowing. What a wonderful day to be out.

This is one of my favorite views from the south part of town looking back towards the mountains

Panamanian speed bumps. I think all this rain hasn’t been good for the roads and there seem to be more potholes everywhere. Sometimes they repave some roads, and more often they patch them until they become a patchwork quilt of patches. Hopefully this summer there will be more road repair work. Meanwhile it tends to slow down the traffic which isn’t always a bad thing until you hit a hole yourself because you didn’t see it.

Something more beautiful than potholes

A common sight around town – a newly cut yard. Yard work was on hold for quite a while when it was raining so much, so everyone is catching up now. The egret flying away isn’t as common in town, though you can see them frequently in the country with the cows.

On the way home it looked like rain might be coming in. It didn’t rain here though until much later in the afternoon.

In the other direction were more pretty clouds and blue sky.

One thing about all those gray and rainy days is that you sure appreciate a sunny day when you get one again!

This is the rainy season in the tropics, and we have had SO much rain! According to this article in La Prensa, we have broken the record for the most rain in 30 years. David usually gets 179 mm (7 inches) in the first half of November, and this year we got 325 mm (12.8 inches). Other parts of the country have similar statistics. There was even heavier rain in the second half of the month as Otto came though.

With humidity comes mold. This year, especially in the mountains, it has been really bad. Boquete friends told me they have mold growing on everything including walls and ceilings, and there is thick fog that comes though for a few hours every day.

Come and live in Paradise, in the land of flowers and eternal spring…. rainbows… unicorns… they forget to mention some of the real challenges you will face, especially in those beautiful mountain areas. If you have health conditions that don’t do well in wet climates, you may be really unhappy here.

The subject of mold was brought up on a Facebook group today (Expats in Panama). Suggestions have been to remove humidity by AC or dehumidifier. Try to increase ventilation by fans and open windows/doors for air flow. Some recommend cleaning with bleach, but others say this only makes things look better and doesn’t kill the mold. Others recommend vinegar, and someone said tea tree oil works well mixed with water and vinegar. I might try that one. Someone is selling Concrobium Mold Control at this website. I might try that too.

Thankfully we haven’t had too much trouble. We have some things we do – squeegee the shower walls, remove any wet towels or other items to dry outdoors, do not return any worn clothing to the closet (which is the other half of the bathroom, nice idea except for moisture control), and Joel put a small fan above the closet that vents air to above. Anything we don’t wear or use gets cleaned, dried in the sun, and then stored in a plastic bin.

We don’t have much mold, but things do get musty smelling – clothes we haven’t worn for a while, the suitcase in the back of the closet, Joel’s speakers that have wooden cabinets… pretty much anything made of wood and leather? Forget it. Mold loves leather. The dry season isn’t my favorite but at least the dryness has the benefit of discouraging mold for us. In the mountains though even though it doesn’t rain, they still get moist foggy air rolling through.

But, on a positive note, we have had three good days! Tuesday I went biking and made it home just as the rain started. Yesterday I went out again and it was one of those days where a single cloud comes through and rains on everything below. I got wet once but the rest of the ride was wonderful. Today, it didn’t rain until after 5PM! I did errands and even worked in the yard a bit. You can imagine how badly that is needed after all this rain and no care.

It is predicted that we will continue to see rain until the end of the month instead of the usual middle of December. If I can enjoy the mornings and get in some yard cleanup time I’m fine with that.

Even mold has its uses. Look at the great pattern it made on the underside of a plastic chair!

There are a couple lemon trees nearby that have enormous lemons in December and into January. I hadn’t checked our favorite tree because it’s too early. What? Tomorrow is December?! How did that happen already?

So Joel, more on top of things than I, rode past the tree today and picked up these.

This is Joel’s photo. I stole it from his Facebook page. Thanks you Joel

There are so many kinds of “limons” here in Panama. The name covers everything from little key limes, bigger limes, a variety of green or green with gray patches citrus fruits that have yellow or orange sour flesh, to these huge lemons. There is everything here except the traditional lemons that we find in the US (which you can find imported at Pricesmart), but the various limons here are really good so there is nothing to complain about, for sure.

These big lemons are the closest in flavor to our US lemons. They are the same yellow color inside also but the skins are edible, not bitter like most lemons. They are so big though, bigger than any grapefruit.

I’ve written a couple other posts, one in 2014 when we discovered them, and another last year also. Check them if you want to see pictures of the tree. There is another tree in the neighborhood and both of them are attractive, round shaped, not really tall, but have vicious thorns. Thank goodness the fruit drops to the ground when ready so I only have to pick it up. Between the two trees I’ll have plenty of fruit for the neighbors, myself, and to freeze for later.

About the weather, I am happy to report we woke up to party cloudy skies and I was able to get in a good bike ride. But, it’s one of those days where a cloud will pass overhead and soak everything underneath, and then move on. I got wet once. Joel went out later and also got wet. I expect we will see more of these showers that have also passed over the house.

I was able to get out though so I’m not complaining. We are not in Boquete either, which is a good thing right now. Friends report that they have had thick fog rolling through for hours every day and it’s so wet that mold is growing on the walls and ceilings. Our clothes get musty smelling if we haven’t worn them in a while, but thank goodness our humidity control measures have prevented them from molding, and there isn’t any mold growing anywhere on the house.

It is the tropics in the rainy season. We have warm and humid. The mountains have cooler and humid. In three months though we will be begging for rain!

I woke up this morning and the sun was shining!! Normally this wouldn’t be remarkable but after two weeks of almost continuous rain, it was a very welcome sight. So, after breakfast I set out for a bike ride.

They are building a new bus terminal and mall nearby so I went to see how things look over there. It looks like they are finished moving dirt around and are starting to prepare the sites for the buildings. I went first to Via Boquete where the guard told me they are working on both the terminal and the mall at the same time. The mall will be close to Via Boquete and the terminal will be farther down and to the west, closer to Ave Joseph Halphen.

The wet and muddy site

Is that a concrete something, the first beginnings of a building?

Look Camden, a mighty machine! There used to be a lot of them on this site, and now there are hardly any which makes me think they are done with the major dirt work.

Those street lights are over Via Boquete. At first I thought the structures were doorways into the hillside, but they are just little shelters for the workers.

From here, I decided to go by the art school to find out when the professor may be coming in. There is a huge palm in the neighborhood which I believe is a bismark, or bismarkia. It looks like a silver palm but it isn’t silver. I noticed a couple months ago that it was making odd spikey things at the top.

This huge tree is near the art school. It is the biggest of its kind that I have ever seen. The last time I was over there I noticed this strange part growing out of the top. I’ve seen other trees make flowers within the fronds, but I’ve never seen anything like the top of this tree. I will have to keep an eye on it to see what happens next.

Between traveling and being housebound in the rain, I hadn’t seen the tree for a couple months. Now look at it!

Then, in late November it had flowers

Late November flowers

That is SO cool, but I wonder what comes next. Is this the end for this tree? They usually grow by making new leaves above, but now above is only a mass of flowers. Yes, that is BLUE SKY behind the tree!

Since I was having a good time, I decided to ride down Via Boquete towards the Pan-American highway to show you some new developments in the neighborhood. The first was an office building that was finished shortly after we came here (almost four years ago). It has been vacant all this time. I heard the local government was interested in renting it rather than have offices scattered all over town, but it was just too expensive. A few months ago there was a for sale sign on it and I heard it had gone back to the bank. Now, they are making it into apartments. I went by to investigate in early October but they had nothing to show me, only a computer simulation. They will email me when they have something to show (I’m still waiting). From what I could see the most basic apartment will be very small, and the living room window will be one of those big full length windows you see on the front. $69K?? You could get a pretty decent house with land for that. It will be interesting to see if they sell anything.

The other photo is the next block down. The Honda dealership moved in maybe a month ago, and the wine and deli shop has opened very recently. I should stop by and check it out one of these days.

The odd “apartment building”

A couple brand new stores

By now, I could see the clouds getting darker and the rain in the hills was coming towards me, so it was time to head home.

It was a good thing I was almost home

What a great morning! It felt so good to be out. I visited my dog friend and the guys at the trucking business, ran into another friend, visited a couple others, stopped by the art school, and checked the neighborhood for new developments. It’s been raining very steadily since I got home. I don’t mind nearly as much when it’s been nice enough to go out in the morning.

The joke says November is the month when nothing gets done in Panama because there are too many holidays. Nov 3rd is Independence Day (from Colombia), the 4th is Flag Day, and the 5th Colon Day. Nov 10th is the Shout in Villa de los Santos and today, the 28th, is Independence Day (from Spain). Schools and many businesses are closed, and there are parades for most of these holidays.

December is right around the corner with Mother’s Day on the 8th, and then Christmas and New Years. We live in Party Central! Why not though? It’s a pleasure to live with people who love to celebrate a lot and enjoy life.

Also today, it is raining again. I remember that wonderful Saturday morning when we saw the sun, but now it is only a memory and we haven’t seen it since. Yesterday morning we had some periods of only clouds, not rain but today it has been pretty much steady rain since I was awake enough to notice. I expect there are parades today, but it won’t be as much fun for either the participants or the spectators. Though, activities seem to go on here rain or shine and no one gets upset about getting wet. I, however, plan to stay home in my dry house.

Because of all these rainy days I have been spending a lot more time in my “office” which is really the outside terrace. If I look right, I can see the front gate and what is going on in the street. If I look left I see the back yard, the birds and any other interesting critters who visit. The guanabana tree behind the white pillar seems to be a favorite spot for birds to hang out.

My office, and I use it day and night. There are a few mosquitoes with all this rain but not enough to drive me indoors (though the fly swatter stays on the table just in case)

Many of these photos were taken from right here at my table, and the farthest I went was out to those banana trees you can see on the left. There are some trees just outside our fence that the birds also like.

Gray-headed Chachalaca. They are a quiet bird making peeping sounds almost like baby chicks until they get excited about something. Then there is a big racket! They don’t look especially graceful, and spend more time hopping around on branches than they do flying.

A wet spider web

An owl butterfly.

This millipede was sitting on my computer the other day

Black-chested Jay. It is easy to hear their call so you know when they are nearby. There seem to be here more than usual lately.

One of my favorites, a Blue-crowned Motmot. It has been a very frequent visitor, and occasionally there are two of them.

Another motmot. Check out the cool tail feathers with the little extra bit at the end.

Squirrel Cuckoo. I was very lucky to get this photo. They don’t visit much, they are very quiet, and tend to hide in the tree where you can barely see them. The tree is losing its old leaves and starting to make new ones, so that helped.

The oropendula towards the lower left was doing his bowing, flapping, and calling routine which caught my ear. There happened to be a flycatcher in the tree at the same time.

I mentioned the chachalaca and the racket they make, and caught a bit of that on video.

I also mentioned the oropendula, and I have an old video of one doing his thing on that very same tree.

Life in Panama on another rainy day, hanging out and watching birds. It could be worse 🙂

We have a beautiful river behind our neighborhood and I have taken tons of photos. But, we have been having crazy amounts of rain and I was curious to see how it was in these conditions. So Thursday, after another day of very heavy rains, we set off to take a look.

The river was muddy and the water was flowing fast. We have seen debris in the trees that makes me believe the river has been even higher, but it was still higher on this day than I had ever seen it.

My favorite companion

We noticed the ground was washing away under some of the steps, and now this step has fallen away entirely

The path was almost too muddy and slippery, so I walked on the plants beside the path

The river is beautiful under any conditions

There were waterfalls on this rock wall where I had never seen them before

Looking down river

The water was really moving

If you use the search feature and type in river I’m sure you will find posts and photos of the river under other conditions. These are from January 2015, early in the dry season. They are taken from the same place so you can see the difference. In the third one you can see the rock wall that had the waterfalls on our last visit.

It may be dry season but there is still a lot of green!

It was such a beautiful and serene day.

Of course, the best part is the beautiful scenery. That is my cyclist friend Bala enjoying the river.

These are from last August. It was rainy season then but you can see the river in it’s more normal state when there haven’t been recent heavy rains.

I took the time to snap a few more photos before we left

I love the river

I love living where we live. Being so close to this beautiful river just puts it over the top. Thank goodness though, as you can see by all the stairs, we are well above the river and out of danger of flooding. But, how nice that we can visit anytime we want.