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/
This looks amazing, almost too good to be true. These little devices fit in your ears and translate what is being said to you instantly. They are controlled by an app on your phone.
It’s The Pilot system from Waverly Labs
$129, coming in September. How much have I spent on Spanish, classes? Yeah, more than that. Someone needs to buy them and try them out, and report back!
I saw an article on Brain Pickings today that really struck a chord in me. It has nothing to do with Panama, except I hope as expats and ambassadors from our home countries we all come here with a mind that is positive, happy, and uplifting for those around us.
The article is “On the Soul-Sustaining Necessity of Resisting Self-Comparison and Fighting Cynicism: A Commencement Address” by Maria Popova. She is a writer, blogger, critic, and the creator of Brain Pickings, and also a cyclist. This was her commencement address to the Annenberg School for Communication.
She says that we must resist comparing ourselves to others. There are opportunities to compare everywhere – income, looks, intelligence, job, family, etc etc. We often find ourselves not measuring up and feeling like there is always something more to be had, something out of reach. This wears you down until a state of resignation sets in. It also robs you of your own experience, your own life, makes you feel hopeless and cynical.  This is not a happy or productive way to live. Others can’t tell you who you are or what you are worth.
You can choose to be destructive or constructive, to lower people down or lift them up. In building and lifting up others, you also lift up yourself. Do not buy into the culture that rewards tearing down. Don’t take the easy road. Do what it takes to build, to give hope, and follow your own vision.
Read the article. I can’t say it nearly as well as she does.
One side thought also spoke to me, especially after my experience in the USA and after encountering so many homeless there –
“I came to Penn straight from Bulgaria, through that same confluence of chance and choice (and, yes, a lot of very, very hard work — I don’t want to minimize the importance of that, but I also don’t want to imply that people who end up on the underprivileged end of life haven’t worked hard enough, because this is one of our most oppressive cultural myth and reality is so much more complex).”
Don’t worry, I’ll also talk about Panama here but sometimes something grabs me and I have to go off on a tangent. There is life in Panama, and then life in general and being a sentient human being, and it’s all part of my existence.
If you have followed my blog for a while, you know that I am really really happy in Panama. But, that doesn’t mean there aren’t hassles and problems. None of them are a big deal for me. But I know that many people read this blog because they are considering making the move, so a full and balanced picture is very helpful.
So, in the spirit of revealing the downsides, I will list as many hassles and problems as I can think of.
The people all speak Spanish. Yes, there are some who also speak English, maybe many depending on where you live. But, chances are good that you will have problems communicating somewhere. My Spanish is better now but it will never be perfect, and I will never understand everything. I still have to look up vocabulary for new situations and ask people to repeat things I don’t get.
If you like to shop on line, that may change here. Yes, you can still shop on line but now things must be shipped down here with the extra costs and time involved, and you have to go pick them up from whatever shipping business you use. There is no mail service to your house. Your water and electric bills are hand carried around the neighborhood and left in your front gate. Other things usually entail a trip to the business unless you have an automatic thing set up with your credit card. No mail is not such a bad thing unless you think you will really miss your junk mail.
Procedures for doing things are often different which can be confusing, and of course this is made worse with the language barrier. When you buy something sometimes you tell the sales person. Then you have to go to another person there to pay for it, then bring the receipt to yet another person who will find your item and inspect it for problems. Then you have to sign something and only then can you leave with your item. The process is similar to buy tires, and they will put them on the car also. But, if you want them balanced that’s separate and you have to go through another buying process in that other office over there, even though that work is done in the same place as putting on the tires. Often things need copies, which means going to a place that makes copies (hoping they aren’t closed for lunch) and then returning with your paperwork. Once you understand the procedure for something it’s a lot better but at first, it can be very confusing.
Sometimes you can’t find things. You go to the store who sold you the printer to get ink cartridges, and end up going to five more stores before you find what you need. You always buy your favorite food item, and one day it’s not there and doesn’t appear again for months, if ever. The fabric store doesn’t have thread or pins (but you find them in the supermarket). In the US, I could go out with a list of errands and get them all done in short order. Here, we do well to get one or two things done on a trip out. But, we are retired and have time, and people do their best to help us along the way.
The place is not orderly (at least by US standards). The weeds along the streets can get rather high before anyone cuts them. There are dogs running loose, and chickens, and children, and sometimes cows and horses. The dogs bark and the roosters crow, and nobody cares or keeps them quiet. Sometimes people aren’t good about throwing trash around (they are working on this but it’s going to take a while to change). There is little zoning so people can have a business in their house which may involve noise and more mess like car repair, a body shop, cutting and selling wood, making concrete sinks, or serving food, to name a few I’ve seen. I can always tell when my neighbor, the welder, has a new job because there will be lots of clanking and sawing in his carport as he makes long pieces of metal into new security doors, window coverings, and gates.
There are no street signs or addresses. I see this slowly changing in Panama City but here in David, not so much. Actual addresses read like – behind Romero’s supermarket in San Mateo (a neighborhood), next to the real estate office on the corner. Streets have names but without street signs it’s hard to figure out which one you are on. Add a language barrier while asking directions and it gets even more interesting. People will also give you directions with lots of confidence even when they don’t know and are telling you the wrong thing. Any answer is better than no answer!
The drivers are crazy, according to some expats who come here and have trouble adjusting to the driving style. Rules of the road are often only suggestions, and if there is an opportunity they are going to take it. Taxis tend to be the most aggressive. But, pretty much everyone has the same driving style so once you understand it, you know what to expect. There isn’t road rage and it is very unusual to hear a horn honked in anger. They will give you a short honk frequently though just to say “I’m here, in case you didn’t see me”, which is helpful. People are generally patient and understanding when someone needs to do some maneuver that temporarily blocks traffic.
Sometimes there is no water. This happens to everyone all over the country. Many people have water tanks to tide them over through these times. No one ever knows why there is no water. Sometimes there is a shortage so they just make the rounds turning it off in various neighborhoods for a while. Sometimes they are fixing something. Sometimes in our area the intake pipes from the river are clogged with debris after a heavy rain (we know because it comes back on muddy for a while). The country is working on this but the infrastructure is pretty funky in many areas. It’s common to see PVC pipe just lying on the ground. Thankfully in our neighborhood it has never been off for an entire 24 hour day. Other areas have not been so fortunate. For us, we keep bottles and gallons of water on hand so it’s only an inconvenience, but areas with long outages or households with kids it can find it more difficult. People grumble a bit but no one seems to get very upset, and often just go to the river if there is one nearby.
This is the tropics. It’s hot all the time. It’s hot in the rainy season (which starts in April) and hotter in the dry season (which comes in Dec.) If you want cooler weather you need to go to higher elevations, but up there you may have more wind, more rain, and lots of very moist foggy air that moves through and wets everything. It rains most of the year, sometimes dumping amazing amounts of water in a short time. But, mornings are almost always clear and the rain moves in later in the day so if you do any running around, laundry, or things that are better when it’s dry in the morning you will be fine. Humidity can be a problem. Your leather will mold, and so will your clothes if you don’t keep them aired out. You won’t need much skin cream or chapstick though. There is tropical wildlife also – bugs, birds, snakes, jungle forests, etc. If you don’t like bugs you may not like Panama. I have never seen such a large variety and abundance of bugs anywhere. Thankfully though, very few of them are a problem and I’ve been bitten or stung far less than anywhere I lived in the US. Here in David we don’t even have that many mosquitoes, which surprised me. You don’t want to be sticking your hand anywhere you can’t see though, because you never know what might be living in there.
There is armed security everywhere which isn’t a problem really, but can be disconcerting at first. There are guards in supermarket parking lots, one inside and another outside every bank or business that has money on hand. There are pairs of policemen that ride around on motorcycles, the passenger holding a large rifle and both dressed for battle. There are boats patrolling the waters full of army looking guys. I scared me when I first arrived and then I realized, pretty much nothing goes on here because there is so much security. We left our car at the supermarket for a few days when we were away, and when we returned the security guard rushed over. He had been so worried about us since the car was there so long! The motorcycle cops just patrol the city to be sure all is well, and the guys on boats are there mainly to keep drug runners from reaching our shores. The police and all the security people are usually very friendly, helpful, and nice to everyone. They really live the “protect and serve” that is printed on their vehicles. But, this doesn’t mean you will get away with anything. If you don’t have your car paperwork or license in order and they spot it, you’ll get your car towed and it will cost you.
In my little world here, these are the things that come to mind that might bother people. People in other areas having different experiences will probably have different things. I expect traffic will be very high on the list for people in Panama City, and I hear complaints about customer service. More rural areas may have expensive and unreliable internet. Â If any of you with experience in Panama want to add something else, please write it in the comments section.
Joel recently ran across an article –‘I’ll Never Retire’: Americans Break Record for Working Past 65.  There are more retirement age people (over 65) working now than ever, the most since the 1960’s, before there was medicare. Is this a good thing?
There are good things about working such as the money, the social interaction with others, and the satisfaction of a job well done. I think if you choose to work it can be good for you. But, if you would rather retire but must keep working, then you have lost your option to choose.
According to the article, almost half of the seniors said they were working because they needed the money. About 60% of people have no retirement savings. (see another article –Â the-rich-have-you-beat-in-retirement-too) Â 42% of workers don’t have access to a work sponsored retirement plan and even those who do don’t always use it. As you would expect, lower income workers save less. It’s hard to put money aside for retirement when you are struggling to make ends meet today. Even those who did manage to save often were hard hit by the recent recession, losing much of their savings and much of the equity in their homes.
So, in real numbers, how much money should you have for retirement? According to this article from Forbes, “you need enough saved to be able to meet your annual expenses in year one of retirement by withdrawing 4 percent of your nest egg. We can reverse the math. Being able to withdraw 4 percent in year one means having 25 times your annual spending invested for retirement. Assuming $100,000 in annual spending, you’ll need a cool $2.5 million stashed away. But if you can slash your retirement spending in half, and live on $50,000, you’ll only need $1.25 million.”
Only $1.25 million! Of course social security and pensions will decrease the numbers further, as will a cheaper lifestyle but it still sounds daunting. How much do you have to put away for how many years to get to your recommended number, and how many of us have actually been able to do that? Not me, for sure.
So, if the money isn’t there, what is the other option? Decrease spending! Unfortunately for us, if we stayed in the US, that would have meant moving to a place we would not prefer, and seriously cutting back on everything. Or, working longer, or most likely both of the above. I was so burned out I don’t think I would have been worth much if I had worked another 10 years. I doubt I would have the health and stamina to do a fraction of the things I’m enjoying now.
I know, many of the world’s people would love to have only these problems. We are not starving, being shot at, or fleeing for our lives in an overcrowded boat. Still though, this is a real problem for many in their later years adding worry, stress, and unhappiness to their lives. I don’t think it’s going to get better in the near future either as more and more baby boomers reach retirement age without savings, or with inadequate savings. Add to this the possibility of another downturn in the economy, major health expenses, or other unforeseen problems, and the picture gets even darker. It’s hard times for too many of our bothers and sisters up there.
I’ve been back almost a week now from my almost two month visit to the US, and it feels good to be back.
I’m glad I have’t forgotten all my Spanish! It’s easier in the US where I can talk with anyone and not hunt for words or miss some things, but I’m really happy with myself when I can communicate in my new language. I feel a bit rusty but I’ll bug my friends for conversation to help me get back up to speed.
I biked across town yesterday to visit various friends and I was greeted countless times by people in vehicles, people on the street, people everywhere. The smiles are genuine and they look you straight in the eyes, so you feel like they really “see” you. It’s good to be back.
(I’ll mix in some wildlife photos as we go along)
These Yellow Headed Caracaras are a common sight. I heard a lot of noise in my front yard and when I went to investigate, this one was sitting on the pillar with a lot to say. I managed to snap a photo before he saw me and flew off.
It’s messy here. There are weeds growing alongside the roads, there is minimal zoning, some roads are rough, and people park anywhere they want. But, what does this really mean? Where are the priorities? The US is very clean, manicured, orderly, and visually attractive but all that care and maintenance comes at a cost. Here the weeds will get cut eventually, and you may have to ask around to find the owner of the car blocking you in but he will be found with everyone’s help and a lot of smiles. No one cares if you dismantle your car in the street or have cows in your front yard. It’s a much more free and relaxed style of living and I have come to like it a lot.
It’s hot here. You get used to living with your skin always a bit moist, but you hardly ever need skin lotion or lip balm. You need more showers and laundry though! A lot of people go to higher elevations to be cooler but I like this warm weather. I was thankful for my kids in the US who put big comforters on the bed and did what they could to keep me warm, because it felt pretty chilly to me there. Here I’m fine in shorts and a t-shirt except on an occasional evening when rain has really cooled things down.
My grandson would be in heaven here! There are mighty machines (heavy construction equipment) everywhere, for sale, for rent, and on countless job sites all over town. One of these days soon, I’ll have to go out with my camera and take photos of all the projects that have been underway while I was gone, and I’ll be sure to include a lot of construction equipment.
My grandson would love the bugs too. I was thinking about him last night as we sat in the living room watching a video. There was a june bug and a beetle on the floor, a couple spiders in the corner, an ant walking across the room, and a moth flying through the house and that was only one room. He got very good at capturing bugs under a glass and taking them outside, so he would be busy with that and then we could go hunt more bugs outside. His mom wouldn’t be nearly as happy though, since she isn’t a bug person.
Oh yes, and my doggie friend. I stopped by to see her yesterday too and she looks fantastic. Her injured foot is totally healed with just a small scar visible, and she is running around on it like nothing ever happened. I think the fleas and bugs are gone, and there will be no more puppies. Best of all, she remembers me, and came to me and licked my hand to be petted. Sometimes good deeds are well rewarded (background info here –Â https://blog.thepanamaadventure.com/2016/03/04/my-new-friend/ Â Since that post, the guys at the business adopted all the puppies, I got her to the spay and neuter clinic before I left, and Joel was kind enough to continue antibiotics which she needed for tick fever and give her another dose of flea medicine)
So, life goes on in Panama, and we continue to wake up every morning and thank the universe for all of it!
A few thoughts from my bicycle tour before I get back to living and writing in Panama again. Now I am doubly happy to be living here!
I’m back in Panama, reflecting on my bicycle tour, and sorting out thoughts that I’ve had for a while now. I knew I would see beautiful places, face physical challenges, and be alone but I never expected to feel such loneliness. I’ve been alone on the road in Costa Rica and Nicaragua and felt fine, so why was it so different in the US?
We know that vast majority of people in the US are good people – kind, helpful, and respectful. But I was ignored even when I was requesting help. Have things changed in the US, or have my perceptions changed? Or, is it people’s perceptions of me? If I sat outside a store drinking coffee it was rare that someone would notice me, let alone return my greeting. If I was walking my bike no one asked if I was ok. I felt invisible, like I didn’t exist. When…
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It seems like it, right? I haven’t posted anything in a long time. I’ve been in the US visiting family, traveling on my bicycle, and generally doing different things not related to Panama. I’m also in one of those spells when I just haven’t felt like taking photos or writing. I have a few thoughts knocking around in my head that may come out at some point, but probably not today.
But, even when I don’t write I notice people visit and read the blog, so I figured I’d at least pop in and let you all know that I am still alive.
I’ve been having a wonderful time but even though it’s been great, I still feel very fortunate to have my Panamanian life. When I return I’m sure I’ll find things that are new and different, and maybe I’ll even be inspired to write about some of them. Or, maybe I’ll just want to enjoy the balmy air and watch the birds for a while.
My grandson loves big machines, so when I ran across some in the last few days I thought of him.
The Feria (the big international fair that is held every March) is just starting today and will run for the next 10 days. There are people from many other countries, lots of merchandise for sale, animals, rides for kids, music and dancing, food, and some really big machines. Here are a couple, and I’m sure I’ll see more when I go.
Wouldn’t it be fun to play with those?!
A couple days ago, I was feeling bored with my usual bike routes so I wandered around for a bit. One of my wanderings took me north on Via Boquete past the site of the new bus terminal. They are still moving dirt around and preparing the site, but there were a lot of big machines and some of them were hard at work.
And then, for the kid in all of us, here is a noisy video of the machines at work 😀
The construction continues all over the area, but the terminal is one of the bigger projects. I’m sure I’ll see more machines at work so I can share some now and then with those of us who love them.
The Panama Adventure 