Santa Fe Fun

August 26, 2014

We finally had some free time the last couple of weeks to do some fun things here in Santa Fe.  First we drove up the road to Cerro Tute.  It is a gravel road that winds through and up to the top of the Cerro Tute mountain and then down again into the Santa Fe National Forest.  Just beautiful rolling hills with great views and a few scattered houses and farms along the way.  We parked when the road narrowed and hiked on for a while.  It was very beautiful.

As far as the eye can see in all directions

And just 15 minutes from our house

We walked thru spider alley with these all around from teeny tiny to three inches.  There were at least 30 of these "spider patches"

Cool Tree

This is for our friend Trox... another road you won't be driving

This is why it is the orchid capital... they are everywhere

We took one day to drive into Santiago to see if we could find a bank that would loan us some money to help build our house.  We decided to take Glorys (landlady) with us to help with the language barrier.  Seven banks later we haven't felt this rejected since a junior high school dance.  It turns out they don't like loaning to ex-pats who could flee the country at any moment; guess I don't blame them.  We did get a lot of other business taken care of.  We finally found the good pet store and we signed up for a Mail Boxes Etc. mailing address so we can now get regular mail here in Panama.  Send me an email if you want our new address  - we still want a Christmas card from each and every one of you.

This cool bird was in the pet store.  They said it was a pheasant, but I don't think so.

The next weekend we attended the Santa Fe Orchid Festival.  It was an exhibit of all different kinds of orchids grown by locals and then awarded prizes.  It was fun to see our neighbors out and about in a social setting.

This one looks like it is right out of "Finding Nemo"

We made a trip out to Los Islotes to give a tour to our new friend Paul who is going to be building 5 spec homes in the Mango Village section of the property.  He also owns a few lots of his own so he will be a future neighbor.  We enjoyed getting to know him and picking his brain for building ideas and concepts.

I can't help myself, I love these cows.  They have the most beautiful eyes

Yes the Aggies have invaded Panama!  This one is for Crouch

Amada runs a fonda outside Los Islotes and makes fabulous meals over hot rocks

Glorys threw a BBQ and invited a lot of the expats in the vicinity.  She has a great property overlooking the river.  We met so many nice people ranging from not yet moved here to moved here 15 years ago.  Several have farms with chickens and some orchards and gardens, one couple has a B & B with a restaurant that serves Cambodian food (the wife is Cambodian), one is a yoga instructor from Austin.  It was really nice getting to know them and sharing stories of how we ended up in Panama.  We look forward to the next gathering.

Glorys' pet chinchilla Chi Chi - has his own air conditioned room

Glorys' pet son Colby - what a ham!  He doesn't have an air conditioned room!

Our new friends at the BBQ - expats from the globe

Lucho on left and Janice on right are the ones that make the most delicious cheese

At the end of the BBQ I was invited to a yoga session the next day.  It was so great.  We practiced out on a terrace over looking the river and surrounded by green hills.  I have not felt so relaxed in a long time.  They meet twice a week and pay Ryan with donations... fruit, vegies, money whatever. Great people and I look forward to going again. 

The terrace out back looks out over these hills 

The view from the terrace

My new yoga buddies.  Ryan, from Austin is the instructor.

US Shout Outs:  Congrats Karen on ringing the bell!  Thanks to Greg for once again using his angel powers to save us from ourselves.  Happy Birthday to my Alex, can't believe it has been 25 years.

Conquering Panama City

August 10, 2014

This last week was a big one.  We had to make a trip into Panama City to meet with the architect, pick up Peg's permanent resident visa and do some shopping.  We were going to take the bus in, but we had quite a bit of shopping to do and the thought of lugging groceries onto a bus wasn't a pretty one.  So we decided to brave the drive on our own.  Our plan was to drive to the Allbrook bus station and leave the truck there during our stay as we had already arranged for a driver.  We didn't realize that the parking by the bus station is $20 per day!  So we found our driver and Spanglished our way into explaining that we wanted to follow him to our new favorite Hotel Milan.  This hotel is in a great location and is only $38 per night with Peg's Pensionado discount (think senior).  The rooms are very nice, the staff is friendly and they have a great inexpensive restaurant.  We left the truck in their parking garage for the three days we were there and let Bladimir our new best friend drive us anywhere we needed to go.  It was fantastic!  He would drop us off and we would call him when we were done and he would pick us up within two minutes.  No struggling to find taxis,  negotiating rates and being unsure if we were going to get to where we wanted to be unassaulted.

Puente de las Americas, the bridge that leads into and out of Panama City

We were hoping my permanent visa would come in before we made the trip, but no such luck.  We had to drop off her passport and temporary immigration card on Tuesday with the attorney and then go back on Thursday morning to go back to immigration for yet another picture and receive the permanent card.  When we showed up at the attorney's office on Thursday morning, my visa was approved!  But that would mean staying another couple of days to pick it up so we decided to wait for completing mine until the next trip in.  We went to immigration where Peg received her card in about 5 minutes.  Yeah she is all done.

On Wednesday we had a meeting with our architect Lorena and her team.  Our first meeting was out at the property where she took pictures of the lot from every angle and took lots of notes about what we hoped it would be.  This being only our second meeting we were not sure what to expect.  We were pleasantly surprised.  Lorena and her team had three house plans for us to choose from all with different pluses and minuses.  After we chose the plan we preferred we went room by room to discuss everything.  We left the meeting so excited and ready to move in.  We will be back to the city in a couple of weeks where we will review all of the changes along with the elevation.  We were able to schedule the meeting for the day before we leave for Nashville to save us a trip to the city.

Main floor - Windows everywhere enjoying the ocean view

Guest wing downstairs - Who's going to be first????

We will be helping out at the Retire Overseas Conference held in Nashville, TN over the weekend of Aug 28 - 31.  Our focus will be manning the Los Islotes booth at the conference, but we will also be a part of an expat panel sharing our experiences here in Panama so far.  We are really looking forward to it.  Luckily we have developed a great relationship with our Panamanian land-lady here in Santa Fe.  She stayed in the house with the animals while we made the city trip and she will do it again when we head states bound.  We came home to a spotless house and yard and the animals didn't even seem to miss us!  It makes traveling so much less stressful.

Our lot after 3 months of rainy season growth!  You have to jump to see the water.

Calcite and Zoe on the beach of their future home for the first time.

Zoe has replaced fishing with crab hunting!  So cute.

This brings me to my next point.... the Panamanians are amazingly courteous, gracious, hard-working and friendly people.  The trash man has started bringing our trash can back down to the house from the street which is a 50 meter walk.  We have a sweet little man that brings us mangoes once a week.  Our neighbor ran over worried about Midnight because she had escaped the fence. Everywhere you go you see little kids out on their own carrying grocery sacks or walking home from school which is miles away.  Here in Panama no one worries that their young grade school children will be abducted only to be seen again on a milk carton.  It is a completely different mind set. Panama is in a different time and we love it.  

Los Islotes Update:  We have quite a few future neighbors that are sharing our Los Islotes journey with us on this blog so I thought I would add a quick update.  The Founder's Lodge that Lief and Kathleen are building is moving along quite nicely and we were thrilled to see the work that Mike (also our builder) is getting done and getting a chance to see him in action.  He is going to be great to work with.

Mike wanted to be sure that Lief and Kathleen were taking advantage of their views.

Work station on the Founder's Lodge located on one of three different levels

Mini concrete plant set up for the installation of "footings"

 Love to all.  Good luck to everyone heading back to school soon.