We are not alone

Pedasi Semana Cuatro.

I can't believe we have been here a month.  The good news is we are settled and have found where we like to shop (El Rey), get our laundry done (Lavanderia), our favorite beach (Destiladeros), made a few friends (Karen, Lolita & Robert), are able to drive into Las Tables and Chitre without getting lost (an enormous feat in a country with no maps or street signs) and even recharged the WiFi connection (everything is pay as you go here).  The not so good news is that our espanol is coming along much slower than we hoped.  It seems like every time we figure out how to say one thing we need to say, there is something else we can't figure out and then we can't remember what we just learned.  We are getting better at conversing with the local shop keepers, but we are always amazed when they stare at us with that deer in the headlights look when we thought we were speaking perfect Spanish.

Favorite new friend Karen

A nice lady washes, dries and folds for $8 per basket - drop off, pick up a couple of hours later!

Favorite new drink - not really sure what it is but it tastes like vodka and is cheaper

There were hundreds of crabs one day at our favorite beach.  Look closely and you will see them on top of the rock

Our new favorite art - we call it crab art and yes it is crabs making the design as they run through the sand around their central hole/home

Our favorite new butthole - we don't have to feed it or clean up after it. It is the same frog from an earlier blog but he has changed sides of the porch and is now standing up on his hind legs.  He stays like that all day!

I don't think I have mentioned that it is an election year here in Panama.  There are three candidates running for the office of El Presidente and the campaigning has been amazing.  Hoards of people walking up and down the streets all dressed alike, carrying flags and banners.  Cars and trucks painted with the faces of the candidates blasting music and propaganda.  They have a law here that all campaigning must stop one week before the election so there were big finale parties on Saturday night.  The election is next Sunday.  Everyone is saying it is a very close race so it will be interesting to see.

Different colors represent different candidates

Entrance to Pedasi

Every tree, pole and building is covered in political signs.

There is large fresh vegetable truck that comes to Pedasi once a week.  We missed it the first few weeks we were here, but were finally able to get to it this week.  What fun!  We were officially introduced to Gererado by Ingrid, the woman that owns our Spanish school, and then we jumped up into the back and started pointing and ordering.  We purchased fresh spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, cucumber, onions, garlic, avocados, lettuce, mangoes, papaya, peppers, beets, carrots, and our new favorite root vegetable yucca (pronounced you-ka) all for $14.  Yucca looks like a 2 foot long tree branch that you peel, cut up and cook pretty much like potatoes.  We have had it boiled, fried and mashed - all delicious.  We will definitely be hitting this truck every week.  We are working on knowing the names of the vegetables for next week.

Yucca.  Not as easy to peel as you might think.  It is just like peeling bark off a branch.  The knife gets sharpened before we begin!  If it's fresh the inside is softer than the outside but not as soft as a potato.

Peg turned some of those fresh veggies into delicious salsa! Thank goodness she brought her knives and chopper. She makes my batch without cilantro but loads hers up with the nasty stuff.

The animals are all doing great and are very comfortable here, a little hot maybe, but happy.  The dogs have actually adjusted to the noise of the neighborhood pretty well.  And it is noisy!  Unfortunately, we did have a couple of incidents with the cats.  They both love to be outside and only venture out on the front porch and into our fenced backyard which is great because there are a lot of dogs that roam freely in the streets.  Well one evening just after dark, we hear loud cat fighting on the back porch and run out as Miciou quickly runs in with fur flying.  It took her two days before she would come out and relax and thankfully she was not injured, but we decided to be more careful after dark.  Well, wouldn't you know that a few days later we were eating dinner as it got dark so the house was still open and we hear fighting on the front porch then Midnight comes running in.  She has a whole different attitude about this.  She just sits on our bed growling and hissing!  She is pissed!  Again no permanent damage, but we close up the house as soon as it is dark so they can't get out to be attacked.  The problem is this is the coolest part of the day, but we don't know how else to keep the other cats out of our yard.

Caclite's favorite time of day - she has become quite the body surfer.

Miciou just minding her own business on the porch.

Karen introduced us to another couple that have been here a bit longer than us and are already in the process of building a house here.  We went to their house for happy hour on Friday night and had a great time.  Robert and Lolita Stricker lived in Houston eons ago and have since lived in Dubai and Abu Dabi.  They were a wealth of information and we look forward to seeing their new home and taking copious notes about the do's and don'ts of building in Panama.

We have been talking with Mike our new builder and had a meeting for Saturday to review our design ideas.  Karen made the trip with us as she had never been to the other side of the peninsula.  It was a great day and boy is she great to take along.  She brought a cooler filled with drinks and snacks and seemed to have everything we could possibly need for a day trip.  Mike has some great ideas and we have decided to move forward and use him as our builder.  Let the decisions begin!

Peg hiking our property

Discussing ideas with Mike.

Things you never see in the states......

Herding cows along the road.

These little piglets were just wandering on the side of the road.  Peg tried to get out to converse and maybe grab a pet but they ran from her instantly as she called "come here piggy, piggy"

Neighbor wrangling her runaway cow

Other neighbor's chicken in the tree on our side of the fence.  They roost every night at 6 p.m., you can set your watch by it.  Makes Calcite crazy!

Kids playing baseball in the yard - ok maybe you see this in the states.

Love to all.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Pedasi, Semana tres

Another great week here in Pedasi, Panama.  We are settling into our life here and have gotten into a routine of sorts.  This week we decided to volunteer some time at the Spanish school teaching the neighborhood kids English.  They hold free classes twice a week on Tue and Thu.  A new ex-pat like ourselves named Karen has just started teaching and could use our help.  We met with her on Monday morning to come up with a lesson plan for Tuesday's class.  Unfortunately on Monday night Karen was up watching the eclipsed blood red moon and her chair collapsed on her fingers and she went into the clinic in town at 2:00 A.M..  They charged her $5 to stitch her up.  Anyway, she let us know that she was going to miss class and rest her hand so we are on our own.  We spent the day finding videos to Old McDonald Had a Farm, Head, Shoulders, Knees and toes in addition to looking up words so that we would be prepared.  Peg went into Super-Teacher mode and had the kids learning and laughing.  We had a great time, but it was the longest hour of our lives.  We have decided not to continue on a regular basis since it was so time consuming and we really want to concentrate on our lessons.  The kids class meeting on Tuesdays and Thursdays meant that we had an obligation to be at the school 5 days a week which does not leave us much time for our personal errands.

Karen on her porch, we are a little jealous of this porch!

Our landlord has a man named Einar, a neighbor of ours who comes to water every Sunday.  He is a great guy and Peg has been chatting with him every week trying to practice her Spanish.  In the course of conversation he tells us he has chickens that he sells and Peg says she is interested in buying one.  He comes over the next night to get her and takes her back to his house where he points at a couple different gallinas (chickens) running around saying "Este o este"  this one or that one?  She picks one and he proceeds to pick it up, tie its feet, weigh it, ring its neck and slit its throat right in front of her!  All in a matter of 60 seconds.  Aaaaaahhhhhh!  He then says he will bring it over in 30 minutos preparado - pollo entero.  She is worried it is going to come with feathers, but he just keeps saying preparado.  He brings it over as promised and charges us $24!  No feathers!  Eghad.  We checked with Dania the next day and she tells us that this is the going rate for a "porch chicken".  That is definitely a lesson learned.  We didn't think it tasted any better than the Chino chickens that are $8.00 per chicken, in fact this one was tougher than any chicken so far.

Hey where did my sister go?

Last weekend we drove around the peninsula to visit Los Islotes.  This is where we have purchased lot 68 in a planned development to build our house.  We bought our lot three years ago when the area was still rain forest and the roads and lot lines were imaginary. At that time we stood on what we thought was our lot and breathed in the breeze and beautiful ocean view.  Now three years later things are starting to happen.  The roads have been cut and the lots surveyed.  Ground has been broken on the first building, what is being called the Founder's Lodge.  This is a combination home for the developer and four guest suites.  We chose to visit because there was a group of potential buyers touring the property.  It is so beautiful and we are so excited to get started building.  The timing of our visit is perfect because there was an American builder present.  He has lived in Panama for six years and lives in the closest town called Torio.  We get to talking and he seems perfect for our job.  We love the fact that he is American, fluent in Spanish, and building right now in our neck of the woods.  The building standards are so different here it is comforting to be working with someone who understands what we are used to.  We are working with him now on design ideas and once we get some concrete plans we will meet with an architect and get going.  We think it will be at least a year before our home is complete.

Yep that's a road and our view

Not too shabby!

This is the view from the very bottom of our lot - still not too shabby

I am going to finish up with some random observations.  From our living room window we have seen; a man hand feeding his roosters, kids playing in the street until the street lights come on, a man trimming his chest hairs with a machete, men selling handmade shoes, sausages and freshly picked melons, baby chicks frolicking and roosters crowing loudly 24/7.  Urban myth.... roosters only crow at sunrise. Oh and Peg finally got her bike fixed.  It turns out if you want the wheels to spin freely you have to put on a whole new brake set.

Our neighbor feeding his roosters

Our personal backyard lemon tree, tasty in both Sun Tea and Vodka/Cran

Avocado tree across the street

Our new best friend... the slow cooker

Happy Easter wishes to all.  He is Risen!  We are blessed in so many ways.

Hot Hot Hot

Pedasi, Semana Dos

Well it has been a very busy and successful week here in Pedasi, Panama.  It has been much hotter than we knew.  We have come to find out that April and May are the hottest months.  They are the end of the dry season and the winds have died down.  We have adopted a "Have fan will travel" philosophy which masters the open floor plan for circulation.

Have fan will travel

We started our Spanish lessons and love our professor Dania.  She is a young Panamanian woman who was born and raised in this little town of Pedasi so she knows everyone.  We are in class three days a week for two hours each.  We cover our homework, a new lesson and then spend some time discussing things like where do I find fresh jalapenos or office supplies.  All of this in Spanish which is great.  She speaks English very well so she can translate when get lost - which is often.  We are getting better every day and try to use our Spanish as much as possible.  Peg has even made friends with the vecinos (neighbors).  I think I mentioned that our vecinos have a veritable farm/zoo next door.  Our days are filled with the cackling roosters from sun up to sun down.  Zoe was even smooching the deer through the fence so cute.  Today the three gatinos (kittens) came prancing in the from next door and Calcite went over to greet them.  They are adorable.... what is our mantra... No More Buttholes.

One of three visiting gatinos - very friendly

Can you see the Rana?  On our porch.

Everyone very much at home!

Our Spanish School!

We quickly came to realize that we need a car so we head to Chitre where there is a motor mile of sorts.  I had my heart set on a Nissan Navarra since we loved our Xterra so much.  So we went into the Nissan dealership first inquiring about a usado (used) vehicle.  We were directed to the one person that spoke a little English where she asked the salesman.  She then called a guy in the next town who was selling a used one, but he spoke no English, and would want cash and we were hoping to charge it on a credit card.  So we decided to go next door to the Toyota dealership.  What a difference.  A very professional receptionist greets us with a handshake and directs us to a seating area.  She then gets the used care salesman on the phone and Peg is trying to converse with him and the Manager of the Sales Dept comes out of her office, takes the phone and then directs us into her office  She was amazing.  She spoke a little more English than we did Spanish, but it was enough for us to get our points across with the help of our diccionario.  We decide on a 2013 Hilux, 4x4, four door that she can get us from Panama City.  We leave a deposit which is fully refundable and are to return a few days later.  She emails us a couple of days later to let us know that the vehicle is no longer available, but she has another one that is a 2012 and less expensive which is great for us.  We drive down on Wednesday to find that the car has not arrived yet and we are to return manana. A two hour drive for what again?  Our sales man has found another young woman that speaks English for us to communicate with and she calls us later in the day to let us know that the vehicle has in fact arrived.  We use the day, since we are there anyway to drive around Chitre where we find a mall and another higher quality grocery store (yeah!).  We test drive the 2012 Hilux the next morning much to our disappointment.  It has been beat to Hell inside and out and had a terrible shimmy at 60 mph.  Peg asks our salesman how much the new Hilux's are and they are only 6k more brand new with a full warranty etc.  We head back in to the sales managers office and she finds us exactly what we want for a great price.  And let me tell you, the price is the price - no taxes, delivery, processing etc.  We only had to pay for the registration and license plate a very small fee.  They also have a car insurance company right there so we got full coverage insurance for $50 per month.  The weird part is we pay for the truck and have to come back manana to pick it up.  They have to physically drive to the "DPS" in Chitre, Las Tablas and Pedasi to complete the registration process.  Then we can pick up the truck the next afternoon.  All goes well and we drive home our new 2014 Toyota Hilux the next day.  Woo Hoo.  Oh and in case you are wondering, I did price compare the insurance and it was a good price.

Our new truck - we may call her junior.  Not the bat but perfect for Panama

Yep we live in Panama!!!!!!

The next task which has been haunting Peg is a bicicleta.  We were unable to bring the four bikes we have at home due to lack of space.  So Peg is on a mission to buy a bike.  The Chino's have a couple for sale none of which are desirable.  We keep asking everyone and they keep pointing us in different directions to no avail. Then the Moreno (think True Value) gets a new shipment of bikes in and they look really nice.  We buy one, get it home and unwrap it to find that the brakes are completely hosed.  One set doesn't work and the other set is so tight the bike won't roll.  We get some tools and try to make some adjustments ourselves, but nothing works.  We take it back to Moreno where a guy basically does the same things we do.  We then call our Spanish school where Ingrid knows a repair guy.  He picks up the bike and brings it back the next day supposedly all fixed.  It seems fine at first, but the tires still don't have a free spin.  A little frustrating, but we will try one more time.  They say everything takes three try's here and that seems to be true.  Peg keeps wondering why she is the only person in Panama who seems to have a bike that will not roll!

Pretty... now if we can just get it to work!

So we feel like everything is going very well.  We take one day at a time, one task at a time, go to the beach as much as possible and practice our Spanish with whomever will listen.

A good map of our area.

Downtown Pedasi

Big Chino!

Hugs to all.

Life in Pedasi

Semana numero uno

I read this quote this morning on Facebook and felt it summed up our life...

“Know what you want to do, hold the thought firmly, and do every day what should be done, and every sunset will see you that much nearer the goal.” ― Elbert Hubbard

We all slept pretty well our first night in Panama City with the exception of Miciou whom meowed the entire night.  Not sure why I guess she was just letting us know that she had no idea where she was.  It reminded me of the days of having a newborn.  Does she have food?  Does she have water?  Does she know where the litter box is?  Does she need loving? Then we just ignored her and went back to sleep a little worried about the people in the room next door trying to sleep through a screaming cat.

Our new phones were working great, but I couldn't get the WiFi to work to save my life.  The transport service arrived 30 minutes early with two vehicles ready for us to pack up.  We dis-assembled the dog crates which made the dogs very happy.  Peg rode with Elodia's daughter with the dogs and Midnight and I rode with Elodia, her husband, sisiter and Miciou along with all of our bags.  We hit the road at 10:00 am sharp and made it to Pedasi a little after 3:00 with a couple of stops.  We both enjoyed the drive very much learning about the current politics and life in Panama in general.  Elodia helped me translate all of the settings on my phone until I found the language setting.  When we arrived in Pedasi I felt my way around to the rent house only to realize that Peg's vehicle was not behind us as I thought.  They were driving around the town completely lost.  Luckily our landlord Christine saw them and after a game of "who's on first" she was able to get their attention and get them to the house.  Christine had done a great job getting a fence installed across the front of house so the dogs and cats could freely roam.  It is awesome!

The new fence

The back yard

We unpacked and quickly settled into our new home finding a spot for everything.  Some interesting facts about Panamanian houses: no closets or cupboards, A/C only in the bedroom, hot water only in the shower heated by the shower head, no microwave, only a toaster oven, limited septic (if its yellow let it mellow), and no washer/dryer.  Christine had also added a hanging bar in the "master" and a new bed with a few little shelves which is fantastic.  We now have a guest room so feel free to book your flights!  You will be sleeping with two cats and no air conditioner however!  Our next door neighbors have a farm/zoo in their yard: chickens, a cow, deer, pigeons, and a parrot are what we can see through the fence.  The chickens come through the fence much to the dogs' delight.

We love the wood and stained concrete floors

Also the stained concrete counters

breakfast nook

Bathroom with wood sink

Do you see all of those dresses I will never wear

Back patio very comfortable

Washing machine

Using the pet crates to discourage the chickens

Now our phones won't make any calls out and the WiFi is still not working.  The nearest Claro store is in Las Tablas which is a 30 minute drive and we have no car.  Ugh.  Did I mention that all of the screens, messages and instructions are in Spanish.  One of the little things I never thought about.  I was able to use the hotspot on my phone to download the instruction manual for the Claro hotspot in English, but still couldn't get it to work.

We then made our first trip into town on foot to buy a few necessities and dinner.  It's a five minute walk to the little "Chino" which is what the little markets are called.  Think heavily stocked convenience store owned by Chinese people.  We picked up a pollo entero (whole chicken), arroz, basic vegies, vino, vodka, hielo, coffee, dog food, dish soap, temporary litter box, etc.  Just enough to get us through our first dinner and evening.  Thanks to Peg's saute pan and spices we threw together a delicious meal of arroz con pollo while sitting on the back patio enjoying the breeze for our first happy hour in our new home.  

We had a beautiful night's sleep and everyone seems to be settling in nicely.  We make another trip into town to the little Chino to see if someone can help us with our phones and WiFi and then to the big Chino (a ten minute walk) to get a few more supplies.  The young man behind the counter speaks a little English and we have looked up the words to ask him if he knows why nothing is working.  He turns on the phones and they both work perfectly.  He then turns on the WiFi and shows me that I have to push and hold the "connect" button to get it to connect.  How embarrassing! I would like to point out that it said nothing of that in the manual.  Oh well at least everything works now.  We have two cell phones and the WiFi hotspot all for less than $40 per month.  Now that's what we have been talking about.

We decide to rent a car on Monday so that we can drive into Chitre, a city about 45 minutes away to do a big grocery shop.  We head to the Super 99 and are able to find just about everything we need.  The meat counter is very intimidating as it is a butcher counter without anything labeled.  We just pointed a lot.  We can't find some of the Chinese ingredients Peg is used to nor can we find club soda anywhere.  There also is a serious lack of anything "light".  We try to buy as much local as possible to keep the cost down.  Overall a successful day.  We then took the dogs for their first trip to the beach.  So fun and beautiful.  We only saw four other people.

Coming soon.... Starting Spanish lessons and buying a car.

Oh and one last note.  For those of you that have our Skype phone number.... you just dial it from your phone just as a normal phone number.  It allows you to call us and us to call you without paying international fees.  If you have Skype, we can video chat that way, but you don't need the phone number you just have to add us as a contact.  Our Skype name is April Bairnhess.  Stay in touch.