Anybody Out There?

November 5, 2014  Santa Fe, Panama

Hello friends!  It has been a really long time since I have written as there isn't a lot to say these days.  We are still enjoying our new life here in Panama.  It is hard to believe that we have lived here for seven  months now.  In some ways it feels like we arrived yesterday - when we try to speak Spanish, but in others it feels like forever - since we have seen our loved ones.  I am homesick for my kids and friends, but other than that we love it here.  I know some of you are wondering what we do all day. Well Peg likes to joke that it takes all day to live here in Panama - sweeping, shopping, cooking etc.

We have been fighting a war on ticks which has become a full time job for two.  We sweep the floors, pick them off the dogs, pick them off the furniture, pick them off the dogs, bathe the dogs, pick them off the dogs.  They were covered!  In the ears, between the toes, on their tails.  It is crazy.  We finally bought some really strong poison to spray the yard.  After two sprayings and two doses of Advantix I think we finally have it under control.

Peg's professional poison control

Tick before attachment to dog

Tick after filled with blood - GROSS

We are still waiting on our house plans.  They have been submitted to a structural engineer who requested an extensive soil report done on our lot.  Between the structural engineer, soil engineer, a local civil engineer, architect and builder we have been going around and around to determine what tests are really necessary.  We think it has been sorted out now and we just have to wait for the tests to be performed.  This is the first of many Panamanian delays so we are trying to take it in stride.  We should still be on track to break ground in January as planned.  We love our little rental house here in Santa Fe, but after more than two years we are ready to be in a home of our own.

We have taken a couple of day trips to see some sights, but it is not the best time of year for them as the rainy season is in full swing.  It rains pretty much every day usually starting around 2 pm, but sometimes all day.  We enjoy the rain and we had been in a drought so it is much needed as well.  One day we drove through Calobre and up to the Yeguada National Forest the home to a caldera lake.  We were looking for some hot springs, but never found those.  The drive was beautiful and we made several wrong turns.  We vowed to go back when the rains let up.

Another day we drove to Caloveborita which is the farthest point north you can drive to with a road to drive on that is.  There is a hiking trail from there to get to the Caribbean side but it is a 50 mile walk and takes most folks 6 days to walk it.  You travel through jungle and as the story goes you usually run out of your own food and end up begging for banana's and fish from the indigenous Indians.  Of course we would make the journey if all our camping gear were not in our storage shed in Austin....Yeah...NO, JK. :)

We were sort of invited to a fellow ex-pats house for his birthday on Halloween.  I say sort of because the friend that invited us didn't know the guy either.  Since we are one of the few ex-pats that own a car, we piled seven us into the cab of the truck and headed out a crazy windy, steep and slippery dirt road in the rain.  Jeff built a house completely off the grid and uses solar mostly with a generator back up.  He has planted 4000 coffee bushes.  They pick, dry and roast the beans and then sell their own coffee as a hobby.  We met a whole new group of expats at his party.  It was really fun and great to meet kindred spirits.

Their garden and palapalala

New friends Stephanie, Sinnett and Orca

Our oldest friend in Santa Fe Leo from Oregon

Friends Scott and Marie Munger from California

Rainy shot of the coffee plants

We haven't actually been out to Los Islotes in quite a while, but will be heading there next week for a tour group.  Looking forward to seeing the place again.

November and December are big holiday months here in Panama.  It starts out with Independence Day which is a five day celebration of their independence from Columbia.  There are parades and parties for days.  We have been listening to the drums practice for a month.  The kids are really cute.

Thanks again to our dear friend Greg for taking the reins, selling our previous home Suni and the BAT (big ass truck)  It was a happy- sad day.  We have a lot of great memories from our RV trip across the states and she was a good home.  Now we move on unencumbered except for that pesky storage unit!

Love to all.  Would love to hear from each and every one of you.

Back in the USA

August 26 - Sept 7, 2014 Nashville, TN and Martha's Vineyard, MA

Lief and Kathleen of Live and Invest Overseas and the developers of our new home in Los Islotes offered us a chance to work at their Retire Overseas Conference in Nashville, TN.  They hold conferences all over the world to help people learn about how to become an expat as well as how to diversify assets overseas.  Once a year they hold a conference in the states where they present sessions on their top retirement havens around the world.  This year there were 21 countries represented and we were there to promote Los Islotes and talk about our new expat life.  It was great fun.  Nashville is a great city and we met so many fantastic people now considering a new life abroad.  We also participated in a panel called "What to Expect when you're Expating" where we got to tell funny stories about our first six months in Panama.

We got to wear grown up clothes and everything

What to Expect When You Are Expating

Since the trip to Nashville was paid for; we decided to add on a few days and head up to Martha's Vineyard to see Peg's mom for a few days.  We hadn't seen her in over a year and weren't sure when the next opportunity would come up.  We had a great visit with perfect MA weather, plenty of trips to the beach and lots of time catching up with the family.  Mom treated to us to our favorite lobster dinner surrounded by family and friends.  It was a great visit.

Martha's Vineyard - no place like it

A cute visitor to the porch - so glad Zoe and Calcite were not here

Thanks Uncle Richard!

Bathing Beauties - Too Cold for me

Like mother like daughter - two beautiful women

On our way through Panama City we met with our architect again to finalize the preliminary house plans.  It was a great meeting, and the now the plans are ready for the engineering department.

The rear elevation of our house.  Your guest quarters are in the bottom right hand corner.

We were a little worried that our time in the states would make us question our move to Central America, but it didn't happen.  While it was nice having the creature comforts of the states: television in English; no chickens anywhere, ever;  being able to ask for directions and understand the answer etc.  we were ready to come home at the end of the trip.  Glorys and family took great care of the fur-kids and they didn't seem to miss us at all.  Hopefully next trip will be to Austin to see the non-fur-kids.  

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.