Does anyone know how to stop time, or at least
just long enough that we can catch our breath?!
The last month or is it almost 2,,,,, was full of trips, fun Birthdays
and friends visiting.
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| Jerry and Dave |
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| Lori and Pete |
Sid arrived back from the States on the 31st
of April and since we had to be in town the following day to meet with our
attorney for our pension visa, we decided to spend the night in Panama City.
Carl was happy to have us at his condo and was rewarded with a home cooked
meal. As always it was great to see him.
Two days later we were back in Panama City heading
to the immigration office with our attorney’s secretary Zulya. I guess we were
lucky with our attorney giving us a detailed list of all the paperwork we
needed. Of course all had to be internationally notarized in the States, which
took about 2 months. Once we had all the paperwork it took three days to get
our temporary pensioners visa. The immigration visit was an ordeal. A long line
starting at 6 am builds in front of the building. The door opens at 9.
Everybody has to go through the reception desk where they decide what type of
ticket one needs. All are alphabetically numbered. We arrived at 9:30 and our
number was “I 107” with about 50 people in front of us. Then Zulya discovered
that we had the wrong number and had to pick another one, this time it was two B143
and B144, one for each of us. We had some 44 people in front of us and we
waited patiently. At 11.50 our number was called, we hurried up to the counter
where our Immigration monster sat. She took both our passports and inspected
them, then started with my paperwork. After 25 minutes full of unfriendly
questions she handed me a piece of paper and ordered me to go downstairs and
pay 5 bucks. Done so, I handed her the receipt, she in return handed me my
passport back, got out of her chair, another monster sat down and we watched
the other one walk out the door for her lunch break. The new one looked at us
and said “Que?!!” (What). Zulya told her that Sid was next to which she asked
“what is his number” – “B144”, get this she said “well he missed his turn we
are now on number 155 go and pick a new number!” WHAT!!!! His new number had
now 57 people in front of us. We were so pissed we walked out and had lunch
before returning and waiting for our turn which happened at 16:55. Imagine the
page with the visa stamp they pound into our passport has to be copied then
notarized then brought back to Immigration. Mucking refarkable that they don’t even
trust their own stamps! Being after 5 the notary office of course was closed.
Just good we had planned to spend the night in Panama City, our friends Dave
and Jerry were in town. It was good to see them and after the first cocktail
the immigration frustration was gone. We enjoyed an incredible dinner at the
Casa Blanca restaurant in old town, a must if you are ever in Panama City.
To get ahead of the immigration game we
decided to be there at 8 am already, while Zulya went to the notary, by the
time she comes back we should be close to being next in line, right?! Wrong!!!! After
we made it through the door, the reception desk refused to give us a ticket as
we did not have our paperwork with us. Zulya finally showed up at 10am. While
waiting in line out the door a security guy approached me and told me that I
can’t enter with my top. Funny I was in there the day before with the exact same
top pattern except it was attached to a skirt = dress. That day it was a top with
an unattached skirt. We know that any government office even banks don’t allow
shorts even for women. Now we learned that shoulders have to be covered as well.
It’s OK if it is a dress and also OK if the skirt is so short that if it was
any shorter it would be called a belt and it’s definitely allowed to hang
fake boobs out to the point they almost fall out of the top, including another
Immigration monster behind the glass counter wearing a tank-top. I just draped
the dress from the prior day over my shoulders and they let me in. Later on, a
very young gorgeous woman with above described boobs including bare shoulders
walked in. I guess I can count myself lucky that they did not put a bag over my
head! At 2pm we left immigration with our new temporary pensioner cards in our
hands, yeah. One week later I obtained my Panamanian drivers license. I am
sooooooo legal now in this country!
Jerry was on a business
trip in Panama and Dave wanted to come visit us. On Sunday, two days after our dinner at Casa
Blanca, Louis their taxi driver drove them out to Summer Place. Jerry had been here a couple of months prior so he knew the
place already. Dave was just in awe how beautiful it is here, so we hope he’ll
return soon again, actually he threatened to come back.
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| BBQ dinner |
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| Brunch at Casita Paraiso |
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| Sunset cocktails |
Sid and I discovered a new
sport: We are hunting on Binnie’s property. Rainy season is in full swing and
the land crabs are being washed out of their homes. These crabs are such a
nuisance so we are hunting them with pellet guns, it’s a hoot. Really there is
never a dull moment in, on and around Paradise.
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| Oh, I see one! |
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| It's a long shot |
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| Honey do you want him for dinner? |
May 13th I was
just done decorating the patio for Cindy’s surprise Birthday party when I
noticed a boat inches away from Paradise’s bow = adrenaline rush. After a fast
run down to Casita Paraiso where Sid was nursing a hangover I grabbed the
phone, called our buddy Reg on Runner, positioned myself in front of Sid with
intense eye contact with him, asking Reg to meet us at the dock ASAP to get us
out to the boat as Sara’s boat had gone walkabout….. (Our dinghy wheels were
broken, so no way to get it in the water). Within minutes we were at the
moorings, Sara’s boat had passed ours and was now hung up on our stern line.
Luckily she did not come in contact with Paradise as we could not see any
damage and also lucky for her that her boat hung up as it would have ended on
the beach. It took us a while to get her boat off and Sara anchored her in her
old spot. The mooring line broke from the mooring. Poor Sid hurt his ribs the
prior day working in the garage and during the rescue of Orion insured it more.
He was in mortal pain for days.
Pretty much right after
the exciting event Cindy’s surprise BD party started. We had so much fun with lots
of friends wonderful food and challenging ping-pong games.
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| Cindy the BD girl |
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| Ohhh, pretty balloons |
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| Buffalo Wings in the Caribbean |
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| Happy Birthday Cindy |
The following Thursday I found a card on my
dining room table with an invitation to a dinner on Saturday May 19th,
my Birthday, at Chateau Schulz and that I could bring my husband. Cindy, Debbie
and Heather outdid themselves. They cooked the most delicious gourmet meal,
Cornish game hens with eggplant stuffing, stuffed tomatoes, asparagus, and for
dessert cranberry stuffed apples cooked in cognac and the champagne was freely
flowing. We must have emptied 20 bottles, well it seemed that way anyway. It was wonderful.
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| Sid, Binnie, Regi, Debbie, Sid and Jim, yes two Sids |
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| Debbie, Regi, Heather and BD girl |
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| and Cindy and Reed on the right |
Sunday
the next day, Cindy showed up early at our house before ping pong, odd??? Later
going up to Binnie’s for ping-pong I realized why, a surprise BD party was
waiting for me. It was a blast with fun games, lots of food and drink; one of my best Birthdays.
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| Musical chair |
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| Seat comes with a shot of liquor |
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| Wonderful Birthday Cheesecake |
A few days later sitting on Binnie’s deck
enjoying yet another incredible sunset, we noticed something on top of
Paradise’s mast. Binocular revealed a bird’s nest, big enough that it could be
the nest of an Osprey. Binnie jokingly said it couldn’t be the nest of a
Kiskade. When Sid climbed the mast to remove it a Kiskade was attaching him
protecting its nest. Luckily no eggs had been laid yet.
Just as we thought we were done with all the
partying it started all over again. Roberto’s (Crows Nest in Cholon Colombia) daughter Lori and hubby Pete came
for a visit. It was party time from the
minute they arrive to the minute they left. Imagine having guests who bring
their own food and spoil the hosts, that’s what Lori did, it was awesome. We
organized a huge BBQ with all the cruisers who know her dad, it was a lot of
fun and everybody showed up for the ping pong Sunday afternoon and the party
just kept going and going.
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| Another wonderful BBQ dinner |
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| Always fun Sunday Ping-Pong gathering |
At the BBQ dinner one of the topics was scorpions
and big spider in homes here. So far so good we never had any. Binnie mentioned
she had many scorpions in her house also in her shoe and when she stuck her
foot in it she got stung. Yikes, really didn’t want to hear that, but so far so
good we only had one ugly spider tried to get across the door step but I
stopped him. After dinner we had an after dinner drink in Casita Paraiso when I
noticed something crawling on the floor. Under closer inspection I noticed a
whole bunch of little aunts trying to carry a really small (1/2 inch) scorpion
baby, while an ugly looking spider tried to get close to it as well, double yikes.
We also had a beautiful long but skinny vine snake up at Binnie's and 2 two-toed sloths, both in the same tree.
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| Hmmmm, dinner! |
It was a fun visit, we really had a wonderful
time and Pete and Lori hinted they will be back in January, yeah.
Now here comes the “Does anybody know how to
stop time??” question,” Oh and still live.” We are having way toooooooo much fun.
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