Yella's Acting Debut

I knew they would love Yella and, of course, they did.

She was in a play written and directed by a local lady to recreate the 50's.  This seems to be the trend here, writing and producing original plays.  If nothing else, very ambitious.  

There were some good performances, maybe even a great performance or two, and genuinely funny, charming moments but I will have to say I was embarrassed a lot.

In typical Panamanian fashion, on opening night, half way through the play, the bar next door turned on the music (remember, they have two volume levels, loud and louder) which bled through the walls and was louder than the play.  If that wasn't enough, the fireworks started and obliterated the entire play for about 10 minutes.  Ah, Panama!"

Yella played the "popular girl", talk about being cast against the grain.  It was great.  I had a lot of fun with that one.  Imagine, Yella, the good girl.  She had 2 solos and was great.  Now, everyone is asking her to be in plays.  Who knows, maybe a budding thespian career is in the making.

The good thing about being in a small community is that the bar is not very high.  This allows people to participate who would never venture onto stage.  The local theaters in the USA tend to be accomplished and even semi-pro, so giving it a try is prohibitive.  

Not here.  Everyone climbs onto the stage.  And every now and then, someone is a real surprise.  That's the good part of being here.

One singer was 90 years old.  No one cared that he rarely followed the melody and never was on pitch.  It just didn't seem to matter given his age and charm.  One performer was 15 years old and got sick.  They trained a 13 year old to take his place over night...impressive.

Now, this is really interesting.  Everyone I talked to the next day LOVED the play and raved about it.  This place will support almost anything.  It takes a real act of generosity to love a play like this.  Yes, there were good moments, but over all, good is a stretch.  I guess they honor the courage to get up and do it more than the results.  Not bad!  

Walking Off the Rage

I thought it would be a good idea to take a walk and blow the stress and tension away from the fit of rage I experienced over the last 2 days.

I headed up to the Pipeline Trail.  I wanted to take a real hike rather than a walk like I have been doing.  Mainly, I have walked the roads around the region because they are convenient and I can start them from my house or from Boquete.

This hike requires a drive up into the higher areas of Bajo Mono.  It was really worth it.  I was told that the hike ended at a waterfall but I have never completed the hike and therefore, never seen the water fall.

The trail ends in a shear wall, vertical circle with the only outlet where the creek flows down hill.  This is the cloud forest at it's best!  The waterfall is about 200 vertical feet high.  I know it is hard to get perspective from the picture but it is a long fall from the top.  You may notice that the water toward the bottom is thinned out into a fine stream because of the extensive drop.

I hope you enjoy the picture.  I sure enjoyed the hike.

Rage in Panama

Every few weeks, I just can't keep it together anymore.

I manage my anger for the most part, but from time to time, it leaks out.  Almost always the focus of my anger is our builder.  This time is no different.

For God's sake, can't these people get anything done?

As you know, we have to get our electrical inspection before I can even apply for electricity from Union Fenosa.  We got our first, and supposedly last, electric inspection the last week of March.  And, the installation was incomplete, so they did not give us approval.

OK, I understand trying to push the envelope and get the inspection a little early, but how much does it take to complete the installation and get the final inspection?

I set a goal way out there, at a time that I thought a 3 year old could manage.  I decided I would be happy if the inspection was passed by the end on April.

You can imagine what is happening.

No F@!&%! inspection yet!!!

And, not one in the near future.  How...how...how...in the world can anyone screw up a simple thing this bad?  I am completely at a loss in this situation.  Never, and I mean never, have I imagined, thought about, heard of, projected, forgot anything this inept.  If they wandered around in the fog, blindfolded, they would by accident get this thing done.

I am stupefied.

And, I am pissed.

I was going to itemize the comedy of errors that lead us to this point, but I will have mercy on your eyes and skip it.

There is an outside chance we will get the electrical installation completed next week but I hesitate to even mention it.  Why?  Because they have ways to stop progress that are simply so creative and powerful that it probably couldn't happen if everything was complete, even if the Bomberos were at the house and everything is perfect...it still won't happen just because that would be progress and they CAN'T HAVE THAT!

F&@%!@%!!!

Well, that wasn't pretty.  But, I can't keep it together for more than about 3 or 4 weeks, then I explode.

I did talk to our builder yesterday and calm down but the rage is still simmering just below the surface.  Until I get Union Fenosa on board and working on our power, I am going to be out of control some of the time.

They never told me that paradise comes with it's own little package of hell.

Strong Memory on the Wind

It fascinates me what brings up a memory.  It can be a smell, sight or sound and the memory is there in technicolor, painted across your mind.

I was walking down a dusty, gravel road today when a gust of wind slapped me in the face with sand and gravel. Instantly, I was back in Colorado, hiking down a trail in the vicious winter winds.  Just like that the memory was up and present.  

One of the things I have struggled to enjoy in Colorado are the winters, and the strong, gusty wind is the worse of it.  I am so happy to have that in my past.  But there it was, as a memory, front and center.

I continued down the road to the suspension foot bridge that crosses the Caldera River.  You can see the bridge in the picture above.

This is a loose, flimsy old bridge that has caused me some fear in the past.  Not only is it wiggly but the rails and expanded metal on the floor are missing in places and worn through or bent out of shape in other areas.  The sides are ancient cyclone fence that has tried to take off my finger a time or two.  Grabbing onto the side to keep your balance is a dicey action, fraught with things that hook and pierce you.

This time I was bound and determined to cross it like a man!  No more whimpering and cowering as I crossed.  Just one strong step after another.

So much for good ideas.

As I took my 4th step, a mighty gust shot down the river, pushing me toward the side, lifting my hat off my head as the bridge yo-yo'd the other way, rebounding from the gust.  So I was moving one direction and the bridge is springing in the opposite direction.

I sank to the floor of the bridge like a simpering 3 year old.  So much for my manly action.  That damn bridge is challenging on a calm day much less a windy one.  I should have crawled across it on my hand and knees like I wanted to.

Of course, a local crossed the bridge after me without a hitch.

This year has been full of wind.  On my trips over the past 5 years, I don't remember much wind.  I hope this is not the norm because the wind sucks!

What's to do and Eat in Boquete?

We have friends visiting from Arkansas.  This blog is our culinary progression through the last 2 days with a little activity thrown in.

After picking them up at the airport in David--early--we stopped for breakfast at Olga's.  This Panamanian restaurant is on the side of a house.  Olga greets each person with a big, warm open hug.  It is hard to imagine a better way to start breakfast.  She serves traditional USA food like eggs, oat meal, pancakes and french toast as well as a very Latin juevos rancheros which does not resemble anything in the USA.  These eggs are served over tostados smothered in a sweet tomato sauce with a little bit of bite.  Delicious if you are in the mood.  Breakfast including a dish of fruit, eggs, toast and coffee is $5.45 with tip.

We then visited the fish monger and asked for ceviche which is raw fish marinated in lime juice and spices.  He didn't have any so we decided to make our own.  We purchased 2 pounds of Dorado, Mahi Mahi, for $5 and 2 dozen limes, onions etc for $2.40.  Squeezing 2 dozen lime takes some doing!  But, the result was really good.  We have enough ceviche for an army.

We ate lunch at Sobrason, another Panamanian restaurant that is cafeteria line style.  I normally get fried rice, baked chicken, salad and blackberry juice for $2.75.  Our guests were very pleased with the food.  

We then went to a garden that is on the grounds of a private residence.  This is a 20 acre or so estate with at least 10 acres in garden.  The owner keeps it open to the public which is a remarkable service.  The grounds are nothing less than spectacular.  I included some pictures of a minuscule portion of the garden above.  Note the flower within a flower.  

The next day we ate lunch at Tammy's, an Israeli lady and her American husband run the place.  She specializes in wood roasted chicken and middle eastern dishes.  Her chicken is to die for!  We ordered a variety of dishes, most of them I can't spell, but one thing was for sure, we all had the wood roasted chicken.  She also specializes in fresh fruit drinks which we all had.  In the end, we spent about $7 per head with tip.  Once again, everyone was very pleased.

We have yet to take our guests to a higher end, "good" restaurant!  They are going to be blown away by what is in store for them in the next few days.  

Showing our friends Boquete and Panama is a real treat!

A Long Walk to My House

Yella had the car today and went to the big city of David.  So I was on foot.

First I met my landlord who is also a plumbing/construction consultant.  We went to a big spa project he is working on.  It will have a gym, racket ball court, infinity pool, Naturalpath treatment facility and a couple of rooms for rent.  Everyone here rents rooms, even physicians.  The point is that it is a large facility.

I was along to see if I saw any advantage to bringing in a USA structural engineer to integrate a structural panel system with the structural steel.  Even though I know nothing about structural engineering, I do know some exceptionally good engineers in the USA.  There are some good possibilities here...more about that later if it pans out.

Who shows up at the job site...my builder.  

Alright!  I've been wanting to nail his ass for a day or two.  It is a good thing he is such a nice guy.  After a few minutes talking, I once again start to enjoy him.  He sure knows how to handle us gringos!

He tells me all that he is doing and going to do.  I, of course, believe him, would someone please shoot me now?  Later in the day when I get to my house, he is doing about half of what he said he was doing.  That is great!  I'll take half any old day.

So, I take off from the spa site in Boquete and start walking to my house, at least 5 miles away.  Along the road, I stop at a Panamanian restaurant and eat a baked chicken lunch...$2.35.   Hard to beat that.

Then back on the road.  I takes me about 1.5 hours to make it to my house.

Now a little about sweat.  Tropical sun, 70% humidity and 80 degree air make for a massive amount of sweat.  I have never sweat this much in my memory.  I was drenched, walking from shade patch to shade patch, doing everything I could to stay cool.  It is mind boggling how much you can sweat.

When I got to our house, I plopped down to rest and tried to stop the sweat.  No way.  Not after all that walking.  I might take days to quite sweating.

Then, I had to walk all the way back!  What a grunt.  But, it sure does feel good when you get to quite and sit down.

Panama, the land of sweat!

You may be asking yourself, why did I write this blog?  What is the point?

None.

I had too much coffee and needed an outlet.  So consider yourself caffeine slimed.

Hasta luaga!

P. S.  A huge snow storm is supposed to be starting in Colorado as I write this.  I was wondering, can you imagine the effects of tropical sweat in the middle of a snow storm?  Or, is that a little like the sound of one hand clapping?

Communication Panama Style

Or, maybe I should say, lack of communication Panama style.

This is an example of the way contractors communicate here.

Monday, Toto told me the final Bombers electrical inspection would be done on Wednesday or Friday.  I said great, that would work.  (You already know how important this inspection is to us...without it we can't even apply for electrical power)

Stupid me, I thought I knew what he was really talking about, BUT NOOOOO!

I called him Wednesday morning to follow up on the progress or more accurately, the lack of progress. 

Now it gets interesting and the torturous path of information is revealed.

He tells me he is picking up the last electrical fixtures in David so they can be installed.  After a few minutes, he says, "well, I don't really think they will be there because the store manager told me the truck from Panama City doesn't get here until Saturday."

All along, since Monday, he knew what the store manager had told him.  Do you think he would tell me the facts!  No!  Why tell the truth when you can lie...or in their experience, tell the gringo what he wants to hear.  So he tells me on Monday that all will be completed this week when he KNEW it would not be done until next week...if we are really lucky.

This crap infuriates me.  I would much rather have the truth and deal with it, than be lead along like some idiot.

I am still pissed.  You would think I would learn how it goes here but I am a slow study, real slow.

I met another couple who are using our builder on their house.  They live in the USA and come down here for a week every month or two.  They contacted me by email and wanted to talk about the situation, of which you are now very familiar.

They were 30 minutes late, clearly indicating that they were integrating into the Panamanian culture.  There were still some USA vestiges left because he apologized for being late.  

Their experience with our builder has been significantly worse than mine.  They are building a small 800 sq. ft. house which is architecturally complex with a lot of USA style finishes that are unusual down here. So we spent a hour trashing our builder but acting like we weren't really trashing him.  A sophisticated yet shameful way to talk about anyone.  I was left with a slightly disgusted feeling about the whole conversation.  Hey, I was there and share a good dollop of the responsibility.

When are we going to get through our heads that nothing and I mean nothing here is like what we are used too.

Maybe another year or two. 

Happiness is a Warm Gun...

No, no, no...I mean, happiness is a fast Internet! 

I only need a gun when the Internet is slow.

I don't know what happened but the Internet speed is up over the last 5 days to a tolerable level.  The reliability is still an issue but it's a start.  

A new fiber optic line was supposed to by installed from David to Panama City.  All the Internet providers use this one line and it was hopelessly over loaded.  A couple of weeks ago, the new line was in operation with only a slight increase in speed.  How disappointing!

Then, all of a sudden, the speed increased.  I originally thought the 4 day holiday weekend was the source of the increase in speed, with the diminished usage through the holidays.  But this morning and afternoon, the speed is still up.  I don't know what happened, but it is marvelous now!  I just hope it continues.

I know this sounds a little like the Spoiled American Brat talking, but communication is a great help to being happy in an isolated place.  I can watch a video clip now, check email in less than a hour, carry on a phone call and actually understand what is said...this is progress, my friends!

Now on to deeper issues.  (Oh no, not deeper issues!  Can't he keep this to himself, for God's sake!)

In hindsight, looking back over the last 3 days, I experienced a deep sense of loneliness.  Maybe caused by some throw back, childhood reaction to Catholicism  and Easter Week, or the fact that my friends were not available.  And, things were a little off and unsatisfying with the people helping me celebrate my birthday.  Leaving me feeling a little ripped off.

Friends are so important here.  I think they help alleviate the stress and unknown caused by being in a new, country.  A distraction, so to speak.

Thankfully, all this lifted this morning.  I bumped into my landlord early and we had a good talk.  Then, on to a meeting and lunch afterward with friends.  

Ah!  Friends are good.  Now I can appreciate the magnificent weather today.  Today is warm, comfortable, overcast with a slight threat of rain.  A little breeze...perfect!

Plus, for icing on the cake, Yella is doing well.  Things are starting to jell for her.  And that is very good.  In a moment of truth, I will admit, a happy wife is a happy husband.

Sad but true.  

Adios!

Holy Week in Boquete

I vaguely knew that the mayor shut down all liquor sales from Thursday through Sunday, so I thought.  No big deal, I don't drink.

A couple of things...

I was walking by Amigos, the major gringo watering hole, today at 2:45 pm.  I saw some people that I know but I normally don't stop and talk to because they start drinking in the morning and finish the next morning.  Come to think of it, I don't know when they eat or sleep.  But, they are always drunk, loud and belligerent, so I stay away.

Today I walked by looking for other friends and said hi.  To my surprise, it was fun.  They were interesting, articulate people.  Not at all like the one's I am used to.

I was befuddled.  What was different?

Then the waitress asked us if we wanted something (I don't know how that happened because you can never find one here when you want one).  Everyone said, "no, come back in 10 minutes when it is 3 pm and you can serve booze."

Oh.  They were sober.  What a difference.  They should try this more often because it looks good on them.

And another thing...

On long weekends, Panamanians in Panama City flood out of town to the country side.  Boquete is one of the main places to go.

I have often wondered if tourist are a pain in the ass because they are Americans and Europeans or if all people of the world are that way.

I got my answer.  

Boquete is full, full, triple full this weekend.  The roads are packed, all rooms are rented, and people are everywhere.  Most of them Panamanians.  They come to participate in the religious processions, the Orchid fair and simply hang out.

They clog the roads, the sidewalks, the parks, the fair ground, the stores and the restaurants.  Wall to wall people.  This is a little different than the January fair because then they hang out in the fair grounds and are not out in the community as much as during Holy Week.

They are just as much a pain in the ass as any other tourist, so I got my answer.

Tourists are universally trouble.

No wonder I couldn't find any of my friends,  They fled Boquete for quieter places.

One more thing...

My friends took me up to their property today.  This place is way up high on the continental divide.  It is surrounded by National Park and it is remote.

We were in a 1976 Toyota Land Cruiser, the real ones from yesterday, the ones reputed to go anywhere, the ones without springs.

This vehicle is a chiropractors marketing plan.  

We traveled for 4 or 5 kilometers on a road like a cobble river bed in Colorado; bouncing, jolting, lunging, rattling, jarring, tooth chipping, spine compressing and just plain old homogenizing.  We were all in need of an adjustment at the end of the road.

But wow, what a piece of property.  Virgin jungle...trees so old they had layers and layers of living matter growing over living matter so that the tree trunk was not visible.  This included orchids and more orchids.

Part of the property used to be a flower farm.  It has been neglected for years but there are still flowers in abundance.  This is in a land of flowers so it was marvelous.  And, I forgot my camera!

We were cutting flowers for the Easter Sunrise Service at the mission where these people volunteer.  I don't know why weren't struck dead by my heathen presence so I kept my mouth shut and helped.

A trail cut through their property that is an old indigenous trail from Boquete over the continental divide to Bocas on the Caribbean, so it is a dedicated public trail even though on private land.  What a beautiful trail and available to anyone.  If you are brave enough to negotiate the mud and rivers.

It goes to a high point on the Continental Divide where you can see the Pacific and Atlantic from the same spot...very unusual.  It is called Pate Demacho which is a rock formation on the ridge. 

These people are planning an ecolodge.  All the material for construction will have to be carried in by labor, no roads make it to the land.

What a challenge.  I wish them good luck.

A fun afternoon hiking around virgin jungle.  We even got to swing on some vines over a creek.  Pretty cool!  Yes, Tarzan could really swing through the forest.  I didn't know that.

Improv & Pizza at Guari Guari

With much trepidation, I head out with Yella to the local bar, Guari Guari.  Thursday night is Improv and Pizza night.  The trepidation was about the Improv and the pizza.

First, pizza.

It is hard to find good pizza here.  This is not a big deal to me because I don't eat it much.  Normally, they take a round piece of bread, smear tomato sauce over the bread, then cheese and put it in the oven resulting in a HARD, tasteless thing that is terrible.

Two places now actually make pizza from scratch.  Because everyone makes such a big deal out of it, I do eat pizza from time to time, just getting caught up in the, "Oh my God, they make real pizza!" thing.

My main reason to go to Guari Guari was to eat the pizza and support my friends who are making it.  People have to get creative to make money in Boquete.  They offered to go in to Guari Guari and make the pizza,  the bar owner doesn't do anything but let them in. 

Supporting friends is a big deal here.  You will hear this a lot.  It is one of the better things about Boquete.

Now, on to the Improv.

We have a world class actress in town who was professional and hit the big time before retiring to Panama.  She has directed and acted in the local community theater and is really good.  Head and shoulders better than anyone else.  Watching her act is a rare privilege.

Because she and only she was running the Improv, I agreed to go.  What a mistake.  It was so uncomfortable I could hardly finish my pizza.  There were only 12 people there and no one wanted to do it so the atmosphere was resistant and strained.  This is a very public sort of thing so it was a disaster.  Even with the stifling atmosphere, she was brilliant but it was just too weird for me to appreciate it.

Well, at least we supported our friends making the pizza.

How Do You See if Water Is In a Water Main?

I'll tell you in a minute.

The water mains--I use this term loosely--are frequently visible on top of the ground or in gullies beside the road.  It is all plastic pipe from 3/4" to 4" in diameter.

There are several ways to see if water is in the line.  You can pick it up and see if it is heavy.  You can feel it to see if it is cool to the touch.  You can walk down the road and turn on a faucet.

But Nooooooo!!!

Here. you pick up an ice pick and poke a hole in the line and see if water squirts out!

That's right!  This is the way they do it.  I can't believe it.

I have been wondering why these water mains were spraying a fine mist out onto the road every couple of hundred feet.  This is why.

This boggles my mind.

Just another little Panamanian way of doing things.

This is Holy Week.  Panama is a VERY Catholic country.  Guilt works well here.

And, Holy Week may be the biggest event of the year, not in the loud, partying Fat Tuesday way, but in a mellow, pious way.

There are copious amounts of processions.  Every day, someone is walking up and down the streets, throwing ashes or some other crap, carrying religious banners, and cooling people down, I mean, anointing the masses with Holy Water.

In many ways, it is good to see a country so united behind anything.  Even though I have poked a few jokes at it, I do respect it,

My Magic Elixir, Fresh Air

The climate in Boquete makes my spirit soar. It has been a mystery to me why.  I know, it is beautiful here, and that is important, but there is more to it.  

I got some insight when Yella showed me a picture from last Thanksgiving in Colorado at our house.  The picture was of Daniel out on our deck.  He was bundled up in a coat and hat.  A couple of inches of snow were on the ground.  The mountains loomed large in the background.

Our opposite responses to this picture tells quite a tale.

Yella said, "Oh look , there's our son and my favorite view of the most gorgeous mountains in the world!"

I said, "Oh, there's our son out in the biting, frigid, bitter cold and, ya, the mountains are beautiful, but so what, in that miserable cold!"

So I thought, why do I love it here and she loves it in Colorado.

After musing for a while, I realized, for me, it's fresh air!  I love fresh air.

You might say, "what, there's not fresh air in that picture?"  Yes there is, but you have to freeze your ass off to get any of it.  And, the windows are closed 9 months of year because it's so cold, and the air in the house is stale.

More accurately, I love warm, fresh air.

Colorado is great from June 15th till September 15th.  Why?  We have the windows open every day with all that wonderful fresh air, flowing through the house.  You can leave the house just with what you have on, no bundling up.  I could hike or sit outside at a restaurant during those days.  Wonderful!

Here in Boquete, every day the windows (and, many times the walls) are open.  Fresh air everywhere.

One of the things I like to do most is eat in a restaurant that is open.  There is a freedom to it that I love.  And, you can go out without a coat most days and bask in the sun...warm, fresh, wonderful.

Now for some arm chair psychology. 

When I was a kid, school sucked.  You had to sit still, inside, and be restricted for 6 to 7 hours a day.  And an adult was always looking over you shoulder, judging you, reprimanding you.  No freedom.  No fun.

But summer was a blast!  Freedom to roam, run free, play and away from the critical eye of the damn adults.

You don't have to be a genius to see the correlation from summer to warm, fresh air.  I think I may have associated the good life with summer.

So, there you have it.  I love fresh air.

And Yella likes to be bundled up and be cozy in side a warm house.

Houston, we have a problem!

A Neighborhood Meeting

Jarimillo, a major area on the eastern slopes of  Boquete, held a neighborhood meeting this morning.  We now rent in Jarimillo and our house is being built in Jarimillo.  I attended with a Spanish speaking friend.  The meeting was held to discuss the deplorable condition of the roads.  

Even using the word "roads" is a misnomer...maybe track, rut, stream, obstacle coarse, disaster, ditch or just plain aberration...but not "road."  Crying out load, I had to buy a 4Runner just to get to my house.

We were on time so there were only 5 people in attendance.  The meeting started on time, I have no idea how that happened.  Over the next 30 minutes most of the people arrive and were equally shocked that the meeting was in progress.

Now, here is funny part...

Everyone had a cell phone...on.  And, they answered them and held their discussions in the meeting over the person speaking.  Nobody seemed to mind, even the gringos.

While someone was translating, the Panamanian leading the meeting dialed his phone and started talking to someone...over the top of the translator!  I guess he thought it was a good time to catch up on some business.

Each person that arrived late, yelled out for all to hear:  Buenos Dias!  Effectively stopping the meeting, over and over again.

This was a real 3 ring circus.  Somehow, it all went well and, in a strange way, it was charming.  If I was in the USA, it wouldn't be charming by a long shot but here it was.

After the meeting was concluded, someone called the mayor, who said he would come.  Didn't anyone tell him the meeting was over?  Didn't anyone invite him in the first place?  So we wait for the mayor who arrives in about 20 minutes.

The mayor should have been there first because he had the real information and the entire discussion was negated by him.  And, his information was a lot more positive than what we discovered without him.

It was interesting to hear what a city is up against in Panama.  I thought building a house was trying but it is no where near the problem involved with public improvements.

The mayor said that they would get a road 24 feet wide with  7 inches of asphalt approved and paid for in Panama City.  The contractor would build a 10 foot wide road with 2 inches of asphalt and there was no recourse for the city.  

This is not Kansas anymore, Toto.  (I  know, that is the second time I've used this expression in the blog, but it just seemed to fit)

Several people said they heard that a major road was approved and funds were allocated, so why hadn't it been built.  That got a big laugh from the group.  The mayor said that yes, the funds were approved and allocated but that didn't mean anything because they had not been RELEASED.  More laughter.  

This is a sophisticated version of "the checks in the mail."  

This culture has more ways to stop progress that a lawn has blades of grass.  You just know that someone is getting rich in this system.

I must say that I enjoyed the meeting.  I learned a lot, met many people including some Panamanian mucketymucks and had a few good laughs.

The Path to Freedom may be Surprising

There is a lot of freedom in admitting a mistake.  And, I have to admit a big one.

That is moving to Panama.

Actually, the way we moved to Panama has been the mistake.  And, I am the one behind the way we moved.

Over and over, in books and in person, we were told DO NOT BUY ANYTHING in a foreigncountry until you live there for one year.  Rent during this period, then buy and/or build if it is really what you want.

I violated that advise...and we have paid the price.  I know the prudence of this advice first hand now.  

I must confess to some arrogance, no surprise to most of you who know me.  

I knew all the problems people were having down here; struggling to build and finish a house; tales of being ripped off; couples with one thrilled to be here and one who is not; and many, many comments that this is not for everyone.

I heard this and I simply didn't think it would apply to us.  After all, I am a project manager and know how to get something done, I didn't think people would rip me off, and Yella and I had worked everything out before we came here, or so I thought.

I don't care how good you are in the USA at getting something done, you won't do it here. (Luckily, to date, we haven't been ripped off--knock on wood!)  And, the conditions that would make life good here, especially for Yella, are not really panning out.  

That changes everything.  

I promised Yella a finished house by February 1st...of this year...we will be lucky to have a house finished by February 1st, 2010.  The other thing I promised Yella is a telephone and Internet connection that is reliable...and that just ain't so.  The phone is down many hours each day and I won't even go into the Internet.  

I broke my promises to Yella.  And, it will take me 6 to 12 months to make good on them.

You may be asking, "why is he saying all this?  Do we really have to hear this introspective clap trap?"

Here is the point.  I have been avoiding admitting the mistake, so I have been forced to justify the move, defend Panama and run around putting out fires trying to make Panama OK.

There is no peace in that.  

But there is great peace in admitting a mistake.  Now I can go on with the freedom to either stay here if it all works out or leave and embark on a new adventure, if that is appropriate.  I can quit fighting the absolute necessity of making Panama work.  It will either work or it won't.  Now I can let it run it's course.

Before you tell everyone we're coming home, I have to stay until the house is completed.  That will take 6 to 12 months.  You should know that most people here say it takes 6 to 12 months to settle in and start enjoying Panama.  So by having a self imposed 12 months in Panama, we might, just might, make the cut and stay.

I'm betting on it!

And to wax even more philosophically...

If I hadn't made the mistake, we would not have moved.  So, in the end, maybe a mistake is required to do something really bold.

A Traffic Ticket

Three weeks ago, on the way to David (pronounced Dah beed, believe it or not), I was waved over by a cop.  He wrote me a ticket for passing a car, well, actually 7 or 8 cars, across a double yellow line in the village of Dolega.  I was traveling a little below the speed of sound.  It is no wonder I didn't blow him off the road. 

And he give me a ticket for passing over a double yellow line.  Boy, did he miss his chance to nail me for a high rate of speed!

As I have mentioned in past blogs, traffic moves from 5 to 100 miles per hour.  When a line of vehicles gets behind a really slow moving truck, bus or just a run-of-the-mill Panamanian, it is brutal.  And, well, I snapped and couldn't take it any longer and started to pass a line of cars...

And you know the rest.

I was so shocked that a cop, on foot, would wave me over from the side of the road, I forgot to bribe him to get out of the ticket.  Normally, you slip a $10 under your drivers license and that does it.  No more ticket.  But, alas, I forgot.  Now I have to pay the damn ticket.

So off to David to pay the ticket.  

I went to the Chirique Mall, on the Inter American Highway.  The transportation department has 2 offices in the mall.  We went to one office to get our license and now I was going to the other one to pay the ticket.

This is daunting because I don't speak Spanish.  I walked in and was confronted with at least a dozen counters, semi-counter, desks, half desks and pods of official people standing around.  You get the picture, mayhem.

There aren't really any signs but what good would they do me anyway, I can't read them.

So, being the detective sleuth that I am, I spy a local with a ticket and I followed him...into the wrong line.  He had no idea where he was going either, but he was getting instructions on where to go, so progress was being made.

We get pointed to the back of one of the rooms, through a maze of desks, some with people, some vacant.  We end up an a little, tiny, minuscule desk, about 2 feet by 2 feet with a computer on it and a lady sitting in front of it.  And, in all this hustle and bustle, this lone, isolated, hidden lady is the one we are looking for.  Could they make this any harder?!

She punches in the ticket and then directs us to the cashier.  The same cashier who earlier had shooed us away.  This time it worked.

And after they did a $75 walet-dectemy on me, I was free to go.

Not bad for an English speaking gringo.

I returned to Boquete for lunch.  I went to a little Panamanian place in the higher, cloud forest regions of town.  This is one of my favorite places.  There are normally only 2 to 4 people in the joint.  How do they survive?  

I had corvina (sea bass), rice and salad for $5.50.  It was delicious.  

I think I'll go back tomorrow!