GREG, MEGAN'S AND FRANCINE'S VISIT

HAPPY NEW YEAR YOU ALL!!!! Hope you had as much fun ringing the New Year in as we had. I have a feeling it’s going to be a great 2013!

Let me catch you up on our Holiday Season:

On 12/12/12, we celebrated Heather’s Birthday. What a fun date to have a BD. It was huge fun with yummy food, mostly sushi (Heather and my favorite). One bottle of bubbly after another was opened and I don’t think anybody was in pain when we left. What was the most memorable just after it got dark the whole surrounding started blinking like the stars had fallen out of the sky. Hundreds of lightning bugs arose from the grass and started dancing around us. What a perfect way to end a fun party with a magical light show like this. It was a great party and I think more than just one guest had a hangover the next morning.

Unfortunately the phone rang early in the morning we received very sad news of the passing of our dear friend Bill Jones.  You may remember the fun times we had in Costa Rica visiting him and his wife Jeannette. Bill was always Sid’s hero, he left on his cruising dream before Sid was able to retire. Our deepest condolences go out to his Jeannette. Bill was a great guy, we will miss him.  http://turtle-express9.blogspot.com/

Bill and Jeanette

On the 14^th before the sun was up we drove to Panama City, dropped the car off at Abby’s and took a Taxi to the Bus Station. We had 20 minutes before the bus to David left. It’s a 7 hour comfortable bus ride and we enjoyed watching 3 movies. The bus stopped a couple of times but only in Santiago were we able to get off the bus for 20 minutes and stretch our legs. A friendly almost toothless guy started talking to us, I bought some souvenirs and it was already time to climb back onto the bus. I started to recognize David on our arrival and knew we would get off the bus soon. I called Scot to let him know that we were approaching. The bus stopped, about 6 passengers got up and walked towards the front to get of the bus. We were going to follow them, but they were told to return to their seats, so we sat down as well. Must have not arrived at the bus station yet! The bus took off and kept going and going and after about 5 minutes turned left into the main road again. I mentioned to Sid that this was strange that they did a detour through David. But then after another 5 or so minutes the bus did not stop again and no bus station was in sight, now that made me really think. Just good at that time the bus employee came by and I asked him about David. He looked at me with a puzzled look, repeated David, walked to the front and entered the cabin where the bus driver was sitting, the bus stopped and bus boy motioned to us to exit the bus. When on the sidewalk the bus boy pointed at the over pass and said you can catch a bus on the other side back into David! Just good I know David a little otherwise we would have ended up at the Costa Rican border. We both had a good chuckle and more so when we called Megan to let her know that we are catching a bus back to David. She did not quite get what happened and told Scot and Greg that we were thrown off the bus that caused some fun confusion.

About ½ hour later we met the three at the local Grocery Store and a further ½ hour later we arrived in Boquette and met Scots wife Katie.

The two nights and three days we were there were filled with sightseeing, eating and drinking and having fun. Megan wanted to get some local Ruiz Coffee and when we walked into the store an almost toothless guy approached Sid and said in Spanish: “I recognize this mustache anywhere”! It was the same guy who talked to us at the bus station in Santiago. He is the owner of Ruiz, small world.

What a stunning place Boquete is with an incredible view over the volcanic mountains to the North and the Pacific Ocean and islands to the South. No wonder there are so many Ex-Pats here, this is definitely a place to retire. Although we heard that it rains a lot up here (can’t be worse than Portobelo). The temperature was pleasant during the day and coolish at night and the humidity was just perfect.

Scots House

Cut in 1/2 coke bottles for planting seeds, great idea!

Greg

Megan

Weird Rock formation

The second afternoon Scot introduced us to his friends who live in an incredible house on the mountain side way above Boquete with a most spectacular view.  They know our cruising buddies Dotty and Larry well, he built their kitchen. Unfortunately Dotty and Larry were visiting their kids for the Holidays and we missed them in Boquete. Just means we have to come back.

The third day after thank yous and goodbye’s we headed down the mountain and followed Scot’s directions to Pedosi, the southern most part in Panama. It was a looooooong drive and nothing there until you reach the village. A 30 minute drive we reached the beach Scot was referring to. The beach was incredibly beautiful but not much was here, except for a very expensive hotel. We met a jolly fellow, looking like Santa, who owns a hotel in Pedosi and decided to spend the night there, found his place but he had only one room left. 

Since it was such a long drive we decided to head back to Santiago and spend the night at the La Hacienda Hotel, where we enjoyed a wonderful Mexican lunch. After a yet another wonderful meal we turned in for a restful night.

Early the next morning we were on our way to Abby’s to pick up our car. 

We did a quick stop in Coronado and drove up the mountain to Altos del Maria, to find our buddies property. Wow what a beautiful place, it puts Boquete in second place.

Stairway to heaven

The boys drove straight home from there. Well…….. they had to do a little stop at Captain Jacks. The girls went shopping so not to run out of any food for the week. They were with us at Summer Place, as it is at least one hour one way to the nearest good grocery store. We did run out of wine so a quick trip there was necessary after all.

Greg and Megan got us on a pretty tight BM schedule, every morning at 9:00 a knock on the door, Sid would open and there was Greg standing with two Bloody Mary’s in his hands. Life’s tough!!!

Unfortunately the weather wasn’t cooperating. We had a lot of rain preventing us from doing several sightseeing trips. Megan and Greg didn’t mind as they were able to relax. We did get a drive in to Pelenque which is the most NE town in Panama where the road stops. We visited the Green Turtle Marina and were surprised how beautiful the marina is, although it’s so way out in the boonies it takes a 20 minute bumpy dirt road to get to the main road and from there it’s almost an hour to our place. I guess if working on the boat here you have to have all the necessary tools and paint etc., already on board. And you have to get used to the surge. It is a pretty area though and the beach is probably one of the best in Panama.

Viento Frio church

Drive to Turtle Cay Marina

One of the reasons the road is dangerous to Puerto Lindo

The other reason is signs like this one! OOPS!!!!

Dinghy ride to Isla Linton to see the monkeys

 

On the 21^st, last day of the world, we celebrated Christmas at Cindy and Reeds with Greg, Megan, Jim and Heather and us. I made a yummy Fondue Bourgignonne all enjoyed and the champagne and wine was flowing until late into the night.

One of the dinners for Greg and Megan

Grilled langostinos plus all this meat yum

 

Fondue Bourgignonne

 

 A while back Francine from PMYC contacted me on Skype and asked how far we were away from the Canal. I wrote back depends on which side, 2hrs to Panama City and 1 ½ to Colon. On the 23^rd  Francine arrived on the Celebrity Cruiseship, we picked her and her friend Deanne up and had a champagne sightseeing drive back to Summer Place. It was such a great reunion for all of us and Francine fell in love with Dooger. We had pretty much all day to catch up before I had to drive the two back to the cruise ship in Colon. Francine said this was the highlight of her cruise, yaaahhhh.

Champagne welcome

Stop in Portobelo

Wonderful lunch at Captain Jacks

Since our guest were flying out early on the 25^th we were invited to spend a night with them at the beautiful Riande Hotel close to the airport where we enjoyed a cocktails at the beautiful pool bar, a cool swim, some cocktails on the patio and a quite Christmas dinner. It was funny when we made the reservations for the hotel Megan wanted to know if we needed reservations for the restaurant for the Christmas dinner, so I called and asked. I told the operator that we were a party of four and wanted to know if we needed reservation. She said let me connect you with banquettes. A friendly person answered and I asked the question again, she put me on hold, now that is odd a simple yes or no would have been sufficient, then we got disconnected. A few minutes later I called again with the same question if we needed a reservation for dinner for 4 on the 24^th. “Let me connect you with Banquette and before I could respond I was on hold again. When the same friendly person answered again I repeated my question:  “do we need reservations for 4 on the 24^th ?” The responds was: reservation for 24 let me put you on hold…… disconnect. We did have a good laugh about the party of 24 and just took our chances with dinner. Did not need a reservation and we had a quite Christmas Eve dinner with Megan and Greg. Thanks for a wonderful time and for our Riande stay, we enjoyed it. 

Evidence in Megan and Greg's apartment that they were here!

Beautiful pool bar at the Riande

Incredible lights in lobby

HAPPY TURKEY DAY AND

Merry

Christmas

Never a dull moment here in Puerto Lindo, we have so many things going on all the time and with the holidays coming up fast it’s almost impossible to find time to relax, catch up on email or updating the Blog.

November 13^th the “Tutankhamun” exhibition was in town, in the modern world he is now known as “King Tut”. 17 of us drove to Panama City enjoyed a wonderful Dim-Sum lunch before visiting the exhibition. Sid had seen it already in LA as he was guarding the Exhibition. He encouraged me to go and see it, I am glad I did. Even though all was a replica it still was pretty interesting. I have never heard of King Tut or if, forgot about his story.  He is probably the world’s best know pharaoh, mainly because his tomb is among the best preserved and his artifacts the most exhibited. It’s quite an interesting story from him being king with age 9 or 10 and after becoming king marrying his half-sister. He was king for 10 years and died at 19 which is speculated that the result of an incestuous relationship may have contributed to his early death, and on and on but I don’t want to bore you with it. For those who are interested visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tutankhamun they wrote his legacy much better than I ever could.

We are now the proud owners of a Panamanian Cedulas. Which is the Panamanian National Identification card with this card we do not need to carry our passports with us anymore, it also makes it easier to open a bank account here in Panama which we heard otherwise is a big runaround. After they had taken a photo of us and 65 dollars each, we were told to come back in 48 hours to pick up the Cedula. I assumed  that I could pick up Sid’s without him being there, but then I saw those little machines on the desk with a red button I knew I was wrong. I forgot to bring Sid’s finger with me because they only give you the card by identifying your fingerprints.

For some reason my fingers did not register at all but the friendly clerk gave me that card anyway. The funny thing about this was when Sid came to pick his up, he walked to the door, knowing that you cannot enter banks or government buildings in shorts he was wearing his shorts. The security guy at the door pointed at his knees and said no, no, no. Sid pulled his zip up legs out of his pocket put them on and of course enjoyed looking at the dropped jaw of the security guy. After the guy managed to close his mouth again he laughed and said, “Mui inteligente!” Then approaching the desk where they hand out the card, the lady smiled at Sid already and said: “oh, grande bigote” (big mustache) and pulled his card out without looking at the paperwork with the file number on it.

During that time I sat at the doctor for my yearly checkup. I had seen Dr. Tinker in 2000 and was happy to see that he is still working and what amazed me the most is that after the 12 years he still had all my paperwork. He said that normally they keep it for 5 years, but since all his patients always return one way or the other he kept them. He is a very carrying doctor so ladies if you are looking for a good Gynecologist in Panama this is the guy for you:

Dr. Adolfo A. Tinker

Centro Medico National, Ave Justo Arosemena y Calle 38, 203-1571/1033

Tinker still has files after over 12 years.

Now to the “not so dull moments”! After a squally night there was some excitement in the bay. Sea Fever had broken loose from the mooring during a squall blow and 4 dinghies were trying to pull her off the mud into deeper water. Not quite sure how long they've been working on her but I heard about 30 minutes before Sid headed out to Paradise. He didn't think they needed help as there were 4 dinghies already there but watching them trying to pull the boat with all four dinghies in reversed gear, he ventured over there. Michele was on the boat and motioned the shoulder up and down “what now”. Sid motioned his sign language back to Michel approached the stern and started pushing the boat. Within seconds Sea Fever was freed, Sid waved and took off for Paradise. Binnie and her Sid (there is always a confusion about which Sid) were watching the whole ordeal and she laughingly told me that it was too funny that it only took Sid 10 seconds while the others had unsuccessfully been trying.

Happy Turkey Day was spent at Sarah’s. We had 26 people and everybody brought delicious side dishes. Cindy cooked the turkey. 

Unfortunately that day Cindy and Reed’s fun dog Maggie was killed. She was such a good dog; actually I don’t think she knew she was a dog. We all will miss her. The tragedy did not end here for Cindy and Reed. Three days later on Sunday 3 black guys entered their house, one of them was masked, and robbed them at gun point, tied them up and left with their loot. Just good they did not do a good job in tying them up as they were able to free themselves and drove straight over to our house banging on the door. You know when you need the phone the most it’s not working. Our house phone and all Puerto Lindo had been out for 6 days already (we finally got the phones back some 20 days later) and the cell connection is iffy so it took what seemed 15 minutes before we finally could get a strong enough signal to contact the police. They were immediately underway. They had good evidence and fingerprints but the forensics people were busy and it took 6 days for them to finally show up while we all knew the bad guys were still in town. Anyway, it was a sad situation but we hope they will find the perpetrators soon. Of course all the stolen stuff will never be returned.

We celebrated a second Thanksgiving at Jen and Dan’s in La Chorrera. Knowing that she was expecting well over 90 guests and Sid and I were spending the night we decided to get there early to help her. Glad we did, Jen was up to her ears in prep work and we managed to get everything done on time. Can you imagine Jen cooked 5 turkeys, wow!!! 

I think Sid ate more ham than he carved

Jen

5 Turkeys for Dan

The first arriving guest (Nicole on right)

The party was a huge success and the food..... Well it disappeared very fast. We all had a great time especially when I met Nicole from Germany then she introduced me to a Swiss couple as we all were glad to be able to speak our mother tongue. There was a bit of a commotion outside by the garage as a huge tarantula was hanging out under the eve.

Turkey Desserts

Welcome speech

Here comes the Haggis

Oops wrong party. It's a turkey, Happy Turkey Day!

At 8 in the morning a phone call told us that the bridge 4 km before Jen’s house and the road out was gone, we had such a downpour that night. After a tour around Jen and Dan’s neighborhood we drove to the bridge to see for ourselves. Wow, the small stream that usually flows under the bridge was a raging river. The bridge was still there and is about 100 feet long but was now mostly under water and the street on the other side where we were was for at least another 200 feet under water and the restaurant that is just before the bridge on the other side we stood was in the middle of it.

Bats in an abandoned house in Jen's neighborhood

You can see where the bridge ends, beyond should not be a river

The roof on the right is the restaurant which is on the other side of the bridge

The restaurant

Where I am standing is usually a small stream

and the other side of the stream

No swimming here

We are stuck!

Phone line in the river

This lizard climbed up on Jen's arm and she brought him to safety

 Just good there was a back way out of this area and dear Dan showed us the way how to get back to the main road. He followed the friendly voice on his GPS and we followed him and it did not look so good for us in our little car driving down a dirt road that got worse and worse, but hey we thought he knew the way so we kept on his tail. It got so bumpy we finally decided (we had two of their friends in the car who needed a ride to Panama City) to get out of the car and only Sid was driving. Finally we ended at a double gate with a house in-between and had to turn back. 

Following Dan on the dirt road

Jen and Dan sure know how to entertain their guest, first the flooded bridge then the off road trip. We finally did find our way back into town and home. 

After that for 6 solid days nothing but rain and were beside ourselves when the sun finally came out. It stayed sunny for 3 whole days enough time to dry some things out on the boat. It looked like rainy season was finally over with, at least we were hoping so. The sun fooled us and still likes to hide behind thick clouds.

The rain hindered Sid on many projects he was working on. He did get some varnishing done and we had to get the mattress from the boat into the house as there was another leak.

The old road from Colon to Panama City had a horrible land slide just before Sabanitas. 25 brand new homes were destroyed and an ambulance and the two people in it were killed. The land slide is so bad it will take 6 months to rebuild the road and straighten out the mess. Whoever was the contractor of this community did not a good surveying job on the property.

With the sun finally out Sid was able to wax the car. When he called me to bring the camera outside and so I did. Where my hand was just 3 minutes earlier, under the hidden handle for the hatch to open, sat a really big spider. Just realizing how close my hand must have been to this spider and not getting bit, yikes. I am deadly afraid of spider but for some reason this one fascinated me. I ran for a container Sid captured it and I released it at a location where there is no human to harm it.

It’s called Large Wandering Spider or Cupiennius which are often found in banana shipments to North America but are harmless. They are virtually restricted to Central America or at least the ones that end up in Banana shipments come only from Central America. This one I think is the Cupiennius getazi.  No species in the Cupiennius spider is considered dangerous and their bites result in mild pain for a short time.

Weird, just two days after that Sid was putting the BBQ cover back up and called me again to bring the camera. This time it was a not so pretty spider. On the internet I found this on the spider:

The wandering spider is a term used to the spider in the Ctenidae family. Previously, the term reffered only to the genus Phoneutriat but now usually refers to the entire Ctenidae family. The members of the genus Phoneutria are highly aggressive and venomous nocturnal hunters, and are the only wandering spiders known to pose a serious danger to humans. However, the venom of some other members of this family is very poorly known,^[1] meaning that all larger Ctenids should be treated with caution. Some Ctenids have marks and patterns that are attractive. Ctenids have a distinctive longitudinal groove on the top-rear of their oval carapace^[2] (some other spiders have a similar groove; e.g., Amaurobiidae).

Look at those eyes

He was pretty agressive

I told you never a dull moment around us.

Christmas is just around the corner again and even though the Christmas decoration is all up, somehow the Christmas spirit has not arrived yet. 

Our friends Greg and Megan Bilson arrived in Panama and headed up to Boquette to visit their friend Scot for a week then they will stay with us for the second. Since they don’t know how to get here we’ll take a bus to Boquette spend a couple of days and drive home with Greg and Megan. Since they are leaving the 24^th already we decided to celebrate Xmas on the 21^st of December, the end of the world according to Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar or also known as the Mayan Calendar. I think the reason the calendar stops at the 21^st is they ran out of ink!

We want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and prosperous 2013.  

Tigre

Dooger

What a pair

Oh, almost forgot Sid found a new way to age his rum. He  drops the bottle of rum overboard and lets it age on the bottom of the ocean for about one month and a half until enough barnacles have grown on it, then when the water clears to a visibility he goes and dives for it.