Adios Panama!

Don't cry for me Argen...wait, we haven't got there yet; ...don't cry for me Panama! It is finally time for us to leave Panama and head to our next destination in Cartagena, Columbia. We just filled out our immigration form this morning in preparation for our Thursday flight out of Panama City. I will need to dig out the suitcases so the packing can begin as well.

I'd be remiss if I didn't update you on the civil unrest and protests in regards to the open pit mining contract that has held the country stagnated. For the last 5-6 weeks there have been intense daily protests and road blocks across the country and some areas have been nearly shut down due to protesters not allowing traffic to move into or out of several parts of the country. Our immediate area saw the single road block of protesters that I told you about in an earlier post; but we have not had one since. The Supreme Court was tasked with determining whether the contract with the Canadian mining company operating the mine was constitutional amidst environmental and the indigenous population's complaints against the mining operation. I am happy to report that in the past week the SC has finally issued a judgement that the contract is unconstitutional. Some groups are saying that they will continue to protest until the mine is completely shut down (that would be a long process); but some sense of normalcy is returning with a reduction in protests/road blocks and schools are reopening and students are returning to school. We are still being cautious when we return to Panama City for our flight to Columbia and will leave for the city at 5 AM to be sure to make our noon flight.

​We are going to miss our house with its many animal visitors; from the birds that have flown into the house as well as the ones who have crashed into the windows, to the iguanas throughout the outdoor living area and pool, to Sha's favorite buddies the giant cockroaches that have showed up from time to time, not to mention the bat and all the moths and butterflies to have come by to say hi. We welcomed our last new friend the slug the other day to our guest list. We have sadly lost the use of our pool this past week because the Tower is undergoing a deep cleaning and repainting. Due to the paint chips and debris falling from this process, our pool needed to be covered up to avoid damage to the filter system.

We enjoyed one more Sip n Paint in November and had fun painting a sea turtle. Sha's is the good one!

We didn't forget about Thanksgiving as the temps were consistently in the 90's and were wondering what our plans might end up being as we heard about family and friends' plans back home as the Holiday approached. Well, when in doubt, Sha hits Facebook! She found a perfect Thanksgiving menu from a restaurant that she had really wanted to go to about 15 minutes down the highway from our house. We ordered a bottle of wine and then enjoyed a wonderful 4-course meal. It started with a Mezclum salad with blue cheese, pears and carmelized walnuts followed by cream of leak and potato soup in our own individual pots. The main course entailed smoked ham in fig flavored gravy, thick slices of baked turkey with stuffing, served with mashed potatoes, imported green beans and cranberry sauce. All that was topped off with a slice of pumpkin pie with vanilla ice cream (8 visuals in slideshow below). 

Our last Thursday for Trivia was not our best result as we only got 21/40 questions correct and finished "out of the money."(Poor showing resulted in zero pictures to document the occasion.) But we regrouped quickly to make it to our last Friday afternoon BINGO game. Sha managed to claim a couple games; Blog Boy got within one number several times but came away 0 for 10 games on the day (note that the intense concentration did not pay off). I read somewhere that BB really just goes for the 2 for 1 beers anyway.

Sha's meet a lot of people from the Tower at her water aerobics classes over the course of our stay. Carol, who lives on the 15th floor, organized a day trip to San Carlos and had us over for cards to learn a new game called Spite & Malice. We hit the market for a little shopping, then the local Chinese restaurant (Sha and I didn't even know it was there; right across the street from the market) and headed back for cards. We enjoyed the new card game with the group (from L to R) Carol, Betty, Sha and Gina; as well as later playing just the two of us. We just made the cut before leaving to also attend Carol's 80th birthday party at Picasso's!

The "Tower girls" planned a little send off for us with cocktails and snacks on the rooftop Tuesday afternoon. We had fun chatting with old and some new friends one last time.

We also got to enjoy a wonderful sunset. We actually got a double sunset as the sun sank into a cloud bank above the distant mountains and the reemerged as the clouds drifted to set again behind the mountains. (time lapsed below)

Well, we've put off packing long enough so it's time to sign off from Panama. Next communication will be from Cartagena, Columbia, South America. Thanks for sticking with us. We hope you are all well and safe.
Thanks for the adventures Panama!

​Pura Vida!