The Fish Monger

When we first arrived in Panama, 2 to 3 fish mongers would park across the street from the supermarket. This was wonderful for us locals but the supermarket didn't like it. The mayor threw them out so no more fresh fish in Boquete.

Big disappointment.

Now I have to drive to David to the fish market. Not a big deal except the market may or may not have what you want, depending on the catch of the day. So a 2 hour trip can be waisted.

There is a fish monger, Miguel, who delivers to restaurants and individuals who ordered fish directly from him. I have tried to find out how to hook up with him but I got no where.

Until last Thursday.

I had parked my car and was walking to the supermarket when a friend scurried across the street to chat. I noticed he had been with a fish monger.

Wow! How did that happen.

I crossed the street and met Miguel.

What a find!

He had 5 pounds of Mahi Mahi, one of my favorite fish.

He dressed it while a waited.

This took 45 minutes. Why? Miguel likes to talk...and he knows a little english.

So he would make a cut, sharpen his knife, stop to talk. And talk. And talk...

I noticed that he had rheumy eyes. And he talked about hitting people and knocking them down.

Apparently the port city of Pedragal is a tough little town. There was a big disturbance the night before where several people were battered and a couple knifed. He was regaling us with his part in breaking up the fight.

All the while masterfully dressing this magnificent fish.

He has slow, unhurried hands...beautiful hands. Man, can he dress a fish.

His gentle hands and soft personality are inconsistent with his rhetoric about hitting people... What the fu#$#!

I think he was drunk too. It was 3 PM so maybe it was time to start the party. I got his last fish so it was quitting time.

Now I have a way to contact Miguel.

Let the fresh fish roll!

Oh, there is more to the dichotomy of Miguel. He is an electrical engineer and certified Microsoft and Apple technician. Yet he finds a great life for himself being a fish monger.

Makes one think about living the career life rather than one closer to the food chain.

The Fair

Until yesterday, I have avoided the fair.

The Boquete Flower and Coffee Fair is our village's biggest event of the year. About 30,000 Panamanians come to Boquete for the fair. They come in droves.

Most people, locals included, dread the fair.

The name of the fair is misleading. Yes, there are flowers and vendors like any fair around the world.

But there is another thing that dwarfs the flowers.

Latin American discos!

It is impossible to articulate what one of these behemoths really is.

They are similar to traveling rock shows only louder.

This is a big business in Latin America. These touring shows move from one fair or event to another. They are multi-floor, mega sound system, meat market things.

I really don't know what goes on in one because I can't get close enough when they operate to see. They are so loud that I fear for my hearing and sanity just getting within a few blocks of one in full flight.

We can hear them at night, FIVE miles away!

The real purpose of the fair is the disco.

They fire up about 10 PM and go till dawn at 6:30 AM.

The mayor gets more complaints about the noise than any other thing during the year.

But they still go on.

Why?

Because it brings in a ton of money. And notoriety. The fair puts Boquete on the map...in Panama.

So it goes on.

Many people, gringo and local, leave town for the 10 days of the fair. You can't possibly sleep if you are within a mile of the disco which includes the entire village of Boquete.

We live out in the country, 5 miles from the fair, and we can still hear it.

We attended the fair during the day. It is a lovely event with some amazing flowers.

And it is also "shit pickers paradise." Booth after booth of the same trinkets that seem to appeal to, I guess, someone. Not me for sure.

We strolled around for about an hour. That was enough. It was a beautiful day so all was well.

I don't think I will go back.

I will just grit my teeth every year during the fair, when we actually have traffic jams, and the food stores have bare shelves, and people meandering around clog the streets.

Who am I to deprive a city of their heritage?

Let the fair roll on!

Our Casita

We've had several guest stay in our casita.

They have been some our best friends plus our son (and Lilly) so they have been at the top of our list of great people.

After a guest leaves, there presence lingers on.

As I look down on the casita or I walk by on my way to my car, I have the urge to look in and call out there name, just like I do when they are here.

When this happens, there is a pleasant glow tinged with melancholy.

The warm memories of their visit produce the glow.

And there absence after the visit brings on the melancholy.

Our oldest, best friend, who we have known for 42 years, left yesterday. It was a lightning quick, 4 day visit packed with conversation and fun.

And discussions of his possible future move to Boquete with his family.

We met him in Kansas City before we were married. We were so young then...oh we were young. Many, many memories of those carefree days without obligations and responsibilities, plus a wild abandon for partying way beyond sanity.

We went on the road playing music with him, touring all over the midwest and even a stint in Vegas. Those were simultaneously the best and worst days of my life.

It is impossible to continue living life that fast and survive!

And strangely enough, our days in Panama resemble those earlier days. Well, without the insane partying for sure.

He hasn't been here for 3 years so his impressions of the area were interesting. He commented many times about how much more developed and beautiful Boquete and David are now.

I forget how much has changed with our current President who is pro-gringo and development.

They are widening the highway to 4 lanes, They have paved the main street as well as 5 side streets in Boquete...we only have about 5 side streets. David has several new hotels and commercial buildings. The mayor has upgraded the town square by closing 2 streets that border the square and converted them to beautiful walk ways, and there is a new fountain in the square.

So, his comments were insightful. We don't notice the changes because we are here all the time and acclimated to them.

His impression was that Boquete is on the verge of another boom. Who knows, if the world economy creeps toward the better and all those retiring boomers need a cheaper place to retire, he could be right.

It sure was good to see him and hang out!

Even with Skype, I miss my old friends.

Football at It's Best

I know, most of you aren't football fans and, if you are, you don't follow the Denver Broncos.

Doesn't matter.

The Broncos pulled off one of the biggest upsets in professional sports last night when they beat the Steelers in overtime.

What a game!

And I didn't get to see it...

We were at a birthday party for a really good friend. Anyone else and I would have stayed home and watched the game.

One of the big changes in our lives are the number of social engagements that we attend in paradise.

In Colorado, we might go out to dinner or a party 4 times a year. Here, we are out probably 60 to 80 times a year.

What happened?

Well, the obvious thing is that we are retired and have a lot of time on our hands. But it is more. This community is special. There is a sense of relationship that is rare, and precious.

It can be traced back to 2 very special people who I have written about in the past.

Amazing that one or two individuals can have such a big impact on a community.

So, there I sat before the game, debating on what I was going to do. Watch the game or attend the birthday party.

Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

Finally, the value of being related won out.

And I missed watching the game of the decade.

That's alright. I got to see the video clips of the best plays and I spent 2 hours reading about the game on the internet.

The party was worth it...in a quiet, warm, close way...the best way...it was not a loud, screaming at one another party...just 6 people having a wonderful time.

And, I felt like I was at the game by reading all about it the next day.

Little Things Make It All Worth It

We have a 5 to 6 foot vertical dirt bank next to our driveway. On top of the bank is the concrete box to house our generator.

The generator has never been in the box.

Why?

We can't lift the generator up the bank without throwing someone's back out.

In addition, our dogs, who effortlessly jump up the bank, have worn the dirt down 18 inches and undermined the bottom of the fence.

When our male dog sees another dog, he jumps up the bank and rakes his feet on the ground thus digging out the soil.

Some kind of ancient male dominance ritual, I think.

I asked our gardener to build stairs up the bank. This will do 2 things: stop the undermining of the fence and provide an easier way to lift the generator to it's rightful place in it's box.

I explained what I want to him and then I let him do it his way.

This takes tremendous restraint on my part because he seems to be doing in WRONG. For once I kept my mouth shut. As he progressed, I could see that he actually has a wonderful design for the stairs.

I am so glad I let him do it his way!

It order to finish the project, he needs to cut a 6 inch metal stud off the bottom of the box.

So off I go to find hack saw blades.

This is where the "little thing" showed up that I mentioned in the blog title.

I walked into a chino hardware and construction supply store. These chino stores are scattered along the highway every 2 or 3 miles. Always owned and operated by a Chinese family.

The Chinese have a stronghold on this type of store throughout Panama.

Everything is behind the counter so you have to ask for what you want, thus the problem...insufficient Spanish!

I pull out my hack saw and I point and say, "Tiene este?" "Este" is a wonderful word meaning "this" so it covers all those things that you don't know the Spanish word for...Yay! (Tiene este means, Do you have this?)

Now an interesting thing happens.

The Panamanian customer next to me tells me the Spanish word for "saw blade". Panamanians are very helpful. I try to pronounce it and get it wrong, of course. He repeats. I screw it up. He repeats it. I screw it up. We go back and forth about 6 times until I get it.

Now everyone in the store, staff and customers, start to smile and laugh because I finally got it.

It amazes me how little it takes to be related to people when they are so accommodating.

I go to the cash register to pay and the chino owner asks me how to say it in English. I tell him "blade".

Now he gets to try and fail about 6 times. When he gets it, everyone smiles and laughs for him too.

Here is an interesting aspect of pronunciation in Spanish.

They do not pronounce "d" as a hard "d". No such sound in Spanish. It is more like the softer sound of "th". The chino owner was struggling with the hard "d" at the end of "blade".

Ah, the trials and travails of learning a new language.

It made me feel great that the locals enjoyed my learning process and that the owner reciprocated by learning the English word.

I do dearly love this culture.

Waterfalls!

I hike once a month or so with a couple of guys. We are not a very committed hiking group as demonstrated by our infrequent hikes.

This morning we decided to hike "The Suspension Bridge" trail. This is a trail that the migrating Indians use seasonally to travel back and forth from the Caribbean side to Boquete for coffee harvest...a 3 to 4 day hike!

It is deeply beautiful with the trail sides carpeted with Novias...spanish for girlfriend because there are 2 flowers per stem. The trail goes through primal cloud jungle. Very primordial.

As we crossed the bridge, there was a new trail to the right with a sign saying, "Waterfalls." So we took it.

It was an improved trail with rocks cemented together for easy walking. And it was steeply up hill, so this helped.

We passed through a primitive gate and after about 20 minutes came upon a wood cabin under construction.

Uh oh!

I said to my fellow hikers, "Looks like they will hit us up for money." And they did. $5 each.

We said, "No way!"

We found out this land was owned by a friend of ours, actually the lady we owned our dog before we stole it from town. (The dog always ran away from her house, was a mess and typically roaming around town, so we took it not knowing it was someone else's dog)

We continued up the trail, now a muddy, wet mess, slippery beyond belief and eventually got to the first of 12 waterfalls.

Whoa! This was a big one. About 100 feet high and a huge flow over the top. I haven't scene one this big in Panama yet.

It was spectacular.

Where was my camera when I needed it!

We continued up another steep, slippery pitch for 30 minutes and came to the second waterfall. As incredible as the first one.

At this point, we were soaked and muddy and ready to turn around.

One day, a drier day I hope, we will return with food and drink to see how many of these waterfalls we can get to.

When we returned, we paid the guy $5 each because it was so worth it!

Then on to lunch.

A great day for hiking, fellowship and beauty.

When I got home, it took me an hour to clean everything up...so much mud.

But it was worth every minute of it.

Winds!

The Trade Winds are here.

These breezes, and occasionally gusty winds, start in early December and continue to the middle of March. These are the same winds that propelled sailors to the New Country in olden years.

I am not a fan of wind...no pun intended...but what can you do?

Today, the wind is ferocious. It wears on me.

On to other stuff...

Yella and I joined the local spa. They have the best gym, the only heated swimming pool, dressing rooms, hot tub and sauna. And they get the biggest fees. But it is all worth it when everything is included.

I am not used to luxury in Boquete.

The showers have mega force and big time flow! With more hot water than you can possibly use.

What a luxury.

When they built this place, I thought they were nuts. Upscale stuff doesn't seem to fit here.

I guess I was wrong because they have lasted a couple of years without going belly up.

It is kind of cool going to the gym each day when it is a slice of the old country...the US.

On to other stuff...

We are back at work on our music. We rehearse for the first time in 2 weeks after our Christmas break.

We need to fix some of the problems that plagued us during the 3 engagements prior to Christmas.

I have been practicing all week in anticipation of rehearsal. I hope it does some good!

It will be good to be back into the music.

We are also preparing for 3 visits over the next month.

We love visitors!

Each set of guests have different experiences with Panama, one none at all.

Can't wait! Should be a blast.