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| Our godchild Felicia and my brother Marco |
Does anybody
have an idea how to slow time down? Let me know if you do.
I don’t know if it just goes by fast in Panama
or anywhere else. My Blog is running further and further away from me so time
to catch up on the last several months.
After getting
back from Costa Rica I had just about 3 days to get ready for my brother and
family’s visit from Switzerland. They arrived on the 29th of April,
Good Friday, at 9 pm. Most stores are closed on Good Friday which should have
left the streets with not all too much traffic, but better safe than sorry, I left
town one hour earlier than planned. Teresa was with me as I gave her a lift
into town as she was spending Easter with her family. Good thing we had left
early, in Sabanitas at the McDonald’s crossing, a police car jumped in front of
me and blocked both lanes, what the heck?!!! When I saw what it was for I knew
we were in trouble.
An Easter procession with hundreds of people
wearing Ku Klux Klan type hooded robes in all different colors marched out from
the side street onto the always very busy two lane main road, blocking the two
outgoing lanes.
The procession seemed endless and just as all were on the
main road all stopped. 20 minutes later still nobody had moved. I had noticed a
few cars behind me driving across to the other side and disappearing on a side road,
they must know a shortcut. I turned around and followed them and it indeed lead
a bit further up back into the main road, but just as we arrived so did
the procession and we were once stuck again. We had lost precious time and
I was really worried miss my brother’s arrival, what now. Quick thinking and I
was on my way the opposite direction towards Colon a 20 minute drive away,
there I hopped on the freeway towards Panama City bypassing Sabanitas. Good
thing as the procession still was on its way when we bypassed it. I was able to
do a quick stop at Rey to by flowers and drop Teresa off and arrived at the
airport just as the plane was landing.
It was a
happy reunion and I greeted the girls each with a bouquet of flowers,
especially since it was Barbara’s Birthday. It took us a while to get everybody
situated in the car so when we left the airport the ticket time I had paid for
was expired and we had to go back to pay more parking money, unbelievable!
The drive
home was long for my family, having been underway 24 hours the 2 hours in the
car seemed never ending. It didn’t help being dark and not being able to
sightsee. I had them set up with each a plate of cold cuts and cheeses, a bottle
of champagne for Barbara and Marco and an alcohol free Passion fruit sparkling
wine for the kids.
My family was
overjoyed to enter the “Jurassic Park” gate to Summer Place. We sat down for a
good night cap with Sid before everybody turned in.
They were
just in ahhh when they saw their apartments and were overjoyed to find out they
had separate apartments, especially the kids when they saw theirs was loaded with
cookies, sweets and treats.
Whenever we
had guests the deal is that they are responsible for their own breakfast, this
way they can sleep in as long as they like. Lunch is subject to whatever we do
that day. But dinner is always on us. I made sure they had anything they needed
and the fridge is stocked including the bar.
I told them
to call us on the intercom when they are good and ready for breakfast. At 10 am
they called us to come up to their patio. You have no idea what awaited us. It
was Merry Xmas, Happy Birthday, Happy Easter and everything else.
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| Merry everything |
It took
everybody’s help to get all the presents to our little casita where we enjoyed
a hearty breakfast and a mimosa toast to finally see each other after some 7
years.
Right after
breakfast Binnie’s second maid Maribel happened to come down to our garden with
Dooger’s for his weekly potty run (kind of strange she hardly ever does that
hmm). That was the first encounter for my family with Dooger. Barbara told me
how great it was to finally see Dooger life because the first time she saw him on
Skype she was wondering why I was wearing such a weird fur around my neck in
the tropics.
After
everybody’s photo with Dooger was taken we took my family for a walk into town,
including Dooger. It’s always fun walking around with Dooger; you have no idea
what a spectacle Dooger creates. We were gone about 2 Minutes when Sid’s
hearing aid’s batteries died, so he decided to go change them and be right
back. He was right back alright but he told me that Maribel the maid was in our
house and wanted to know if I had hired her to clean. Absolutely NOT!!! Later
he told me that when he stuck the key in the door there was no resistance, odd,
we did lock the door. Then when he entered, now there was no sound with the
unlocked door, he saw Maribel standing in front of my closet with both doors
open, shopping. She noticed her wearing surgical gloves, which she never does
at Binnie’s house when she cleans. Obviously she watches too many movies. But
she’s right we would have never found her finger prints if we wouldn’t have
caught her shopping in my closet LOL. He surprised her when he said: “what are
you doing in my house?” What Sid got out of her Spanish was that I had hired
her to clean. When he told me she was in our house I rushed back and when I
came in she indeed was sweeping the floor, the trash bag was out of the bin and
she immediately started mumbling that she was all done with the work at Binnie’s
(BS) and that she thought she’d clean down here and if I had a problem with
that. Do I have a problem with that, oh yes, big time, you are in my house
without my consent. She started mumbling again not to tell Binnie before I shut
the door behind her. Later I found out she had told my brother and family that
she had to clean their room so they left it to her. Those rooms are not her job.
Now this explains
why Cindy had found the front door unlocked the first time we were in the
States and why my expensive perfume and some other creams and stuff were gone
after our second time in the States and another time the 200 bucks I had left
on the table went missing. I wonder how many times she’s been invading our
house and what all she has taken that we don’t know of, yet. She was confronted
but of course lying like a thief, oops she is one. It was a good story she told
us but really she watches way too many movies. Unfortunately she is still
employed here with no punishment other than knowing that if anything disappears
again she’ll take the rap. Needles to say we changed all locks. It’s just petty
theft but it does hurt your feelings especially when you treat a person nice
and with respect, then this. Once more I learned: you can be friends with the
locals but you can’t trust them. We saw this in Venezuela, Colombia and unfortunately here, if they get a chance they will use it, it’s a shame.
So Sid could
hear again and I had kicked Maribel out so we joined my family who was still
wondering around in town.
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| Puerto Lindo Boardwalk |
We did a quick stop at Sarah’s so that the kids could
see and touch their first parrot.
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| Add caption |
Ramon was more interested in the coconut tree
he was fascinated with the coconuts, so we schlepped quite a few back to the
house. On the way back we took them (my family not he coconuts) up to the Bambu
Lodge, which is a really cute little Bed and Breakfast, and enjoyed a cold
beer. While sitting there Barbara saw a strange bird in the tree which turned
out to be several toucans eating on berries, that was great. She was leaning
towards the wall and swears she had a tarantula walk across her shoulder and
down her leg, yikes!!!
For dinner I
treated them to a nice Chateau Briand and since Barbara’s spent her BD on the
plane and we had just missed Felicia’s I had a Birthday Party dinner for
everybody. We had presents for everybody and Felicia had just turned 16, received
16 presents, one for each year we had missed. It was a fun dinner and everybody
was happy.
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| Marco, really did like it, he said so. So did Ramon too. |
On Sunday
they met all our friends at Ping Pong which was huge fun and everybody was as
eager to meet my family as I was to introduce them.
Then of
course I had to cook Marco his favorite “Buffalo Wings”.
On Monday we
let them rest but pretty much every day after there was a trip planned.
The Gatun
Locks were one of the first things on the list. No matter how many times I have
seen it, it just amazes me again and again. The Gatun Locks was a first for Sid
and he enjoyed it just as much as my family did.
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| Spare Parts |
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| Now I know how they attache the containers |
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| Starting the engines to get out of the lock |
From here it’s
a short drive to Fort Lorenzo where the Chagres River meets the Caribbean
Waters.
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| The heavy rain caused the land slide. Road was impassible |
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| Fort Lorenzo |
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| Chagres River |
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| Pods |
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| Our godchild Felica |
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| and her silly father |
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| Guanabana or Soursop |
We enjoyed to stroll along the lonely Tortuguita (little turtle) beach and had lunch at
the Shelter Bay marina.
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| Oops |
My nephew Ramon is a huge military fan and he about flipped out when he saw the US Navy seal helicopters near the marina.
We met Kim
and Steve of North Star at the restaurant for lunch and just before we left the
Toriba crew arrived. We had just seen them in Puerto Lindo a few days back. Kim told me that there is an abandoned residential
area, houses all torn down, all you see is the foundation where the once
beautiful homes of Canal employees ones lived. We drove up that road and where
she told us we’d see monkeys we got out of the car. At first we did not see anything
but we did heard the rustling of tree branches which hinted that there were
some present. After getting our eyes adjusted to the greenery we did finally
see one then two then uncountable little head of Capuchin monkeys peaking
behind the leaves. Not minutes later I found a howler monkey. We had capuchins
on one side of the street and on the other the howlers, what a treat. It was
fun watching them swing from tree to tree.
One trip we
drove to the north coast past Nombre de Dios to the very end of the road,
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| Viento Frio |
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| I think they want you to play bumper car here! |
turned around and drove to the Turtle Cay Marina and enjoyed a fun day at the
very beautiful beach we had all to ourselves. My family could not believe that
we were the only ones enjoying the beach.
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| and he says he does not like beaches!!! |
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| Fixing the tale gate |
Unfortunately
the weather didn’t cooperate; waves were heading right into the bay which made
it impossible to take my family to Mame Island. Instead we headed out to the
boat, had some lunch in the cockpit, then the kids jumped in the water and enjoyed
swimming around the boat, cleaning some barnacles off the hull, snorkeled and had
fun using the hookah Sid had set up for them. Ramon especially enjoyed that.
The waves
subsided the following day so we were able to take them to Mame Island in the
afternoon. As for all guests we had this was also their favorite. The
snorkeling was great especially since Debi of Runner showed the kids all kind
of underwater critters, they were fascinated.
Jim and Heather
invited us to pizza night on their property. It was fun especially since they
did this already for Marco’s daughter Tiffany when she was here. Arriving there
Jim took my family on a tour and they were able to see their first wild two
toed sloth. The pizzas were as always delicious and we had no problem
partying way into the night. It was a fun evening.
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| El Tracko |
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| Interesting flowers on the tree trunk |
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| Driveway to Jim and Heather's |
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| And End of driveway |
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| going on a hike |
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| Two-toed sloth |
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| Jim prepping the pizza dough |
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| Heather prepping pizza |
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| Oops, pile up!!! |
Visiting the
Embera village is always a huge success. Tiffany had told them so much about it
they could barely wait to see for themselves. Even though I have visited the
village numerous times I still learn more and more of the traditions of these
unique Indians.
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| Ramon getting a tattoo |
My family had
never eaten Lobster before. Mario came through for me and brought us a bag full
of Langostinos. Felicia and Marco had fun cleaning their first lobsters and
nobody in the family had a problem enjoying them for dinner.
Portobelo was
on the plan as well, we took the water taxi across, hiked the forts then had
the taxi drop us off at Anita’s where her and her sister Maddy treated us for
lunch. On our drive back to Summer Place, there was a stench in the car and Sid
and I simultaneously looked at Ramon and said: “Ramon!!!” accusing him of
farting. He in return said: “Papi!!!” so all turned their heads towards Marco,
he admitted to farting, which was the funniest part. So now we stop at the
local store to buy some soda. While moving out of the car the stench was there
again, it was gross. Then Ramon just before he got out of the car made some
funny gagging noises as he ran out of the car screaming “pew, pew, I need
water, I need water.” We all looked at him like what the heck??? Then we
realized that he had something “jammed” between his toes and looking down at my
feet I noticed that my shoe had, well had some dog doo doo stuck to
it. Poor barefoot Ramon!!! Poor Marco’s blamed and admitted fart!
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| Backside of Mame |
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| Sid having fun |
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| Beach treasures |
We do have so
many annoying land crabs making holes everywhere; Sid started hunting them with
a pellet gun. Ramon had no problem joining him and every free moment he was
hunting in the yard. I watched him a few times as he crawled on all four, you
could clearly see he was a soldier. It was huge fun watching him. He told his
mom that he will tell Binnie that if she ever needed a crab hunter, she could
just call him, he will come on his vacation to hunt crab. He also said that
when he has a girlfriend he thinks he would like to take her here for vacation.
By the way Ramon is 12 years old.
The last night
they were at Summer Place we enjoyed a wonderful dinner with Binnie and her
Sid. My Sid had BBQ’d a leg of lamb. Yum! After dinner Sid gave Ramon his
Vietnam Service Medal, he was speechless and you should have seen his
eyes light up and Ramon said, “Now they have to believe me at school that
I have an uncle who went to Vietnam!”
Unfortunately
the two week vacation for my brother’s family came to an end and since they
hadn’t seen Panama City yet, we decided to spend their last night in town. You
may remember the story when their daughter Tiffany, me running over a couple of
chickens, which they never let me live down. Even Marco and family brought it
up every time we saw a chicken alongside the road. So here we are driving into
town when all of a sudden there was a bang then feather’s flying and sticking
to the windshield then I saw this reddish-brown dove hung up with her wings on
the radio antenna then gone, except for the feathers still clinging on the
antenna. Poor bird, it was really too funny and I am definitely keeping my
reputation up.
We had a fun
day in Panama City overlooking the city from Ancon Hill, stopped at the fire
department where Marco and Ramon enjoyed a mini tour of the Station, drove out
to the Causeway with magnificent view over town. We wore my family out all they
wanted to do now was crash at the hotel. We enjoyed a nice Italian dinner with
Anita and her sister Maddy who stayed at the same hotel.
The drive
early in the morning to the airport was quite as everybody was sad the
wonderful time had come to an end. We did have nothing but fun and it was
really great to have my family here.
Later we
found out that when they went through passport and luggage control, they took
away the big conch we had gotten in Trinidad. What a shame. No shells can be
taken out of Panama. They even wanted to take the raw sugar away, but Barbara
said when she started yelling and screaming at them they stepped back. Good for
her.
Here a few nature photos:
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| Interesting bug on Passion fruit plants |
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| Tarantula at home in Binnie's Avocado tree |
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| Hummingbird nest |
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| I call it a barnacle tree, looks like the stuff that grows on the bottom of the boat |
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| Tremite nest |
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| unknown plant |
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| Palm tree needles |
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| Cashew on fruit |
An Easter procession with hundreds of people
wearing Ku Klux Klan type hooded robes in all different colors marched out from
the side street onto the always very busy two lane main road, blocking the two
outgoing lanes.
The procession seemed endless and just as all were on the
main road all stopped. 20 minutes later still nobody had moved. I had noticed a
few cars behind me driving across to the other side and disappearing on a side road,
they must know a shortcut. I turned around and followed them and it indeed lead
a bit further up back into the main road, but just as we arrived so did
the procession and we were once stuck again. We had lost precious time and
I was really worried miss my brother’s arrival, what now. Quick thinking and I
was on my way the opposite direction towards Colon a 20 minute drive away,
there I hopped on the freeway towards Panama City bypassing Sabanitas. Good
thing as the procession still was on its way when we bypassed it. I was able to
do a quick stop at Rey to by flowers and drop Teresa off and arrived at the
airport just as the plane was landing. 
Right after
breakfast Binnie’s second maid Maribel happened to come down to our garden with
Dooger’s for his weekly potty run (kind of strange she hardly ever does that
hmm). That was the first encounter for my family with Dooger. Barbara told me
how great it was to finally see Dooger life because the first time she saw him on
Skype she was wondering why I was wearing such a weird fur around my neck in
the tropics.
For dinner I
treated them to a nice Chateau Briand and since Barbara’s spent her BD on the
plane and we had just missed Felicia’s I had a Birthday Party dinner for
everybody. We had presents for everybody and Felicia had just turned 16, received
16 presents, one for each year we had missed. It was a fun dinner and everybody
was happy.
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