Food!

One of my friends has a popular blog. He is doing a poll to see what are the favorite restaurants in the area.

He lists 20 restaurants. This alone is remarkable. This is a small village.

You could only vote for 3. I needed more votes. Or at least categories to divide the restaurants into specific types.

We have tipicos...Panamanian restaurants from order off the menu to cafeteria. There are 5 I would vote for. (Just a note: Nelvis, one of my favorite, now has the menu in English and Spanish and he is learning to speak English...for his customers...I was so touched that he would do this for us gringos.)

We have middle-of-the-road ones...I would vote for 4 of them.

And we have fine dining...I would vote for 3 of them.

That's a lot of great restaurants!

Boquete is a special place. Magical actually.

Not to visit but to live here.

Vacationing has limited opportunities in this community. Sure, you can have a great time vacationing but that's not what makes this place so special.

It's the people. Panamanians and gringoes.

First, there are approximately 15 locals to every foreigner. This means that the local culture is intact and strong.

And there are enough gringoes so you can make plenty of friends who have a similar history and culture.

Plus, you can step out into the Panamanian community and make friends in an entirely new culture.

I can't think of a better place to retire.

I was talking to a friend back in Colorado. She said, "Are you lucky that you got out of the US when you did...things are not good here." She was talking about the economy, not politics.

Some times you just get lucky. This time we did. I can't count how many times I didn't get lucky. So this is a wonder time to be lucky.

May you have some luck in your life too. I sure hope so.

I am grateful for this special lifetime opportunity!

Exhausted

I'm sitting in the house with heavy fog outside. Rain about to start. The rainy season. I love it.

I have staved off a nap so I can write a blog. It's been a while and my blogs for May have been few and far between. I finished my guitar practice, only 2 hours today, an off day for me. Now for the blog...

For the last 6 days, I have rehearsed and practiced music for at least 5 hours a day.

Saturday we played at Las Ruinas for 3 hours. Earlier in the day, I practiced for a couple of hours, pedaling fast so I wouldn't humiliate myself during the performance.

Every other day had a rehearsal and me practicing after rehearsal to keep up.

My head and spirit is full of music.

I am now in 2 bands and taking music lessons to boot. If anything is worth doing, it is worth over doing.

I have so many songs, solos and exercises that I need to learn, write, practice and create that I have at least a small portion of my brain engaged in music all the time.

And I like it.

Being full of music is a good way to go. As my friend says, music is good for the soul.

I agree.

I am amazed at what minutia will trip you up during a live performance.

A couple of weeks ago, I was playing a lead at a gig at The Oasis and I went for a really high note on the guitar neck and missed it. I couldn't see the guitar neck because the light was bad. I could see most of the neck but not the part I needed.

On Saturday, the keyboard player pre-programmed all his settings --which are extensive with modern keyboards--when he got to the gig and they were all gone. Why? The batteries in the key board went dead. Hours of work down the drain.

I was playing a hot rock song that needed a distorted guitar and the guitar went dead. I was using a splitter, a 0.50$ connector, that went bad...right during the song. Damn! I wanted that song to sound good.

That is the thrill of live performance. There is always some tension because things may not go right.

Spicy!!!

Playing this much music is accelerating my development. Which needs it, of course. I find myself, from time to time, noticing that I can play something that I couldn't do just a couple of days ago.

Now that is thrilling.

I am committed to becoming a great guitar player. I will settle for being a good player.

It is a race between the time it takes to develop my skills and the relentless onset of arthritis in my fingers. At some point, the two time curves will cross and the development of my skills will be over...at least in the getting better department.

I hope I have at least 5 years...maybe ten.

All this seems worthwhile now.

Rock on dude!

Puerto Armuelles

There is a narrow, long (40 Miles) peninsula that juts into the Pacific and is shared by Panama and Costa Rica, split down the middle, the long way.

At the base, on the Panama side, is Puerto Armuelles. This was a banana town. And like so many banana towns, it is no longer a banana town. These towns are abandon by the international banana companies for many reasons...blight, labor problems, etc.

There is a petroleum depot south of Armuelles about 5 miles. This is the start of a pipeline that goes across Panama to the Caribbean Sea. This is a MAJOR pipeline, transporting enormous quantities of oil.

The Pacific is very deep just off shore, allowing super tankers to dock a couple of hundred yards out.

South of the pipeline about 30 minutes is a small fishing village, Los Limones (The Lemons). This is the access to the beach.

We drove down the beach about a mile to the house where we were staying. The house is only accessible during low tide for about 2 hours. After that, the beach disappears, under the surf.

Needless to say, it was remote...and beautiful...and rustic.

Come to think of it, rustic is not sufficient to describe the condition of the house.

The caretaker opened the first room and the ladies said, "we don't need the garage." But it wasn't the garage but the kitchen.

It went down hill from there.

We stayed the first night, then moved to a friends house at Armuelles for the second night. This was a modern, beautiful house on the beach. Great beach, great water for surfing and warm...safe too.

I am amazed at all the remote corners of Panama that seem to be endless.

This particular corner had the distinction of the sun rising over the Pacific from the EAST.

I know, it sounds ridiculous.

First and foremost, Panama is a east to west country, not a north to south country like it should be. Look at a globe and this will make perfect sense.

The peninsula juts south to southeast from the mainland. Thus, the sun rises from the east over the Pacific.

I hope that all made sense.

I loved this part of the country. Pure Panama with only a handful of gringos.

The trip was great for a guy but not so great for a woman. I was traveling with 3 women.

Not good.

They were good sports about the whole thing so it was a satisfactory trip.

Good to be back home!

Rain every afternoon now. Probably through June, then much less rain for June, July and August. I do like this time of year.

It's Been A While

A couple of quirky things first...

Car alarms...I am not for them.

They go off all the time! For no reason. And they are everywhere down here. You can here them continuously.

They go off so often that the parrots imitate the alarms...no Polly want a cracker...no hola...no pretty bird. You hear "whoop whoop whoop buzz buzz buzz whoop whoop whoop."

The alarms are bad enough but the parrots are worse!

I heard a nick name for a man that caught my funny bone. He is called "Special Ed Fred." That's right, he is not too smart. Not the sharpest blade in the drawer. Not the brightest bulb in the box.

He was named by a retired special ed teacher so I guess she knows what she is talking about!

I went to my first rehearsal with the new band which I will call Squirt's band. What is a Squirt? Well that's her nickname and I don't know why.

As I walked in, she offer me coffee or whatever I wanted. She said she wanted to make sure I was happy and didn't leave.

Kind of embarrassing...but I'll take it. It is nice to arrive somewhere and the people really want to have you there. A big change from "times in the day."

I was handed a 3-ring binder with all the music typed out, all the chords (the correct ones even) and the right key to play them in. Wow!

I sat down and started to play and fit in from the beginning.

It is a pleasure to be involved in something that has leadership and organization. All an oxymoron in the band business.

I started music lessons with a great piano and bass player who really knows jazz, as well as other music. I am learning how to play lead guitar. This means I have to play solos, on demand, when the band needs them.

Shit! That is way over my head!

So I am back in kindergarden with music. Feels good to be learning music the right way for a change.

You see, when I was playing music in the 60's and 70's, I was drunk, the audience was drunk and it worked for everyone.

But the music sucked, as you can imagine.

So now I am undoing all the mistakes in my playing and trying to actually become accomplished at it.

We will see.

We attended a play last night, directed by the professional director from LA. He did it again! A very enjoyable play.

The really amazing thing is that he takes first time actors and directs them to a wonderful performance. He had 3 new actors in the play. 2 of them hit a Home Run. Wow!

What a pleasure to see such great drama in this small berg tucked away in the jungle of Panama!

Well, that's it for now.

Rain in the Morning

I love waking up to rain.

Something that happened maybe 5 times in the 32 years I lived in Colorado.

For me, rain gives me permission to be lazy. Don't know why. It just does.

Yesterday was one of those magical days.

It started with major league shucking and jiving with the boys at breakfast. Sometimes every thing is just right for an uproarious breakfast.

Yesterday it was. There were four of us. Let the good times roll!

After breakfast, I did my water testing job at Villa Escondido, then to the bank to pay my Internet bill. I ran into some more good friends for another session of gossip and telling lies and many yuks.

Then on to rehearsal with the piano player. We worked for 3 hours on music which is strangely satisfying and fulfilling. Followed by a hour of conversation with him.

I stopped in at the art show being held at the Boquete Community Theater. So another round of "meet and great" with friends.

I arrived home in the late afternoon after a full day of "being out and about."

But the day was not done yet.

I called another piano player who asked me to join their group and excepted his offer to play with them. So I am now in another group.

That pretty much fills up my music calendar. Two groups plus guitar lessons should do the trick. Who knows, maybe I will actually get good at this thing.

I also called the theater director and told him I would not be auditioning for his next play. I had put this off for a couple of weeks because he is hard to say no to.

He was gracious about it. Phew! I do appreciate that.

Yella and I capped the day off with a movie.

Now that was a great day!

Isla Bastimentos

My friend was going to Almirante to buy a couple of Hilux Toyota trucks and needed 2 friends to go with him to drive the trucks back. This is a 4 hour trip and would take a couple of days with all the banking transactions.

Quicker than you can say "yes", I was in. I love the Caribbean coast of Panama.

We went past Almirante to a hydro electric project which is winding down and selling off their trucks.

This project is huge. 300 feet high concrete damn (over a million cubic yards of concrete), over 400 people working the project, 2 subdivision like housing areas for workers, a repair shop over 300 feet long and 100 feet deep, a quarry and concrete plant, just to name a few things.

This is a private hydro project owned by a Denmark firm. People (Gringos) around here are up in arms about all the hydro projects that are being constructed and in the planning stage. They feel that the dams mess up the environment.

I notice that those against the projects still burn their lights though.

I am getting fed up with the environmental set. After all, coal, natural gas and nuclear leave a huge environmental foot print. Do they prefer these? Or do they simply want to "protect the environment" while they continue to use the resource that they condemn?

I am all for minimizing the environmental impact of this stuff but people have to understand that consumption, especially their's, drives the demand and consequently, the construction of the supply.

Enough soap-boxing...

We stayed on Bastimentos, an island ten minutes by boat from Bocas, also an island. Bastimentos is a small community without any roads--everyone walks on paths--no motorized vehicles in the village. All travel is by boat to the mainland and other islands.

So cool!

We stayed at a great place, inexpensive, charming and fun. $33 a night with AC and hot water, private bath.

The Caribbean culture is very different than the Latino culture. These folks are loud, fun loving and all smiles. Huge white smiles on dark faces beaming like lights of goodwill.

I walked to Wizard Beach yesterday during the afternoon. I now know what hot is like! I had to hike up and over the central hill to the other side of the island, about 20 minutes.

The hike was in deep jungle. Absolutely still, not even the suggestion of a breeze, blazing hot tropical sun.

I looked in the mirror when I got to my room and I was completely covered in copious amounts of sweat. I sat in front of the AC for 20 minutes to cool off enough for a shower.

The beach was gorgeous...just like it's neighbor Red Frog Beach which is a world class beach. Soft, pure white sand...heavy surf...dangerous undertow.

The best part was meeting the people on the beach, not many but so interesting. I won't go into the conversation because it was too extensive.

Now onto Island Girls...

How many songs were written about Island Girls? So many.

As we were eating dinner, the owner's daughter stopped by to chat. And she could chat! Big smile, light upbeat attitude and never a negative word about anything.

She was 27, had 10 and 6 year old daughters and wanted off the island so bad. Even though she is bi-lingual, she doesn't think she can get a job anywhere else in Panama. There is a heavy prejudice against the Caribbean people in the rest of Panama. She wouldn't talk about the prejudice, we had to coax it out of her.

Now I know what Island Girls are all about. Such charming people!

The whole family was great. They keep a neat, well repaired hotel, built on stilts out over the water. And they all love to talk.

We were lulled to sleep with the soft lapping of waves against the stilts and shore. Then the rains came, all night, drumming on the roof.

Now that's a good nights sleep!

Night Sounds

I stepped outside to feed the dogs at dusk and noticed the night sounds.

Earlier, it rained for 10 minutes, leaving everything wet and still. I think the night sounds are different after a rain.

Our house is a few feet from dense jungle, and our lot and the adjacent lots have tall trees. Plenty of places for birds, frogs and insects to gather.

We have named one bird the Orgasm Bird. It's call starts with a long, low tone which gradually gets shorter and higher in pitch until it ends in a frenzy. Thus the Orgasm Bird.

Another loud bird sounds like an owl with a warble. Distinctive because of the volume.

Then there are the tree frogs. And dense background noise from all the bugs. And a couple of dozen other bird calls.

And there are toads. I have never liked toads. These toads are nocturnal so you don't see them in the daylight. They are u-g-l-y, fat, HUGE toads. One got in the house the other night. Our friend picked it up and put it outside.

I wasn't going to do it. Yuk!

Add in a few chickens which drives Emmy nuts. She loves to play with chickens to death, then she leaves them and goes on to something else. That's one of the reasons we fenced our property. Chickens still come up to the fence, just to infuriate Emmy I suppose.

As I sit in my bedroom writing this, the sound of the night is still murmuring outside the windows.

I do love night sounds.

It reminds me of childhood, when I was outside every summer night until late, playing and taking in the night sounds.