The Panama Adventure

A Day Out and About, and Lots of Good Luck

Posted on March 9, 2016 by Kris Cunningham

It is easy to get in a rut of daily activities and forget to enjoy the beauty and opportunities that are close by. Yesterday, our friends asked us to go to Las Lajas beach with them. That is an absolutely gorgeous beach and we hadn’t been in a long time, so this sounded like an excellent idea.

We got ourselves together and headed down the highway until we weren’t far from the turnoff, and encountered traffic at a standstill. There is no way to get from one point to another in Panama without taking this highway, so when it isn’t working it’s a big problem. We waited for over an hour. A few cars would come the other way, we would inch up a ways, wait some more, and the cycle would repeat every 10-15 minutes. Thank goodness we really enjoy these friends and the time passed quickly, but by the time it was approaching noon we thought it would be better to turn around.

Our replacement plan was to go to Boca Chica and get lunch at the Seagullcove lodge. I love that place so I definitely did not feel deprived. I have written about it in the past so click on the linked words, or search for “Boca Chica” in my blog to bring up a number of past posts about this area.

We had a wonderful lunch enjoying the view, the breeze, the good food, and the tranquility. Afterward we decided to go to Playa Hermosa. It’s just a small beach in the area but beautiful and calm, and the water felt warm and absolutely heavenly.

The sun is intense here so we didn’t stay long, but long enough to spend some time in the water and walk along the beach a bit. For me, going to the water or the beach is like a whole vacation for my head. I find it very calming and beautiful.

So, the bad luck of the highway shutdown turned into the good luck of a really nice day. I wasn’t smart enough about the tide coming in through, and left my little Canon camera in my shoes too close to the water line. By the time my husband rescued them they were covered with wet sand. I waited until the camera was thoroughly dry that evening, cleaned it carefully of any sand bits, and turned it back on. It seems to be absolutely fine. Whew! This is why there are very few photos of today, but I thought it better to totally dry out the camera that I use so much.

As I have mentioned before, I am planning a big bike trip and I need a few things. REI had a great sale going on and I found a handlebar bag and a rain jacket that looked like they would work well, but they were both sold out in the short time I took to think about it. I don’t know why I decided to log back on to the site, but that night there they were, restocked, and now they are on their way to my daughter’s house in Seattle!

We got home quite late and I was supposed to meet my Spanish teacher on line, but she was flexible and rescheduled for later and we had a great time talking about family, life in general, and various past tenses of verbs.

I also found out from one of the neighbors that the highway was shut down for a protest. People were upset that their school is in serious need of being fixed up. That’s very good that people are allowed to protest and speak out, but when they shut down the highway they cause a big problem for a lot of people who really have to get somewhere, or get their products somewhere. It’s too bad they don’t feel they can be heard another way but this sort of thing seems to go one quite a bit in Panama.

But, for us, it was a very good day – catching up with friends, a beautiful drive to some nice places, oh and can’t forget the delicious gelato from the new shop down the road on the way home, a camera that survived a soaking, things I needed for my trip bought at a good price, a nice time with my teacher, a visit to the injured dog who is doing really well, and it seems like I am forgetting something else but maybe one can only absorb so much goodness in one day.

It continues today. I took the bike to the shop and the guy understood right away what I wanted, and quoted me a good price for a whole list of replacement parts and work. I survived driving around downtown (though never found a parking place so I will return later on my bike), and while writing this I have been visited by the big boy iguana with the pink face, a cute green baby iguana, and a considerable variety of birds. Life is pretty darn good in the tropics 🙂

Posted in Exploring the Area, Panama | Tagged Boca Chica, Chiriqui, Panama, Playa Hermosa, Seagullcove Lodge | 12 Comments

My New Friend

Posted on March 4, 2016 by Kris Cunningham

It’s a bit of a long story… There is a business called Feduro on my bike route just a short way from my house. When I ride by I always greet the security guard and occasionally stop for a short chat.

Last Sunday, he either pointed out or I noticed a dog with an badly injured foot. There are two stray dogs that the guys at the business kind of take care of, but this dog had been hit by a car the day before. I highly doubt any of the guys would have the resources to take the dog to the vet, and she needed help. This is behind the business where large trucks are always coming and going, and the street is bumpy and in poor condition so I sure don’t know why anyone would be speeding through here, but according to the guard this is what happened. And, to make things even more complicated, this dog had five puppies that were born on the 19th, so at this point only nine days old.

The vet was closed, so I planned to take the dog to the vet on Monday morning. When I went to get her, she snapped at me and even the guard wasn’t sure if he could get close to her. I went to the vet for advice, and they sold me tranquilizer drops and a muzzle. She loves food though, of course, so she snarfed down the medicated food and while she was eating, the guard managed to grab her by the scruff of the neck and put a rope around her neck, and the muzzle on her face.

We were supposed to wait 30 min for the medication to take effect but she seemed to be doing OK and not fighting us, so I put her in the back seat of the car. I also collected the puppies in a basket in case she needed to stay at the vet for a while.

She was good as gold at the vet, standing patiently while he carefully examined her and her injured foot, which had to have been painful. It turns out she didn’t break any bones, thank goodness. All she did was lose a considerable amount of skin from the top of her foot. Of course this is a significant injury but with his advice and my nursing experience, we could handle this. He gave me vitamins for her (she was anemic, probably from blood loss with the injury), and also a course of antibiotics that shouldn’t be a problem for the puppies. I also had instructions to clean, apply cream, and bandage the wound daily.

It is now Friday. Monday and Tuesday it took the security guard to catch her while she was eating so I could dress her foot. Wednesday he wasn’t working, and she wouldn’t come close even with the food in my hand, but Wednesday evening I did manage to catch her. (I also got her a collar and leash to make things easier). Once you get a leash on her, she is very good and hasn’t snapped at me at all. I think she understands I am trying to help her and after I finished on Wednesday she let me pet her, and she licked my face. I just about melted on the spot!

Thursday and Friday evening I have also managed to catch her with a bit less difficulty each time. I think she is coming to trust me and not see me as a threat, even though I work on her foot which I’m sure is still plenty sore. It is getting better though. The wounds looks clean, and she is starting to grow skin in the mid portion of the wound though the top, and especially the bottom over the foot are large and will take some time. She is also getting to know Joel which is very helpful because he can help me with the dressings while I do the work.

I learned the guys named her Avenita. Here she is with Joel after this evening's care. (pulling off the gauze causes the wound to bleed again, which is why I'm going to hunt for alternatives tomorrow)

I learned the guys named her Avenita. Here she is with Joel after this evening’s care. (pulling off the gauze causes the wound to bleed again, even when I soak it before, which is one reason I’m going to hunt for alternatives tomorrow)

The problems now are –

I am leaving on the 22nd. I am going shopping for a different wound product tomorrow, hopefully something more gentle than pulling gauze off every day, and maybe something easier for other people to do and something that doesn’t need to be changed as often. I can’t imagine she will be healed when I leave though, so I’ll have to figure out what to do.
She needs to be spayed but we must wait another month. I have enlisted Joel to take her to the vet for this.
Those puppies need homes! There are two white, a male and a female, two brown, also a male and a female, and a male mostly black one. Who knows who the father is. The mother seems to have a very good temperament, especially for a street dog not used to being handled. She weighs 11 kilos, so not a very large dog.

Here are the puppies who live under the tractor trailer. They aren’t big enough to do anything but eat and sleep at this point.

I know, you just never know what I’ll end up getting involved in around here. I just can’t walk on by a suffering animal though, especially when I have the ability to help. And, if we hadn’t gone out to tend to her this evening, we wouldn’t have seen this gorgeous sunset.

Baru, looking beautiful and mysterious through the evening colors

Posted in Miscellaneous, Panama | Tagged injured dog, puppies, puppies need homes, stray dog, street dog | 26 Comments

New Adventures, and a New Blog

Posted on March 4, 2016 by Kris Cunningham

The Silver Wheels Blog

I am planning a bike tour! This is going to change things for the next few months. I won’t be in Panama, so the Panama blog (https://blog.thepanamaadventure.com/) is probably going to mostly sleep for a while. But, I have started this other blog for my biking adventure and I will be posting updates here.

Since this is the probably first post most of you will see, I thought I would explain what is going on. I plan to fly to Seattle on the 23rd of March (with my bike in a box), spend some time with my daughter and family, get myself and my stuff organized, and then leave on my bike tour on April 1st (fitting, don’t you think?)

I’ll bike down the Pacific coast of Washington, Oregon, and California stopping for a while in Santa Rosa to see my other daughter and family. Then, I will…

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Posted in Panama | 8 Comments

Fire, it Cleans your Yard

Posted on February 29, 2016 by Kris Cunningham

Well my goodness, did we have an exciting day today. It’s the dry season here and brush fires are very common. Our house is beside a wooded area and my neighbors swore that there never has been a fire there. But, there have been fires across the street, up the hill, and so many other areas close by that I became concerned. In the past I have left the many fallen leaves on the ground thinking they would offer the grass some protection from the scorching sun. When the rains returned, then I would clean up the yard. About a week ago though, I began cleaning the yard. Thank goodness I did or it could have been worse.

There is a big cliff right outside our fence. The land goes down to a flat area below and then to the river. Last night I could hear fire popping and see some fire down below, but the neighbors assured me that it was far and wouldn’t do anything up here. By the time I went to bed it looked like the fire was moving west, away from our house. When my husband returned about 3AM from the music festival, he said there were flames at the end of the street but not next to our yard. I learned later that my neighbor across was up at 4AM dousing the flames outside our fence with water. When I got up this morning everything was fairly quiet. The area at the end of the street was smoldering but I didn’t see anything else going on.

The winds were calm until a bit after noon when they started to blow a bit, not hard, but enough to get the fire going again. It seemed like no time at all and the woods were popping and crackling down below and I became concerned. I ran a quick errand and when I returned it looked like there was a volcano of smoke coming from our yard! The fire had advanced to the other side of our fence, and it wasn’t long before it jumped to the leaf pile (now I know whey people here don’t make leaf piles!!) and it also started burning any other leaves and dried plant material it could find. It jumped into the neighbors yard and burned up to beside her house, and it also advanced across the street to the woods behind those neighbor’s houses. There was a big fire there not long ago so I’m not sure what more could be burned but there must have been enough to do it again.

Of course we were busy with the water hose and buckets of water (there is more than one reason to have a swimming pool, even a little one!). But, I did manage to get a couple photos during it, and then more later.

Joel mans the hose beside the leaf pile, trying to stay out of the smoke as much as he can.

fire burns right on the other side of our fence

the firemen arrived, 30 minutes after they were first called and by then things were pretty much under control.

The plants near the fence don’t look so good any more.

The leaf pile isn’t nearly as high as it used to be

In the woods beyond and below, the fire continues and the air is still full of smoke

I don’t know why the lemon tree in the side yard looks so bad. The fire was near, but not under or in it. My neighbor says now we can enjoy smoked lemons. ha! I cleaned out tons of leaves from under this tree last week though, thank goodness or they would have burned for sure.

There is a layer of ash on everything

The woods across the street are full of smoke too

The smoke is really bad, but it makes an interesting photo

Fire continues to smolder outside our fence. This area inside the fence was very full of leaves but look now, the fire didn’t even come here.

Looking down the cliff to the woods below, it looks pretty burned.

The bomberos (firemen) took a while to arrive. Even when they come they aren’t able to do very much. They strap water containers on their back and squirt perimeters of property or in our case, hot spots where they found them. They did come in our yard and our neighbor’s yard though, to squirt anything they found still smoldering or burning.

I suppose this is one way to clean up the place. There was a small area of our yard that I hadn’t finished cleaning but it’s done now. I can see into the woods better than I ever have before, and the corner outside our fence that needed to be cleaned up is also done. All the yard trash the everyone dumps at the end of the street is also gone. But, I don’t think I would recommend doing this on purpose!

Thankfully the houses are made of block and metal roofs so the houses aren’t going to burn. I’m not too happy about the yard though. I know most, if not all the plants will recover and regrow but they sure look pitiful at the moment. We have a ton of lemons too, so we’ll see if smoked lemons work as well as the usual ones. I have also learned more words related to fires including limones ahumados (smoked lemons).

Tonight all is quiet except for a couple instances of something crashing in the woods. My neighbor thinks the fire has weakened some trees and they are now falling down. I can’t see anything from here, but we’ll see what tomorrow brings. I am going to continue to keep the yard cleaned up as much as I can, just in case. I wonder if this will change the amount of dry leaves that seem to rain down on us from the woods every time the wind kicks up.

Posted in Miscellaneous, Panama | Tagged brush fire, Dry season, fire, summer | 14 Comments

Cashews

Posted on February 26, 2016 by Kris Cunningham

The Cashew trees are starting to fruit now. Before coming to Panama I never knew how cashews grew (called mariñon in Spanish). Now, I have a lot more respect for where they come from and understand why they are more expensive than a lot of other nuts.

The trees themselves are very pretty. I have been told they grow fairly fast (we shall see since I have a few seedlings in my yard now). They don’t get very big though, maybe 10-15 feet and they tend to spread a bit providing some nice shade.

Look at the picture below and you will see some of the fruit, or cashew apples. They are very delicate and don’t ship well at all, which is why you don’t see them for sale, not even here where they grow. If you want some you have to find a tree (or find a cyclists who knows the best trees around town 😀 )

You can see the cashew nut hanging off the bottom of the fruit. Each fruit has only one nut which must be removed from the fruit, and then roasted. There is a toxic substance in the nut which is neutralized by heating or roasting. Then the nut must be broken open and the meat, the edible part, removed. I have had cashews that were roasted in a wood fire and they are wonderful! They have a bit of the flavor of the wood smoke which I really like. If you have the opportunity to buy someone from a street vendor, try them.

The fruit comes in red and yellow but they all taste the same. This must be a red tree because fruit is just starting to turn red, and there were others on the ground that were totally red. You almost need a bucket to take them home. I’ve taken them home in plastic bags but the juice leaks out, so the bag better not have a hole in it. The fruit has a somewhat odd, pungent smell and taste, in my opinion, but I like it. I put the fruit in the blender with enough water to blend, and then put it in the strainer to get the juice separated from the pulp. Then, I add some vanilla and sweetener and pour it over ice, or add it to smoothies with other fruit. The fruit can also just be chopped up and cooked with some sugar (or sweetener of choice) and it’s wonderful. I’ve only tried it once this way so this year I’m going to try and cook some of my own.

The photo above is interesting because it has the ripe, red fruit in the middle. To the left of the fruit is a nut with a fruit just barely starting to develop above it. To the right you can see another green fruit that is starting to plump out a bit.

These guys are in Trinidad roasting cashews but the process is the same. I hear you don’t want to be downwind because the smoke has the irritating substances in it as well. They sure are good when they are done though!

Posted in food, fruit, Panama | Tagged cashew apple, cashew nuts, mariñon | 10 Comments

Boquete Birthday Party

Posted on February 26, 2016 by Kris Cunningham

A good friend from Boquete had a birthday party a few days ago, so of course we wanted to go. It was a fun gathering at a local restaurant with conversation, music, good food, cake, and a piñata. Did you think those were only for kids? According to Panamanians, apparently not! 😀

First the participant is blindfolded, turned around a few times, handed a stick, and pointed in generally the right direction.

Then, the plan is to whack at the piñata with much enthusiasm! That is the birthday girl on the left. She is with Gary, the guy in the doorway with the white shirt, who is the bass player in one of Joel’s bands so this is how we all met.

The gal in the doorway pulls on the string to raise and lower the piñata to make hitting it more challenging

This piñata was a paper doll with yellow hair and a frilly white skirt

It wasn’t long before the head was off and only holding on by a string, and something had unraveled. I couldn’t tell if it was the skirt or one of the legs

Like all piñatas, eventually it totally succumbed and the party goers got to pick up the contents.

Boquete is a bit nuts at the moment because the Boquete Jazz & Blues Festival is in progress, and there are a lot of people attending. I thought about going but it’s expensive, and it’s hard for me to navigate around the small town and hunt for parking, etc when it’s crowded with an event. Joel has been having a great time though. Both of his bands were asked to participate, and the rest of the time he has been helping with equipment in the various venues and participating in the evening jam sessions. Maybe when the dust settles and he regroups, we can get him to share a bit about his experience.

I hope they aren’t getting blown away up there though. It was windy here yesterday and today the winds are really howling. It’s usually windier in the mountains so they all must be hanging on to their hats and anything else that can blow away. I don’t love high winds, but it was very quiet a couple days ago and so hot without any cooling breezes. That was enough to make me welcome the wind since it does keep you much more comfortable.

Another bonus of our evening in Boquete was a gorgeous sunset. I usually try to dodge the power lines but this time I just let them be part of the photo.

Posted in culture, Panama | Tagged Birthday party, Boquete, cumpleaños, Fiesta, fiesta de cumpleaños | 6 Comments

Iguana!

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Kris Cunningham

There is a large iguana who has been visiting the birdbath in the afternoons. It’s the hottest part of the day so I am usually at my table on the terrace doing quiet things, and that is how I have seen him quite a few times. Usually though, he is very shy. If I move a muscle he runs, and sometimes I have stayed absolutely still and he still ran as soon as he saw me. I have been keeping my camera set up on the end of the table and got a few shots a couple days ago. I wasn’t happy with them though, and I really needed some zoom for more clarity.

Today, I got lucky! He came first for a bit of the banana I had left out for the birds, and then he came back for some water. He was calmer than usual both times. I reached for the camera on the first visit and he only walked away quietly instead of running. When he came back for water I not only turned on the camera and snapped a photo, I adjusted the zoom and snapped a few more before he quietly walked off. Maybe he is getting used to me.

We have seen this iguana with the pink face in the yard before when he was stuck behind the chain link fence. He’s too big to get through, so we watched him try to solve the situation and eventually climb up the fence and jump down on the other side. Maybe he has found the small opening in the fence on the other side of the house now so he can come and go as he pleases.

It is an educated guess on my part that this is a male iguana based on his large size, and the big jowls on the side of his face. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.

It is so cool to see these big, interesting lizards in the wild and I really appreciate this one visiting me. I happened across some kids yesterday trying to get an iguana out of a tree so they could eat it. They said iguana is delicious, but I was very happy to see the iguana escape their efforts. I’d much rather have them alive to enjoy every day.

Posted in Panama, wildlife | Tagged Chiriqui, David, iguana, Panama | 20 Comments

Bugs and Spiders

Posted on February 20, 2016 by Kris Cunningham

You have been warned! This post contains pictures of bugs and spiders. I’ve never seen such a big variety of insects as there are here in Panama, so I’ve had a great time with my camera and especially my macro lens. As I sorted through the folders of saved photos, I pulled out a few of my favorites to share.

We have cool spiders!

Sometimes they make interesting webs too

Interesting, slow moving green bug

Check out the gold eyes

This tiny beetle looks like it has antlers

The dragonflies seem to love the clothesline

There is an unusual red one

I love these great big grasshoppers. I know they eat plants but they still look so cool

I think this red bug is shedding its old skin

It looks like a tiny ladybug

check out the nose on this one

little bees at the entrance of their hive

I don’t know what this one is

An ant checks out a bud

Sometimes I see a little praying mantis on the clothesline

another colorful spider

bug on a dish towel

Black bees on a plant

I love this little guy who walked on my computer

Pretty butterfly on a tree

A very tiny bee walks on my hand

more clothesline wildlife, this time a tiny spider

beautiful markings on this one

another interesting spider

little butterfly on the wall

I love this flag bug

I found the jewel of a bug in my mosquito candle one day

Hi there!

This pretty, shiny beetle landed on my table one night

beautiful butterfly on my mouse pad

One advantage to having my “office” outdoors – I get a lot of interesting visitors. There are tons of bugs here but they tend to be very mellow and not aggressive. I think I have only been stung/bitten twice in the 3+ years I’ve been here, once when picking a lemon and didn’t see the little wasp sitting on it, and I must have pinched him, and another time when I was reaching into a shrub that had a bee nest in it. That sting was so mild I wasn’t even positive I’d been stung.

This is what I have to share today, and I think that’s all the bug pictures for the moment. The winds are howling again today and I’m trying to decide if I’m getting out my bike. I won’t go far though, since coming home through the headwinds will be challenging.

Oh look! a little bug just walked under my phone … 😀

Posted in insects, Panama, wildlife | Tagged beetles, Chiriqui, David, insects, Panama, Spiders, wildlife | 26 Comments

Resolution #9 – Make Use of Your Suffering

Posted on February 19, 2016 by Kris Cunningham

Following up on my earlier post about 16 resolutions, or thoughts to live by, inspired by this article at Brainpickings.org. Here is the ninth by Simone Weil, a 1942 entry from her book First and Last Notebooks.

The way to make use of physical pain. When suffering no matter what degree of pain, when almost the entire soul is inwardly crying “Make it stop, I can bear no more,” a part of the soul, even though it be an infinitesimally small part, should say: “I consent that this should continue throughout the whole of time, if the divine wisdom so ordains.” The soul is then split in two. For the physically sentient part of the soul is — at least sometimes — unable to consent to pain. This splitting in two of the soul is a second pain, a spiritual one, and even sharper than the physical pain that causes it.

A similar use can be made of hunger, fatigue, fear, and of everything that imperatively constrains the sentient part of the soul to cry: I can bear no more! Make it stop! There should be something in us that answers: I consent that it should continue up to the moment of death, or that it should not even finish then, but continue for ever. Then it is that the soul is as if divided by a two-edged sword.

To make use in this way of the sufferings that chance inflicts upon us is better than inflicting discipline upon oneself.

Of course no one wants hard times and suffering, but I think we grow the most during the hard times. It helps us learn compassion, understanding, and we can try to practice maintaining our inner peace in the face of storms. If we can embrace the positive side of pain we will suffer less and gain more than if we fight against it.

What is that saying? Pain is inevitable but suffering is optional? I think that is where she is going with this.

Simone Weil (February 3, 1909–August 24, 1943)