The Panama Adventure

It’s been a really nice day, sunny, light breeze, not too hot, very enjoyable. I’m sitting here reflecting on my day, just a ordinary typical day in my life here (as ordinary and typical as any day can be in a different country).

The teak harvesting continues. They arrived about 8:15-8:30 this morning. It is now 5:30 PM and they are still at work. I caught the truck leaving yesterday. If you missed my previous posts about this work in progress and want to see more, the posts are here and here. It’s been quite interesting to watch.

The guys who load the wood (by hand!) on to the truck all pile on top when they drive off. I don’t know where they go, but before long they are back to load more.

When I went through my photos I saw I had caught my neighbor Lucho who was also watching the truck leave. He said he did that work when he was young and it was really hard. After a year he knew he needed to find a different line of work (he is now a welder who makes security gates for doors and windows, and also does a variety of construction projects). He said the guys doing the heavy lifting make $20/day, or at most $25/day. I also talked to the very strong little guy this morning. He said he is making good money but he’s heading up the whole operation.

Lucho watching the truck. I have such nice neighbors.  He’s smart, hard working, sensible, and has a heart of gold, and just looking at the photo makes me smile.

I hadn’t been on my bike in a while, so I set off for a ride and some errands this morning. As you leave our neighborhood, there is another neighborhood on the other side of the street with a lot of new activity.

As you leave our neighborhood you see this sign pointing across the street to the new neighborhood under construction.

At the end of the street is the new neighborhood that is going on. I still don’t understand the cutting in to the hillside. I notice it also goes around the right side of the hills.

Also, about a block down the street I saw this. An apartment building?? That will look odd in this area of single family homes.

There is a big field south of our neighborhood, and once in a while they hire three guys with machetes to cut the grass. It usually takes them three days. That kind of labor is very cheap, so they probably figure it makes more sense to do this than hire a machine that could cut it in a couple hours. What hard work out in the hot sun though.

Next I headed over to the old Via Boquete and saw this new sign. It looks like a large apartment building is going in there, also in a neighborhood of single family homes. It’s crazy all the construction and growth going on around here!

I was headed to the art school since I hadn’t been there since my trip. I had a good time saying hi to the other teachers but my painting teacher was out doing other things, so I’ll stop by another time. On the way back I passed another view of the construction in progress for the new bus terminal and shopping center.

No tire basura = don’t throw trash. Se vende = for sale. This would be a nice lot with a pretty view.

That’s about it for this morning. I have a cold, nothing serious, just a very runny and sneezy nose but I’ve lost my desire to fill my afternoon with activity.  I’ve been mostly sitting and reading and I’ve found some interesting articles. You have been warned 😀 There may be more off topic posts.

It’s now 6PM. Joel went to Boquete this morning for band practice for tomorrow’s gig. Then he had an afternoon thing with his other group, and now suddenly they have also been asked to play at a restaurant tonight! It looks like the teak people are wrapping it up for today. A couple of the pickup trucks have left, and they have parked the tractor in Lucho’s yard (huh? Maybe he’s keeping an eye on it for them if they aren’t coming tomorrow). It looks like I have a whole baked chicken all to myself! 😀

Life in Panama…

The owner of the land behind and around our neighborhood is having teak trees cut down for lumber. The workers have been very happy to talk with me and answer my questions. I learned that the trees are 35 years old, and they plan to cut 70 of them. That’s a lot of teak and according to my neighbor, muchisimas plata (a whole lot of money). She also thinks the teak is going to be exported to China.

The guys continue to be hard at work cutting the teak and hauling it away. Wednesday it was all going on at once. Guys were below cutting, the tractor was hauling up the trees,  guys were above cutting logs to size, and other guys were putting the pieces on the truck, driving off with it, and then returning with the empty truck to do it again. That’s a lot of activity in our usually quiet end of the street. They were even loading the truck after dark and in the pouring rain!

This is our street. I was standing in front of our house which is on the right. The fence is in front of my across the street neighbor. The pine forest is behind and beyond her house. Straight ahead the road ends at the edge of a cliff. The teak trees are mostly down there next to the river. They have been bringing them up to this area. You can see some of them beyond my neighbors fence, and there are more in front of the workmen’s white truck.

To the right of the white truck in the photo above is a road. It hasn’t been used in many years and was completely overgrown. Joel and I went down there when we first moved here but it was hard going and involved a machete to cut our way though. But, the guys have cleared it now so they can use it to haul up trees. How nice for us! We have an excellent new route down to the river.

Today we decided to go exploring a bit.

The top of the road

We head down the remarkably clean road, though because of all the rain it’s a bit muddy and slippery.

Now I’m looking back up the road. It’s a fairly steep incline

I think it’s really beautiful in the woods and when they get finished with their work, I’m sure I’ll be taking more advantage of the cleared road. I am also interested to see that though they have cut a lot of trees, there are still a lot of smaller teak trees and a variety of other trees and plants. The area is changed but it doesn’t look naked or damaged. The woods are also thin because of the brush fires that burned through here three months ago. In some of the photos you can see the scorched and charred trucks of trees. What a comeback though, in a short time.

When we got to the bottom of the road we found the work area.

Looking back up the hill we could see where they had cut a lot of the trees. The pine forest is up above here.

The river is beyond these trees. You can see evidence of the brush fires that went through here three months ago.

I would have had to climb through underbrush and over rocks to get to the river and I wasn’t in the mood or prepared. Next time though, I must get to the river. This is the part where the water rushes over the rocks and the sound can easily be heard from our house. If I can discover and clear a good access point, it will be a nice, nearby place to enjoy our beautiful river.

Yesterday was much quieter. Only the two guys in the white truck showed up, and I could hear their chain saws and trees crashing down below. It will be interesting to see what today brings. So far two pickup trucks have arrived with the guys who have the chain saws and drive the tractor, but it’s still early.

And, they tell me that after the teak, they will be harvesting the trees in the pine forest. it’s not going to look the same around here.

Ahh, and here comes the truck that hauls away the wood. It’s going to be a busy day in the neighborhood!

This has nothing to do with Panama, bugs, new experiences, or the usual subjects of this blog. It’s a very personal thing, and since this is my blog and I feel like writing about it, here I am. I won’t be offended in the least if any of you just click on by. The next post will be more about the teak harvesting going on in my neighborhood, so stand by.

I happened across this article today – “Please don’t tell me I was lucky to be adopted“.  The writer is talking about some of the difficulties of being an adoptee. One line really struck home – “Can you imagine being the only person in the world you know you’re related to?” Yes, I can. That was my reality for many years of my life. I felt like I had been dropped on this earth by aliens with no connection to anyone in it.

I am one of the lucky ones. I found my birth mother when I was 27 and we have shared a very warm and happy relationship ever since. We are now connected on Facebook and it is possible that she will see this post. The last thing I want to do is make her feel any guilt or responsibility because she deserves none of that. I was born in 1952, and in those times unmarried teen mothers were treated very differently. The decision to relinquish me was made for her, not by her and I think she suffered a lot because of that. She feared I would hate her for giving me up but that thought never crossed my mind. I have thanked her every day for the genes she gave me which I believe have kept me mentally and physically strong throughout my life.

But yes, it is a different experience being adopted. Except for my younger sister, I didn’t know any other adopted children. I had no answers to questions about my nationality. My sister and I look very different which caused many comments at school. I felt no connection with the parents who raised me. That mother was a very unhappy women who subjected us to emotional and physical abuse. I didn’t see much of my father who was also emotionally abused by my mother. It was a difficult and lonely time, and I was comforted by the fact that I shared no genes with those people.

Of course every adoptee has their own unique experience. Some, like me, are driven to find their birth parents. Others seem to have no need to connect with their origins. Some seem fine with the situation, where others feel like a piece of themselves is missing. I imagine it can be even more difficult when you are racially different from the parents who raise you.

For me, it all worked out well. I have been increasingly happy over the years.  I have a good relationship with my birth mother. I have even met my birth father and though we don’t keep in touch, our couple meetings went very well. My children have also been able to meet both of my birth parents. They don’t seem to suffer from the voids on my side of the family history, and I think this was helpful. I went to counseling which helped me put my childhood in perspective, and reassured me that I could be a different kind of parent.

Maybe it was karma, or luck, or the universe knowing I needed this, but my first daughter looks very much like me. It was amazing to look at that little face and meet the first person I’d seen who resembled me. Less than a year after her birth I met my birth mother, and though my other daughter and my grandchildren don’t look like me, it doesn’t matter because I was and am in a different place. There were and are other family who needed to physically see their connections also. I know we are all blood related and for me, that’s more than enough, quite amazing in fact.

I still feel the voids in my family history though. I recently did one of those DNA tests and am awaiting the results. In the US, except for the Native Americans we are all immigrants. What is my heritage?

An aside – a Panamanian neighbor was chatting one evening and I don’t know how we got on the subject of adoption, but he was very amazed that I knew. According to him, that fact is never talked about or revealed to anyone. One day I’ll have to ask around to find out if this is the common way of thinking in this culture. Thankfully my parents were given the good advice to tell me before I heard it from someone else, so I can’t remember not knowing. It would be a heck of a shock to find out later!

Teak is a very hard, durable, and water resistant wood that is often used for boats and other outdoor uses. It is native to Asia and India, but it was found that it grows very well in Panama so there are many teak forests scattered around the country.

The owner of the woods across the street from us planted pine and teak on the land. Recently, she decided to harvest some of the teak. A little of it is in the woods on our level, but much of it is down the cliff on the land by the river. We have been hearing chain saws in the woods for a few days. Yesterday I went to see what was making noise and found them unloading a tractor.

I told them I was taking photos for my grandson who loves big machinery, so they invited me to come along and watch them at work.

The guys headed for a spot in the woods above the cliff.

One of the guys headed up the tree to loop a rope above, which was then used to bring up a steel cable with pulleys

This is one of the teak trees on the ground ready to be taken out

Another guy cleared trees out of the way to make room for the trees to be taken out

These are some strong guys! The small one in the purple shirt is probably 5’4″, and Joel said shaking his hand was like touching a body made of rock. He handles the large chain saw like it’s nothing. They had the trees prepared, then used the tractor and cable to bring them up, and then the tractor and chains to drag them out of the woods.

The tree gets dragged behind the tractor

Trees at the edge of the woods ready for the next step

You can see a lot more of this process in the video below.

The guys returned this morning. There was more sawing and a new truck so I went over to see what they were up to.  I was even more interested and surprised by what I saw. There is also a video but here is a hint.

First the guys were sawing the trees into pieces

Then, they took the truck to the wood

Then, they physically picked up the pieces and carried them to the truck!!

There is a bit of video as well.

Now, it seems like every stage of the operation is in progress at the same time. The tractor is still bringing up more trees. The guy is sawing them at the edge of the woods. The loaded truck just left with the logs strapped down and guys riding on top of the wood. Probably they are needed for the unloading as well, and then they will be back.

This was shortly before the truck left the neighborhood.

Teak is expensive wood. This interesting article HERE says there is about 350 board feet of wood per mature tree. They take 20-25 years to reach maturity but the paycheck at the end can be substantial. Retail for dried and treated wood looks like its about $15-25/board foot so even if the owner gets 1/3 of that, she is going to walk away with a nice bit of money.

The guys told me that they will be cutting pine trees next. I kind of hate to see them go because that pine forest is very beautiful. I wonder if she is clearing the land for development though. Hmmm… it’s an excellent spot right above the river. We shall see what the future brings and go from there.

Yep, the guys on the truck just returned all riding on the bed of the truck, ready to load it up again.

Sometimes there are those days when things just don’t go smoothly. It happens here in Panama too.

We went to our phone provider to switch our service from the “dumb phones” to the new smart phones and set up a data plan for each. The place had lots of customers and employees on vacation so it took some quite a while to get helped. We met another expat couple who has been waiting longer than us and they were getting frustrated. But, as things usually go eventually, we got what we needed and now have internet in our phones. It was interesting. She asked our phone numbers, did something with a couple new chips, and now the new chips have our old phone numbers. I thought the numbers went with the chips but apparently not always.

Then, we set out for Pricesmart, our version of Costco. There is a traffic light just before the public hospital area and traffic always seems to be backed up between there and Chiriqui Mall, but today it looked quite a bit worse than usual. When we turned in to Pricesmart it was backed up as far down the highway as we could see. The city is growing and they are constantly building, and none of that is doing the traffic situation any good.

Sitting in traffic for a while. All the yellow vehicles are taxis. Yes, we have a whole lot of taxis here!

We enter Pricesmart to find out the power was out, but the cash registers were still working. We proceeded to do our shopping, got into one of the longer than usual lines, inched our way up until there were only 4-5 customers in front of us in line to be told that there was not going to be any more checking out. They said the cash registers have only 20 minutes of battery power, and if the power isn’t restored in that time they also go down.

So, we left our carts as instructed, and made our way out to the still totally backed up highway. It wasn’t too bad though. Traffic inched along and after a while we were out of it and on our way to the supermarket to get a few things we needed now. Maybe we should go back to Pricesmart tomorrow though. Will they be having a big sale on no-longer-frozen items? 😀

Super Baru was also pretty busy but it’s really nice that they have a guy in the parking lot. He helps people find spots, helps people back out safely, and generally does what he can for everyone.

The Super Baru parking helper.

Sometimes it is just one of those days. But we had a good time chatting with people while we waited. We are retired and no one is expecting us at the office. It’s a warm and muggy day but we’re not sliding around on icy roads. And, thanks to the iPhones that my daughters gifted us, we have internet in our pockets.

A lot of things have been good today. Joel arrived back from his travels this morning after an excellent time seeing family.

It rained last night and really cooled things down. It was cloudy and cooler most of the day today also. I took advantage of it and spent quite a bit of time cleaning up the yard. It doesn’t take a lot of maintenance but after being gone a couple months myself, it’s in need of a bit of TLC.

Some of the front yard is looking much better. I won’t show you the back yard for a while though 😉

The water went out but it happened after the kitchen was cleaned up and all the dishes done. It came back on later in the afternoon so by the time I came in from the yard, dirty and sweaty, I was able to have a nice shower.

The neighbors are adding a much needed extra bedroom. My friend has her daughter and grandson living there, and her son, all in a two bedroom house. The son and a couple other guys are doing the work and along with the sawing and clanking of rebar there was tons of laughter and fun, nice to hear.

There is a chicken in the oven and it smells really good.

I have great friends. I invited my German friend for dinner a couple nights ago because there was a German cyclist staying here, and it was such a good evening. That was right after I visited my former Spanish teacher and we always have a very good time together. The cyclist will be back tomorrow so I think we’ll do a repeat of the fun dinner.

I feel better. I was just sort of sick, tired, didn’t feel like eating, sore throat, nothing serious but enough I didn’t feel like doing much. But a few days ago, suddenly, almost like flipping a light switch, it just left. These things make you realize what a gift it is to be healthy.

It’s raining again, not the crazy I can’t believe how much water is coming down downpour, but a nice steady rain and it’s really cool this evening. (OK, you will laugh, It’s 76 on the terrace thermometer, but I’m going to need my long pants soon)

Did I mention that Joel is home and sitting beside me this evening?

It’s a very good day.

There is a beautiful river behind our neighborhood, and it’s always a pleasure to visit it. I’ve taken lots of photos but I haven’t posted any for a while, so I thought I’d share these from today.

We have had some really heavy rains over the last few days so the water is pretty muddy. The rain is helping everything to grow though, so it’s lush and green too.

We are lucky to live where we do. Not only are we at the end of the street by the woods, we have this great river close by.

I was gone for almost two months and when I returned to Panama, I saw a lot of things that had changed. David seems to be in a constant state of construction and there is something going on anywhere you look. I’m sure this doesn’t even begin to cover all the projects currently under way and this is only David. There are a lot of things also going on in other parts of the country as well.

My grandson is obsessed with Mighty Machines – construction equipment, and big trucks and machinery of any kind. Since the construction projects usually come with heavy equipment I’ll include some photos for him. He would have so much fun here! There are mighty machines everywhere and you wouldn’t even have to take any detours on your way home to see some.

Close to home, I saw STREET SIGNS! They are at almost every intersection between our neighborhood and the highway. Panama is notorious for not having street signs and confusing anyone not familiar with the area they are in, so this is a very cool thing to see.

There was a house under construction in our neighborhood. Now it is much closer to being finished, and a second one is underway next door. This photo was taken on Sunday and the guys were hard at work. That doesn’t seem to be all that unusual around here, so anyone who thinks Panamanians are lazy needs to really rethink that opinion.

Then, just outside our neighborhood they are putting in another neighborhood. The roads and utilities are being dug in and if you look at the hill beyond, you can see two pathways dug into the side of the hill. I don’t know why you would need roads up there, so I don’t know what that is about. Maybe time will tell. Of course mighty machines are involved in this project.

Next, I headed up Via Boquete to the site for the new bus terminal and shopping mall. Nothing is being built yet but the area has been really smoothed out and prepared, and looks quite different than it did the last time I saw it.

Now there is a large, wide open and flat area. This photo is looking somewhat north from the entrance on Via Boquete.

This is looking west, I heard this is where most of the work is going on at the moment. There is going to be another entrance over there.

Of course many mighty machines are involved.

From there, I headed south to the overpass on Via Boquete.

A few blocks north of the overpass I found a new project underway. I don’t know what it is going to be.

As I went over the overpass, I could see the ball field. There is heavy equipment out there, the bleachers are gone, and they are digging and making piles of dirt. They are building a new sports complex south of town but I don’t think the stadium is even started, so I wonder where they are playing ball these days. This stadium was used a lot.

Farther down by the Parque de las Madres, I see this gas station is now finished and open, and there is a new Pio Pio also (fast food chicken)

From there, I took the street that goes behind Romeros and headed towards downtown. There are some big projects down there as you get close to the Grand National Hotel, and they also showed considerable progress since I’d seen them last.

This is an office complex. It’s twice as high as it was when I saw it last.

6 floors, 4 levels of parking, and lots of other nice things

Of course there were mighty machines

More machines were on the other side of the building. Guys were hard at work here too, and this photo was also taken on Sunday.

Across the street this fairly large commercial center looks finished, and there were a couple businesses already moved in.

Next, I headed downtown. I was hoping the store that sells paint was open because there is much less traffic on Sundays. (It wasn’t, and I had a much more exciting ride on Monday through weekday traffic. But, they had a really good selection of paint colors)

The sign in front shows another very attractive commercial building. Again, there were people working on Sunday.

This was going on across the street, but it looks more like a remodel than new construction.

On the way back uptown, next to Banco National, this building is now finished and occupied.

On the way back I crossed the highway under the overpass. They are in the process of building on and off ramps for the new Via Boquete that goes over the overpass, but the work has been stalled for months for lack of money, according to a security guy I talked to some time ago. Unfortunately this project looks just the same as it did, and nothing has happened since I left. But, there is a cement truck for Camden 🙂

Then as I made my way back up the old Via Boquete, I passed a couple other interesting buildings just a few blocks north of the highway.

There has been a lot of progress on this building. I thought I was told it’s going to be a shop for trucks, but with all that glass I don’t think that’s right. Workmen tend to speak fast and mumble so I often don’t get what they tell me.

This building was finished shortly after we arrived 3 1/2 years ago and has never been occupied. Now it has a for sale sign out front. Some have mentioned money laundering, but I don’t know if that’s true or just the only way to explain this situation. The government offices wanted to move here there but it was too expensive, according to my neighbor who has two kids who are lawyers working in the city. Now offices are scattered all over town which is less convenient for everyone.

This place was a mess! There was a house in the middle with no roof, and a building down the side that looked like motel rooms where they had various offices. The sign says something about tearing down the old place (done), cleaning up the site, and building them a new building.

The metal workers have a new tin man out front.

All this was just on a Sunday morning bike ride downtown and back, a ride of less than ten miles. This is only a small part of what is going on in David. I know of at least three other commercial centers, a university, a big supermarket on the west side of town (where it’s already a traffic nightmare) and a number of housing developments.  There are also things I haven’t seen, things planned but not started yet (like a huge metropolitan park just getting underway) and places completed and occupied that I haven’t mentioned. It is quite the booming place here! What is it going to be like in another ten years?

My grandson and I had so much fun hunting for lady bugs and other interesting things in the yard. This is the closest thing to a lady bug that I’ve seen here in Panama.

So, Camden, here you go, your own Panamanian Lady Bug!

Cute little thing, isn’t it 🙂

This landed in my mailbox this morning. I don’t know how to reblog it so I’ll just tell you about it here. I know some of my readers are planning to visit Panama and this sounds like a really cool thing to do, to book a walking tour of Panama City with someone who knows his way around. I don’t know this guy but he has some really good reviews, and I do know there are lots of things to see and do in the city.

Here is the link http://pty.life/panama-walking-tour/?q=/experience/